Just A Sunny Saturday

Woke up to a beautiful springlike day here in our nation's Capital. First order of business was a call from wifey letting me know that they had got to grandma's in Japan ok and my son was sleeping soundly.

Got to work on the 1983 Fuji Opus III. This is a completely original bike, including bar tape, toe clip straps, etc. It has been sitting disassembled since it was shipped to me. So I got to work on it. The gold rims (tubular) are pretty striking on this bike.

I've previously repacked the Sunshine Pro-Am hubs and repacked the Hatta Swan headset. First order as to do the same on the bottom bracket. After cleaning off the sludge, I found that the races, just as on the headset and hubs, were fine, with no scoring or pitting:

Spindle looked nice as well. For the record, it was 112.8 mm. It is not symmetric, there is a bit of offset on the drive side.

Finished up the bottom bracket, installed the crankset, after freeing the frozen pedals with a mallet, wrench, bench vise (please folks, for the love of God, grease your pedal threads...).

Around that time, my buddy Kev showed up. I met Kev some years back when I was first getting into jazz (I've been a hillbilly flatpicker my whole life). He showed up at a jam and, being a pro jazz guitarist, proceeded to mop up the floor with me like you wouldn't believe. After I regained my dignity, I asked him if I could study w/him. Along that path we've gotten to be pretty good friends, having sons of similar ages and compatible temperaments.
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We rode over to Takoma Park to meet Kev's wife and watch his son's first soccer game ever. Were my son not at that very moment sound asleep in a comfy futon at grandma's in Moriyama, he'd have been there as well.

Here's Kev:

Our bikes:

A stylish cyclist (that's a flower on the front of her helmet):

Strategy/briefing session:

We called it quits around halftime, leaving Kev's wife on watch and headed out through Takoma Park. Takoma Park has lotsa big old wood houses and is very leafy, fun for just ambling around:

Around this time I got sick of taking pictures, but we rode Sligo Creek Trail to Northwest Branch, meandered around, and hooked up with part of the team having a leisurely post-game meal at La Casita at the intersection of Dale and Piney Branch. This is easy to do because the service is super slow, the food terrific, and the atmosphere relaxed.

Our team lost, incidentally, 0-3, good for their character no doubt.

Got home, found I had won on Ebay a NOS set of Dia Compe NGC500 brakes, levers, small bits (cables, clips), in original box for $43. Sorta hard to beat that - heck, the brake hoods alone, being compatible with old Campy and Superbe levers gotta be worth at least worth 20-25 dollars.

Maybe they will go on the Fuji Finest, which is what I'm going to really turn my attention to when I get the Opus bolted up.