Bike Build From This Weekend

 Tony G asked me to build a city bike for Leanne, recently, and I suggested that we base it on Brad's old MB-5 frameset. I traded another Bridgestone frame for it, last year, so that Brad could build up his vintage mtb. He wanted to strip the frame, and clear coat it (and it came out really awesome, btw), but the paint on this frame was just too good to strip off.

So, I had this frame hanging in the shop building when Tony made his request.

It built up nicely, with commuter tires, and old LX rear derailleur, V-brakes, Noah's Arc bars and various other parts from the archives.

I love building bikes like this, bringing old frames back to life with a minimum of new parts. All I had to purchase for the build were tires, tubes, rim strips, grips and a used stem. Now, a 20+ year old bike is back on the road, and Leanne has a nice little curb-jumper to ride around on.

I have another girlfriend bike to build, now. I just have to gather up the parts...


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What's That Lassie? Timmy Fell In The What?

I went out into the back yard, today, for the first time this week, and got a little surprise...

There was a bit of a hole in the yard...

A nice, big, round brick-lined hole. I can't imagine it being a manhole, so I am assuming it is an abandoned well or cistern.

How big is it?

This big.

It's about 4 feet deep, 3 feet to the top of the bricks. My guess is that it was capped, years ago, and covered over. Our recent rains saturated the soil to the point that the weight caused it to collapse.

Now, I have to come up with about 2 cubic yards of material to fill the void. 

What next?

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Been A While

It's been a busy month, around here. Steve and I played two shows, on back to back weekends, last month at Bushwacker's and The Pit Stop. Then, I went to the western slope, for business, and was gone for 5 days. I got back in time for my birthday weekend (a Water Tower show at Herman's on Friday, and dinner out Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, along with plenty of adult beverages). And, I will hit 40 hours, at work, just after lunch, tomorrow ... but I am in the middle of something which will take the rest of the day, plus Friday, to finish.

I am a bit worn out.

While I was in Grand Junction, I picked up this 1959 Gibson ES-125 TC. I had seen it, back on our lab inspection tour, the first week of April. It took me two weeks to decided to go for it (and figure out the financing - I am selling my ti fat bike), and then I had to wait another week and a half to get there and pick it up. But, it was worth it. I'll be playing slide on it, at Lost Lake, this Saturday (8:30 PM).

We stayed at the Doubletree, in Durango, right on the riverside. This was the view from the lounge balcony, as we ate dinner on Wednesday.

 Later, after the sun was down, the lava-rock in the fire pit, along with the bits of blue glass, led us to play a little "Fire Jenga". Piling up the rock seemed to concentrate the flame, too.

Two amps ... both newly acquired. The little wooden amp in the background came with the ES-125, and was built circa 1947. It is purported to be a Kay.

The Vox is a replacement for my Roland, which died an inglorious death as I played the 125 through it, after I got home on Friday. I went to GC, Saturday morning, and test drove about 10 amps, at performance volume, in one of their lesson rooms. I loved the tone of this little 15 watt combo, so it is now part of my stage rig.

Saturday evening, Danny Mc came by and we went out to dinner. It was magically delicious!

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