I promised him some fire-road climbs, some flat out descents and some very twisty, narrow singletrack. After an initial romp through singletrack near my house, we spat out onto the Blackwood Ridge Road, which climbs steadily up and up... and up.
Now, Dave isn't the fastest guy out there. But put him on a steady climb and he just chugs away like a diesel. Now I'm not the fastest guy out there either. And riding 3 times in 6 months hasn't made me any faster. Suffice to say that Dave kicked my arse into next week. Which was all the more humiliating since he began the ride telling me that he was feeling sick and wasn't sure how well he'd go. Yeah right...
The long fire-road descent down the New Sultan track was where I thought I'd peg him back. After all he was on a hard-tail and I was on a very well sorted dually. Sure enough, after shifting into the big ring and railing the first few corners, I was on my own. And I bombed down the track in much that fashion, till I reached the intersection with Lerderderg River Road. Where I waited... and waited... and waited... Eventually, I saw a blue speck in the distance.
Dave appeared. He'd stopped for a few minutes to try and troubleshoot a mysterious rear hub noise. So much for me dusting him on the descent.
With Leighton's bike finished, I managed to do a big clean in the shed. The workbench is clean of metal filings and worn strips of 80 grit. Tools are put away. And in a fit of organisation, I made some simple tubing racks out of some pine I had laying around.
On those racks and in the metal dish is a very long term project: a road bike for Heather. It's based around the ornate Long Shen Fleur De Lys lug set, and will be primarily Dedacchia tubing, with some Columbus Zona and EL thrown in where appropriate. I've had these tubes for nearly 2 years, so it's great to finally be doing something with them.
1 comment:
Nice tubing rack! Makes my cardboard box look like, well, a cardboard box.
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