Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The cost of hard living

You can see it in the faded paint, nicks, scalloped chainrings, mavic wheels that no longer have a machined braking surface, .......I can flatout make a bike old quickly.
A life of riding gravel road will age you really quickly especially given the weather that we see out here.
I found this picture from when I first got my new frame

and I have to admit that the IRO Rob Roy has not had a easy life. But, man!, I looked at the old girl this evening and the paint is looking pretty haggard (kinda like the waitresses at Denny's). I am waiting for some new(ish) wheels to bring some spring back to her step, and am entertaining the idea of having the frame stripped and powdercoated since I have another cross bike to ride over the winter. Know any body in eastern KS that does a good powder coat? lemme know
In case you were wondering I am switching to Stans ZTR 355 rims for my cross bikes. I really like the utility of stans rims and the ability to reliably run tubeless. The SS will get American Classic hubs laced to 355s, and the Redline will see my Kings relaced to 355's in the spring.
Why the wait?
My man in Damascus tells me that Stans is gonna bust out 29 inch ZTR 355's with a machined braking surface in the next few months. Word!

3 comments:

Mark Rainey said...

My brother and I have media blasted and powder coated over 50 bike frames. Send me an email address and I'll send you our info sheets. mrainey2@kc.rr.com

Joshua Stamper said...

Thanks Mark!

Brad said...

That photo is creepy, but it always makes me smile.