She/He is a beauty @mcneese.chad!
My folks have a collection of short hair house panthers, something about black cats that’s extra sweet. In fact I saw a very pretty black cat on the ride I posted above. Gotta have a shop cat around…
2 Likes
She is a wild find from Wisconsin that got transplanted with us. Had a virus as a kitten that lead to removing her right eye (old pic above). The left eye has a large “shield” that covers about 50% of her vision there. But she runs around the house, the yard, up the fences and trees. So you’d never think she had any restriction. We named her “Ruby Sue Blinkin McNeese” (after the Lampoons Vacation character, Eddy’s daughter, and the Robin Hood Men in Tights character because of their sight issues 
)
Like you, I love black cats and have had several over the years myself and with other family members. She is about the sweetest cat I’ve ever had or been around.
3 Likes
AW! What a great story, I also have a blind-in-one-eye cat who gets along just fine, they’re tough little creatures. I’ll have to find a picture of her, she’s a beauty as well and described as a Tortoise-shell Chimera, so a tortie that has a really distinctive mirror like pattern on her face. I’ll send you a PM as to avoid derailing the thread any further. Thanks for sharing that, I am a huge cat lover, and my new buddy above is named “Scout” - from to Kill a Mockingbird and she’s also just about the sweetest cat I’ve ever had. Very dog like. 
3 Likes
Is there a TR user’s cat thread? If not, I DEMAND a cat thread. I’ll share pics of my goober of a grey tabby in all his splayed out glory.
1 Like
This is one of mine - he spends my EVERY training session sleeping on the couch behind me He loves the monotonous sound of trainer. He only wakes up during vo2 max workouts when I am breathing extremely heavily and of course at the end of the session, because you know - recovery meal
5 Likes
LOL. Tongue out is the best
2 Likes
He often forgets about the tongue And after wake up he is walking with it this way… that is in the contrast with his inteligence, as this is horribly smart cat (in contrast to the second one that is stupid as hell) His greatest achievements was pulling the drawer from the bed (it weights a ton and was closed with some plastic anti-child device), luring the other cat and closing it in the bed.
3 Likes
That story is priceless 
I made a dedicated OT thread for our kittie chats and pics:
3 Likes
That looks sick. I love the color orange and it is used so well in this frame with just black and white to accent it without giving of major Halloween vibes.
Also, what size front chain ring is that? It looks massive!
1 Like
It’s only a 53t actually! Although lots of people say that it looks bigger, probably due to it being a filled in “aero” chainring.
1 Like
Before and after of an old crit bike build.
21 Likes
Nice, did you strip and polish yourself?
Yep. Lots of elbow grease!
4 Likes
Do you clear coat the aluminum? Or is it raw?
I’m thinking of doing this to my Allez. How did you go about stripping the paint? I’ve been recommended aircraft paint remover. Whatever chemical application you chose, did it require a ton of fine sanding to get the last bits from around the welds? I’m trying to gauge how much of a pain this project is hahaha.
2 Likes
I thought the Allez in its raw form and a colored fork looks sublime. Would like to do that to mine someday too.
2 Likes
Its the raw aluminum. I think I used Meguiar’s metal polish.
1 Like
It was a mess for sure but I don’t remember the sanding being too much of a hassle but its been about 5 years ago. I wanna say I also used one of these paint remover drill attachments for a lot of it too. https://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-4-in-Round-Rust-and-Paint-Remover-03172/303173626
Honestly, for as good as those still attachments are you might even use it first and then use the stripper for what isn’t super easy to remove with the drill.
I think I also used my Dremel with the wire wheel to get in to the tight places.
3 Likes
