Temperatures were expected to climb into the lower seventies when an amazing group of twenty-four people lined up at Betzwood Park for our journey down the Schuylkill River Trail into Philadelphia! It was a bit chilly to start, but everyone was shedding layers as the bright sun warm things up nicely. We worked our way through Manayunk and over to West River Drive (MLK, Jr. Blvd.), weaving our way through the heavy weekend trail traffic.
I tried to mingle as much as I could among the group, and a few times I got caught up in conversation and let my normal pace string out the line a bit too much! Some of our participants thankfully stepped up as unofficial co-hosts and helped keep tabs on our group so that no one was dropped. We had a couple mechanical issues that had to be worked around, and our leisurely pace required a few more people with time constraints to make the way back on their own.
From the Philadelphia Art Museum, we headed up the east side of Lemon Hill on Sedgley Drive and worked our way over the Girard Street bridge to the Centennial District and Fairmount Park. We passed behind Exhibition Hall and stopped at the Japanese House.
Our friend Steve took a photo of the folks who were sticking out the whole 43-mile route:
We weaved through the Fairmount Horticulture Center grounds and then made the sweeping climb up to Belmont Plateau for a great view of the city.
A short pedal down Belmont Avenue connected us with Conshohocken Avenue, and we eventually reached the trailhead for the Cynwyd Heritage Trail. Many folks commented on how much they enjoyed the 1.5 mile coast down to the Manayunk Bridge!
From there our group kind of fell apart, as some people wanted to pick up the pace, some wanted to take photos, and my sister-in-law's husband Todd even wanted to try climbing the famous Manayunk Wall. As long as everyone was accounted for and was fine with heading back on their own, I had no problem with the respective plans of the split group.
There was still a core group of about a dozen people riding together through Norristown, but even that pack became stretched out as the more fit cyclists drifted away from the leisurely pedalers. Although I would normally be "digging for home" at this point, I was enjoying the conversation with folks I hadn't seen for a while and enjoyed the relaxing pace.
When we finally returned to Betzwood, I found some of the faster gang enjoying an impromptu post-ride party with some tomato pie. Many folks commented about the Santa Ride just being around the corner, but I can't guarantee the weather for that event, no matter what they think!
While I have a couple projects lingering because of the need to collect parts, I have few new builds that are already progressing nicely. The first came about when I ended up with some stray Mavic parts - I have a love for these parts and a need to put them on a bike, not just sell them off. Seems another KAS Team/Sean Kelly tribute bike is on the way!
I have a nearly pristine blue Vitus 979 frame on hand and a set of decals ready to go, while I am on the hunt for the few hard-to-find components to complete assembly. The past Sean Kelly bikes I've built were all done specifically for clients, but this one will be available for general re-sale. It is a 55cm frame, so if you are interested, definitely let me know!
Another bike on which I'm working is another "return to projects past", as I found another Saeco-Cannondale team bicycle. This one came with really inferior components and really needs to be set up properly. I'm going to do something a bit different with this bike, building it up as if the team still existed in present day. All of the decals for the team's component sponsors are on the stays, and I am going to use modern versions of those parts whenever possible.
The last project is not quite a tribute bike, but it was inspired by the classy Frenchman Charly Mottet, whom I admired during my early years as a cycling fan. In the early '90s he rode for the R.M.O. (a supplier of temp workers) team that wore distinctive jerseys with slashes of green, blue and red.
The team was sponsored by Mavic (of course!) and rode Liberia bicycles, a company whose doors unfortunately closed shortly after sponsorship with the team ended. Frankly, the R.M.O. bike's bright green doesn't do anything for me, and I was happy to find a bit earlier Liberia frameset with more subtle styling.
Although the bike will have Mavic wheels, the last thing I need to do is go hunting for more of those rare parts. Instead, I'm doing a slightly more modern build on this late-'70s frameset, but sticking with French (well...technically, Franco-German) Sachs-Huret parts. The company partnered with Campagnolo to develop the famous Ergo shifters, and when Sachs-Huret released their own "New Success" component group, it included a crankset that was an obvious Chorus copy. It even featured Campagnolo chainrings!
A bunch of other French parts will be included in the Liberia build, such as a Pivo stem/bar combination, Maillard cogs and Michelin tires. There will be all sorts of mods and tweaks to make this retro-to-(sorta)modern project work, and I will detail them in the upcoming weeks.
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