Cropped

Earlier I posted a lovely picture using Instagram, mostly because Insta lets me easily shoot it to Twitter and Facebook at the same time. Trouble is, Insta crops the image into a near square.

Here's the wide version:

Ah, much better.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

The King, 2019

It would seem I'm quite willing to let the blog slide these days. However, it would feel wrong not to post a picture of this Autumn's King; I have been doing it for 10 years!

Here he is, lookin' great as always, although the picture is from a couple of weeks ago and he's probably nearly naked now.

I've moved back onto the Fat bike with the big pogies and everything.

Outspokin Cycles assisted in rebuilding the wheels that were misbehaving in colder temps; the rear got a lovely new Hope Fatsno hub that I'm confident won't act like a jerk. It has a nice loud ratchety sound (the pawls, I guess) that I really like. I'm finding that my advancing age combined with a loss of dexterity due to silly brain stuff is resulting in a newfound willingness to pay others to wrench on my bike. I suppose that's not a bad thing, since local bike shops seem to be in jeopardy all the time. I must confess, though, that I bought that fatsno hub online for way less than the LBS price, once again from across the ocean. As much as a good LBS will always be of value to me, my own cash is also of value to me. As such I happily pay the LBS for the things I can stand to pay a little more for and buy the other stuff online. We got Mrs. Rantwick a nice bike at an LBS a couple of years ago, so we're not all bad. Note: You can't buy a good bike mechanic online. A relationship with a good LBS (or three) is always a good thing.

If you're considering riding right through the winter this year, do it! You won't be sorry. Or maybe you will. How the hell would I know? How about this instead: Try it, you might like it as much as I do!

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K