Long Time Comin'

Well, OK!

It's been some time since my last post, I know. You have better things to do than keep checking to see if there's any action.

There hasn't been.

It's been a long cold winter, and I'm not doing much with bikes. I know that I should be out there riding, but lack motivation. It's getting harder and harder to get the clothes on, grease up the rear end, and go for a ride. It's about once a week now, if I don't have something else going on, or it isn't raining. It seems to always be raining (windy, cold, don't feel good, have to do something else) and I can't get out.

Yeah. Right.

But anyway, I think spring is coming. At least daylight savings time is next week. Whoo-hoo! My favorite day of the year. And, it's on my birthday! Which is becoming my least favorite day of the year.

So enough with the complaining. How can you complain when the s3x is available for around $120.00? I spent $240 on it when it first came out, but that's cool. I got to mess with it right at the start, and I enjoyed every minute of it and don't begrudge a dime.

It's so low now, I'm thinking I'll get another one for my Mercian fixie when the wheelsets become available cheaply. Remember what I said about building another wheel from scratch? It's pricey.

The Mercian is an English 70s frame made of 531. It's way old school, and light as a feather.

It has pump brackets. Nice....

It isn't pretty, since the paint's a bit beat, and it's sort of a robin's egg blue color. I don't mind it, because people always think it's some old track bike from 1900 and I get lots of thumbs up when I take it out. That's not often since I have a 53-16 ring/cog on it. I use it mostly on the fluid trainer when it's raining (I basically hate doing that).

Maybe I should put that fake wood vinyl shelf paper on the rims so they look like wooden wheels? I have kept the old cloth bar tape on the bars, which contributes to the decrepit-antique look.

I mean the bike's, not mine.

This frame fits me perfectly, like the old school Japanese frames I ride: tall with a short cockpit. It's pretty amazing to me that they built them this way. How many people have legs that are disproportionately longer than their arms? Anyway, I'd ride it out on the road more often if it had a 3 speed hub.

Building the wheel was kind of fun.... Who knows? Maybe I'll do it again.

So to end up, once again I'll ask for comments and observations on the s3x. I'm sure there's lots of folks who'd like to read about your experiences and discuss your questions/observations/opinions. I'll post them
as I get 'em.

Holla.