Hunkered Down

First day of Spring, I awake, I hear the wind blowing. I go and check on the weather and the temperature is 10°F. With the wind figured in, the windchill is below zero.

So, I am pretty tired of that. I also have extenuating circumstances to deal with at the time, so riding out of doors is nixed. I decided to hunker down in The Lab. I grabbed a couple of projects I had been putting off and started messing around with them. A couple of favors for a neighbor. Another one is going to end up becoming another gravel rig.

The gravel rig's genesis was as a touring bike made from True Temper tubing and is lugged. The clearances are generous and the frame isn't all that heavy. It is old enough that it has a threaded 1" steer tube fork, which makes life a little more interesting when it comes to stems. I've got a good plan here though.

The bike will eventually end up as a rig to test tires and wheels on. Due to the "mule" status it will have, I am not going to invest too heavily in the parts or the finish of the frame. Yes- the frame is getting re-touched a bit. There was some nasty rust on the top tube, (surface only), and the previous owner had done some touch up work that I figured I would take care of while I am at it. Oh......and I debadged the whole rig as well.

I puttered around with that until my hands started to hurt from the sanding of the tubes. The finish will be something that I've wanted to do for a long time on a bicycle. Camouflage. The base color of the bike is green, so I think it'll be the standard woodland camo kind of look, but it should be fun and as long as the thing gets covered in paint, I'm good.

I will then have three "skinny" type gravel bikes to test with and ride for fun, obviously. That's probably two too many, but for now I want to be ready for any eventuality with regard to this gravel grinding deal I am getting drawn into more and more. Then if all the bikes work out, I'll have some decisions to make and if a couple don't pan out, I'll have some decisions to make, and if the whole gravel dealio goes up in smoke.....I'll have some decisions to make! At any rate, having three skinny tired gravel rigs is kind of ridiculous. But- it seems that I will actually be pressing all three into service.

Until the weather gets better though, I will have to be snapping to it and getting the last rig done here. The other two are all set, and I just need to paint and assemble this last old steel girl, and then I can hopefully emerge from hibernation and get some steady, regular miles in.