Purple Rain

Recently, I've been badgering my buddy Kev to get a new bike.  We started going out on rides last year with our respective sons, but this year Kev wants to ramp it up a little, start going out on some longer rides w/me.  My response has been his too-small, cheesy MTB was ok for our daddy/son rides, but really won't cut it if we want to start going out on 40+ milers.

We decided that I would keep an eye out for something suitable - Kev is a big guy, 6'2 or 6'3.

So imagine my delight several days ago when perusing Craiglist I found a 25" S10-S in original trim, posted a mere 20 minutes previously, for an entirely reasonable price by DC standards.  It had the additional benefit of brand new tires, cables, and some spares, like tubes, which tilted it into the pretty good deal category.

I immediately emailed the seller, a gentleman named Henry. Henry and I exchanged a few emails, after which he quite graciously committed to holding it for me and cancelled the Craiglist ad.

This evening, with rain falling on Washington DC, Kev and I trekked down to West Springfield, Virginia and picked it up.  It turns out that Henry, a recumbent rider, had purchased this from his neighbor, who was the original owner.  Henry's intent was to stroke it a little, but after replacing cables and tires, decided he didn't have the mechanical aptitude nor inclination to pursue the project.

He also noted that in over 20 years of living next door, he had never seen the neighbor ride the bike.  The bike itself was in good to excellent condition - all original parts except Fujita saddle, no dents, decals intact, not a speck of dirt on the frame.  It does have a few largish garage-leaning type scratches on the stays & a dusting of the type of light surface rust that develops on chrome in our mid-atlantic humid climate.

My impression was good to excellent condition.  The surface rust that exists on some of the parts is very superficial and will clean up w/out significant pitting.  Other than that, no issues.

Here is Henry (left), Kev (right) and the S10-S. It isn't the greatest shot, but the best I could do in Henry's garage that was jam-packed with, among other things, recumbent tricycles:

Yes, it is a purple S10-S, apparently the same model year as Scott's purple 1978 S10-S:

The purple befits Kev's standing as a working jazz and samba musician, I suppose. Kev and I will be cleaning and stroking this bike over the weekend, so more pictures will be forthcoming.  It does have nice Sansin Gyromaster sealed bearing medium flange hubs with circular cutouts.

In other purple-ish news, I recently acquired a new maroon Brooks imperial from a Dutch vendor.

It turns out that the proprietor likes the maroon color and special orders small runs of saddles in this color from Brooks. This year, he is considering an order of some Team Pro and Swift saddles in this trim.

He also is considering other colors/models his potential customers may want and is polling their opinions on this page, so if you have any interest, let your voice be heard.

So now I have a saddle to go with that new maroon bar tape that Matt has endorsed.

I'm thinking that this saddle and tape could be a sharp look on my white Fuji Finest, maybe with those Electra Ticino hubs laced to a pair of the new style Grand Bois rims: