Playing hooky

That's right I was playing hooky from work yesterday, but I needn't worry about getting caught by my boss, it was his bike we skipped out to work on. He recently had an unfortunate run in (literally) with a steel bollard and his '85 Stumpy. And now it's toast:

 

Maybe someday I'll learn this brazing thing and give it a go fixing this old stumpy, but for now it will just hang around my shop as a kind of cycling memento mori. Lucky for us, it didn't take long to find a suitable replacement in the form of an 1989 Mb3 comp. It's luggy steel and not too lightweight, a bonus in this case as the bike's intended use is bike camping of the dirt sort, and needs to be durable. It's got some cool details too. Check out this Spinner Sci(?) drop out plug.

 And here she is finished, a bad pic I know. My bud wanted Albatross bars so we headed out to Rivendell to pick up one of the steel versions and used a Nitto Technomic Delux I had sitting around. Often Riv's are set up with a long 13cm stem but we guessed and used a 10cm just because that's what I had, and it seems to be just the right thing at least for this occasion. Hoping to get this guy out to camp soon.

Also saw this recently, short but sweet.