alice's new shoes, breathing new life into the concord

Yesterday, I bought new wheels. New, perfectly trued, double-wall Weinmann rims laced to Formula hubs. It's like riding on a kitten. The road vibrations are lessened, my acceleration has improved incredibly, climbing hills is a breeze now. I rolled up Greenfield Avenue last night from the South Side to Swissvale, and while that's meaningless to most of my readers, Pittsburghers will know what the fuck is up. It was a climb.

That bit of touring around the Eliza Furnace trail followed some racing. At the beginning of the night, I met some messengers under a bridge near Polish Hill to do some sprints. Seriously hardcore people, only me and one other non-messenger among them. It was cold. But I actually did pretty well. Out of three sprints, the first with three people and the second against one opponent, I came in second, won, and lost, respectively. I actually outsprinted a Pittsburgh bike messenger. With Alice, no less. It makes me feel really good that not only am I not a bad rider, but my ride--the red Schwinn with the red and green bow on the headtube--is a competitive piece of equipment. I am hooked on racing people, and sadly, these sprints are going to start happening every Friday at 5:30 PM. Once again, I'm shit outta luck as far as actually participating in the local bike culture goes.

My other project the other day was taking the Concord--my first bike since I left home--and converting it. I stripped off the rear brake and lever, shifters, cables, derailleurs, computer, and the bars that were on it. I put an 18 tooth cog and my Innova studded tire on the post-crash rear wheel and fitted it, and put together a BMX chain with some spare links. I put drop bars
in the stem and fitted a single cross lever to them for the front brake.

Then, I took a hacksaw to the crankset, turning it into a homemade singlering crank.

As soon as I get a lockring for the rear hub, and a tube to fit the other snow tire on the front, it'll be a low-geared off road/inclement weather fixie. I'll upload pictures of the completed project soon, though it won't be ridable until I get those parts next week.