Cheap Wool

If you like wool and don't mind riding in non-cycling specific clothing, now's the time to go shopping. Most winter gear is on sale, at least it is here in Texas. Dillard's had Woolrich and Pendleton wool on sale for half price or less. Same thing at Eddie Bauer where I picked up a nice wool cardigan for about $48 including tax.

I like cardigans, they allow you to regulate your temperature more than a regular pullover sweater. The shawl collar does a great job of keeping my neck warm. Flip it up and it's just like wearing a scarf. The big buttons are a plus. They make it easy to button and unbutton with one hand while riding.

I've been using this heavy denim shirt as a light jacket. I layered it over the cardigan to keep the wind from cutting through.

And underneath, an awesome t-shirt from Gallus Cycles. I bought it from Jeremy at the recent Great Southwest Bike Swap. This years swap meet was packed with attendees. They might need to consider a larger venue for next year.

I still haven't done much riding lately. I went out for a short ride today. I stopped off at an Estate Sale but I was a couple of days too late. The place had been practically picked clean.

Gallus Handmade Bicycles

This past weekend I had the privilege of dropping by Jeremy's place to check out his workshop, which is better known as Gallus Handmade Bicycles. I found Jeremy in the process of building a custom aero time trial fork for a customer. This was a rush job, so everything else was put on hold. He showed me the CAD drawings of the fork he designed and the dropouts that he was hand grinding from a small steel plate. All kinds of challenges were popping up for this seemingly small job. One thing that I can say for Jeremy is that he is detail oriented. That's a quality you want in your frame builder.

I followed Jeremy out to the garage behind the house where his shop is set up. In this photo you can see the time trial bike that will be the recipient of the custom aero fork. I was a little surprised to see a carbon fiber frame in the shop of a man who works primarily with steel.

Some tools of the trade.

Jeremy shows me a fixed gear frameset that's still a work in progress.

This is a frame jig built by the man who taught Jeremy to build frames.

After a short tour we went back into the house where we talked about his recent participation in a 600k brevet. That's 373 miles of riding in just over 35 hours. Of course this feat was accomplished on one of his own creations. He says that the feeling is just starting to return to his hands.

We discussed his plans for the business and future projects, bikes and otherwise. I ended up taking far fewer pictures than I had intended but I knew he was busy and didn't want to delay him any further.

I must say that getting a behind the scenes look at the work Jeremy's doing and getting a glimpse at his thought process when it comes to bike building, I was very impressed.

Support your local frame builders!

Watch Your Step

I woke up this morning and was greeted by a beautiful winter scene. Three or four inches of snow had fallen overnight and coated everything. I wiped the snow off my my windshield and started my drive to work. It didn't take long to realize that the roads were much slicker than the news people described. Being from far, far, far, south Texas (think Mexico), my snow and ice driving experience is severely limited. I really wasn't looking forward to the long treacherous drive across town to my office. I drive a state owned vehicle, which is nice, until you wreck it. The official investigation that follows is always a big pain in the rear. I decided to play it safe. I pulled into the Starbucks just down the road from my house and called my supervisor to tell him that I was taking the day off. I bought a cup of drip coffee and took a seat near the front window to enjoy the falling snow. Thats when a nicely dressed young man, in an expensive suit and overcoat, tried to step out of his car. His feet instantly slipped out from under him and he fell on his face. He got up quickly and cleaned himself off, luckily he wasn't injured. I figured that I would stay for a while and see what else would transpire. Sure enough one well dressed Texan after another slipped and slid their way across the parking lot trying to get their morning cup of coffee. It was highly entertaining. One unfortunate woman walked out of the store carrying a cup of coffee in each hand. She did just fine walking through the parking lot in her heels until she reached her car. She stopped too quickly and slid. She desperately reached out to stop her fall and slammed a cup of coffee into the side of the car which erupted in a spectacular steamy spray. She was obviously embarrassed as she slowly walked back inside the store. I tried to pretend that I hadn't seen her little accident, but, I involuntarily laughed nearly causing hot coffee to shoot out of my nose. The weather conditions are supposed to be worse tomorrow morning. I may make another trip to my neighborhood Starbucks.

Cheap entertainment provided by mother nature and Starbucks.

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Me and my son attended the Third Annual Great Southwest Bike Swap. We showed up late in the afternoon so most of the good stuff had been picked through. I was looking for an old downtube cable stop, but there wasn't one to be found. I didn't take many photos of this years event. I did once again get the chance to talk to Jeremy (Gallus Cycles). He had a couple of nice new bikes on display, unfortunately my photographic skills do not do his bikes justice. Check out his website for a better look.

I like the porteur rack on this bike. Too bad the flash on my camera washed out the color and detail on this frame.

Great Southwest Bike Swap

The 2nd annual Great Southwest Bike Swap held today in south Fort Worth looked to be a success. Me and my twelve year old son attended last year and were looking forward to this years meet. I had the chance to meet Fort Worth's one and only framebuilder Jeremy Shlachter, the talent behind Gallus Cycles. Jeremy's website isn't quite ready yet but you can read more about him on February Legs. Jeremy makes some excellent quality lugged steel frames. I also had the opportunity to speak to Austin framebuilder Brad Cason from Kirklee Bicycles. Brad works with carbon fiber and brought a couple of bikes with him, one of which weighed fourteen pounds complete. Jeremy and Brad were both great guys. I'm very happy to see this kind of talent setting up shop in Texas. I also had the chance to take a few action shots of the cat 1,2,3, "Cross-A-Holics Last Call Cyclocross Race".  

There were plenty of old Treks around.

Gallus Cycles-This is Jeremy's personal ride.

You can't see it in this photo but both sides of the fork crown have been drilled on top for mounting a rack, lights or whatever you want.

Jeremy is assisting Michigan frame builder Doug Fattic who is heading up the Ukraine Bicycle Project with the goal of teaching volunteers in the Ukraine to build sturdy bikes for educators, ministers, and service workers in that country.

Every Campy fan needs one of these.

Custom painted Kirklee

Tesch frame with matching frame pump.

Old school cycling shoes

The guy selling these old shoes told me that you have to nail the cleat to the sole. 

Cat 1, 2, & 3, racers after fifteen minutes of racing.