We have donated some now and then, not a lot but some, to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in Fairfax, CA.
It's not eradicating malaria, but it's a really worthwhile non-human illness cause, and we do it some. If you're in Fairfax, the No. 1 town in America, on a Thurs thru Sun, you need to stop by, pay the small viewing fee, and see the wonderful bikes, and maybe even get a tour from Joe Breeze, without whom I probably wouldn't be writing this, in which case also you wouldn't be reading it.
There was a bike there leaning somehwere with a cardboard-n-Sharpie sign on it showing a price tag of $550. The cost would be considered a donation to the Museum, and since another donation wasn't out of the question anyway, I thought I'd do it then and get a bike in the bargain. Here it is.
------------THE QUESTION NOW IS: WHAT DO WE DO WITH THIS BIKE?
Nobody here needs it or fits it. I just measured it, and it's a 19-inch frame, with a standover height of 75cm. Probably owned by riders from 5-6 to 5-8. Not going to get into the PBH range or anything like that, but I can't imagine it not working for a rider in that height range.
We might be able to get decals for it. Only the head tube decal remains, and it looks like, it's fairly obvious, that somebody stealthicized it by abraiding away the downtube and seat tube decals. If we have to get those for you, the price goes up $25. Yes, we want to sell it. Wanna buy it? It rides fine, and it's a genuine Tom Ritchey mountain bike, and it shouldn't need any more selling than that. If you want to pick it up, great. If we have to ship it, we'll ding you for the box and time and freight--figure another $350. It takes 90 minutes to box, the box costs us $35, the packing material is another $10, and whatever Bike Flights charges. It's better if you're close.
Or, if you like, we can switch up the bar and stem to something else, get the bike repainted and bondo the dent, give it new Ritchey decals, true the wheels (their close, totally rideable, but not perfect)--we could, conceivably, make it over to any degree you like and are willing to pay for.
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In five months we're going to have a neat new pedal. Don't delay any pedal-getting until them, but these will be pretty neat. In keeping with the others we have and like, nothing revolutionary............the SILVER shifter2, new shaped thumby Silver shifter that also works as a bar-end and downtuber...is still happening, and we expect the next samples in March, delivery in June........Shimano's new 11-speeder bar-ends don't have a friction mode, boo-hoo, but at least they haven't given up on bar-ends....there's a few interesting Amazon or Netflix serieses out there. If you're looking for something, here are my feeble recommendations:
Doc Martin...doctor in Cornwall servicing the local idiots 8 seasons?
Foyle's War...wwII-era crime thing, best ever 8 seasons?
A Place to Call Home...post Korean War Australia soapy thing in small town, variety of people, 4 seasons
These were recommended to me, and you can do worse.
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CLIFF BAR makes tons of high-carb stuff, but they snuck in three "Whey Protein Bars" with only 5g of sugar per bar. If you must eat concocted snacks and bars, they're worth seeking out.........
Shimano is slowly making it tougher to make certain kinds of bikes. Changes, extinctions, argh. They're desperate, scared of what's happening with the bike market. They're just trying to stay ahead. It's a good company, but holey moley. I get it, but still, argh.
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We're on a buying moratorium for a couple of months. We'll be out of stock of neat little twiddly - quirky things, and we may be late with others stuff. It's not fun here right now--not like it was--because cash flow is so bad. Our bills are low, but so are sales, and that's just how it is. Please no speculating or Monday morning QB-ing. We're in a better position than anybody to do that. I am, and I've done enough. The bikes have never been better. The llineup has never made more sense--with stuff we have coming up, too. The crew is perfect. Boom! On to other stuff.
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Some recent photos from the film collection. They're not exemplary, but they're fun, and that's good enough. It's not fine art, it's just fun stuff.
This is a photo that didn't need to be taken, but I like the bike and the guy here (Will). Mark does most of the work here, but he's not the only competent mechanic. Mark chex all work, tho. Remember Chex cereal? The dark ones always tasted burnt. And LIFE cereal--remember that? It turned to sugary mush so fast.
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Mark's fingers putting together a chain. I shot it with a 120 Makro-Planar lens with an extension tube for closeupness. The chain seems to say 6S, but it really says 9S for nine-speeder. Top pic, sticking the master link together, bottom, pulling them apart to seat the pins.
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There's nothing great about this, but I like the look of spoked wheels. I think spoked wheels like this, with all those gleaming skinny crossed spokes, are the coelocanths of bike things.
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Good Will riding. Hurray for plaid shirts! This is about an easy 20-minute bike ride from us, in a place called Shell Ridge, because there are lots of fossil shells here, because 13 million (actual, yes) years ago this area, including Mt. Diablo in the background, was underwater. The the great Upheaval happened, and the bottom-dwellers ended up on top. Some places have tons of shells, other places fewer, but a typical one is a clam shell about 2-inches in diameter, and I find lots of them on hikes in the area. So what do you do with them? If they're right on the path, I pick them up and put them in the grass on the side. It feels like hiding them, which isn't good, because somebody else might want to see them, but it also takes them out of the path of boots, which seems OK.
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This is our fantastic, phenomenal friend Vaughn, who had Jenny's job before Jenny. He moved back to Colorado, but sometimes shows up. This is also in Shell Ridge, on the best ride I've been on in 3 years. It looks like a lousy '50s photograph, but I super enjoy thinking the graininess and blur show the grunt more. That's my protective reasoning, anyway.
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Will again, also Shell Ridge. Olympus OM-1 camera, probably HP-5 film. Another good-enough photo made better by the subject and the groovy trees back there. When you shoot film as a non-pro, you use a different standard--at least I do. Sharpness means nothing, composition and subject count a lot. Exposure has to be close, but you can fixem in the darkroom or photoshop.
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The shenanigans and tragedies happening out there are bumming me out. The Perris story, Trump. Enviro, human rights. Cash flow.
Hey, this is just a BLAGH. It can be venting, cathartic, random, whatever. It is! Overall...let's see what we can do.
Grant