Busy Day

Yesterday was a lovely day to get out on the bike and let Kevin throttle me. We did the standard ride from his house out to Boulder and up Flagstaff, he doing his intervals, me doing mine. Despite the early hour of departure, it was surprisingly warm thanks to the 90 degree/90 MPH wind coming from the north. As usual, there is no question about Kevin's state of fitness and preparedness for Southland. I am looking forward to being teammates with him again for the six days of racing.

After leaving Kevin's, it was off to Boulder for a variety of errands and social visits. I kidnapped Brian from work for a little while and then dumped him on a street corner to find his way back. Brian was kine enough to fix one of my front wheels that blew a spoke a while back. Too bad I forgot to remind him to remind me about the bar tape I had for him in my bag. I'm never going up to Boulder again, so tough luck for Brian. I visited with the Coyle family and talked racing and such with Chuck. I picked up one of his sealant kits to take with me to NZ since I plan on riding tubies. Hopefully we don't get raided by WADA, I don't want to have to explain that I'm not shooting sealant into my veins, just my tires. I got the needle option on the kit since I have the crappy valve extenders that leave the valve core inaccessible which is a general pain in the arse. I also broke into the Davies flop pad to pick up his blown out wheels from a few months back so we can see if Shimano will warranty them. A nipple pulled through the carbon rim leading to the self destruction of the wheel.

I also paid a visit to the former site of Buzz Cafe in Louisville to pick up the remaining parts of the Rancilio Z11, portafilters, legs, drip trays, etc. They came with a bonus:


An Astoria Argenta AEP-2 in Winchester Gray . . . probably all scaled to hell and short a few parts, but it is a parts goldmine for the soon to be International Red Argenta AEP-2 I have at home.


If you put together a few parts costs, for example anything salvaged from the exchanger/group head pays for the cost of the machine which was $0.00.


The machine is pretty beat down, but if I were to get very bored, I could strip it, clean all the lines, boiler, valves, etc. and have a great set of spare parts. I could even go so far as to have the frame powder coated and switch parts from the working machine over. I have problems . . .