Sunday, June 1, 2014

Weekend Riding Adventures, New City Bike Trial

Another beautiful weekend here in Dublin, so I took advantage of it and spent quite a bit of time on the bike. Saturday morning, I was out just after 6:00 for an early ride on Ye Olde Trek:

The Memorial Golf tournament is this weekend, and one my small traditions is to ride through the area before it gets crazy busy. It's nice to think that I'm quietly cruising through what will be a frustrating traffic jam in a few hours time.

I wanted to investigate another location idea I had for a stealth S24O spot, so I headed north. I stopped for a quick breather:


I'm still not happy with my Sella AnAtomica saddle--the edges flare out too much for me. After this ride, it came off and my trusty Great White Flite went back on. I explored the area a bit more with a bit of underbiking:

It looks like a good candidate for a trip. Sam has been bugging me to go on a solo camping trip ("solo" = just one kid in this case), so we'll try it later this summer. I almost went for it Saturday night, but I was too tired from getting up so early. Also, I had a ride planned Sunday morning at Alum with some friends. No pictures of that, but I had an enjoyable lap on my FSR.

I spent Saturday afternoon stripping down my CC (not quite ready to put it up for sale yet, but it's getting close), and rebuilding my Breezer into a city bike:

Mary bars with bar ends give me two distinct hand positions, and the basket mounts up well to my sub-stem:

I splurged on the tires for this bike, paying for a pair of Compass 26" tires about what I paid for the frame:

It's likely overkill: with this bike being normally ridden loaded down, the benefit of the supple casing is mostly lost by towing 150 pounds of kids and bike gear behind me. I'll have to give them a solo (just me) ride trial to see how they really feel.

We headed to Coffman park with our new bike train:


The Coffman homestead was open today only, hosted by the Dublin Historical Society. The kids got a look at a one room schoolhouse replica:

and we were able to finally see the inside of the Coffman house:

Makes me glad I didn't grow up in 1870. Also, no bikes!

We continued on to the library, taking a break in the shade of the tunnel:

Post-library, we walked around and took pictures of the giant golf ball art that's all over Dublin right now:


All that biking, playing, and walking made us hungry:

Then it was back to the art:
Incidentally, this sculpture of the two kids pumping water replaced a temporary piece depicting a Native American women. Once again, the white man has displaced the Indian.

Henry suggested this pose:


 Argh! The ball is about to roll onto Kate:
 We live here:



One more stop at Coffman park, the other playground this time:

One more giant golf ball:

And then home to crank up the AC. Something else nice they didn't have in 1870.

4 comments:

  1. Noooo! You can't sell the Cross Check! Well, maybe you can. You don't get as emotionally attached to your bikes as I do. I could never sell mine. LOVE what you did with the Breezer. That is one cool townie. I had a feeling you'd like that bike better with proper 26" wheels, the way God (and Joe) intended.

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  2. I don't get attached to many of my bikes, that's clear. Someday I'll do a post about the bikes I regret selling--there surprisingly aren't too many of them.

    Kind of funny with the Breezer: Joe Breeze went big on transport bikes for a while, then got back into sporting machines. So now I take his sporting machine and turn it back into a utility bike.

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  3. Yes, I had picked up on that. However, the Breezer transport bikes are all aluminum, so I doubt they ride as nice as the Lightening. And they don't have that awesome paint job either. There's something about purpose-built "commuter" bikes that turn me off; they are almost TOO utilitarian. Soulless - like cars. My bikes need pizzazz. Maybe that's why I get attached. I look forward to reading your "regrets" post when you get around to it, though I recall you've mentioned a few before. Wasn't the Fargo one?

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    Replies
    1. John,

      Stay tuned for my next post. I just got back from my first S24O with the Breezer, and all didn't go as planned. Doesn't bode well for the Lightning...

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