I have also installed some Fyxation brown tread white wall tires and some Wellgo bmx pedals (because I couldn't find any Odyssey's in an appropriate color). Unless it is brutally cold outside I only ever ride my bicycles in flip-flops and wanted a solid platform pedal to make that shoe choice more comfortable. The Wellgo(s) have conformed to that requirement quite well and were thankfully very inexpensive; only $11.
At 100+ miles the Brooks saddle is no where near broken in, but it was comfortable from day one. I did notice that to even begin breaking the leather into an ergonomic shape I had to ride at least 10 miles at a time and literally sweat my ass off on it. Hopefully I'll have several hundred miles on it by the end of summer and the process will be complete.
Though I love bicycling I have begun to long once more for the other means of conveyance from my youth, when all of my failure seemed short term and I could view my future with at least a margin of optimism. I am speaking of horse back riding and sailing. I lived in Del Rio, Texas until I was eight years old and while there I frequently rode horses and when I was six, my dad bought a beat up Vanguard Sunfish from a sailing school for $200 and taught me how to lay fiberglass and sail it on Lake Amistad part of the Rio Grande (his former profession being boat building/ repair in Cocoa Beach, FL). While in Louisiana I bought a 16' Hobie Catamaran for $400 and sailed that until college when I joined LSU's poorly supported Recreational Sports Sailing Team where I raced Vanguard 420s. Though I am a poor sailor I have always dearly loved it and am now, after 4 years off the water, dying to return to it. While in San Francisco a few months ago I fell in love with a seemingly popular local boat design from there, The San Francisco Bay Pelican:
It has a bowsprit and lug-rig that recalls, for me, a boat of much older design than the 1950s and I aspire to and consider myself capable of one day building it. However at this point the expense of it would be prohibitively expensive so I set out to find a more approachable design (I am badly in need of a win). While searching the internet for free boat plans I happened upon a cheap, race-able, home built, one design class boat called The Puddle Duck Racer:
It may be a little bit ugly, but I am attracted to the egalitarian ethos of it as well as the freedom above the bottom ten inches of the hull and ability to run any rig you want. I could put a bowsprit and lug-rig on it to be an ersatz Pelican until I am in a position in life to build that much more sea-worthy vessel.
