The Reeport

Saturday in Minneapolis with Taylor and Gunnar without pictures:

We spent a good share of the late morning looking at the bike at Kvale Cycles. CKC wasn't happy with his first painting effort and had stripped it and started over. When we saw it it was primed again and the dark red (shall we call it "pigeon blood"?) had been applied. I looked the frame and fork over close. It is amazing. The pump has been painted the off-white and pearl clear-coated. Actually, seeing the color applied I would describe it as "antique ivory". Taylor and Chris talked a long time. I listened.

Next we went upstairs to talk to Vincent. He was not happy with the original plating job on the stem, so everyone is doing it twice. This time Vincent will be taking more of it in his hands. The plater is going to strip it. Vincent will repair a gouge, redo the fillets so they blend better and polish it to a mirror. It will then be copper plated and he will polish it again and return it for the nickel plating. After all this time, I can wait another week or so.

We were intending to talk to Erik Noren but time slipped away from us and we had another appointment with Mark Stonich. It was very satisfying. Taylor has designed and built a recumbent - Mark a whole bunch of 'em.  They went off a 'bent tangent so Jane and I drank fruit juice and talked about cats and bunnies.

After beer and burgers at the Chatterbox, I dropped the Z-Man and his bike off with Amy Marka. As I was leaving I asked him how he was getting home. He said, "My bike, it's only a hundred miles or so."