Gold Rush XXI: Day 2

On Tuesday morning at a much-too-early hour, Doug, Bob, and I delivered our bikes to Real Ralph's booth for some custom hand-painted pinstriping.  It was time to dress up the trikes!  We’d watched this guy in action the previous day, looked at photo albums of his work, and browsed through bikes in the convention center parking lot. Ralph’s a seasoned pro.  He knows pinstriping, he knows color, he knows what works and what won’t work.  As customers, we had two choices:  A) give Ralph the specifics of what we wanted and where on the bike we wanted it and that’s what we would get -- OR -- B) recognize Ralph’s expertise and talent, communicate the price range and the look we have in mind, then stand back and let the artist work his magic!

Once again, we decided to go with U2’s gut feeling and chose Option B.  We listened to Ralph’s ideas, bounced back a few and found we were on the same page, then gave him the nod on his color suggestions (although he nearly gave U2 a heart attack with his first color selection – it was a joke).  After that, we walked away and did our darnedest to stay away until Ralph had micro-signed his name on the first trike.

While our bikes were tied up in the booth, we browsed the other vendors and caught up on our sleep.  Lyn and Teresa attended the co-rider seminar.   Teresa shared a technique she learned for taking control of the bike from the co-rider’s seat in the event of the rider having a heart attack or losing consciousness. 

Hannah played Dirty Bingo again and teamed up with Teresa Larson (of GWTA’s family of the year) to go swimming.  Those in our group with bikes headed downtown for the evening’s street fair and dance while the rest of us grabbed a pizza and checked on our bikes.  Unbelievable!  Ralph did an awesome job!  The pin-striping really popped in the sunlight.  The glimpse of color that caught your eye from a distance drew you in for a closer look at the detail, but it didn’t overpower the bike’s classic lines.   Mission accomplished!  We left our bikes indoors for the night to give the paint a chance to dry dust-free and safe from the threat of storms.

posted on Friday, August 15, 2008 4:36 PM by U2Farmer

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