No, I Did Not Die.

When I last left you, I was riding my Univega home from the office in order to bring my Peugeot Super Competition up to hang on my wall. I am still trying to find the time to get the bike over to Southwest Frameworks so that they can match the paint. However, it is indeed up at my office, as evinced by the photos below.

As I said before, this is my latest acquisition, a 1978 Peugeot Super Competition. I did actually ride this bike up to the office, but I chose not to ride the Univega all the way home. Apparently the rear wheel needs truing, as no matter what I did, every revolution found the pads rubbing the rear wheel. I decided to wait until Saturday, when I rode the Super Competition up here, and just took the train home with the Univega. 

The ride up on the old bike was pretty good - I mostly ride these downtube shifted bikes around the many trails in Plano; this was the first time I tried to ride one in traffic. The ride was  mostly uneventful except for one incident in Richardson on Greenville Avenue, where some old knobhead in a BMW decided to try and scare me. Two lanes available, and this guy in his seven series thought it would be a good idea to pull up behind me and buzz me and honk at me as he passed. Obviously I lived, but I don't understand why he thought that was a necessary or useful thing. He could have just gotten in the completely empty lane next to me and not been slowed down a bit. People like that are one of the reasons that Dallas is called one of the worst cities for cyclists. 

Once I got home with the Univega, I decided that it was time to clean my garage in order to work on my bikes. I did a bunch of mechanic work on a company vehicle last summer, and my garage was much worse for wear as a result - it had gotten super disorganized, and the only way was a complete redo. So off I went. 

This was in the first stages - I had removed much crap. 

 As you can see, I have another project lined up I want to get started on as well; my 1901 Oldsmobile. 

In the course of cleaning up the garage, I got sidelined by another project I have been sitting on for many years; my grandfather's old air compressor. 

Ford CH-1000 Air Compressor

My grandfather had hard wired this in his garage, and when my grandmother died a few years ago, I inherited it - and then proceeded to let it sit for a long, long time. I took a sideline to the garage cleanout and spent some time wiring a new whip in so I could plug the thing in and use it. After some time and study of the original manual (which shows that grandpa purchased this a week after I turned ten) I fired it up for the first time in 15 years.  (Grandpa passed away New Years Eve 1999). 

If you found my blog because you are looking for info on this compressor, I will copy the manual if you need it. 

So, without further ado, here is the sound of a Ford CH1000 air compressor that has not run in 15 years. 

I'm pretty proud of myself for making that work. I'll be back soon.