i am coming clean, i've been having an affair....
with a 32 year old..........champion mondial.

if i remember correctly it began in may...........spotted online, stripped of everything, and i was lustful. it took a while for me to gather the funds to purchase her in all her bare glory, and i think it was close to july when she actually arrived, from Poland.

she is of dutch descent and fabricated in italy. when she first arrived i was incredibly torn whether to keep her as is with wonderful pedigree and of original condition. in the end i decided, resale did not matter, i knew what she was and could be and wanted to customize her to my liking. seeing as i had previously purchased and built up a few other vintage bikes, some bad, some worse, i knew much more what i was looking for in a frame (material, design, approximate size).

warning: this is not a great idea, to buy a bare frame and spend a bunch of money powdercoating it, building it up (lots of labor post painting to prep a frame) before you have any idea if you will like it or not!

beautiful lines, skinny tubes and sexy lugs. campy drop outs...

gazelles stamped into the machined fork crown

awesome brake bridge, more lust......

cable guides that whisper, i'm elegant

hot ass.....


and so she was shipped off to the powdercoater in august for her costume change.
and...............

here she is in the back of the car leaving the metal shop

back at home in the studio awaiting the $$ for the rest of her to come together, and she was patient (i'm talking about myself, now).

and then finally on saturday, my friend and extremely talented mechanic, jeff called to say "come n get it"

baby blue with one large red accent. the saddle is a spare b17 i had but i intend to switch it out for a brooks black swallow

the groupset is campagnolo record (and it's awesome) some machined alloy and other parts carbon, these levers are the most comfortable i have found of the newer groups

the front derailleur is the only part that is chorus, it is a 10 speed used groupo.
the wheelset is velocity a23 probuild and weighs just about 1400 grams. the tires are vittoria rubino and i really like the way they feel, supple and fast.

new velo orange seatpost, very well designed.

velo orange headset, nitto deluxe stem, knog 12 function computer (barely visible), grand bois maes handlebars made by nitto

yesterday bf and i rode out to bear island, sc. a long causeway out over the ashepoo river through beautiful marshes ending on a dock lined creek.
this was the maiden voyage, i am so happy with the result of this build.
it feels compact and racey, yet comfortable and smooth. the campagnolo shifting is an entirely new dimension in comparison to shimano. 
i cannot say enough good things about this bike and am so looking forward to stacking up more miles on it.

i rode a lot in june, july and august then sort of hit a wall and have been half-assing it for a month or so and last week i rode 100 miles, looking forward to picking it up this fall and winter.

gorgeous views and 70 degrees with virtually no humidity, an incredible fall day in the ace basin.

check out those spokes....swoon.....

bf and i traveled to Colorado for a wedding this past weekend and stayed in Boulder. the weather was totally amazing. perfectly sunny, 70ish during the day and 50's at night. on sunday after the wedding we awoke ever so slightly hungover, and by that i mean, really hungover.
but, we had reserved bikes for a ride and up until then all we had done was some cruising on ride share bikes that are super cool and deserving of their own post which i will get to later this week. so, like elite athletes that we are not, we promptly consumed chicken and waffles at the hotel restaurant then headed back to room for some horizontal planning of our ride. after 10 mins we decided if we did not make it to pick up these beauties we would feel lame, so we headed down to university cycles on pearl street.
i was the lucky recipient of a gorgeous independent fabrication titanium crown jewel...check it out.

it was ridiculously light and built up really nicely. i absolutely love the look of titanium and cannot figure out why anyone would want to paint it, the bike was a 55 cm and fit me pretty well. their logo is super classy and cool. the bike was outfitted with shimano dura ace components, 2 different rims, an easton and a bontrager, weird. 

chris king headset, and a specialized saddle that was not particularly comfortable or uncomfortable. i definitely felt it long before i would on my broken in brooks b17. the shop was nice enough to put spd pedals on the bike and not make some snide remark about them on a road bike. did i mention they were really friendly and helpful? because they were. actually just about everywhere we went in boulder people were super friendly.

some really weird flattish easton bars i did not love. as well, worth mentioning is the placement of the hoods which was further forward than i would have them on my own bike and the stem was too long, so i was really stretched out. i have been battling shoulder issues again and was really uncomfortable that far forward. damn you right shoulder! i really liked the dura ace, it performed flawlessly. 2 things i don't love the cables coming out of the hoods and i don't love the mechanics of the levers, it seems backwards to me, but everyone is different with different preferences. point is it is very high quality and shifted seamlessly.

i'm not exactly sure what i was expecting when i got on the bike, but it was super fast, when we descended (my favorite part of riding) i flew down hills! it was super light and coasted quickly. i did however feel that in comparison to some of my other bikes it was a little bit harsher vibration-wise. if that makes any sense. we took it the bikes out of town up 36 and when we came back to boulder we rode along the boulder creek trail (simply amazing). the trail was fun and swoopy and fast, with no rode debris making the ride bumpy.

all in all, i really appreciated riding this caliber of a bike. it was top notch. i mentioned to bf along the creek trail, that i did not hate the bike and he answered back joking of course, yah, but it's not lugged (jab!). 

bf rode this equally swanky ride the serotta ti carbon combo ottrott (not quie as beautiful or light) but a much better fit as it was a 57 cm.

as the entire bicycle movement is SLOWLY sweeping the nation, we have seen tends taking off, the dutch bike, the commuter bike, and the cargo bike. places like copenhagen and amsterdam serve as models for u.s. cities in their quest to attain diverse, green, and safe transportation options. I'd guess that every fourth or fifth bike i saw in Amsterdam was a cargo bike, be it a bakefiets, christiana, or the like. its their version of the SUV, and definitely sexier! this amazing woman liz canning, film maker, producer, extraordinaire is making a documentary about cargo bikes and those that ride in and on them. she is asking anyone to send her footage to help this endeavor, if you have a cargo bike help her make this film!! this is the trailer, it is very inspirational

this weekend bf and i traveled to VA to visit with family and celebrate the life of his father who passed away last month. it was really very sweet, a great party at the lake with lots of delicious food, wine, beer and joyful tale telling. in the hustle of getting things done, i have only a few shots of the weekend, here they is..........

1979 gazelle champion mondial frame i took to the powdercoater a month ago, back all glossy and sky blue. yum.

misunderstanding on aisle 11: what are new age beverages???

bf post ride. 30 mile loop around middlebrook, VA, fun and fast rolling hills

the old schoolhouse from where we started our ride

easter basket of frames awaiting build ups in the studio back home.