My handsome steed is shod in some brand new rubber! Thanks to the fine folks at Western Bikeworks on NW 17th and 21st Avenue Bicycles (I hope you can guess where they are) are due for the help in getting everything I needed. Got Panaracers with a sweet tan sidewall (over new rim tape and tubes) and Continental Kool Stop brake pads to replace the disintegrating Specialized Touring II tires and what might be the original (and now rock hard) Dia Compe brake pads.

The Western folks actually guided me to 21st when they didn’t have the brake pads I needed in stock, after giving me a great deal on the rest of the stuff. I balked at the price of the pads at 21st initially, but it turns out they’d actually have set me back way more online with shipping, so score two for the local bike shops!

I managed to use up half of my patch kit mounting the new tires. It took me a few tries to discover the trick to getting the bead over the rim without prodigal tire lever usage. Gotta make sure the rest of the bead is in the ‘valley’ of the rim to give you as much slack as possible! On the plus side I’m an ace at applying patches now, and the practice was cheap.