On the subject of sew-ups, I should mention that another BF member @
Ed. in the Boston area says he has been riding them exclusively since about 1968, IIRC, and he hasn't had any particular issue with flats. He does enthusiastically recommend tire saves. Over in the C&V there are a number of sew-up enthusiasts. The consensus seems to be that inexpensive sew-ups aren't much better than inexpensive clinchers and therefore not worth the trouble. But good ones, that's a horse of a different feather. When I started riding them I decided I might as well go with good ones.
We took the tandem (on clinchers, of course) out for 56.2 miles today. I wanted to try some new roads but a late start, few delays, and a road-construction detour prevented us from getting out as far as my intended destination west of here. Nevertheless, as we were heading home my sweetie said it was good that we started for home when we did. Tomorrow we may try again.
We meandered out through Bedford and Concord, tried to go south to rt117, got redirected a bit further north than I would have like. Eventually we found a great picnic table on the grounds of Acton Ford beside the Assabet River. Thank you, Acton Ford! We almost made it to Maynard but as there was no particular reason to go there, we turned south at the next road.
On the way home we stopped at this farm stand, a long-time Concord establishment. Of course Sharon had to buy peaches and zucchini.
On a previous stop we had the pleasure of talking with one of the elderly Scimones, possibly Frank though it may have been Frank's son. We have to stop again and ask. He showed us a family pic taking around 1948 or some such time.
Finally, I've been having some trouble shifting the front to the big ring. Several times today it threw the chain and then move the FD on the ST. So when we got home I swapped it out for another Simplex I had picked up some time ago "just in case". Today was The Case, I guess. In bench shifting it works much better! The previous one had developed too much free play.
