I am pleased: for now anyway.

I am pleased, definitely less sad than the last post. For the record, I will always be kind of sad until world hunger is eradicated and the BMX movie RAD is finally released on DVD (my VHS copy wore out years ago).

But since neither of those will ever happen, I will always have some level of sadness.  

In the mean time I am excited for this season's riding opportunities.  The first piece of exciting news is that I have signed up for RAGBRAI. That should be a great week and a number of co-workers are participating so I will have company.  My only challenge is determining which arrow to pull from the quiver. Right now it is old faithful, the "Dreamcicle" orange Salsa Las Cruces.  

For those of you that are not fluent in Spanish, the translation is "the cruces".

This bike has been the most reliable and issue free bike I have ever owned and with the gearing I think it would be great for the relaxing ride across Iowa.  

The next piece of exciting news is the announcement my newly arrived Surly Ogre frame.  It took a while to get and it has a few features that were not originally advertised.  The frame has room for three water bottle and the option for the Salsa Anything Cage.  I am going to run it with rim brakes and use some wheels I already have.  It also has a some crazy features for trailers and internal geared hubs. 

The fork also allows for an Anything cage on each of the blades.

I am excited to get it assembled, it may not be as satisfying as ending world hunger or watching RAD, but only time will tell.  

A Little Disapointment

I am a little disappointed. Not because I spent a birthday in Mississippi. Not because I spent two hours dealing with a flat tire in rural Mississippi. Not because I am sitting in a hotel watching Twins starring Danny Davito and Arnold Schwarzenegger (I am happy that Schwarzenegger is in the auto complete spelling).

No, I can deal with these issues. What is disappointing is that I have been waiting since December to order a Surly Ogre bike frame. I was told it would be available in December. Then February. Then March 6th. Then March 12th. But when I called to order it from my LBS I was informed that my size would not be available until mid June.

Household 6 authorized the use of hazardous duty pay to purchase the frame. I already have some parts. I even purchased a Jeff Jones Loop Bar and Porcelain Rocket handlebar bag to put on it.

This is disappointing to me because I planned on using it to ride the beautiful gravel farm roads of Iowa. I was strongly considering riding during RAGBRAI. Surly, consider the exposure you could have received with upwards of 15,000 riders a day!!!!

Fortunately for Surly, there are no alternatives from other companies and I will have to wait it out. In the mean time I will stare at my handle bars and bag.

Boredom has set in

My plan was to spend the "harsh" Iowa winter building a new ride. But since the Surly Ogre in a 22" is not available until mid March I have had to find other ways to keep busy.

I have a hard time sitting still. I can barely watch a movie anymore. This weather has been pretty mild this year but the wind and snow were ruthless this weekend so I broke out the sewing machine and made a new saddle bag. It was a little roomier than I wanted but there is room for a couple of energy bars, a spare tube, multi tool, tire levers, and patch kit.

I made it from a old combat uniform to include the zipper. I finished the inside with ribbon tape to keep it from fraying.

Not too bad for a bored hack. I think I will make a couple more next weekend.