I grew up in NYC and used to ride 9w, and the Palisades when I got sick of Central Park. Every now and then I miss the city, although I see many things have changed in Central Park.
Good for him! It was only a year or so waiting list a couple years ago. It's great to hear when companies like Trek and Specialized so dominate the bicycle world.
This afternoon we're hitting the big shop that carries Cannondale, Bianchi and a few others. I saw your comment about your girl caring about the looks of the bike. I think I might care more than Erin. Ok, maybe not. But, damn, so many of the bikes that fit her are truly horribly ugly, painted 'pretty' colors like bright teal, pink, and covered with swirly floral patterns and other shit. If the Scott Contessa she rode yesterday was available in black or gray or whatever, Erin would have been all over it. But white with burgundy swirls is beyond fugly. Besides, I just don't know if I can stand a bike that elicits cracks like, "I bet you're riding that Scott more than the other" or whatever.
No, it wouldn't. This bike has all the charm of white faux-leather gloves. But the bike shop is fantastic and the machiine otherwise fits her. If we thought it was reasonable, and affordable, to paint a brand new bike, we'd get it.
Paint's easy to fix. Check with yer local powder coating place for a quote. I'm betting its somewhere in the $100 range. Nowadays, you can get anything from Pearl Black (my Denny) to Candy Apple Red in powdercoat colors. HTH M
The trick is, you gotta strip the old paint down to the metal for a proper powder coat to work. I had my old cruiser sandblaster, that cost about $30, then it was $80 to powdercoat at the local bike-painter (aka Santa Cruz Powder Coating aka Santa Cruz Cycles )
A really good deal on a Bianchi Cross Concept. Somebody buy this so I can get some sleep. http://www.racycles.com/sdrb/catalog/bianchi_cross_concept__05_5258313.htm
Great. Now I'm not going to be able to sleep. That's a good deal, and in my size. I just did my taxes yesterday, and found out that I owe Uncle Sam considerably less than I was expecting. That's practically the same as getting a big refund, right? So I can almost talk myself into it. Almost. The problem is that we've already got 4 bikes in a smallish condo. No room for new bikes, and nice as that one is, it wouldn't quite make a good replacement for any of my current rides. Besides, it'd be my 3rd Bianchi; People would start to think I have some sort of fetish.
I knew that there was someone who could relate to my pain . The only way to deal with this is to log off and watch my new dvd-The Doctor, The Tornado, & the Kentucky Kid. It's a two disc set and hopefully by the time I'm done watching it someone will have pulled the trigger and ended my suffering .
DTK rocks. I bought the original 1 DVD 'preview' version. holy crap that was an intense race :) bt I also have all the "faster" movies by the same folks.
I know bianchi makes the women's bikes down to 44cm with a ~47cm top tube. If that's not small enough, look at some of those tricked out junior bikes from giant and specialized.
The Rivendell family of bikes are beautiful. I have a Waterford and it was made back when Waterford was doing a lot of work for Grant Peterson. I was a "Bridgestone guy'" and stil have my old BoB card! My Waterford is a lugged 853 with couplings..I had it painted like an Austin Healyy 3000 Mark 111. Blue with white panels. When I get home I'm going to build it up as a fixie/single (I'll use a Phil flip/flop hub I scounged up at a buddies yard sale) It's a nice bike but it was kinda heavy. I just finished building my Nomad. Beer and Kebabs goes a long way at the local shop. Before I take it out tomorrow I took some beauty shots: I can hardly wait to get it dirty, It's supposed to be nice out tomorrow but it was windy as hell here today and while I was taking the photos there was wicked hail storm. Hey Gummee, what do you figure the moto twin of this thing is? I kinda thought a 640. We'll see, my ride tomorrow is a bit of everything including roads, dirt roads and single track. (also, Knary I know what you mean about the Potland scene. It's quite the bike town. I have some Vanilla cross bike pics, I'm gonna go hunt them down.)