Rode over to Paramount Bicycle Repair, Ball Square, Somerville, for another shake-down ride on the travel bike that Tyler Oulton has been building up for me on a Surly Trucker Deluxe frame (with S&S couplers) and mixed bag of retro-grouch components. The rear rack and fenders are on now, and the bike now looks like itself.
The shake-down ride took me to the gravel extension of the Somerville Community Path, what might be thought of as the Eastern-most Ultima Thule of the Minuteman. Here it is with the sun at my back:
When I turned around, the glare of the low sun picked up all the broken-glass fragments in amongst the sand and gravel: scary. The 44mm Compass Bicyle tires shrugged it off, this time, anyway, and handled well in the gravel without getting holed by the glass. The ride did what it was meant to do, help with trouble-shooting the build. This is fun. Rode home in good spirits.
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