We don't get many colorful fall leaves here at the house, but with a little gardening know-how we have fall flowers that are lovely. The first 2 photos are the wild purple asters that take no care at all. Next are a few photos of different marigolds.
I had zennias in all kinds of colors this year.
A yellow rose and a blanket flower daisy.
Morning Glories are one of my favorite flowers as they are so easy to grow and vine nicely over things that don't look so good. Once started they re-seed yearly by theirselves with just a bit of water here. Where it rains more you usually don't need to water them. In fact to much water and they don't bloom, just making the nice vine.
And the wild sunflowers that are so prolific here.
The sixth photo in the sixth folder of the sixth folder of my "Image Files" folder was taken at my grandpa's house in December 1954 and my sister Terry was just learning to walk. Mom has always said "It was her first step" but who knows. A rather appropriate picture though, seeing as how today (January 31st) is her birthday. . .
The Boston Lady Roadster is a classic loop frame bicycle, available custom built from ANT. This fact in itself is remarkable. If you are wondering why, I invite you to find other framebuilders willing and able to build a loop frame, or even capable of discussing such a thing without laughing. Until recently, most framebuilders' idea of a "women's bicycle" was a diamond frame roadbike painted pink, or with pink handlebar wraps. Now mixtes have began to pop up as well, but for city riding they are not quite as comfortable as the classic curved step-through. The fact that ANT has chosen the loop frame as one of their flagship models carries significant implications for the recognition of women in urban cycling. It also says something about the framebuilder's skill. It is difficult to make that curved top tube, to get the form just right both structurally and aesthetically. So I feel that this frame is one of the most specialised and special things ANT has to offer.
The Lady Roadster is available in many colours, with the option of matching rims and a choice of black or cream tires. The bicycle I tried was in a colour I would describe as "Vermilion" or "Cadmium Red Light" in painters' pigment terms. I must say, ANT knows how to put together colours. The combination of the vermilion frame, matching rims, cream tires and steel fenders is timelessly classic and elegant. At the Open House, someone asked me what I think of putting matching fenders on this bike, and my thought on that was "no". With a bright colour like this, I think it is easy to overdo it and make the bicycle look like a toy. To my eye, the clean steel fenders are a good counterweight to the extravagant frame and rim colour; it's all done just right. If it were my bicycle, I would ask for brown leather accessories and a steel quill stem for a more classic look, but that this is a matter of personal choice.
One of my favourite features of the Boston Roadster is the mount for the dynamo-powered headlight. Welded to the fork, it looks like a little tree branch. Having a low-mounted light like this is better for illuminating the road than having the light on top of the fork or on the handlebars, so this feature serves a practical purpose as well.
This shot may not speak to you immediately, but I wanted to point out the kickstand plate. Not all bicycles are made with one. Also note how neatly all the joints are welded: clean and pretty.
The "full suit" chainring and steel chainguard.
A prototype full chaincase is in the works - to be coated to match the frame colour. I am excited about this development. I have also been discussing dress guards with Mr. Flanigan, and I think you might be seeing something on that end as well pretty soon.
As you can tell by my ridiculous facial expression and firm grip, I liked this bicycle quite a lot and was excited to try it. The owner and I are similar in height, so the frame was just right for me.
I am not certain whether ANT plans to offer the Mixte as a standard model, but they certainly can build it as a custom order. This turquoise mixte belongs to Betsy, Mike Flanigan's parter, and it is fairly unusual. As you can see, it is built with the classic twin lateral stays - but it lacks the rear stays that typically connect the seat tube to the rear drop-outs.
The frame was a size too small for me, but with the saddle raised it was fine. The bicycle does not feel like a mixte to ride - at least if you are accustomed to vintage mixtes, which were designed with road bike and sometimes touring frame geometry. It is much more stable, sturdy, and easier to operate than the typical mixte I am used to, with a relaxed sitting position, wide tires and an 8-speed hub. The bikewas geared low and as a result was able to fly up the hill in a fashion I had not experienced before with hub gears. It was not a road bike, that's for certain. But I wouldn't describe it as a city bike or a "cruiser" either. Town and country? Yes, that seems about right. And with the wide tires, it is probably suitable for a variety of on and off road terrain.
A close-up of the twin lateral stays and a gratuitous shot of my face in the rear view mirror. As on the Boston Roadster, you can see the nice clean welds.
View from the saddle.
Custom rear rack with a wooden base; hammered Honjo fenders. Shimano 8-speed hub.
Dynamo-powered headlight.
Retro bicycle horn on the handlebars. It cannot be denied that ANT has an eye for beautiful eccentricity - a definite plus in my view.
I've been gifted a stack of olderBicycle Quarterlyissues (thanks, A!) and a few of them are redundant with the ones I already have. So, if anybody wants them, I have the following three to give away:
The Co-Habitant's roadbike, Myles, is a 1976 Motobecane Super Mirage, which he acquired in Spring and has been gradually updating with modern components and personal touches. It is his only roadbike, and he has cycled somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 miles on it through its various iterations. I wanted to write a review of it (from my perspective), because I think it poignantly illustrates some aspects of owning and customising a vintage roadbike.
It is always interesting to observe people's reaction to Myles, for he is a real head turner - even more so than my Rivendell. The silver frame, the hammered fenders, the wealth of brown tones in the leather and twine, the frame pump looking almost like a double top tube, and the classic Carradice bag, somehow combine to create a whole that is more magnificent and eye-catching than the sum of its parts.
We do not disagree with the point of view that a better frame would have been more deserving of all the DIY lavished on Myles. But sometimes a bicycle just evolves organically, and such was the case here.
When the Co-Habitant found the bike, used and somewhat abused, the plan was simply to ride it after a few minor changes.He first replaced the tires, after the original ones blew up on his very first ride. He has ridden theseContinental Gatorskins (27" x 32mm) the entire time without incident.
He then replaced the original vinyl saddle with a Brooks Flyer. Early on, he was caught in the rain and the Flyer got wet - which hastened its breaking-in process nicely.
The brakes on the bicycle worked fine after some adjustment, but he did replace the pads with the salmon Kool-Stops.
As he began riding the bicycle more and more, he added fenders and a saddle bag. Although I am normally not a fan of hammered Honjos, I think they do look good on silver bikes - providing textural variation where the colour is similar. Hammered fenders are also a good investment in terms of hiding dents or scratches. 
The Carradice Barley bag has been sufficient for carrying anything he needed on this bike, up to our current trip. For the future, he will consider getting a larger bag that can fit laptops, and a rack to support it. Having a saddlebag is also handy for installing a battery-operated tail light, such as his CatEye.
His headlight is mounted on the fork, using a Minoura light mount. While he prefers generator lighting, as far as battery-operated lights go, he likes this system very much.
Some months later, he decided to replace the handlebar set-up, as the original one caused discomfort and difficulty operating the brake levers. He replaced them with 42cm Nitto Noodle bars, which he loves,and the stem with aNitto Technomic.
The original non-aero brake levers were replaced with modern Shimano aero brake levers. Personally, I am not a fan of these brake levers, as the hoods have a rather harsh surface and there is a plastic insert that is very easy to damage. The Co-Habitant has dropped and crashed this bike several times, and you can see that the levers look battered.
Almost a year later, a few more changes were made. After complaining that his feet always slipped on the touring pedals at high speeds and that toe clips were a bother, he installed these SPD clipless pedals - much to my shock at the time. He loves them and now says that he would not go back to non-clipless on a roadbike, vintage or not.
Around the same time, he also installed a CatEye computer to keep track of his speed and mileage,
a Topeak frame pump,
and two bottle cages, bolted onto the frame - into which he places his twined and shellacked Klean Kanteen bottles.
And the final update - completed just a couple of weeks ago in our yard - was the replacement of the original stem shifters with these Shimano bar-ends. Since the bike is a 10-speed, it isn't possible to get indexed shifting, but these work just as well in friction mode. After having used a shifting method that sounded like a tractor for over a year, the Co-Habitant is absolutely delighted with these - they are fast and quiet, and he is convinced that they are superior even to my Silver shifters (although I disagree).
And so that is the story of Myles's slow but steady transformation from a plain '70s French 10-speed to a glorious and shamelessly eccentric dandy. Was it worth it? It certainly helped the Co-Habitant learn about classic roadbikes - both riding them and working on them.It is difficult to get a straight answer from him about how comfortable the bike is, especially as he is more tolerant of discomfort and pain than I am and to some degree even thinks these are "normal" to experience on a roadbike. But from what I can surmise, the bike is more or less comfortable in its current state, except that it places a bit too much weight on the hands and is over-responsive to the point of being "squirrely". Also, the frame size would ideally be larger, and he could do with better gearing.
All of these comments, however, are made only in response to my direct questioning; he never complains about the bike on his own accord. On the contrary, he is extremely fond of Myles,smiling and shaking his head quietly at any suggestion that such components ought to be placed on a new frame instead.