Vincent and I spent last Saturday building him a bike.

Originally, the bike was a $20 yard sale Mongoose, purchased on Martha’s Vineyard and mostly left outside since, that I’d taken apart to see all the parts that I was usually afraid to take apart. Then Vincent needed a bike. So back together it went!

He bought a new saddle (the old one was eaten by mice) and new cables (eaten by rust) and some paint for the front fork (which would eventually be eaten by rust) and we set about assembling the thing. We had a ball.

I also haven’t taken pics of my bike, so here are some pics of that, too. It’s a Trek 6500 with Bontrager Road Warrior road slicks, some cheapo aero bars and an adjustable stem. I’d like to put more of a front mudguard on it and figure out a way to tighten the front suspension up some more.

The handlebars are hard to understand. Here’s a detail:

The difference in speed with the aero bars is really interesting. Not only do I get to duck out of the wind, but it feels like I can push really hard on the pedals. Someday soon I’ll get a computer and see how much of that it imaginary.

(Thanks to Carrie, who took the pics with me in them!)