A tale of two love affairs...

Steve Potts...artist, craftsman, visionary, fly fisherman, and all around nice guy built this for me 17 years ago and it remains my most treasured cycling possession to this day. With memories of the WTB-equipped Potts and Cunninghams drooled over during a visit to the long since gone Pt.Reyes Bikes still fresh in my head, I gave Steve a call and talked bikes for the better part of an hour. At the time I was riding a Wicked Fat Chance, tricked out with every hot rod part available, including the then new and rare, Rock Shox. I had quite a few bucks sunk into that bike and was newly married, so prospects of me getting on a Potts were grim...or so I thought. Talking over dinner with my bride that evening, I mentioned my conversation with Steve and she immediately asked "Aren't those the pretty bikes with the cool brakes we saw in California?" When I answered in the affirmative she then uttered the words I'll never forget..."Why don't you get one?" After regaining my composure, I asked her if she was kidding and she assured me she was in fact, quite serious!

The next few hours were a blur, phone calls to my LBS, another great, but long since gone shop, Breaking Away Cycles on Long Island. Over the succeeding weeks there were several conversations with Steve regarding the build spec and after about 6 weeks, this beauty was delivered. I've owned many bikes before and since but this one remains, and always will. It's a beautiful bike and it rides like a dream but to me it will always represent the selflessness and support displayed by my wife, then and now.

I titled this post "A tale of two love affairs", one for the bike and the other for the woman I share my life with.

Happy Valentine's Day Susie.

Saturday AM ride.

Took the MotoMonsterX for it's maiden dirt voyage today, just a little singletrack that runs along Neshaminy Creek(about a minute's ride from my house) My lack of fitness aside, it was a fun ride although I need to relearn off-roading on skinny tires. Low temps, scattered snow and icy patches with a few hurdles and run-ups thrown in for good measure, damn I felt like Roger De Vlaeminck!!! I even had my Brooklyn cycling cap on under my helmet! Going to try to get out again tomorrow, maybe on the Inbred which has been renamed "The Jerry Springer Bike" by Fatbob29er.

MotoMonsterX

My take on the whole monster cross thing, definately not as monster as some, more so than others. Ah, what do I know?

Fat front Inbred...

Man, that sounds like someting you'd hear on Jerry Springer..."Get outta mah trayler, ya dang fat front Inbred!!!" Nothing quite as lurid here, just got around to taking a few pics of my Inbred with Pugs fork/LM/Endo combination. My good bud Fatbob29er has politely nudged me a few times to do this and I really feel bad about the delay.

Got a few finishing touches to put to the MotoMonsterCross and I'll post some pics of that as well, just waiting for the arrival of Brown Santa.

Hell, where are my manners? A belated Happy New Year to all.

A sad ending.

Just got the news my uncle died at the age of 82. My uncle by marriage, he was married to my father's sister(who died almost 37 years ago) He'd been in a veteran's nursing home for the past few years, it'd been quite some time since I'd seen him. He was an odd sort of guy, a true eccentric and pretty much a loner. His house burned down about 7 or 8 years ago and he really started slipping badly, my father took total responsibility for his care and managing his finances but after my dad died a couple of years ago my aunts took the torch as best as they could. He's being buried Monday AM in Brooklyn, the only people in attendance will be my three aunts, my only surviving uncle and my brother. The damn family's spread all over the place, myself included. I was gonna make the drive up but my brother counseled against it, basically the entire service will be about five minutes of talk at the gravesite by some priest. A sad ending indeed.

Take it easy Uncle Willie.

A road bike!!!

Recently acquired my first road bike since the Pierce Arrow Tour de France my parents bought me when I was 12. First, a disclaimer...the new ride is a SS, fattish/knobby-ish (are those real words?) tired, track spaced number that'll probably see as much time off-road as it will on. That said, I couldn't resist pulling the trigger on a Motobecane Fantom Cross Uno. $400 bucks complete, shipping included, how the hell could I pass that up? Swapped the stock bars, pedals, levers and saddle for some Nitto Dirt Drops, Suntour Superbe Pro trackies, Shimano 105 and SDG something or other I had in the parts bin and away I went. Not too crazy about the Avid Shorty cantis so I'll be replacing them with some classic looking Tektros I grabbed on fleaBay. I'm thinking a higher rise stem and some Ritchey Speedmax rubber and I'll be good to go.

Alright, the techie shit is out of the way, how's it ride? Pretty damn nice! I don't ride anything but steel and this frame dosen't disappoint, I don't know how they afford to deliver a bike this nice at such a low pricepoint but I'd glad I bought it. Yeah, I put some bucks into immediatly but even with that, it's still damn cheap. Not gonna bullshit here, if this was my main ride, I'd have gone for something like a CrossCheck but for what I'm using it for this will be fine.

Post turkey day blues.

In general, I hate working the day after Thanksgiving. Today was doubly miserable, I had to tell 26 people that due to the current state of our economy(thanks Bush) they were going to lose anywhere between 8 and 16 hours of work each week, effective immediately. The decision came down from above, I had held it off for the past 6 weeks or so hoping things might turn around enough so that the cuts wouldn't be necessary but that wasn't to be. As bad as I feel having delivered the news, my people(and every one of the other 300 or so hourly employees where I work) are feeling it where it hurts most, their pockets. Great timing, right in the middle of the holiday season.

Taking the family to Hawk Mountain to watch the migration in the AM and trying to get in a ride in the PM to take my mind off this shit.