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Dave_Thompson wrote:
Douglas, you have a basement full of bikes with a good representation from a wide variety of builders and origins. I can come to your house with a fine-bladed hacksaw so we can inspect your bikes in detail. I'll bring good wine too. How are you doing? What's new?

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I suppose we could do this only if we drank enough before we started. I think, for the most part, I am content to know that the bikes are brazed _well-enough_ and that what I can't see even without paint is going to be left a matter of faith. I should say that the bikes that were hacksawed apart were done so to inspect deeper safety issues. There is at least one small company out there that REALLY cares about whether bikes are built safely and I am sure there are others (Specialized is famous for their testing for safety, btw).

As for me, I'm working on a number of fun projects. When it rains, it pours, this not being ideal in a financial sense but so it goes. After two years of wait, two Nagasawas have arrived: one road, the other track. I puzzle over how to build the road bike; the track bike (which is drilled for brakes and has road geometries) will get mostly an NJS-style build. Then the Saluki from Rivendell has finally shown up as well, about on time. I'll build up two, one with DA9 STI and the other with Suntour retrofriction bar end shifters, the former with modern Paul's cantilevers, the latter with DiaCompe centerpulls. Both bikes because they are 650B will get Berthoud stainless fenders. I'll post some pictures but these could take some time to build because of the details, especially fender lines, front carrier, things like that. I lean to resolved solutions rather than resourceful make it work for now solutions. And the prize of the winter season: a nearly new Bstone RB-2, in red from '94. I would rather have that singularly simple, cheap, old bit of Japanese production than, say, 99% of all the new bikes advertized in the magazines or touted as the lastestgreatest. I've only a few projects in the works including a custom Mercian made of 531 Pro tubing and then there is Cycles Tournesol. Look here cyclestournesol.com ---this is a project that will reveal a whole new commitment to being on the cutting edge of yesterday. Thanks for asking, Dave! Busy with work too! Finishing a book.

dbrk

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