Movin' Out

Two days until our office is moved from the tranquility of University Square and its aging shopping mall buildings to the glass and steel and six lanes of Poydras Street. It will be a nice change, I think, on balance, although my commute will become a bit more stressful. Fortunately, the new bike lane on Tulane Avenue is fully operational now, so I think Jeff. Davis to Tulane Avenue to S. Johnston to Perdido should work out pretty well. It may be time to take a look at the old commuter bike and make sure it's up to the longer trip, however. The rear tire and the Mr. Tuffy's in both tires are pretty much at the end of their lives and need to be replaced, but I don't guess that's going to happen for a couple more weeks with the way things are going right now. It looks like we will essentially be camping out in our new office space for a week or two with temporary furniture, aka surplus tables, and that kind of thing, so I guess I'll be working out of boxes for a while.

The trusty old commuter. Hopefully it won't get stolen
downtown.

I picked up the old English frame from Louie Letterman some time in the 70s and built it up with whatever was lying around, either at home or at the local bike shop. The rear wheel came out of a shed behind the old Adams Bicycle World back when it was on Calhoun Street and since it was for probably a 7-speed or 8-speed bike, you have to force the dropouts on the frame apart to squeeze it in. The quick-release on that wheel is an old Simplex one from the 70s that used to come standard on the Peugeot PX-10. The front wheel was originally from my old Atala from 1971, but when that wheel finally quit due to rust and corrosion it was replaced with a nice old clincher wheel with a Campi Record hub from Billy Richards. The front is 700C, the rear is 27", the frame was designed for 26." The front center-pull brake was a prize from one of the Betat Extravaganza races some time back in the 70s or 80s. It barely works but at least will accommodate the short reach needed for a 700C wheel crammed into a 26" 3-speed frame. The fenders came from Gus Betat & Sons when they were on Broad Street and were routinely removing the painted, chromed steel fenders from Atala bikes in order to make them look more like the 10-speeds that Americans wanted at the time. Since the wheels just barely fit in the frame, especially with fenders, I use a 23 mm leftover training tire on the front and some kind of cheapie 1 1/4 inch tire on the back. Both have Mr. Tuffy tire liners in them. The rear rack is an aluminum Pletcher rack that was popular in the 70s, and since one of the rear fender stays broke off, the fender is partially held in place with zip ties attached to the rear rack.

So just to add more stress to everything, the dog seems to be kind of sick and I'm about to make an appointment with the Vet. Tomorrow I will hopefully pack up the last few things from the my office. In the meantime there's a new fire drill about proposed state budget cuts affecting teaching hospitals. At least I was able to make it out to the WeMoRi this morning.