Back On the Pink Bike, Tomorrow

It was 74 degrees here in Denver, yesterday. I sat out in the back yard, in shorts and a t-shirt, and had a G&T while I drew my daily sketch for the other blog. Beautiful Spring weather.

This is the spot I was sitting in, yesterday, as it appears today:

The temps have been below 30 degrees, all day, and the wind has been howling. We've only gotten about 3 inches of snow, but the wind pushes it into small drifts and makes it look like more.

I don't think there will be a lot of actual snow on the road, tomorrow. The warm pavement has melted a lot of it as it has fallen. But, the shady spots will have some snow on them, and the 20 degree low temperature, tonight, will most likely produce some icy spots for the morning commute. So, I swapped the lights and bags back to the pink bike, so that I will have the studded tires for the commute.

Speaking of lights, I finally had to put my CygoLite on the charger, today. I've been running it for a month on the factory charge! I suspect it will last through the night at Moab, if I don't run it on high beam. I might get an extra battery for backup, though, just in case.

I got the three-speed frame back from the powder coater on Thursday. I built the bike up, but found I didn't have Ty's phone number in my saved email messages, as I had thought. Ty is a coworker, who I set up with an old-school mountain bike to ride around with the kids. When he picked it up, he saw this 3-speed leaning up against the shop, and asked if I could fix it up for his wife, including a coat of red powder, since that's her favorite color.

I knew it would need replacement wheels, a new shift cable and some other parts, so I told Ty I would let him know when I could find all of the stuff it needed.

It already has the "new" parts on it, here, but still in the original paint. I wanted to get it rideable before stripping it down for the powder coater.

Here it is, in red.

I ended up buying another three-speed for parts, and swapped wheels, brakes, cables, and shifter over to this one. I also took the original steel bar for the Scorcher, and put this alloy bar on the 3-speed. Then, I polished up the chrome fenders and the crank, cleaned the grips and seat up and put it all together.

I really think it came out nice, even though I also thought it was quite nice with the original green paint.

I was supposed to put a wicker basket on the front. But I haven't found one, locally, so it looks like I'll have to order one in. The cheapest one I've found, in a usable size, is about $40.00. I guess that's not too bad, in the scheme of bike accessories.

I'm happy to get this bike back on the road. The fork from the donor bike looks like it will work to repair the tandem, which got damaged on the way to the Moonlight Classic, last summer.

And, the fenders on the donor are in good shape, as well (painted, not chrome), so they will find a home on some bike or another. Hmmm, maybe on the tandem. I'll have to see if they'll fit over the big cruiser tires.

Reuse, recycle...

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