Gang,
I'll try to make this one readable. Friday morning we, being Ed Litton, Bruce Gordon, and myself head out for a good breakfast before the first day of the show begins. There is a Dennys just outside the hotel lobby; but that is never good enough, nor adventurous enough, to satisfy the go urmand needs of Bruce. And I'm OK with that for sure, because this is wh ere the real fun of the show is for me. Spending precious time with Ed i s something I don't get to do very often; and the combination of Bruce a nd Ed together is always both funny and informative. The bay area builde rs know a different crowd of guys than the few of us down here that were in the LA to San Diego area. The best part is that we get to talk about stuff that framebuilders talk about amongst themselves. What that means is that we almost never talk about bikes. What's there to talk about, r eally? Each one of us is a master of what we do and we do things our own way an d that's it. To us, if it works, then it's good. Getting caught in debat ing the right or wrong way to do this or that is senseless. The funny pa rt is, we all agree as to what is the best way to do things. So again, w hy talk about what we all agree upon? No. The fun is talking about ANYTH ING but bicycles. That's how we really get to know one another on a leve l that actually means something. What we do and are as framebuilders mat ters not to us. Sure, we get some giggles between us from what people se em to think we are. But the topics of conversation, the adventure of hop ping on the MaX and just jumping off at a stop that looks good to find a breakfast spot, is priceless. Gives me something to write about. ;-)
Anyway, the Friday "industry day" or whatever made for a casual day when we all had a bit more freedom to walk around the show. I rarely stop an d see much. I kinda walk around and keep bumping into people (for conver sation, not because I'm clumsy)and try to do a lap of the place before r eturning to my cell. I have to admit, my cell was the best view of the p lace and out cell block ("group W "as Bruce would say) was made up of Ed Litton, Bruce Gordon, Dave Ybarrola, and myself. None of us had any tim e to hobnob though, once the show opened. I enjoyed talking with Dave Bo hm of Bohemian Cycles as he visited the show. There were a ton of CR peo ple at the show, too many to name. Got to talk with Peter and Kendall We igle for a few minutes. We were talking about the framesaver product, an d the topic of it's unique odor. I guess I have some of the older formul a that smells like a tropical beach scented with coconut oil. Apparently the scent has been tamed a little bit. Peter mentioned that the product is and always has been his own formula and not a copy or relabeled anyt hing; but also he is able to control the scent at will. My response was "then please make it in "Key Lime" scent. I'm due for a new batch of fra mesaver, so I say let's have a new "flavor". I'll save a little of this coconut stuff and I'll make key lime and coconut pie framesaver. Yummy!! I really missed having Maurice Bresnahan for this show. That would have topped off the crowd of CR guys.
Friday was a nice day at the show, and instead of being tired from being there, I felt energized and ready for an evening of good fun. I'll writ e about dinner and the party for framebuilders at the Vanilla Bicycles w orkshop after wards.
Back at lunch time. BTW, we had a great vintage ride here in San Diego o n the ONE day in the past several days that it didn't rain. It's raining again today. I guess they parted the clouds for us. Aren't we special.
Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA Drawing plans for an ARK today, just in case.