Afternoon Ride 12-12-09

It was another cold and gloomy day but I felt the need to ride. I decided to head over to Backwoods to look for some type of cold weather headgear for next weekends ride. I didn't find what I was looking for at Backwoods but I did find an acceptable cap with fold down ear protection at Target. I met up with my lovely wife at Target and we took care of some of our Christmas shopping.

Crossing the Trinity River I got a look at the progress being made on the Trinity Trail. The trail has been lowered closer to the river and a fishing platform is being constructed. I'm looking forward to seeing the final results.

This is Backwoods new, much larger location on 7th Street. They were located further west across the street from the Modern Art Museum. They have a nice selection of camping gear and clothing. They'll occasionally have some great sales on footwear.

I took some time to discuss stoves and tents with one of the sales people. I like this tent in the display. I couldn't get close enough to tell but I think it's a Sierra Designs two person tent. The old tent I have now is a bit on the heavy side for bike touring. This one is sure to be much lighter and cooler than my old tent.

I stopped for coffee at, you guessed it, Starbucks. FortWorthology reported the sighting of a new coffehouse under construction downtown on Florence Street. I'm ready for something different.

While I was out riding I had the pleasure of meeting Russell. He recognized my bike from the blog and stopped me for a chat. Russell was in the process of tweaking his position on his Specialized Roubaix. He showed me the shorter stem he had just installed (I completely forgot to take photos). I told him about BABBLE and invited him to join up. Hopefully we'll be hearing from him soon. I also met a guy when I stopped for coffee, but for the life of me I can't remember his name (I forget my own kid's names sometimes). He told me about an old Australian track bike that he's building. He was a pretty interesting guy. We talked bikes for a while. He seemed to be genuinely interested in attending our next group ride. Hopefully we'll hear from him as well.

It's Christmas Along the Trail

I really didn't feel like riding when I got home from work today but Christopher's forty mile ride is next weekend and I need to get some riding in before then.

A little holiday spirit. It was nice to see all the homes near the trail decorated with Christmas lights. Somebody has been putting up ornaments in this section of the trail for the last couple of years. I like it. Maybe I'll bring along a few extra ornaments from home and add to the display.

TCU plays Boise State at the Fiesta Bowl on January 4th. Both teams are undefeated.

It was about 34 degrees when I left the house. I hadn't ridden a hundred yards before I realized that I desperately needed a windproof jacket. The addition of a windproof layer made a world of difference. Beard Update: This is the final update as I think this is as full as this thing is going to get. My wife says she likes it so thats all that matters.

This house is awesome, too bad you can't make it out very well in this photo. I may do a ride through downtown in the next few days to check out the decorations.

Shifters Installed

I installed the stem shifters last night and went for a ride this afternoon. I'm happy to report that despite my poor mechanical skills, everything worked as it should.

I'm happy to be riding on my Brooks saddle again. It is the most comfortable saddle I've ever used.

I need to find a use for the old shifter mount. I've seen photos of people using the bosses to mount a brass bells and similar items.

Preparations

In preparing for the First Annual Fall Forty-Mile Country Path Ramble, I decided to make some changes to my Takara to make the ride a little more comfortable. I cannibalized some parts from my son's Trek, specifically the bars, stem, brake lever, cables, and grips. My son has just about outgrown the Trek. I've got plans for the Trek which I'll discuss sometime in the future.

I'll be dusting off the Brooks and installing it later this evening.

I forgot to buy a cable hanger so I'm stuck with the relector for now.

I've been having problems with my current shifters. Instead of replacing them with the same thing I've come up with another option. I pulled these stem shifters off of a junked bike some time ago. I've never seen a really nice set of stem shifters, probably because they were used mostly on lower end bikes, at least that's what I've read. I thought about pulling the cheap rubber and plastic levers off of the mount and replacing them with something a little more aesthetically pleasing. The mount is nice and shiny.

When I removed the shifter the other day, I noticed that the mount was set up specifically for Shimano shifters. I was hoping that there would just be a generic block similar to a brazed-on downtube shifter boss.

I picked up a pair of used 105 downtube shifters today from a local bike shop. They need some cleaning but they'll look nice after I polish them up a bit.

This is what I'm going for.

These are the shifters that my bike is equipped with now.

Since my bike is equipped with Suntour Symmetric shifters, I don't have the traditional double shifter bosses on both sides of the downtube, just one on the top side of the downtube (see the photo above). Finding Symmetric cable stops is almost impossible. I picked up this Shimano clamp-on cable stop from the same shop that I purchased the shifters from. These stops aren't that easy to find either.

I'll be mounting the shifters tomorrow after I pick up some cables and housing. I'll post the photos when I'm done.

Thanksgiving and Some Random Stuff

While my wife and daughters were busy preparing our Thanksgiving feast, me and my son ( the twelve year old) slipped out for a quick ride. Since we were in a hurry we drove to the our starting point, the southern part of the Trinity Trails. I think this pre-feast ride will be our new tradition. After a short ride we returned home and had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal. It wasn't long after that someone broke out the Charlie Brown Christmas CD. In this house the Christmas season begins when you're finished eating Thanksgiving dinner.

My son checking out the Trinity River.

Randomness follows:

Courtnee-Globe Experience: Courtnee, aka Sweet Georgia Brown, is the lucky recipient of a free Specialized Globe Live 2 Mixte. Courtnee was contacted by the Globe Project Manager from Specialized and asked to blog for them. I've been following Courtnee's original blog for a while now. She's a nice young lady riding her bike in an area where that's a rarity. If you can, please show her some support by following her new Globe blog.

Courtnee

The Friday Cyclotouriste: This is a blog that I stumbled upon the other day when I was doing a Google search for friction shifters. This guy takes some great photos.

The author's Ebisu equipped with a custom made handlebar bag.

He also has an awesome old Guerciotti.

Bemz: If you need to freshen up that old sofa or chair you picked up at Ikea a few years ago, you can buy a new made to fit slipcover over the internet from Stockholm based Bemz. Here's a link to their blog.

The Indian rope trick: Here's a story I read about a traditional Indian magician who was able pull off a version of the legendary rope trick. His video is the second one below.

My daughter thought this was kind of creepy.

It's Been a While

October 30th was the last time I rode a bike, until this morning. That's the longest stretch I've gone without riding for many, many years. One reason is that I've been working a part time job on weekends. That's taken up much of my free time. I worked a 12 hour shift yesterday and was sound asleep by 8 PM last night. After having a nice breakfast with my wife this morning I had no choice but to get out and ride.

Beard Update: I think I've hit a plateau. I've been growing this thing for a few weeks now but it just doesn't seem to be filling in too well.

I decided to visit a portion of east Fort Worth on my ride today. The east side of Fort Worth is the rough part of town. I wouldn't suggest riding east of I-35 in Fort Worth unless you know where you are going. This is E. Vickery Blvd. heading up to I-35. There was very little traffic in this area other than a few crackheads and homeless people on foot.

This is an old Methodist Church on Missouri Ave. near Annie St.

The silver colored metal covering this portion of the building is interesting but is in need of some serious cleaning.

I don't know...

Still on the east side.

Mr. Redman started restoring and building pipe organs while a student at SMU in 1956. He started this business in1966. Apparently there is still a market out there for pipe organs.

The glass structure leaning out toward the left side of the street is part of the new Omni Hotel.

Starbucks at the Omni Hotel. I stopped for a cup of coffee, but unfortunately there was no bike parking. I locked my bike to one of the chairs while I went inside to order.

Headed toward the Lancaster Ave. Bridge. The bridge has been closed for repairs for several weeks but is scheduled to reopen tomorrow.

Lancaster Ave Bridge. I wish it was always like this.

Just south of Trinity Park

Friction

From the Flickr Group aptly named "Friction":

By Cocorredhot

by Hoontong

By Ciclo Di Cuoio

by Rencooks