Bike Update!!!

After I crashed my bike a few weeks ago, friend Nate sent a lead on a replacement fork. Nate is always browsing, and he shared a listing for another essentially identical Ross in a smaller size. I texted the owner and ended up immediately driving up to North Hollywood. The guy lived in a little courtyard apartment complex with a huge tangerine tree. I tried one of the tangerines and it was really, really good. He had some other junk bikes but I demurred and forked over $60 for the donor bike.

This bike was almost identical, but mine was the Mt. Whitney and this new one was the Mt. Hood. Both were likely from 1984 or 1985, so almost as old as me. Ross made mostly cheap bikes, but had a line of some higher-end models like these for a while, and I really liked mine before I rear ended a car downtown.

The new bike was too small for the fork to work on my frame. But our friend Riley builds custom bikes and does little problem-solving jobs like this. I dropped off the new and old fork to Riley on a Thursday evening, and he left the results on my porch the next day. He had cut the steerer off the old, bent fork, and welded it to the donor fork to extend it. I rebuilt the bike and was back in business. Just in time for the delightful season of evening social rides that have become a fixture the past couple of years.

That's it – sorry for leaving you in suspense, Max!