Come this weekend, my custom Ellis won't be the only one in town.

This weekend our local bicycle club is hosting the Split Rock Tour. I was excited to learn that Dave Wages, the builder of my custom Ellis frame is coming to town to ride the 100 mile ride. Not only will he be here riding one of his own frames he built, but another owner of an Ellis frame from La Crosse will also be here. Very cool!!

Now I have a confession about my own Ellis. I haven't been riding it much. I had an epiphany today about the reasons why. I've been lying to myself about why and have been making excuses not to get out on it. Why? There was at least 4 different things about the build and choices I made during the build that either bugged me, or I just plain hated. Over the last week I corrected all of those and made some significant changes to the build. I finished the changes tonight. I don't have any pictures yet, but I'll go into more detail once I get some pictures to show you. For now I'll give you one example.

I chose to go with downtube shifters. I rode with downtube shifters for years. They worked fine, never bothered me. Of course back then they were the only choice. So I thought I'd get a little nostalgic on this bike and try some downtube shifters again. You know what? I hated them, just plain hated them......and hate is not a word I use often because it is such a strong word. I can't explain why, but every time I went to shift gears all I could think is how much I hate reaching for those downtube shifters.

All I can say now is how much I can't wait to ride my Ellis again. The changes look great, I've got a fresh start and I feel really good about the changes.



On to other topics. Today was another CSA farm pick-up day. That meant riding the Blue Truck/Xtracycle again. Third time this week. I really can't imagine living my current lifestyle without that bicycle. Today we had a cold front come through. A morning temp of 50 degrees and for the commute home it was 58 degrees with 30 mph wind gusts. Are you sure this is July? It's July in Duluth. Even this is cold for Duluth.

It never really rained, except for a few isolated cloud bursts. But it was a grey day. I enjoy grey days as much as blue days. Just try to count how many different shades of grey you see in the picture above in the water of Lake Superior and the clouds. Fortunately the forecast for the tour on Saturday is calling for a bit warmer weather. Sunny and a high of 72. Sounds beautiful!