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Saturday, March 26, 2011

Lestrud Wheels

Last evening I stopped over to Lestruds to pick up the set of wheels he just built for me - Campagnolo Record hubs, DT Revolution spokes and the new polished box rims from Velo Orange. Lestie is a fussy man. All of the spokes, front and back, are crossed exactly the same way, looking down through the valve stem hole you can see the Campagnolo Record logo on the hubs. Incidently, these are for the McLean, not for the upcoming Kvale, but he built those too. I keep thinking I should build my own wheels. Why? Thanks to Lucky, I was only charged an unspecified number of future evenings of conversation and Redbreast Irish Whiskey down in the bicycle den. A hat's off to Mr. Lestrud.

We spent some time looking at his vintage Ducati motorcycle frame up on the bench, slowly acquiring parts. He said the original gas tanks were a fiberglass that doesn't ope well with modern fuels and he recently picked up a custom handmade aluminum gas tank from France. He's trying to decide whether to paint or polish it. Nice work. I have never seen this machine run. For years it has been hovering in the background - dusty pistons, greasy gears and tailpipes in boxes in the corner. I think it's finally coming together. Another year or two ... maybe.

Lestie apologized for taking two or three weeks to build up the wheels. JoDee had a vein in her nose rupture bad enough that she ended up in Rochester at St.Mary's, a hospital branch of the Mayo Clinic. She is okay now, but lost enough blood that she is so weak and anemic that she doesn't have the energy to give me a hard time. Here's wishing her a fast recovery so she can reestablish the status quo.

1 comment:

George A said...

It's always a blessing to have friends with talents that dovetail with your interests! I'm similarly blessed with a cabinet maker friend who also sails. I just wish he and I lived closer together (although if we did he'd get nothing done in his shop since we'd be playing with boat projects too much...)