Random Weekend Bloggity

Time seems to speed up, the closer you get to a deadline.  In this case, my deadline is the first of July, when I will be leaving to visit my sister, her family, and my mom in Pennsylvania.  I've gotten the major stuff done (I put a new tire and a stock air breather on Kyle's motorbike, which I am taking to him, and I got a bunch of overdue maintenance done on the Nissan Frontier I am taking to Joy), but lots of little things remain.


I have bikes to build for people, tons of stuff to get squared away at work, and the million little things it always takes when you are going out of town.  So, I just plug away and try to get what I can get done, every day.  This weekend has seen a few small projects either begun or finished.  I did some bike repair for a girl I know through Tony (and got paid in chocolate-chip cookies! YUM!), started work on a bicycle plant stand for Carol, and got a small start on the Handsome XOXO.

I got the wheels trued and tensioned, and mounted up the tires.  I am going with the same Schwalbes I have on the XO-2.  I can always put some fatter rubber on, if I decide to do any heavy-duty mountain biking with it.

I'm still not sure about the bars and stem.  The bars don't extend as far forward as a mustache bar, and the stem is sized for a mustache.  So, the cockpit is a little short.  I'll ride it, a bit, then decide what I want to do.

In the meantime, it's coming together slowly.  I'm in no big hurry to get it together, what with the whole Achilles tendon thing...

For now, it is hanging in the Orange Section of the rafters.

Last week, I decided that I would like to have a tool kit on the Scrambler.  Triumph is so confident in the Bonnevilles, I guess, that they don't include a tool kit, at all.

There is no good place to stash a tool bag under the seat, so I hung a tool bag on the frame rail behind the shock.

It's a leather handlebar bag from Electra Bicycles.  I had it on a fixed gear bike, a few years ago, and I have one like it on the XO-2, now.  It just happens to be a good size and shape for this application.

I put together an 8mm Allen wrench, and 8" adjustable wrench, a pair of pliers, 8, 12 and 14mm open-end/box-end wrenches, and a 4,5,6mm Allen set which includes flat and Phillips screwdrivers.  I don't have a plug wrench, but if I need one, on a trip, I'll buy it when I buy the plugs.

They all roll up in an old bandanna, and the roll fits snug as a bug into the bag.

Anyway, enough rambling.  Gotta get ready for work, tomorrow.  Have to pack the panniers on the fixed gear.

Thunder is rumbling, outside. It's supposed to start raining, tonight, and rain all day tomorrow.  So, I'll be taking the bicycle to work.  Don't want to ride the motorbike in the rain.


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