This and That

What with Sweetpea getting closer to done, Natalie and I have been having intense component selection email exchanges. The front hub has been set for a long time (SONDelux :-) ) but the rear hub, not so much.

My choices were the Suzue Classica, the White Industries H3, and a DT Swiss. We are working on the Shiny Silver Component Group, which eliminated the DT Swiss right off.

The Suzue was pretty nice looking (it is a HUB! why am I getting so wound up about a HUB?), and I was going to go for it, until I looked at the White. Oh my. Shiny, curvy... an ounce lighter than the Suzue. Made in the USA. Perhaps more expensive. Too bad. I picked the White.

And who thought skewer selection could be so fraught with indecision? Again, going with shiny, silver, curvy, I'm going with the Velo Orange skewers.

All that taken care of, I set out to lead the Velo 1516's today. Arrived at 8:58am, to find my lone rider, Duncan. He was going to try to hang with the 17s if I didn't show, but there I was. Pretty much a flat route today. Lupines blooming by Verboort!

I got drizzled on riding over, then it was ok, then more rain. Entering Forest Grove, we picked up Brian C. Always a delight to ride with him. Off to Maggies, where we ditched our jackets and I had a blueberry muffin top. After that brief stop headed south (where did that headwind come from?) past the buffalo ranch, then west, then north on Stringtown. The sky looked quite ominous; Duncan pulled over to retrieve his jacket and we did the same.

Good thing. The sky opened. Raining so hard we could barely see! Then, while heading in on Gales Creek, a big truck passed me, right by a large body of water. It felt like someone had upended a 5 gallon bucket of cold water on me! Brian C: "did I hear some strong language there?". Heavens to Betsy, he certainly did.

My shoes were full. We stopped at a Plaid Pantry, where I attempted to get some of the water out of my socks, then proceeded on. It quit raining, and eventually I started to feel...dry. But the rain was not quite done, we had some more the last few miles back. Duncan split off to go home; Brian and I proceeded on to Longbottoms, where we found Dana, Bob B (with all those broken ribs, he was just eating and visiting.) and ? (rider I did not know).

Second breakfast, then rode on home. The rain had stopped by then. Before I got out of my wet shoes, I wiped and lubed the squeaky chain, found a fender stay to keep the front fender on Bleriot from wobbling (the rack which normally does the job is visiting), and replaced the batteries in my rear blinkie. I'm not normally this organized, but it will save some aggravation next time I ride that bike!