Ride Lugged

here’s some photos of a recent maybe 10 mile ride we did, this morning actually.
we have, within easy riding distance: all you see here plus mtn biking, trout fishing, hiking, camping, good barbque, fire roads, dirt roads…

random pictures from our first week and a half in Lemont, in no order what so ever. I have been reading/looking at to much old school french touring bike action, and its tainted me into thinking i could do some of the stuff they did for the concours d’ machines, or technical trials. basically these craftsmen, builders, constructeurs, would take thier already light parts and further hone them to the bone, to the essential elements, to make them as light as possible, regardless of the handwork involved.

Cory always said the reason that zero gravity brakes are lighter than dura ace or campy was how much time it took to make them. in other words, the zero gravity brakes are just as strong, but took 3 times longer to make, and thats something a big company like shimano or even campy isnt into. The zero G brakes only go so far as an example, as there is little, if any handwork aside from assembly in them. But Singer and Herse and all those incredible makes would lavish hours of hand work on thier once year super race bikes, and even hours of hand work went into the regular production bikes, no two bikes ever being contructed in the same fashion. Anyway, they obviously have/had more files, knowledge, patience, ect than I do, but i thought i would try a bit of modification out on some relatively cheap to replace mks pedals, and sugino cranks, turning them from a fairly light triple to a rather light double. I’m not sure how I feel about either results yet. The pedals would benefit from some really small files, and the cranks maybe a buffing machine and a dremel.

In other news, my shop set up nicely, both the art side and the bike side. So theres pictures of that going on. Also: the riding around here is scenic and close by. From the top of the hill in front of our house you have a pretty decent vista. The mountain picture is from a recent road ride mel and i did. That view is under 3 miles from our house, and theres lots more. Rolling scenic farms, tons of streams, and that kinda stuff.

There are tons of road riders who live in our super small community, which is both cool and wierd. Theres some folks who live behind us with santa cruzes and some other folks with bianchi grizzly mtn bikes…steel…

Also: I will not field any questions as to why I cut up my cranks and pedals. You can say yeah thats cool or damn thats dumb, but dont ask why. word.

ok, in Lemont PA now, big house, computer room has view of hill where roadies climb all day. Yesterday I was riding my witcomb back from blockbuster (scant 2 mile round trip) and a guy on a cannondale slowly ie nicely took me over, and say hello, and was nice and we chatted, then I chased him up a hill, and it was nice. The absolute first cat on a cannondale i havnt wanted to deck. Things are looking up. Mel and I went for a Mtn ride this morning, very flat but nicely groomed trails with the occasional cool woop or twisty bit. She loved it. You could ride a fixed cross bike there, no worries. I spent 3 hours hooking up my busch and muller dynamo, with stand light and tail light, looks fairly clean. I’ll post pics of that and the ride we took. Look, I’m away now, this is a good way to communicate interesting shit or pertinent events or nudie pics or whatever, so post some stuff. If you just wanna post links, at least say what you liked about em.