The "tsbc" portion stands for Twin Cities Bicycling Club. I am not sure how I typed "tsbc" and not "tcbc", but i kept it anyway. The "cowboy" portion is my nickname in the bike club. On one of my first club rides, four of us went out for lunch after the ride to Paninos. I ordered a Cowboy Panino and the waitress said "do you want jalepenos on that, Cowboy"? I have been Cowboy ever since. That was twelve years ago. Cowboy

Well, boys grow fast, and my son is going through a spurt. We were on a 50 mile ride last weekend, and it was clear that he is outgrowing everything. His bike shoes were hurting his toes and his beloved Peugeot "Leo" is definitely too small. If you know bike fit, you'll see the signs of too-small-a-bike. His heel is lower than the ball of his feet, and his head is well forward of the bars. Bigger bike shoes, that is easy enough, and done. But bigger bike - that takes more work. I built the wheels last Sunday. Started assembling the bike Monday night. Several trips to the bike shop later, we are almost done. His new bike is ridable - I've ridden it to the bike bar tonight, as a matter of fact - and we only have the bar tape and brake hoods to do. The frame is a 1974 Raleigh Gran Sport, which was Raleigh's upper-mid-range sport touring bike of the day. The International was the top-end sport tourer, the Competition was the equivalent race bike. The Gran Sport was made from Reynolds 531 double butted tubing, the best there was, at the Carlton works, where Raleigh's best models were built, save only the very tippy-top Team Professional and the Raleigh race team's Team Pros. So the frame is very nice. But the components were just adequate, even back then. Raleigh, like Peugeot, tended to save money on the boltable bits as they spec'd bikes to meet price points. The mid-1970s were an era of rampant global inflation and deep industrial turmoil in England, and Raleigh was struggling to stay afloat. So we weren't going to keep all the original components. But what just had to stay, lest we lose what makes a Gran Sport a Gran Sport, and what had to go, to make this a magic carpet ride? Gran Sport bikes, which were sometimes also called "Grand Sports", came with the distinctive GB randonneur handlebar, which is upswept on the tops and flared on the hooks. The randonneur bar is practically the signature look for the model, so it had to stay. 40 years ago, manufacturers didn't restyle their products every year at the whim of color consultants and focus groups. A successful model stayed the same for years, long enough to become a classic. So with the Gran Sport. The classic Gran Sport of the 1970s came with white handlebar tape, white brake hoods embossed "Carlton", and a black leather Brooks saddle. That is how my Gran Sport was, and how my son's will be. Today, white tape might look precious, even girly. Back in the day, white handlebar tape said "racer". The top racers rode gleaming white bar tape, which their mechanics replaced with fresh wrap every day. This was before everything turned menacing, thoughtless, paramilitary black. My Gran Sport had the standard Brooks sporty bike saddle, the black B17. My friend gave me a much cooler saddle, a Brooks Professional with copper rivets, the racer's saddle of yesteryear. It looks the same to most people, but to bicycle cognescenti, the copper rivets speak volumes. So the top of the bike - saddle, bars - will stay true to the traditional 1970s Gran Sport look. All the moving bits below, though, will be of a different era. For bike people, Campagnolo is magic. The company may be a fraction the size of the industry gorilla, Japan's Shimano. It may be conservative and slow to innovate. Its components may work no better than the equivalent Shimano group, and be barely lighter. And the "Campagnolo tax" may have you paying two or three times more, for the privilege of having Tullio Campagnolo's signature and "Made In Italy" on your bike components. But you want it anyway. You know you do. I never had a Campy-equipped bike as a kid. Hardly any kids do, unless their dads are made of money, which I'm not. But if you have patience, know your away around eBay and used bike parts, and can do your own work, you can ride Campagnolo without breaking the bank. This bike has a near-complete group - drivetrain, brakes, integrated brake lever-shifters, hubs - of late 1990s Campagnolo Veloce. Veloce is a midrange Campagnolo group, distinguished from the higher-end groups by a slightly less polished finish, slightly thicker forgings with fewer lightening holes, and no titanium bits. It looks great. So here are a few pictures of the bike in progress. The GB stem and bars. The front brakes, including my homemade drop bracket, necessary to adapt short-reach late 1990s racing sidepull brakes to a 1970s frame meant for long-reach touring centerpull brakes and larger diameter rims. Here we are, test fitting the integrated levers on the bars. I'll get the last things done tonight, and tomorrow I'll show the boy himself with his new bike, "Rollie".

You do know why old bikes are usually stolen, right? At least around here. They're used to transport drugs. The dealers load up the hollow pipes the frames are made of, and then just discard the bikes when they've made their delivery. They need a constant supply, and no bike left outside, unattended, is safe in my area of the country. Now it's possible, that's not the case in your situation, but it might be--he may have taken the bikes to sell to drug dealers. Sounds like a difficult situation to be dealing with. He definitely sounds both creepy and dangerous. Take care.

I recognize a lot of the names here! I do not use Facebook at all and have really missed all the activity the forums here use to have. Shades, I feel so modern! We got our first computer in 1998; while my young nephew was living with us. I discovered the Kitchen Table, and various forums, right after that! I don't know if it counts as "junk," but Wes made this trellis obelisk for my anniversary gift last year. It's nearly 6' tall. I found the directions on line. This was taken in early Spring 2016. I have two clematis vines planted under it, but it's far too early to know if they will come up this Spring. We want to add "something" to the top. There's a man nearby who makes metal cut-out sculptures/silhouettes. I thought of using our monogram in a verticle orientation with a smaller C on top; a large S in the center, and a smaller W on the bottom. Or a small weather vane? Or a silhouette of my dog? I thought about a gazing ball, but the Purple Martin colony is about 25' away and I'm afraid the sparkly reflection might bother them. Or...any suggestions.