Sunday Afternoon Ride 10-30-11

I've been busy so this post is a little late. I managed to get out and ride on an absolutely perfect Sunday afternoon. I love the fall.

Perfect

I don't know if Colonel's is moving or opening a second location. I suspect that they're moving.

I think this is an excellent location, it's on Foch Street just north of Lancaster. It's just south of La Familia restaurant and only a couple of blocks from Fred's and the new So. 7th development. To reach the Trinity Trails you just ride up this road approx 1/4 of a mile.

I ran across a Halloween party on Crockett Street.

The ride home down some nice tree lined neighborhoods streets.

Russ & Laura in Fort Worth

Russ & Laura braved yesterday's strong winds and pushed on into Fort Worth. I thought for sure that they would take the day off and rest but they were interested in doing some sightseeing around town. I offered to meet up with them and give them a brief tour. We ate lunch at La Familia and then rode over to visit with the good folks at Colonel's Bicycles. By the way, while at Colonel's I learned that Mike, the owner of A.N.T, is originally from Fort Worth. That's cool, I love his work! We rode by Trinity Bicycles but unfortunately neither Bernie nor Bryan were in at the time. We then headed over to the Fort Worth Water Gardens and spent a little time there before parting ways. I enjoyed my visit with them, they're good people. I had a million questions I wanted to ask about touring but I figured that I'd wait until the presentation on Wednesday.

We rode through the Fairmount neighborhood in the Near Southside.

Fort Worth Water Gardens.

Russ doing what he does best.

Don't forget Russ and Laura's presentation is at 7:30 PM, Wednesday night at Trinity Bicycles. At about 5:30 PM we'll be riding over to Magnolia Avenue for dinner. I hope to see you there.

Oct. 17th, You're Invited

Everyone, that includes fixed gear riders, cruisers, 3 speeders, tandem riders, roadies, families, and even funky recumbent riders, you are all invited to Fort Worth on Saturday, October 17th, for a leisurely, slow paced, ride around Fort Worth. The ride is free. We will start at 10 AM at the Texas & Pacific (T&P) railway station located at 221 W. Lancaster Ave. in Fort Worth. Hopefully, with the start being at the train station, riders from other areas of the metroplex will be encouraged to attend. Here's a link to the train schedule.

The ride, which still has yet to be named, is being organized by a group of Dallas/ Fort Worth area bike bloggers. We're still working out some of the minor details, but here's what we have come up with so far:

The ride will be a total of 13 miles or less with few small hills if any.

We will ride south from downtown to Magnolia Avenue stopping briefly at Panther City Bicycles.

We'll then be heading south through the Fairmont area over to Colonel's Bicycles near TCU for another quick visit.

The route will then take us north on the Trinity Trails to our main destination, lunch at La Familia (for you vegetarians, La Familia serves veggie tacos and chalupas).

We will then make the short ride back through downtown to the final stop at the Fort Worth Water Gardens. The Water Gardens are just a stones throw away from the T&P station.

If you've never ridden in Fort Worth before this is a great opportunity to ride along with some locals and catch some interesting sights that you probably wouldn't find while riding on your own.

I will post ride updates throughout the week. Keep checking back. This should be fun.

Progress

I got the call from Colonel's this afternoon letting me know that my wife's frame was ready. I listened to my gut this time and decided to let the professionals deal with the task of removing the crankset, bottom bracket, and headset. The seatpost was stuck but I was fully expecting to require the services of a metal shop to remove it for me. 

When I arrived at the shop I was surprised to see that the seatpost had been removed. I was told that it took lots of time and effort to get that sucker out of the frame but they were successful. I was also told that they were unable to get the driveside crank arm to budge. They had to remove the opposite side arm and then remove the bottom bracket and drive side crankarm together as one piece.

The person who previously owned this bike had dogs as there were white dog hairs in the grease and around the spindle.

Nasty! Make sure you have plenty of grease on your seatpost!

I couldn't find a manufacturers name stamped anywhere on the headset. 

If I had tried to handle these things myself I would have been pulling my hair out. I've learned that sometimes you have to listen to your gut. 

After I clean up the frame a little more it will be ready for powder coating. I'm taking it to Enduro Coatings in Mesquite, Texas. They coat the frame and fork for $65 plus $10 for a clear coat. Thats less than half the price of other places in the D/FW area and everything I've heard about their work has been positive. I hope to have the frame over there sometime next week.

It's the LHT

After much too much internal debate, I drove over to Colonel's Bicycles and bought a Long Haul Trucker (complete) in olive green. The bike should be delivered to the shop around September 5th.



I've got to say that I was really pleased with the service I received from the guys at Colonel's. I've bought all of my bikes from upper end bike shops since 1987 and this is the first time anyone has taken the time to properly measure me. I've always thought that a 58 cm road frame was my size, but according to the "Fit Stick" I'm better suited to a 55-56 cm frame.

I'm hoping the bike shows up on the 5th so I can take it out for it's innagural spin at the Cowtown Classic Bike Ride on Saturday the 6th. That's if hurricane Gustav doesn't dump rain on us. I'm in rehab with a shoulder injury so, being cautious, I signed up for the 20 mile ride. Plus if the LHT doesn't show up I'll be on my Kona, in that case 20 miles will be plenty.