Newness!

There's a new bank account-draining charge today from USAC, but I'm not pissed. That means my pro license is through the red tape. It's up to the mailman now (godspeed Ralph!). Eric is somewhere in his workshop up on the hill planning out a pro-style baddass team colored paint job for the race bike, my view of Colorado Springs is changing every time I ride my new mountain bike, and I have a fresh new throat cold to reward me for riding said mountain bike in the snow that dropped this week! The new thing I'm most amped about is the Ira Ryan custom frame that is taking shape in a basement in the St. Johns neighborhood. Ira was incredibly generous to put a custom frame ( or two, although he didn't know it at the time ) up for grabs for the winner(s) of the Rapha Goldsprints during NAHBS last year, and I was lucky enough to have my name on one of them.

Ira loves making bikes that people use every day. He sees cycling not as some opportunity to make a quick buck by importing some plastic from China, or as a way to break into some fashion sub-culture, but as an ideal and sustainable lifestyle. He likes bikes to be dirty. His bikes are not wall-hanger art. They are hand-crafted tools made by someone who knows the roots of what he's doing. Ira's bikes are classics. They're nice enough to hang on the wall, but that would be a waste.

There she blows.This thing will be the do-all. The Do-er. I've been collecting parts for it for a solid year, so it will be the best of everything I can get. The dream bike.

One of the guys at the shop thinks I have bike ADD. That I can't decide what I like or want. Not true. I know what I like. I love euro-trashy, uber-fancy, feather-light road bikes with a lot of history, like the Orbeas. I love left-field "how'd he do that" machining wizardry of uncompromising race bikes like the Groundup (as Eric says it, "a piece of wieghtlifting equipment with wheels). I also love the classics, like the a Ira Ryan single-speed utility bike I can use commute in the snow or take back 20 lbs of library books. Everything has a place in my world.
DT