Rides of the Falling Leaves-The Joys of Autumn

Autumn with its vibrant colours and falling leaves has always held very positive association for me. As a child, it signalled the arrival of another birthday and comensurate excitement. In early adulthood, I associated the season with times of great freedom and personal growth-leaving a small village for the big, not so bad city and a University education.

In a cycling context, there’s always been something quite exciting about hanging the best bike up, pampering the well dressed winter mount with fresh bar tape, new tyres, chain etc. I enjoy being reunited with my winter wardrobe, the silence of the lanes in the cold, bright mornings often contradicted by the strong and warming sunlight. True, there are fewer daylight hours but the advances (and falling prices) in lighting technology opens up a whole new dimension of riding pleasure.

October remains a very significant time in the trade calendar and I’m eagerly anticipating acres of shiny bike porn at the Cycle 2008 exhibition (held in London’s Earl’s Court between the 9th and 12th). Whilst on a smaller scale than Interbike, there’s still plenty to see with most larger manufacturers boasting a road biased fixer in their range.

Retro was very much en vogue at last year’s show with Condor’s Paris Galibrier and some very attractive steel offerings from the like of Fixie Inc. I was pleasantly surprised to find a stand of frames fashioned from Tange Prestige- a high end tubeset last commercially popular in the late 1980s. Most notable was a minimalist frameset finished in baby blue with chrome detailing-a great platform for a sunny days plaything.

Meanwhile, project road path,-my 1950’s TT build has ground to a temporary halt, complicated by virtue of said frameset residing in a friend of a friend‘s ex-wife‘s garage. At the time of composition, I’d stand a better chance of streaking through eastern block border controls than successfully retrieving it.

By way of distraction, I am channelling my energies into finding a suitable refinisher. Pageant blue powder coat leads the bunch at the time of this entry. Not sure whether to plump for a high lustre quill stem or to follow the modern Ahead and adaptor route. However, the cockpit will feature low pro/TT bars, colour coordinated bar wrap with reverse action lever and long reach dual-pivot sidepull taking the strain out of stopping.

Elsewhere an unused track crankset, Wellgo pedals, Miche chain, nearly new EAI superstar sprocket, Brooks saddle and Campagnolo seat post will play starring roles in this low budget, high thrills feature. Watch this space....

Next: Raising money for charity and a full report from Cycle 2008

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