MAYDAY!

I need help!
In distress here.
Little help!
Little help!
The distress call MAYDAY is derived from the French(what else?) venez m'aider which means come help me.
Which is what I need.
Help, I mean.
To save me from myself.
Let me start from the beginning, s'il vous plait.
If you've been following along at home, you, the reader, know that I'm accumulating parts to get the Bike With The Funny Name on the road.
Well, the yesterday, I got me some stem shifters, which is a good thing, but I can't get the stem off the bike which is a bad thing.
Temporarily bad, I hope.
So anyways, me being me, I figure I should get me some down tube shifters just in case so I put out a distress signal on CL asking for anyone who has down tube clamp type shifters.
Well one person responds and I agree to meet him today.
So I figure, let me go to the LBS and get me some cables.
Then I remember I gave my cable housings away to the dude who bought my shifters so I figure I need some housings too.
Now usually I would just head on over to the eVilness and order some, but I figure I got almost everything I need, I should just get em from the LBS:



The housings and cables cost me like twenty bucks!
Seriously!
The housings were like $2.70 a foot!
Maybe I'm cheap but that disturbed me.
A bit distressed did I feel a little.
I mean for what I spent I could have ordered me a Dura Ace cable set with ferrules and everything!
Okay, damage done.
I meet up with the kind gentleman and examine his goods:



Looks good to me.
Wait he says, didn't you also need a seat post?
26.8 says I.
Here it is he says:



Well, it's a bit short but it's a Sugino so okay! I says.
So off I go, headed for home thinking I can at least cable up the BWTFN and see what I got.
Little did I know, but I was in for more distress.
The so called down tube shifters are not down tube shifters but stem shifters, just like the ones I already got!
I thought the clamp looked a bit small, but I figured I could squeeze them on.
I don't think so.
Then, seat post did not fit.
Huh?
Okay, I've been reading up on this BWTFN goodness and 26.8 seems to be the seat post of choice for early Japanese bikes.
I mean it's the smallest post they make, right?
Absolutely, positively, unmistakably WRONG!
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Capital W wrong!
I don't get it Mr. Flat Tire, didn't you measure the diameter with a caliper?
I wish you hadn't brought that up for that is exactly what I did:



When I read the caliper, I figured since it was seven dollars and all, it was allowed to be off just a little.
I mean all I needed was confirmation that it was not 27mm, but 26 and some change.
WTF?
Apparently, in the seat post aisle, there's a section for "other sizes."
Like sizes from 26.0 to 27.0 in 2mm increments.
Seriously.
So I decided to make this post sort of interactive.
You Make The Call!
What size do I order next?
You Make The Call!
It appears to be less than 26.5, so do I go 26.4 or 26.2?
You Make The Call!
What do I do with these other seat posts that I can't use?
You Make The Call!
Anyone need some stem shifters?
You Make The Call!
I was feeling a bit down for a while there, but now I'm feeling a little better since Law & Order is on and I got me some Sour Cream and Onion Potato chips:



I mean I've expended all my idiot powers for one day.
Time to recharge and get ready for tomorrow.
If you know what I mean.
Meanwhile I'll be waiting.
You Make The Call!