All the Pretty Bikes

Kermit and Barney 

3 March 2019

We have another convert: Ricky ditched his carbon Trek for a 1998 Cinelli. You wouldn't know from the pictures, but it's purple. Hella purple. Barney purple.

But shiny.

The ride I'd listed for yesterday got black iced out. The purpose of the ride was to get to the Copper Ladle, a new-ish coffee shop on Millstone Road at Sweetmans Lane. We'd tried a handful of times before only to find the place closed for whatever holiday it was or because it was Sunday.

After some discussion and a little confusion, and after determining that there would be enough dry time before the next storm hit, I listed a ride. Tom said he would provide the route.

"You know we're never going to get to the Copper Ladle," he said, as nine of us gathered in the parking lot at Mercer County Park's East Picnic Area (nobody starts at the boathouse anymore). "It's gonna be out of business. It's closed all the time."  Instead, he said, we'd stop at Roy's, which is the deli on Imlaystown-Hightstown Road at Route 524 and which once occupied the space the Copper Ladle occupies now, except that Roy's was always open on Sundays.

Maybe it was the threat of rain and snow, but for March we were going at an uncharacteristically hasty pace. I'd ridden in from home, as had six of the others. The distance made today feel like the first real bike ride of the year, in that my legs are sore and I'm ravenous.

Anyway, I spent most of the ride staring at Ricky's hella purple frame. He insisted that Kermit is prettier. "You have all the pretty bikes," he said, thinking of Beaker's brilliant blue and chrome, and Rowlf's fluted red frame.

"All but one," I corrected him. "When we get to Roy's I wanna get a picture of our bikes together."

Like the Pine Barrens Gentian, which is the same purple as Ricky's frame, no camera can capture the true color. Like the flower, the frame appears blue in photographs. In real life the frame and the bar tape match almost exactly.

It's not just my camera either. When Ricky first got the bike he texted me a picture. Same thing.

Here's a zoomed-in look at the lugs:

Ricky is the second Slug to nab an old steel frame this winter. Last month, John K finally found his long-sought-after Lotus, the bike of his early riding years. His is orange with chrome lugs and stays. I'm trying to convince him to come out with us so that we can roll retro in force.