I just drove 150 miles into the north woods to drop the Trek off at Oswald Cycle Works. Mr. Oswald runs a very nice little shop. He’s got bar stools in front of the counter so you can sit and drink coffee and shoot the shit while he works on bikes.

_{The shop}

He also has a nice little antique display case showing off his lugs. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so you’re just going to have to imagine how awesome that looked.

He had one of his custom bikes hanging out on the floor and the lugwork was just amazing. If I’m ever in the market for a custom frame, I think I’ll get one of his. I rather like the idea of a cyclist from the mountains of north central Pennsylvania riding a bike from the mountains of north central Pennsylvania…in the mountains of north central Pennsylvania. Has a certain trinitarian symmetry to it…

Anyways…

I wheeled in the Trek, and told the man what I wanted done. I ended up agreeing to the following:

• Lower the canti studs 4mm
• build a bombproof rear wheel with low gears
• spread the rear end to 130mm
• new rear dérailleur (to accept a 30 tooth cog)
• repaint the frame (a new color)
• swap out the downtube shifters for Ultegra barcons

Mr. Oswald measured my tire clearance and he thinks we can get 38mm tires in there with fenders, so I had him order a pair of 622×38 Schwalbe snow studs.

_{Manly-arse snow tires}

Then, he handed me the paint book and asked me what color I wanted to have her painted. I didn’t think it would be a big deal, but it took me a long time to make up my mind. I bellied up to the counter and poured over the book while he helped other customers. While I was deliberating, a customer came in to have his cyclocross bike tuned up before heading out into the mountains for the day. Another customer came in (evidently) just to talk about how he was planning to go touring in Tuscany in a few months. (I was jealous.) I was surprised at the amount of business he had, considering it’s a tiny little shop in a tiny little town smack-dab in the middle of nowhere, and it was snowing out.

Anyhow, I finally settled on a color. It’s kind of a burgundy red. I wanted something sort of the color of a red wine.

I’m stoked. As soon as I have her back, we’re going to the mountains for manliness. I’ll have a 22 inch granny gear, and big, cushy carbide-tipped snow tires. I’ll be fucking unstoppable.