My wife and I firmly believe that the only people who say "I love the summer heat" are ones who have central air conditioning and/or pools - we have neither. When people make summer visits to the Royersford brick oven we call our home, I joke (not really humorous to us) that in our old, poorly-insulated structure we'd just be providing air-conditioning to the neighborhood. The thin layer of plaster and lath walls that sits between us and the aforementioned brick really make my jest more of a reality.We confine the A.C. use to our bedroom so that we aren't in complete misery when we sleep, and for those times when we have gone completely insane with sweaty dripping, and the only way to calm ourselves is to grab a laptop and watch a movie or something while laying on the bed. Several days in a row of 90 degrees and high humidity is too much to take, and I found a recent trip to the shore, even if it was just to do pre-renovation work around my wife's family home, was a welcome break from sitting around here in summer stickiness!
Cycling the past couple of weeks has been a big challenge, not only because the body just feels sluggish in the oppressive conditions, but regular water sources along my routes have been shut off because of the virus situation. Early rides would be an option, but I've never been a morning guy. I have ventured out on the shady Chester Valley and Perkiomen Trails for shorter-than-usual spins, and my friends and I have also done some nighttime rides, equipped with headlights and rear flashers.
My basement shop is usually a little more pleasant place to be, just because the dehumidifier is running down there to dry out the air, and a good fan will improve things even further. The temperature is still pretty high, though, and anything but the slightest exertion will dampen the t-shirt considerably. Sometimes you just have to just suck it up and get busy!
I have finally gotten on top of things with tune-ups, repairs and customer builds. I've even had some time to devote to projects - not only the completion of a couple bikes but also the planning of some future builds and browsing the 'net for the appropriate parts.
I was so pleased with the way Matt's Klein had turned out, I added that brand to my searches. I found on eBay a Klein model called "Stage Comp" and saved a bit of money picking the bike up just across the Tacony-Palmyra bridge in New Jersey. It came with another trademark Klein paint job called "Blue Linear Fade", which changes from a royal blue to more of an aquamarine color.
This bicycle came pretty much ready-to-run with a Shimano 105 group and a nice set of Oval Concepts wheels*. The 105 is a little dated, and I am planning on doing something very similar to what we did on Matt's bike, with a 1x10 SRAM drivetrain. However, there is a lot more wheel clearance on this model, and I am going to put some more trailworthy 28mm tires on the bike.
*I've always wondered why a bicycle wheel manufacturer would name it's company "Oval" - who wants oval wheels?!! They do make decent products, though.
A couple of months ago, when a customer named Elizabeth stopped by to purchase a couple of bicycles, she also gave me an '80s Nishiki touring bicycle to refurbish for her daughter. The decals were flaking badly, much like Pinarello decals of the era which were also under the clear coat, and unfortunately, it turned out a bit of paint touch-up was required beneath. I was lucky to find that Testors red metal-flake enamel was an exact match, and I removed the rear rack and also gave that a spray of flat black paint.
I have been a loyal customer of VeloCals for years, and I was a bit surprised by their lack of response to my questions about matching up the "Riviera GT" logos on the top tube. They didn't have this specific model of Nishiki bicycle, but a couple others had the same font, and I figured it would be a simple custom order, switching the text. Turns out they had just been too busy and understaffed during the past few weeks.
The Nishiki had an older set of steel handlebars that had rusted badly, so I replaced them with a nice set of vintage ITM bars I had in stock. Liz had requested some aero brake levers, instead of the original "cables-in-your-face" versions, and I installed a nice set of Tektro levers before wrapping the bars in a yellow cork tape that matched the decals nicely.The drivetrain was in good condition, and it included a unique SunTour Lepree rear derailleur that had a third pulley wheel to help take up the extra chain slack that is always present in a triple chainring setup such as the one on this bike. Liz had informed me that the rear wheel was a cheap replacement from the original, and I suggested a quality wheelset that I had hanging in my rafters, made up of Rigida rims and Campagnolo Record hubs.
The bike was intended as a surprise birthday gift back in June, but I hope the delay doesn't matter too much...
I mentioned last week that the Cinelli Unica was also close to completion, and it was only a matter of hooking up the cables to the Campagnolo Chorus 9-speed system and wrapping the bars. I'll leave you with photos of the finished bicycle:
