Tune Up

 As you can see, a brake tuneup was in order.

Most of that muck was from a muddy ride last week.

Let's see if I can put it back together...

The brakes look pretty good for their age,

except this one spring.

clean as a whistle

The ol' trusties are working smoother now. The current grey Ultegra's 

have nothing on these old beauties... at least not in the design department.

Vroom, vroom!

My Nature Boy has arrived

 I went to Smart Bike Parts on Monday, hoping to test ride an All-City Nature Boy. They didn't have any regular NB's, just one NB Zona Ltd frame, that just happened to be my size. These aren't that easy to come by, particularly in a 49. The advantages of the Zona over a regular NB: better tubing, non-removable canti studs, 1/2 lb lighter (whatever, I'll soon make up for that), PF30 bottom bracket, a couple other minor differences, and last but not least... the color is actually nice, black and gold flake paint. 

     The other NB would have blended in with this couch... I wasn't overly excited about the prospect of a lime green frame. If you only want a NB frameset, you have to get the lime green one. The blackish- blue/white one only comes as a complete bike. I hadn't considered the Zona, until I came across this one. The photo doesn't do it justice, it's a beautiful frame. If it rides as good as it looks, we're going to get along great. The NB owners on the online cyclocross forums, all seem to love them. 

I will have to take some glamour shots, but until then...

  

    

Collaborative Bike Builds

Now this is an excellent idea: 718 Cyclery Collaborative Builds .  Pretty sure there are a couple of shops in Chicago, that would be willing to do something like this.  If I do have one or two things done at a shop for the Nature Boy, I will be asking if it's all right to hang around.