Back in Black

People who know me would probably never call me flamboyant, especially when it comes to my attire. Most of the family agrees that I have no fashion sense whatsoever-- and I'm fine with that. When my daughter lived at home, she would comment almost every day -- "you're really wearing that out?". I never knew if she was serious or not.

When it comes to bikes, however, I tend to lean towards some pretty outrageous color schemes. I can't seem to leave well enough alone and generally hate stock colors. When we first opened the shop, we ordered a Pugsley which, at that time, came in purple. I immediately had it changed to this:

That's right. Blaze orange. I loved it and we eventually sold it.

Next came the Big Dummy. If I recall, it came in some green that matched a uniform I once wore. I put white tires on it and turned that into what became affectionately called the "Creamsicle". I still have it and use for a variety of grocery and other hauling chores.

When I had Curt Goodrich build me a frame, there was a color that I really liked and that bike is now called the "Green Hornet".

My Long Haul Trucker was originally tan -- Surly called it "truckachino". I called it ugly and changed it to this.

My Retrotec is officially called the GT40 because it's the color scheme Gulf used for their very successful race teams.

My own Pugsley had been through three winters of riding in snow and brine and despite my best efforts at maintenance, was starting to show the effects. When I pulled it out to set her up for winter, there was a lot of rust in various nooks and crannies -- essentially it was a big salt lick.. So I did the only sensible thing and stripped it down and had it powder coated. I toyed with the idea of something over the top in red but ended up going with flat black. Most of the components were black anyway so it seemed to make sense. It's kind of the Johnny Cash version -- understated but always ready to roll.

I got out for a few miles of urban riding and met the missus for dinner. It's unseasonably warm here for this time of year and winter is right around the corner. But there are still remnants of fall lingering behind.

Cheers