Today three men with a large pile of bicycle parts and some beer and wine sat together for a few hours on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Berkeley. The goal? Two complete bicycles.
David hosted, provide oversight and a tarp on the ground in anticipation of our spills. Daniel and I provided the pile of bike parts. Daniel had a nice bicycle frame with a fresh powder coat (a form of a paint job.) He intended on making it into one of those new fangled fixed gear bike. You know, the bikes without brakes. Though he opted to have brakes on his as backup. These are simple bikes, that is their charm, but Daniel wanted to put on nice stainless steel mudguards a.k.a. fenders. Believe it or not mounting mudguard on a bike is a high art. It can be very difficult to get them on just right. Well, we didn't get the mudguards on (they really are a bear) but his bike is all together. After a few hours of working away, and only about an hour after he told his wife he would be home, Daniel took a celebratory trial ride on his bike. Success!
My project was different. Mine is a touring bike. These are heavy, and have a million little moving parts. I poked around. Drank wine. Offered up my opinions on Daniels bike. And poked around some more.
It was sort of nice to just be there with the felllas and the grease and the parts and the copious neighborhood cats coming by and the copious neighbors coming by and the wine.
I made progress on my bike, which is good, because my pile of parts is a couple of years old and I've had some sort of mental block on this particular project. I think the damn is burst, progress was made, and I'll be able to finish it up in short order. It should be a really nice bike, even if it is purple.
I promise a set of pictures of the purple bike upon completion.
2 comments:
Chris -
Thanks for the well thought summary of our bike building adventure. It was nice meeting you and I am so terribly sorry to hear of your recent diagnosis. Please be well my friend and enjoy your purple Waterford as soon as you are able to get it in pedal shape. Good luck in the coming weeks...my thoughts will be with you.
-danie-
[clapping] I believe this is the bike you & I once looked at upside down, hanging from your ceiling. It is a bike destined to take a southward journey, as I recall. Is that why I am clapping, being southward? Well, yes. I admit it. And also because it is a bike on the brink of completion. And because it is a long-term project on the brink of completion. And because I am happy to have been invited to read this blog. [clapping]
Post a Comment