Things finally settled down enough to post some pics
. Had a great time in Chicago again and one of the highlights was my ride with Skipton. I appreciate his time and effort to ride with me and show me Club 29 and an insider's look at Chicago.
Skip's bike is even more cool in person. Fun to hear first hand about all the details and thought processes.
It's awesome to ride with another person that enjoys speed and rideability from an older custom bike. You can tell he hangs with the single speed crowd the way does the "fixie stance" LOL. He was a great guide weaving in and out of the Friday morning traffic, fun, fun, fun
He said that we would see a steady stream of bikes going on this main route and he was right!
Had to get this shot, would have hated to clean the fresh concrete out of those MTB tires, But a nice bit of bike art
Skipton took me to a great coffee shop were we fueled up on caffeine and great sweets. Really humid that morning after a bunch of rain but the temp was great.
I was still shaking down my Hercules and needed to stop a few times to get the seat to stay in place (too much grease,oops). We switched bikes and Skipton's bike is fantastic to ride. Smooth, fast and super stable. It's fun to get strong commuters on my light bikes (Herc is 22.5 lbs, build thread soon) and see them beat the snot out of them LOL. As I was trying to get a shot (this one took about 4X) Skipton was blazing ahead.
Once when he took off hard from a light, he was laying down so much torque he was making the the back of the bike waggle like a happy puppy LOL
. As we were riding a commuter came from behind and said "Nice Bike" I said "This is his bike, Cool huh?" He gets up to Skipton and looks at mine and say to Skipton, Nice bike. Skiptons's like "this is his" LOL (that's the pic) Couldn't be better getting them with the City in the background
We told him a bit about our bikes and maybe we but a kernel of RRB fever into him
You know the traffic was heavy and you're riding next to and in between big trucks but they we really patient, very cool. Skipton had the perfect place for a combo shot, under the "L"
A fellow bike pic freak LOL
You can really see just how much bigger his 29er rear tire is than my 700x32 (~27.5"). He want s to see if he can get a fatter one in
It was a great way to see more of the city and I really appreciate the ride Skipton!!
"This is my town, and I love it!" (actually he was patiently waiting while I took a call from work LOL)
Another cool thing is that after comparing notes on our builds, we found out that we both had rattling from our Histop hubs (Club 29, My Spaceliner, and Shelby) and had tried the same and different things to get rid of it. My Shimano on the Herc is dead silent. So we both think that it maybe be the brake shoes rattling inside the hubs because it goes away during braking. He's gonna try a 28 hole Velosteel. I'm gonna try another Shimano on the Spaceliner.
Also that his bike is super stable and that the extra rotating mass of the DeepV's and 29 tires are making it a really great no handed bike. The Herc, even with 700s and rakey fork, not so much. I've always tried to get rid of rotating mass but now I'm getting converted. I've tried to make several bikes as stable as my Spaceliner and couldn't, but now I know why
Glad we could get together. I invited him to a ride in Mpls some time but I know it a long way to go. We did talk about meeting up at the Coasters ride (KS) in the fall of 2015 so we going to see if we can make that happen.
The bikes DO look good together, birds of a feather...
Thanks for looking
Steve
Thanks Steve for great time and the coffee!
Thanks Steve for great time and the coffee!
