State of My Bikes

I have been busy with bikes recently. My friend Wayne moved back to California and I gave him a Rawland cSogn as his belated wedding gift and helped him build it up. I also decided to jump on a deal for a new Kogswell P/R. The frame is going through some pre-build inspection and alignment in the local bike shop. I spoke with Hiroshi Iimura of Jitensha studio and he said I should expect my Ebisu by early March. To make room for the Kogswell, I sold my on-one il pompino fixed gear bike. As I am writing this post right now, I have one bike that I can ride that's mine (I can ride my fiancee's Trek 620 touring bike, but she commutes with it).

The lack of a daily bike (of course, i could use my romulus as my daily bike, but I really don't want to yet) has caused me to change my daily routines. I have to use a slightly different combination of public transit to get to work and I walk more to and from places I need to go around my house for errands. Hopefully I can get the Kogswell built up this weekend and be back to riding my bike everyday.

I am happy that my Ebisu will be here on time, it seems. I have pretty much every part, now I just need to get a front cable hanger for the cantilever brakes and some cables & housings. Iimura-san built my wheels and they are now sitting in my parts pile waiting to go on the ebisu. I am trying to decide whether to use a Nitto Dynamic stem or a Shimano Ultegra seatpost for the build. The ultegra is lighter, but nitto might fit the whole build better. After I build it up, I will play around with the Hetre tires and find fenders that will accommodate them. At the moment I am thinking VO 52mm Zeplin fenders.

I put together the parts collection for the Kogswell pretty hastily. It has a mix of new and old parts. I am debating whether to use a moustache bar or a regular drop bar for the build and am currently leaning toward the m-bar.

After the Kogswell and Ebisu are built up, I am likely to not change bikes for a while, which means I will have 2 650b bikes and 1 700c bike. The balance of all the bikes that my fiance and I have is 3 650b and 3 700c.

We are still riding, and riding some pretty steep hills, but our mileage isn't that high. I am itching to do a long ride soon.