Bicycling

Bye Bye Bob

First go read Requiem For Bob, I’ll wait…

Seeing as the bike was no longer rideable it was hung upside down in the garage at Boardman Road. Then we had this bright idea to hang it from the cathedral ceiling on the screened porch right in front of the life-size B & W screen print of a vintage bicycle.

I removed the modern brake levers/shifters off, along with cables in hopes of finding some old school just brake levers. I took the pedals off to put them on the Bianchi to replace the Celeste Green clipless pedals that I didn’t really like. But when I tried to rebuild one that was not turning smooth, I lost a vital part (which of course is not available separately) somewhere in the garage, so the Celeste Green ones went back on the Bianchi and Bob’s went in the trash. This was OK because the screen print had rat trap pedals and toe clips, so I needed to source some of those too.

But the project never got off the ground, literally, because we could never figure out how to hang it up there in a manner that would not permit it to move in any kind of wind, look good and be cheap all at the same time.

Bob was still hanging upside down in the garage when it came time to ship our household goods to Oregon. I thought maybe it was time to discard the bike, but Donna talked me into bringing it along figuring maybe we could still turn into an art piece, either indoor or garden. Unfortunately we can’t find or think of a place to utilize it here at Pacific Terrace, so it was doing nothing but being in the way in the garage. Even after I got all the storage locations for the working bicycles settled Bob was just in the way.

We found a perfect place for Broken Bob right here in Klamath Falls though. There is a place in downtown called RAD Used Bikes that accepts used bikes and parts as donations to help get people who can’t afford a bike out riding, be it for fun or needed transportation. Today being Saturday, we drove down and donated the almost 40-year old bike. We even dropped off a bunch of old bicycling specific tools I’ve had for years because maybe I should be getting out of the mechanicing business (see the pedal fixing fiasco above.)

74,000 Large Pieces of Gravel

Andy Jordan’s Bicycle Warehouse in Augusta has been putting on a ride called the Lock to Lock Ride for 27 years and Donna has been trying to get me to do this ride for most of them. This year she wore me down and I acquiesced. The route is a little over 18 miles one way, there is food and door prizes in the park, and then if you are brave enough, you ride the 18 some odd miles back to the start.

The eighteen miles is broken down into three almost equidistant segments. The first part is along the Augusta Canal tow path from the head gates on the north side of town into downtown. The second part is mostly through downtown city streets with some along a paved section of the tow path. The last part is along the top of the levee from town to a park at the lock & dam on the south side.

We were brave. We figured, how bad can it be? We ride a lot and 15 – 20 miles is a piece of cake, it is all basically flat, no big hills, and we’d be on the tandem, so it will be half as easy. The first third of the journey we were familiar with as we used to ride it sort of regular like back when we had mountain bikes, it is a hard packed dirt road and quite shady. The middle third we have driven the car on enough to know that it was dead flat and the traffic would be minimal on a Sunday afternoon.

The third third was the big surprise, we had never been on it as it is normally locked because the levee runs along behind several industrial plants. The worst part of this segment was in the middle of it was 2-1/2 to 3 miles was covered in loose, large gravel rocks. After the smooth dirt and city streets, this stuff was a rude awaking. You had to keep moving to keep the bike on a straight course. It was nearly impossible to get to the water bottle or catch a quick break by coasting. I felt like I was riding in the Paris-Roubaix road race which is called the Hell of the North or A Sunday in Hell.

When we arrived at the park for lunch (very good BBQ sandwiches with a large selection of snacks) we kidded that maybe we should shop around to see if we could get a ride back to the start. But with our bellies full and our thirst quenched, determined, we stated back. On the way back we contemplated walking the bike over the gravel section, but when we tried it, was almost harder walking on it and much, much slower, so we rode. When the 74,000 pieces of gravel was over the rest of the ride back really wasn’t too bad.

We made it back to the start point dead tired and there were only a few other cars in the parking lot. There were around 275 entrants and I bet less than a quarter of them did it both ways. The ride is very well supported and we might do it again, if it is not ninety degrees out and if the gravel wasn’t there and maybe just one way…

Not far from home on the way back the CTBNL ticked over the 74,000 mile mark.

Bikes on Cars


A search for a picture of Donna in uniform for a Veterans Day Instagram post sent her on a treasure hunt into several of the boxes that are full family photos. After a couple hours of searching she found a wallet size of her Navy Boot Camp Graduation photo. But just as she was locating that one, I found the directory on the PC where I had stored a couple of scanned images we used at ASCO for a Veterans Day thing a couple of years ago.

But she also unearthed a couple interesting pictures of our cars with bikes on them. First up is our 1982 Honda Civic 4-Door Sedan with two road bikes upright on top. I think with this combo the car was now taller than it was long. I also almost screwed up once big time with this rack when it was on our 1979 Accord Hatchback. I pulled into a hotel portico without thinking and I only had about 4 inches to spare.

Number two is is the replacement rack for the one in the first photo. When we bought a Miata we lost a roof to put a roof rack on. This was a nifty rack that would fit on almost any trunk by adjusting the angle of the front arms and removing the front wheels. The front wheels sat in their own mounts between the two bicycles. We used this for over a decade until something broke on it that couldn’t be repaired. They weren’t making this style rack any more, so now we use a regular bumper mount rack.

Busy Day

Day 19 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Glenbrook, NV to South Lake Tahoe, CA and back.

In the morning we went up to watch the women start their Stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California, in the afternoon we went to watch the men finish Stage 6 of the Tour of California and in the evening we went to a drop in for the wedding guests at the Stateline Brewery & Restaurant.

The Past 4 Days

Things that have happened in the past 4 days, listed in no particular order or level of importance:

  1. I managed to get two photos posted to Instagram.
  2. The Mini got a bath.
  3. Managed to bike ride to work on Friday.
  4. Donna got a flat on her bike ride home.
  5. Watched Up in the Air on HBO – again.
  6. The Miata got a bath.
  7. Bad breakfast sausage?
  8. Got 5 more pairs of glasses from Warby Parker.
  9. Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue

Quadruple Threat

I’ve got the final stage of the Vuelta a España up on the big screen, the Red Sox baseball game on the “radio”, a window open with ESPN’s FanastyCast keeping track of the Purple Whales vs. the Red Bank Raiders while I’m typing this post.

If you are as impressed with this as I am, buy me something off my Amazon Wishlist. 🙂

Hot Meat

Regular readers know that our go to Sunday morning breakfast is about a 10 mile bike ride to Ridgecrest Coffee Bar in east Aiken with a 3-5 mile ride home. Well, our go to meal is to split one of their signature Breakfast Paninis: large pieces of thick crusty sourdough bread surrounding a layer of white American cheese, a 1/4″ thick layer of baked scrambled egg patty and 3 or 4 slices of deli ham and toasted/melted in a industrial panini press.

The pressing does a great job of toasting the bread in a perfect “ruffles have ridges” way and melts the cheese, but the ham can be an issue. Depending on who was cooking on Sunday mornings the meat, which comes out of the fridge, was anywhere from lukewarm to actually cold, which totally ruins the combination. In the beginning we made a “suggestion” to the owner one morning when she was there that they should heat up the ham first. She said, “They are supposed to, but I’ll reiterate that to them.” Since then we have had slightly better luck with the results. So recently Donna has specifically reminded me, because I’m the one who traditionally does the ordering, to remind them to really make sure the meat is hot before making our sandwich. And most of the time I actually do tell them to, “Make sure the ham is hot.”

Today when I ordered from the young girl at the register I started with, “Please make sure the ham gets heated up real well because my wife likes her…errr-likes it that way.” I almost said, “…my wife likes her meat hot.” I self corrected mid-sentance because I just wasn’t sure if she would have understood that I wanted to make sure the ham was hot in the sandwich for my wife, groaned at my double entendre, thought I was flirting with her or maybe even bragging about my imagined sexual prowess.