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I had a couple of sweet shots hit my inbox this morning.  My friend who had me do the 650b conversion on his Trek a while back is starting to get out on some overnights.  around the local mountains.

I am pretty jealous, and thinking we need to get some people together in the next year and make this happen more often.  We really are blessed with a ton of incredible options all within a 40 mile radius.

 

One of the fringe benefits of the business ha been getting to meet a whole new batch of people who I would have likely never otherwise met.  The new vendors, contractors, industry folks, fans and yesterday, press.  I was able to get out for a ride with Juan Carlo from the local paper as well as an active member of the Ventura Bike HUB.

It was a fun time shooting some pics and getting to see another giant smile after a few miles on a Rambler.  I am sure we will be crossing paths much more often from now on.  We went for a windy ride up through Emma Wood state park, crisp and cool, but howling wind.  The park is usually empty of campers this time of year.  This time there was just one couple, and they had the most curios contraption in tow, there was no way we could not stop and check it out.

It turns out that it was a railway signal inspection car from the mid 40’s, and such a cool piece of history.  The owners are on their way up to NorCal for a NARCOA New Years gathering and rally.  The drivetrain was pulled from a Model T, hand crank 2 cycle engine, etc..  Most of it was original, with a few additions like a bell and seat for the grandkids.  This is a perfect example of why getting out on your bike can be such a powerful thing.  What are the chances you would have stopped the car on the freeway to go see what the little yellow car was all about?  A five-minute stop, and we were able to meet a couple preserving a part of our country’s history that I would have never know about. Best part is, we were all having fun, and were outside.

Get out on your bike, meet some new people, explore, stop and check things out, and have fun!

It has been a busy week, the seasonal flu circuit finally caught up with our household, and while a drag, I am thinking we got off pretty lucky so far.  I made it out for a short spin today before the next round of rain started.

I am catching up on more than a few fronts.  There is a push to get our short run of production Ramblers out to their new owners before the year ends.  I am confident that will happen, even with all the holiday scheduling challenges.

You also may have noticed, either as a backer or in the side bar, that the Kickstarter project did not fund.  I am grateful for all of you that had pledged your support to our program, and disappointed that we were unable to approach our goal.   I am working on alternate funding to gat a smaller batch of bike into production.  At this point I have 6 prospective buyers and need to get to ten.  I will be re-opening the web storefront in the coming week for deposits.  With alternate funding and ten or more buyers, I can place my order in January and have bikes ready to ship in April.  Stay tuned here or the email news letter for details.

I am also reviving the leather wallet program I started about a year ago.  I have a new source of leather from Hermann Oak, that is much nicer, more supple, thinner, and stronger than the last batch of leather I had.  I have improved the design a bit with a money slot, as well as adding a couple of different designs.

I will be getting these out as fast as I can, and adding them to the web store as well.  This batch has red thread, there will be blue and yellow, think Rambler colorway.  The wallets are something I do for fun, thy are simple designs tat work well, and help get my sewing fingers back in shape as I get ready to work on some more bags.

Happy friday, I hope you are able to squeeze in some warm dry miles this weekend.