When the Stars Align

Back in the day druids and clerics and high priestesses would mark the changing of the seasons with Stonehenge or pyramids or human sacrifice or some other sort of nonsense. I have a much more fool proof way to tell that Spring has sprung...

You see, each Spring I get three or four weeks away from the fifth-grade kidlets, El Gigante has grown another two or three feet, and my dining room overflows with bicycles of the two-wheeled, skinny-tired variety...

It has sort of become a Rite of Spring that I spend a day or two cleaning and tuning last seasons bikes in preparation for sale, either because the kidlets have outgrown the previous season's model or the sponsors that be, in this case Cervelo, have provided the latest and greatest... today was just such a day.

So, Today I spent the better part of five hours completely gutting El Gigante's Soloist... solvent tanking greasy grimy parts, new cables and housing, truing wheels, adjusting brakes, wrapping new bar tape, etc, ad infinitum... Anybody want to buy a bike? It is the 58cm variety. The problem is, once the bike has been all spit-polished and shined with its pearly white bar tape and brand new rubber, it becomes kinda hard to let it go. Alas, when bicycles outnumber the bike stands it is time to let one or two go.

And tomorrow I get to repeat the whole process on AWfoSho's Soloist. Anybody want to buy a bike? This one is of the 56cm variety...