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.
This is a blog to share my experiences with family, friends, and random internet denizens who discover this blog, ccollins. I have always kept my inner-writer bottled up, I am both giving him permission to come out and permission for you to watch.
About Me
Showing posts with label bicycles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bicycles. Show all posts
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Bicycles
Bicycling is exhilarating. It is something that for me just fits. Few things appeal to me in quite the same way as the joy I experience pedaling around town.
This morning my roommate discovered the rear-wheel of his bicycle was stolen sometime during the night. The Bent Spoke, A nearby used bicycle store, sold him a replacement wheel, tire, and tube for about $70.00. My beautiful Jean Brun bicycle cost me $20.00.
It is confusing to me how the corporate bicycle world plans and develops, and how the neighbor Local Bicycle Shop (LBS) survive.
This morning my roommate discovered the rear-wheel of his bicycle was stolen sometime during the night. The Bent Spoke, A nearby used bicycle store, sold him a replacement wheel, tire, and tube for about $70.00. My beautiful Jean Brun bicycle cost me $20.00.
It is confusing to me how the corporate bicycle world plans and develops, and how the neighbor Local Bicycle Shop (LBS) survive.
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