first in flite

timestamps never worked on 35mm cameras either

As evidenced in the above Lime Lake photograph taken on my now retired Pentax IQ, I used to ride a different road bike (different from the one I spent the last year "curating"), one which took me all across Leelanau County before life took me across the Pacific.

Was definitely a different rider back then, inexplicably requiring all sorts of ridiculous cycling gadgetry like "gears," and "brakes," and a cadence computer for whatever inane reason.
Escaped last week's rain by hiding in the garage with my old cro-moly KHS Flite 500 on the hoist, reworking it to fit my developing riding taste.

an evening on the velo stripper pole

After a desperately necessary degreaser bath and spit-shine combo, first to go were all of the original bike safety warning stickers (god, I was such a noob), then the aforementioned parts, save for the gears. I decided to keep the eight-speed cassette (from back when the industry thought 24 speeds were enough) and rear derailleur for the time being. On the front, I dropped both of the smaller chainrings, and fitted the big ring where the mid was.
And just like that, the KHS is a peppy little one-by-eight.

Hopefully, for the only gears that should matter. Brilliant.

shimano sora: blast from the crappy past

Now if only I had cantilever brake mounts, and some beefier tires. Slightly less essential would be a better saddle, 31mm bars+stem, short cage derailleur, and maybe a Sugino Zen to match some new 144bcd cranks, and I might just have the perfect cyclocross bike setup. Even without all of that though, I still have a good commuter, or a decent trainer for hillier sessions, or longer rides running just out of fixed-gear range.

To finally get out and put this setup through its paces, I need to find whomever has been doing the rain dance on Sugarloaf Mountain all week, and pimp-slap the shit out of him.

current work-in-progress, in progress