The smell of leather....

It's one of those things that I can't describe, but I know it when I smell it. We got to smell a lot of leather last weekend. Bill will eventually get a big boy bike, and when he does, he will need some leathers to ride in. So, we loaded up, fed the pones, ran to the feed store, and then scooted down the highway to Beggs where the leatherworker has a shop.

Beggs is a tiny little town about forty miles from Tulsa. Of course, knowing how small it is, I did not take the address with me. My bad! The actual area of town with anything resembling a store is about 4 blocks, and we finally found it on the 4th block. LOL lost in a teeny town! We found them in a storefront on Main Street. The smell of leather hit you in the face when you walked in the door. There were racks and racks of the stuff. My brother had recommended them to us. He had a pair of chaps made several years ago and really likes them.

They had a bunch of ready made chaps on some racks. Of course, they were all black. No can do! Chaps are for protection, so I guess most people don't think about them past that. What I don't understand is how someone will spend $30K on a bike with a super fancy paint job, and then wear leathers that are just like everyone else's! I am a weenie. I know that riding a bike is dangerous and it scares me. I think that the brighter and more "different" you are, the more people will look at you. This is a good thing. If they see you, they are much less likely to run your ass over.

I have had custom chaps made before, so I know what all the options are. Poor Bill was a bit overwhelmed, and hadn't really given much thought to what he could actually have done, and what he really wanted. He was willing to go in and accept whatever they shoved down his throat. So we proceeded to tell them what he wanted. He wanted burgundy buffalo hide. Apparently, there is no such animal. (I know better, but...) They did have some burgundy/oxblood bull hide. It was very nice, so we decided on that for the base. It has enough red in it to be really loud next to the ho-hum black that everyone else wears. I asked Bill if he wanted something on the yoke. He looked at me like ??? I told him that he could have a different color on the yoke, or stamping or whatever. So, he says blue. Well there are about 20 shades of blue, so they started pulling out samples and books. He decided on sapphire blue. Cool - the bright/dark color will go well with the oxblood. Then I asked him if he wanted some piping. ???? You know, piping. A thin strip of color between the yoke and the legs. Ohhhhh! Yes. Yellow. Bright yellow. So we found a yellow for the piping. Then he wanted some sunwheels on the legs, done in the same yellow. Those will really get noticed, and I am all about people seeing him on that bike. I tried to talk him into fringe, but I think he was worried about how much they were going to cost. The owner was not big on fringe - said it got stuck in the zipper. Well, it ain't rocket science. Hold the fringe aside while you zip them eh? It's also possible that fringe is too girly. I could smell the smoke from his neurons firing, so no fringe. Even though this is my gift to him, and he should not have worried about the cost, he was fretting. I wasn't....

One thing that worries me is they did not measure him. They had him try on a pair of their ready made chaps and decided that was good enough. I get that bike chaps are different than horse chaps, but geeze. I am used to being measured and having a pattern made for me, or at the very least, having an existing pattern modified to fit me. The woman who owns the shop insisted that the legs have to be big to go over the boots he will be wearing. *No* they don't. You are just being lazy and wasting leather. Bill thought they were fine though, so as he is the one who will wear them, I let it go.

When my brother had his made, the shop was owned by a little old man. He sold the shop this year. The woman who bought it said that after he retired, at 80, he found that he was bored and asked if they would let him come back and work. Well DUH! They were happy to have him back, and frankly, I hope he works on Bill's chaps because I don't know that the new owner will do a bang up job. The old man has made hundreds of pair, so maybe we will get lucky.

When it comes time for me to have a pair, I don't know if I will go to them or not. I am waay more picky about chaps, and I want them to fit me correctly. I don't know if I can do the big baggy legs. Ick! I have made a couple of pair, and they are not hard...maybe I'll make my own! :)