Misadventures of the Bicycle Unmechanic, Part 2. (But with some degree of success this time.)

Last time we left all you fine folk, I was having difficulties with fenders for the Rudge. So I brought back the fenders to the bike shop in question. Since they didn't have another set in stock, nor could they locate the missing piece, they refunded me my money, and I went to Plan B.

Plan B was yet another set of fenders that would fit the Rudge. These fenders came off an unknown bike that had 26" x 1 3/8" wheels. I got them for only a couple bucks. They had all the needed mounting hardware, but the big problem with them was they were blue. (I had originally picked them up as possible replacement fenders for the Wayfarer.) No problem, I thought, I have a can of black spraypaint.

Famous last words.

I applied a coat of spraypaint, but it wasn't exactly going on evenly, and there were visible bubbles in spots. And then a slight breeze decided to knock them over (I had them propped up for drying), and they promptly attracted grime and whatever else was in the driveway.

The Wayfarer awaits duty!

Well, scratch that idea. And I didn't really care for these fenders anyway. I would still need to order another pair of chrome fenders for the Rudge, but there would be no time to get them before the Three Speed Ride. With the weather still iffy for Sunday, it means I'll have to use old Tried-and-True, my Raleigh Wayfarer, for the ride. And there ain't nothing wrong with that.

*****

The other unmechanic misadventure of the week concerned the Crested Butte. On Tuesday I headed out to deepest SE for a work "sesh" with Ed. We were going to do a bunch of stuff.

Unfortunately, Ed was not wearing that shirt on Tuesday.

Of course, I get all the way out there and realize that I'm missing one key component, so we couldn't tackle a good half of the things I wanted to do. Crap.

However, we did manage to install a new front rack. I realized the canti-mounted Sunlite rack was rather inadequate for carrying around my big-arsed backpack, so I scored a Blackburn Mountain Front Rack (MTF-1) for only $25. This one mounts to eyelets near the axle and on the fork. (Since my bike lacks a mid-fork eyelet, we used the provided clamps.) Much more stable (rated at 25 lbs/11 kg) and can also carry panniers too.

The platform on this rack is higher than on the Sunlite and has a bit of a backwards tilt. But so far there seem to be no conflicts with the new positioning, and everything feels stable. An added bonus: Ed replaced headset bearings when we were doing everything, so now I have a real smooth front end!