And what a weekend it was Douglas. The routes were breathtaking. The B&B that we stayed at was great. During the ride, we were commenting about the road conditions. Not once did you hear cries of "hole", "grate"! For the type of winters youse guys get, the roads are pristine.
This is probably the only gathering that I have attended where the official jersey offered for purchase was made of wool and made by Woolistic. Now, how cool is that.
It was also a KOF paradise. Vanillas, Kirks, Tournesols, Weigles, Sachs',Goodrich's, Mariposas, Serottas and Kogswells on parade and being ridden.
Speaking of Kelly Bedard, Kelly brought frame number 0001 that he has built under his own name. Kelly told me that he will be at NAHBS in 2009 as well.
Some of my photos are up on wool jersey. Here is a link to the photo of Kelly and his new bambino. Lugs are Kirk Pacenti's
http://www.wooljersey.com/
Ray Homiski's can be found at
http://picasaweb.google.com/
The gathering of friends was also an opportunity for one of our local "Fat Men" guys who is not CR listmember (yet), to meet Douglas and Curt. He has an order in for a new Tournesol KOF bike and was not sure how he wanted to spec the bike out.
Well Ray Homiski and I were riding Richard Sachs bikes that weekend and our pal Eric just wanted to be one of the "three amigos". So with nine minutes remaining on the deadline to get your order into e-ritchie, his order was placed.
Douglas, you da man.
Mike Schmidt Stirling, NJ USA
On 8/15/08 9:28 PM, "dbrk" <dbrk@mail.rochester.edu> wrote:
> I was remiss in failing to invite my pals from the CR List to this year's
> Ramble. The Finger Lakes Ramble is a weekend of riding that originates at my
> home in Bristol, New York near Canandaigua (just south of Rochester). Over
> the
> past few summers I've invited some friends over, particularly some of our
> favorite builders in steel. In the flickr page cited earlier
> (http://flickr.com/photos/87558561@N00/sets/72157606661081821/) you may have
> recognized Richard Sachs, Curt Goodrich (blue Rapha jersey), and Mike Barry
> (lots of Mariposas). We were also visited by Kelly Bedford and Brian Smith
> from
> Serotta. Past summers we've been graced by Peter Weigle and Steve Hampsten as
> well. It's all very informal with food and drink, conversation and a few
> long
> rides in the Bristol Hills (we did about 150miles over three days). This
> year's
> festivities were sponsored by Cycles Tournesol, the classic bikes that Steve
> Hampsten and I design (see hampsten.com) along with Hampsten Cycles. This
> isn't
> a classic or old school event--- it's about riding great bikes with friends
> and
> friends who happen to own great bikes. There was a certain amount of classic
> love, of course. I'm lucky to own a few Singer, Herse, Mariposa, and other
> classic rigs.
>
> Next year I'll be sure to sign on to the CR and make sure folks are properly
> invited. Ray, Mike, and the redoubtable Lou Deeter were here this time...I
> hope
> you'll forgive me this time.
>
> Douglas Brooks
> Bristol, NY