I'd promised myself to thin the herd. Yeah, right. Instead I picked up a couple of bikes that were too good to pass up.
@
obrentharris offered his gorgeous LeJeune at a price I could not refuse. It was the first bike with tubulars and vintage Campagnolo gruppo I'd owned or ridden in more than 3 decades. It rides great!
French fit for $700, Alex
Next I stumbled upon a Centurion Semi-Pro offered up by
hwheel72. As an impressionable teenager I saw one of these in an LBS in Fresno, California. It was up on the top display rack. The winter sun was streaming in through the shop windows at a low angle, and hit the chromed bits just right. It was like looking at the open briefcase in Pulp Fiction. I wanted it, but could not afford to buy it. Now I can!
A note on both of these sellers - perfectly boxed, well packed, quickly shipped, I recommend both sellers!
In March I was sure that the 650b conversion business would dry up. Instead, my backlog grew. With fewer options to spend my time on I spent more time in the Atelier hacking, cutting, torching, and modifying perfectly good vintage frames. There was another
Raleigh Super Tourer,
Raleigh Grand Sport, a
Trek 620, a
Witcomb, a
CERA (actually a 26" conversion with some most interesting mods), a
Bertin C37, another
Grand Sport and a
Gillot mixte. Add to that a few frame repairs and a half dozen custom decaleurs, and I realize it's been a fairly busy year!
I've got 3 personal frames I'd like to build that keep getting pushed out. Maybe I'll get to one of them next year!