2009 Volkswagen Show, Dade City Florida

Dropped down to the Bay Area weekend before last, and went with my dad and the rest of the family to the VW show that the air-cooled addicts hold yearly down that way. It was a good turnout, with a bunch of very clean cars and buses and so forth.

Safari windows on a nice Kombi - Samba!

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Early Ghia

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Vanagon Westfalia

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Early Bug, 1961 or so. Nice ragtop too!

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Rare and Cool Transporter done an ill-advised rockabilly, rat-rod motif. Bleah.

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Last of the Beetle hard tops, Champagne Edition.
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Quite a bit of tuner kit on this '66
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Quite a bit of random kit on this '64! Must be the Sanford and Son Edition.

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Lightly modded 66

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More from the early 1960s

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Very clean 72 convertible, much like my 71 although much much cleaner!

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Very clean interior from...

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...this lightly modded 63. I think it was a 63 anyway. This was my favorite of the show.

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Early turn indicators means late 50's. This one has a reproduction EMPI tool kit on the spare tire there. Original tool kits are worth big big bucks, and you'd be crazy to take such an easily boosted accessory to a car show.

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Safari windows, auxiliary lights, sufrfboards. WOO!

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We must be in Florida!

Where's my bike made?

Take it with a grain of salt...I'm not vouching for accuracy here, but take a look. Find out where that four thousand dollar Specialized REALLY came from!


Sucker!

http://allanti.com/articles/where-was-my-bike-made-pg328.htm

Mandeville Canyon Road Rage

We live in a crazy world...

http://bicycling.com/blogs/roadrights/2009/11/05/justice-served/

Hoodies

There's something in me very conflicted with the loads of dough that have been brandied about in Washington DC these last 10 years or so. (note I said 'last 10 years or so', as I'm not myopic enough to buy into the horse-hockey about Obama's out of control spending. Don't forget, GOP...a huge portion of that debt is YOU!) On the one hand, I think these companies, be they banks, insurance firms, or auto manufacturers, almost NEED to fail. On the other hand. I can't even begin to fathom a world in which America doesn't make cars, and I recognize that while the financial security of 2 of our three car companies is in question, many of those questions were rippled from a credit crisis that punched GM, Ford, and Chrysler in the face, just like it punched you and me. Still, auto manufacturing in the United States has been teetering on the brink for years, and it is our own gluttony and laziness, and theirs, that put it there.

But I'm not here to debate all that crap about the auto industry. Right now though, I am here to debate the gluttony and the laziness. I'm here to redirect you to a much simpler time, and an easier place, and to lobby for the return of one of America's forgotten symbols of success and prosperity...or maybe misguided perceptions of success, and uselessness and gluttony.

Remember the hood ornament?

These things weren't meant just as handles to assist in the removal of the hot radiator cap, they existed to symbolically direct the occupants of the car - starting with the toddlers in the backseat, looking over their parents shoulders - to better lives...and bigger, more prestigious hood ornaments than the ones that graced their parent's view out over the hood the generation before. We wanted more. We wanted to project that we had more. We wanted to make sure that others around us knew that they were losing, in the unspoken race to success and 'more', to 'Me'.

Hood ornaments represented something that, in our young professional careers, would help us in projecting our self perceived and assigned assets of strength and stamina. Agility and lithe efficiency. Speed. Entitlement. Some of us have more. We will achieve more. Get more. As William Henry proposes in In Defense of Elitism, we deserve it.

And as we Americans grew older, and we realized the American Dream and became Doctors, Lawyers, and Engineers, we yearned to project intelligence and wisdom. Of course, Doctors and Lawyers and Engineers had more wisdom. (?) More potential. More success. They almost owed it to the rest of us to push the target for personal achievement, to show the rest of us with less potential for 'more', the way to 'more'. Like my daughters G.I. Specialist, (who labored to write his notes in her medical history with a very expensive, and very leaky, and nearly non-functional Mont Blanc fountain pen), demonstrated; the achievement of becoming a doctor or lawyer or engineer is almost second in importance to the act of making sure that other people around you know that you are a doctor, lawyer or engineer. That leaky pen existed in that examination room that day, to stress the existence of that 'more'.

Then we retired with our 'more'. We looked for cultured and sophisticated hobbies and pass-times, like pheasant and duck hunting, and later, golf, that we earned with our hard work and our 'more' and our winning in the success race against competitors that many times were unaware of our competition. Even though we no longer pushed to win future challenges, we wanted to make sure that the younger generations knew that we had won our 'more' already, and that they would have to do 'more' in their own race to be 'more' to take the title of 'more' away from us.

Still, in the end we are all made of the same stuff. The same goo and lumps and sticky mess wrapped in biological Saran Wrap, and a car, and it's hood ornament, is just that; a car and a hood ornament. There's Real Irony in the use of our tax money, gleaned from years of effort in toil in pursuit of our symbolic 'more', long used to support the unsustainable sprawl and growth of our nations roadways, now instead going to support a failing industry floundering under the weight of, and symbolized by, such an iconic figure such as the hood ornament. We complained about the taxes. We complained about the traffic, and we complain today about the bailout. Aren't they all the same?

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When is More actually Less?

Mavic 217 Sunset Rims

Holy crap! A Bike Post!!!

2x 32 holes and 26" of Sniper Fun, fresh from the eBay...the mouse is still warm even!

"I love it when a plan comes together" says Mr Peppard. Mr Peppard is also supportive of ganking pictures from the auction and posting them on a blog.

Of course, poor Mr Peppard is also dead.

Booze

I whipped up another batch of the old home brewed beer this weekend. Added a little Molasses to another existing recipe that I picked up. 2 weeks from now it'll hit the bottles and then we'll cold crash it for Thanksgiving, just in time to get my mother sauced and steal all her money. OK, I'm kidding there, at least about the money!
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In the brewmaster (do I need to point out that I am absolutely not one?!) spirit of the weekend, I'll toss up these 'Blasts from da pasts!'

Apparently the real joy of good living consists of day-sailing with Gilligan and Annette Funicello on some sleepy Minnesota lake somewhere. Well light my pants on fire, I'm just having so much fun!
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Note that 'Schlitz' ends with a 'Z'...see bellow...

Pabst...preferred nearly 2-1 by pomaded men with jutting under-bites and blue painters tape covering their eyes. Goes down smooth...

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...yeah right, smooth like a Russian mail-order prostitute, maybe! Hey Now...that could explain the under-bite.

When 'Malt Liquor Party' meant something soooooo different. Pre Kool and the Gang. Pre Bull. In the background there, it looks like they're giving it to the kids! Koresh followers maybe? Mormons? Don't Mormons do that type of thing?

Yup, finest swill in Milwaukee. You must be so proud. "I lived in Milwaukee, and damn right I got the hell out, but before I was able to escape the finger-slicing meat-packers and the long cold suicide-bloated winters, I developed a hard addiction to crappy booze, pimpy hats and capped teeth! Now I get my Blatz mail-ordered straight to my double-wide here in Polk County! BoooYahhh!!!"

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I have a rule...never drink a beer with a 'Z' in the name. Nothing good ever comes after Z.

Happy Birthday Steverino!

You are officially an old bastard. However...I have more food on my shirt than you do.

More Chernobyl

I've had the link over there to the right, in the blog list, for a few years now... inviting you to take a look at the evidence of man-made failures, through the eyes of the website Artificial Owl. Some of the most moving sites visited there are of the ruins of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl and the related and equally abandoned town of Pripyat. Well, here's more...

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"Elena" visits Chernobyl and Pripyat by motorcycle, and the story and photos are as disturbing as you'd imagine.

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Just consider.... The clock strikes a certain time, and a government official arrives at your door. You must leave. You. Nothing else. No clothes, pictures, toys for the kids. Nothing.

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I think the thing that interests me about this subject, and for that matter, many of the subjects outlined on the Owl, is the process that humans undertake in the decision to 'discard'. Sure, sometimes forced and sometimes chosen, but still the thought processes we use to determine which things and places have no value are fascinating. A ship that washes ashore and gets parted out where it stalls, more valuable as parts than as a floating collective machine. Subway systems deemed too expensive to maintain. Playgrounds and amusement parks that no longer are considered 'fun'. The waste of it all.

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Humans, and specifically Americans, do a horrible job at using their resources wisely. Think about it the next time you toss something even remotely functional in the trash. In that one moment, your quick and thoughtless decision goes into a landfill somewhere, like so much discarded collective tonnage from forgotten decisions over the years, preserved for a lifetime like your own private Pripyat, only conveniently buried and ignored somewhere rather than sitting ominously aglow on the surface.

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Out of sight, out of mind.

Happy Halloween!

VW Mirror repair

And finally, this past weekend I was able to knock off a few car related projects. First off, I put new brake pads on the front of the Rover. The rotors are still quite smooth, and there's just a slight lip on the outside edge of the rotor from where the previous pad wore the braking surface, but nothing to worry about, so I just popped in the new pads. Took about an hour, so no big deal. Then I filled the fuel tank and popped in a bottle of the Land Rover fuel system treatment, in preparation for this coming weekend's oil change. This maintenance stuff is a life-long battle!
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On to the funner project. The drive side mirror on the Bug. I got this car, with mucho help-o from the Moms - meaning she paid for it - in 1989. When I picked up the car, the drive side mirror was loose and I thought it just needed to be tightened.
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Then it just plain fell off!
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And revealed this ugly stripped out hole in the chrome vent window frame where it would normally snug right in. Ugly. Well, VW parts are easy to get, sure...but GOOD VW parts are not...there's a load of Brazilian and Mexican reproduction crap out there, and most of it isn't worth diddly. My German vent frame is stripped out, but otherwise good...so what to do?


How about I make a small sheet metal plate and resurface the stripped out hole and give the replacement mirror a new place to hold.
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First I made a template out of a small piece of cardboard, in this case a soap box. Then I laid out the template on the scrap metal to be used for the project, here a piece of framing from a home computer, and traced out the shape to be cut.

About 5 minutes with the Dremel tool and I'm in business.

Cleaned up and smoothed off...the plug looks almost identical to the template. Actually...you gotta pay attention here. The plug is flipped and rotated 180 degrees in this picture, compared to the template. Must be alert moving forward, but we're looking good so far!

I have a few stainless fasteners to help me with the next part of the job, but first I need a big fat hole in the plug for the mirror to marry to, and I'll need to paint it too.

And of course...I'll need to clean up the area on the frame to receive the plug...here I've drilled and tapped the three holes and I've hammered the raised edges of the stripped out hole back flush so the plug with fit flat. A little chrome polish is next...

The template got the center hole first, and then I transfered that location to the plug, punched the hole and applied some black textured paint on the plug, two coats both sides.

And finally...With the stainless fasteners I install the plug to the vent frame and then, with an o-ring in place on the mirror, screw the mirror into my plug. Viola!...Mirror! Here from the rear of the car...

And from the front...

And at a distance. First time in 20 years the car has two mirrors...always a good thing in a convertible with blind spots the size of Nevada.

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Sure this repair probably falls under the classification of 'rigged', but its structurally sound and it looks pretty clean, and what's best is...it allows me to KEEP the German part that would have otherwise been trashed and replaced with a Brazilian knock-off. The purists out there may frown...heck, my Dad may frown, but I'm just glad it's finished.

Actually, Dad may approve. I remember on his 1964 Porsche 356C, that he had a small hole in the rear seat back, square in the center. Rather than trash the original upholstery there, he instead stitched a small Porsche patch over the hole and called it done. Like my little plate here...it solved the ugly factor, looked reasonable clean and factory, and allowed the original damaged German parts to live on for another 40 years with their secret damage hidden from all but the most trained and knowledgeable.

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I also got some fuel stabilizer for the Bug...to help with an issue of caramelizing fuel in the carb that I'm dealing with...the result, I'm told, of E85 blended fuel. We'll see if that makes a difference. Seems to be good so far, so another good tip there, Pops!

Weekend Bits, bike and non-bike.

Been off the bike for a few weeks now, due to a few small health problems with the area down there normally in close proximity to the seat while riding...if you get my drift. Nothing serious, but just irritating, so doctors orders and all that.... I did finally get to ride to work three times last week, total of about 36 miles all together. Then this last Saturday, I did the short group ride, which added another 35 miles or so to the tally for the week. 70 miles...not too bad I guess. First time on the road bike since August, so that felt good.

Anyway, been using the time off the bike to get a few projects done around the house. My house was built in 1949, and like many older houses, it has a bunch of features and character that you just don't get in newer construction. For example. We have terracotta window sills.

Which of course, have been painted a billion times...here's the worst one in our master bedroom. The plan with these nasty looking things is to strip the window sills chemically and then re caulk the windows, repair any plaster issues, seal the windowsills and then prime and paint the window openings...but this time NOT the window sills!

First off, tape the beasts. Here's that window number one, ready for the citrus stripper. You can see in the left corner there that the plaster is in rough shape, and that under the window is not very well sealed off to the outside at all.

And after...stripped cleaned caulked and plaster patched, ready for sealer and a coat of that primer and semi gloss paint I mentioned earlier. Not bad if I do say so myself. That big dark monolith to the left there is my dresser...covered in a yellow drop cloth in the previous pic.

Window number 2...a little easier as most of the paint has chipped off...I'm sure belching lead into the air in the bedroom and bumping off my brain cells in the process.

And the same window...stripped and caulked. Here under the window sill you can see I've had to make a plaster patch as well. Turned out pretty good.

Window number 3...a damn lumpy mess of paint and other goo. This is the north facing window, so it stays damp here, more than I'd like.

The window sill turned out great, though, and with the primer and semi-gloss paint inside the jam, it will be ready for any condensation that still may form here... but I'm hoping that will no longer be an issue.

So there...one more project off the list. I might have all this crap done before I die. HA!

Solar!

Got around to powering my shed with the solar panel kit I picked up from Harbor Freight. Other than the fact the thing is made in China, the kit seems to be pretty slick. 3 fifteen watt solar panels, a power management center to control power coming in from the panels, and going out to the lights and accessories, and a few other ancillary cables and lights come with the kit. I ditched the brackets that came with the kit, which were geared toward setting up the panels for temporary use, and made my own out of some galvanised angle hardware from Lowe's.
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Here are the panels in their new home, on the roof of the shed on the south side. Funny how my rain barrel always peeks into these pictures of mine.

And the brackets I fabbed up. The tabs are fashioned so that they fold back up and tuck under the shingles, where they are screwed into place and then the screw heads are sealed over with black silicone caulk, as an extra precaution. There are 6 brackets...3 on the high side of the panel array, and three on the low.

I actually put the panels in about 2-3 weeks ago, the same weekend that the cat butchered something on my VW. Last week I got one of the last pieces of the puzzle by stopping off at Pep Boys and buying a deep cycle marine battery for the panels to charge, and then I'll have a power source when the sun is down or on cloudy days.

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The final part of the equation will be a small inverter that will swap the 12 volt panels/battery over to your typical household current, and then I'll be able to run proper lights and my Dremel tool and stuff like that.

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Electrician?! We don't need no stinkin' electrician!

Open Letter to Bandwagon USF football fans...

Listen up, chumps,

Bandwagon-itis. The Bulls 'Faithful' seem to be infected with it. Pitt has been posting phenomenal recruiting classes since DW showed up as coach, and the knock on him until this year it seems, was that he couldn't put it all together. Maybe he did? Maybe, just MAYBE, Pitt really was that much better? Why is that so hard to believe?

As for my Bulls...Leavitt teaches nasty, enthusiastic, and passionate defense. When it works, those kids will knock your teeth in and we all love it(you KNOW you do!) When it fails, or maybe when it comes half a second after the whistle, then the bandwagon starts shedding the pretenders and the "fire Jim Leavitt" starts. Senseless aggression from the bandwagoneers flexing their monitor-muscles.

I just can't say it plain enough. Jim Leavitt is not the issue. "Thugs who play dirty" are not the issue. Canales, not yet anyway, is not the issue. The issue is, the Bulls play BCS football, and there just aren't very many teams in any BCS conference that we should be gimme-stomping like clockwork. I'm upset we lost these two games, sure. But Cinci and Pitt? There's no shame there, other than the shame maybe, of being one of you bandwagoneers and listening to the pollsters who put USF at an unrealistic #2 two years ago, and #9 last year, and then senselessly freaking out when we lose a game or two to a couple damn good (and ranked) football teams.

I've been a fan of USF all my life. Not Just Football...USF! I finished my undergrad there, as did my brother and stepsister (who went on to finish medical school as well!) My parents worked a combined 69 years on faculty. I lived on campus 4 years, played in the basketball pep-band, worked for the SAFE team and held a few club offices in my time on campus. As a kid, my summer camp bus would drop me off at the administration building, back in the days before it was named after John and Grace. 6 years ago I was married on campus at the MLK trellis. I'm telling you that because I'm stressing the investment. I'm committed to USF, and I'm completely certain in my gut, that USF-football, Woolard, and Leavitt are doing what needs to be done to move the program forward.

I'm also very pragmatic in observing that it is not an automatic gimme that we become a top 10 program. You guys act like it's a matter of just getting that one recruit, that one stud, and then we'll start stomping everybody. Here's a revelation, guys...there's a stud recruit (or three! or nine!) every year for just about everybody...not just USF. Post Miami-BC-VT Big East is a moving target. You think Kelly-Edsall-Schiano don't sell their programs to recruits with the promise that their programs, just like USF, have a chance to become the Big East big-dog? USF isn't competing against teams that are staying static, you know. With the exception of Louisville, they are all nearly as good or better than they've ever been. Dropping a game here or there to another Big East program isn't as shocking as you guys play it up to be, unless again, you've been buying into the polls hook-line-and sinker.

Do I think that USF will be a national power? Heck Yeah! Do I think the program is growing up into one that can compete regularly for the title, Big East or National? Heck Yeah! Did I ever believe it would happen in 2007? 2008? This year? Not really. It would be great though. But before any of that happens, there's much more work to be done, better recruits to be landed, more upsets of ranked and better teams, and more exciting and nasty and vicious defense to enjoy...with a handful of personal fouls along the way I'm sure. I'm ready.

There's nothing wrong with the program, people. We're right in line with where we need to be. If we stomped Miami tomorrow half you fools would be humping Leavitt's leg like a Chihuahua on a throw pillow.

One more thing...knock it off with calling the kids 'thugs'. That's just plain rude.

Utahdog
Class of '93, '96

Mantis Map Bike!

Inspiration for my Yokota map bike. Enjoy!

Campy, hold the Carbon

I'm not alone!!!

This from La Rueda Tropical, with thanks to Black Mountain Cycles blog; an interesting work-up/proof-of-concept for an engraved throwback style Campy Record group, just for lugged steel frame riding, hairy legged retro grouches like me. I love it!

One thing Campy!... don't forget to make it in an Italian bottom bracket standard version!

Pretty!

Hurricanes!

Picked up a set of 18" Land Rover Hurricane wheels from a fellow Discoweb member, down in Orlando. We met up in Daytona at the Ker's Wing House right there off the interstate and did the deal. 5 Hurricanes, with center caps, one of the original OEM Goodyear tires, and 4 Avon Tech STs, all mounted up and ready to go. Now all I need to do is get off my butt and finish the 2" lift and I'm set.

Need to do the front brakes too.

And replace the front passenger marker light bulb.

And fix my sagging headliner.

EWR bar swappage...

I've been a little concerned with my E-motion being a medium rather than a large, as the seller indicated in the eBay auction. I'm convinced that the medium size is the case, as I remember when I bought my OWB that the idea of the 24" top tube on the large E-motion bothered me enough that it was a decision making factor in how I wound up with the white OWB rather than a white E-motion. The medium E has a top tube just a hair under 23" (which at the time I thought may be too short!), and 24" seems awfully long for a woods bike even for a guy my size. The OWB has a top tube measurement over 23 so I took Jay up on that bike, and left the E-motion dreams in the past.

Until eBay sent the orange beastie my way, that is. But when I popped open the box and took a peek at the E, the size seemed a little small, but it's a funky frame with funky geometry, so you never can tell with these things until you build them up. Built up, though, the front end seemed low, unless I was running 40mm of headset spacers under the stem. Functional, but Ugly.

So a little bar finagling, coupled with the reinstallation of the rigid fork on the white OWB, and viola! my vintage EWRs are both within a hairs whisker of each other, and still have the bar distance and height, and seat height measurements I'm looking for.

1.5" rise FSA bar from the old Cannondale Rush, and a modern Race Face 31.8 clamp stem in 120 7degree size, 15mm of spacers (and a head tube a bit smaller than the E-motion) gets me to the desired bar height and reach, and does not look like a pieced together ill-fitting cobble job.

And the E, with the 130mm 5 deg System, 2" rise Diabolus bar, and 21mm of spacers. Nicely balanced, I think. A 10 degree stem would still be ideal and would allow me to remove another 8mm headset spacer, but the 5 works, looks good, and I have it, so... done!

Side by side, bar heights and saddle heights, and of course, a bad photo angle that does nothing to actually visually compare the two!

And from the front. Were it not for the leaning white, these two bikes are almost identical in set-up. (except for the fact that all the drive train parts and brakes are totally different!)

WOOT!

Note the dirt on the E. I'm not completely a wimpy old-fart poseur, just 80%.

Nevada-Boy and the EWR virus

Somebody I know has contracted the infection...

'Coon Carnage!

Well, you know I've been having cat issues at the house. I set the trap over night one night last week, and woke up to find that a baby raccoon had wandered into the trap, snacked on the tuna fish, and then after the trap sprung closed, proceeded to dance around in the crate enough to move it under the bumper of the VW, where the car cover could then be reached. You know what happened next...

Yup, the poor little bugger dragged the thing into the crate and proceeded to shred it! I can't say I blame him, as I'm sure the trap is a pretty frightening thing, but still. The little bugger would make a good chainsaw!

So you know what I had to do to him, right? Yup yup. Casserole.

Just kidding. Like the other raccoons I've nabbed during the cat management fiasco, I let him go, and he wandered off into the ferns in the backyard. (Which makes me wonder what else is in those ferns!)

Marketing and Extreme Sports...The Other White Meat

I've already taken a couple of pot shots at the dorks at Sram who make such goofy, half-witted decisions like shipping derailleurs in cookie tins and crayon boxes, but while on my last trip to the Nantahala National Forest last month...something else popped out at me. This marketing crap may just finally be over the deep edge, artistically speaking of course. (?)

Ever want a whitewater kayak? You know, those stubby little plastic glorified soup-spoons that so many rough and tumble Phish kids seem to crave? No? Me neither.

But I digress.

If you've been under a rock, or maybe you've spent the last ten years saddling your fat-ass on a Harley on Highway 19 out in front of the restaurant at the NOC, rather than even noticing that there's a river on the other side of the building, much less a sport called whitewater paddling, then you may not know about these little day-glow milk cartons that the river rats call 'play boats'. Basically these things are as wide as they are long, which is to say they are not necessarily wide, just damn short. They allow you to, rather than just paddle down the river, instead perform many maneuvers of questionable necessity previously reserved for ballet dancers, like the "pirouette." Or my favorite, "the invert and drown."

Play boats have one thing in common though, monocolor cartoonish logos and related names which have little or nothing to do with boats, or rivers, or even ballet.

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The "Mamba", for example.

From Wikipedia: "Mambas, of the genus Dendroaspis, are fast-moving land-dwelling snakes of Africa. The black mamba (D. polylepis) is the longest venomous snake in Africa, with an extremely potent neurotoxic venom that attacks the nervous system, and cardiotoxins which attack the heart; the bite is often fatal to humans without access to proper first aid and subsequent antivenom treatment, because it shuts down the lungs and heart."

Makes perfect sense. Nothing makes me want to tackle the exciting whitewater of our nation's southeastern rivers like a big fat poisonous African land snake. I once called my sixth grade Social Studies teacher, Mr Kodish, a fat Mamba. That was the first time I got sent to the dean's office that year. Mr Kodish had about as much in common with an African snake as that dorky little red plastic boat. Although this one is even an '8.0' version, which I guess correlates to the newest release of Internet Explorer, or maybe its a Richter Scale measurement?

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Then there's this little marketing wiz-critter. Meet Piranha.

Wikipedia talk: "A piranha a member of a family of omnivorous freshwater fish which live in South American rivers. In Venezuelan rivers, they are called caribes. They are known for their sharp teeth and a voracious appetite for meat."

At least we're off land here with this one. I guess there's some association with being a carnivorous fish and a rough and tumble sunshine-yellow play boat. Most Piranha boat owners, however, probably don't know that the logo proofs unveiled during the marketing research looked like this:

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And then of course, we have one of the more common kayak brands to populate the rivers of the Appalachians, Dagger.

Wikispeak again..."A dagger (probably from Vulgar Latin: 'daca' - a Dacian knife) is a typically double-edged blade used for stabbing or thrusting. They often fulfill the role of a secondary defense weapon in close combat."

Stabbing. Thrusting. A double edged blade. OK, I get the symbolism here, but then I get lost. Secondary weapon? If you're on a boat, intended to carve up and attack the nastiest whitewater, what's the primary weapon then? Your Ipod packed to the gills with Phish tunes and Widespread Panic? Points lost for lack of imagination on the execution of the logo too. Simple is good, yes, but please, the thing looks like a diagram in a dentifrice instruction manual outlining how to properly floss your molars.

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Then we go all fictitious with "Liquid Logic"

Liquid Logic?! I don't even know what that could possibly mean! I'm not even sure I can elucidate what that might 'logically' imply!? The water is the liquid yes, but logical water? Isn't one of the over-arching tenants of fluid dynamics that of complete chaos and unpredictability? Who reached for the word "Logic" in the boardroom?

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And of course, the NOC has to tag along with the monochrome logo-isms too. We're one slip shy here, of one of those tacky 'OBX' oval stickers seen so prevalently on the other side of North Carolina.

All of which just leaves me 'clammy'. Still, there's a lot of good stuff to take your mind off the incessant marketing that seems to permeate our hobbies and our overall enjoyment of the outdoors. All you have to do is take a peek at the weathered and battered shop-wagon, and see the faded and peeling symbols of a different and once much more popular extreme sport.

Get back on a bike. Really.

Cat Bowling!

This is about how I feel about cats right now!

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If you feel the cat-stress for whatever reason. Then by all means...go to http://www.itsga.com/fun/cat_new.swf and give it a try!

Splitsville!

Not all relationships are built to last, we all know that. And sometimes our relationships end in very public ways with lots of disturbing the peace and general ruckus. Well, when we were at Tsali a few weekends ago, we found this picture, of a couple on a gambling cruise (I think), that had been torn in half and left on the information kiosk at the trail head. Of course, we had to play with it and stage something ridiculous.

Our campsite neighbors for the last night were two teenage girls and their father, obviously on a weekend visitation, the result of another earlier splitsville...maybe even more ruckus-filled than the shredded picture split. The girls did a lot of whining on Saturday night about the humidity, and the tent mattress, and then whether of not they were going to get to go out to dinner to eat. To top it off, late into the night the man sat in his Subaru, engine running and AC on , listening to the Auburn football game! All the while the girls sat outside the car and complained and did lots of hair flipping. One of them had the word "Cheer" printed across her ass on her shorts. High Society, you know.

Well...we had our fodder for taunting prankster behavior, in the shredded picture of the broken-up couple...and out targets in the whiny teenagers and their self absorbed father, so before we left on Sunday, and while they were on the trail, we sprang into action....

...and staged this little still-life on their picnic table! Complete with "I hate you, you ^*%cheating loser!" type scribbling on the back of the shredded pic. I even wiped down the bottle for prints first!

Can you imagine the squawking that man had to endure on the drive back to (I'd guess) Alabama? Squealing teens in the back yammering about the split and the haggard old man trying to drive, drown out his yelping girls, and listen to the Auburn football highlights on some crap AM radio station? HA!

Actually...typing this out, it seems like a pretty dull prank on our part, but in the 11th hour of an alcohol induced fog of a weekend, it seemed pretty damn funny at the time! High Society, all of us!

Cat Carnage

This is what the old VW looked like after my hard days work... Not bad for 38 years, if I do say so myself. Hell, its almost as old as me!

And then, the cats came to visit. They weren't very nice to each other either...

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The next morning this little pool of guts was slathered all over the convertible top of the VW. That bright red puddle in the middle is about six inches by 4 inches. There's splatter everywhere on the top of the car. Blood smears were also all over the hood and engine deck lid, 3 of the 4 fenders, the windshield and the rear window.
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Here, the blood is shown running down the rear of the convertible top of the VW, and pooling on the weatherstripping under the rear window. There's a serious amount of blood here, I'd estimate about 4-6 ounces in total.
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The macabre scene didn't stop at the VW though, there were 3 pools of blood on the floor of the carport, and there were blood splatters all over the passenger side of the Land Rover, including up on the roof above the windshield, on both doors, and on the hood and front fender.

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Pretty grisly. There was even blood splattered on the ceiling of the carport and on the front of the deck box and on 4 of the 7 posts in the carport! It was everywhere!!

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There are 2 options here as to how this happened. Either 2 cats went to town and beat the hell out of each other and one of them stayed behind after the battle and cleaned his wounds, or a cat captured, disemboweled and ate a very very large rodent. Judging by the sheer volume of the blood, and the fact that it was splattered so much, and across such a great distance, leads me to believe the cat-fight theory more than the big-rat-for-dinner option.

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Either way. In the past, I've trapped and removed 24 cats from my neighborhood in the last 3 years or so, and I've been fooled, apparently, into believing that the problem has improved. Looks like I'm wrong and in a big way. So now I'm getting serious.

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The trap will get set every night, and all cats, any cats, captured in my carport, go to the pound. No exceptions. After all, I've got a 3 year old, and surely this qualifies as a health issue!!

Grillin!

After spending the last few weekends either entertaining family or working on various projects around the house, Kristen and I decided to just hang out with the Jane and enjoy the time away from the office. We did do a few chores around the house...I restrung the clothesline after taking it down to build the fence, and Kristen and I took turns driving our cars to the car wash to have months of filth washed away.

Then we fired up the grill.

Saturday was BBQ pork chops, and Sunday we cubed a roast and made kabobs. I drank 6 beers and talked to my mother on the phone! WEEEE!

Then the stray cats came around for a visit...

South Florida 17 - Florida State 7

at last.

Privacy Fence

The house to the left of me spent the last year in short-sale, and is now fully foreclosed and vacant. The result is that instead of having my air headed but very sweet neighbor over there, I've got overgrown milk weeds and rain trees. Time to screen the ugly.


This is my chain link fence...normally slathered in vines and ferns, which provided some privacy from the ugly next door. Here its stripped bare and awaiting the next phase, skinning with pickets!

The skinning well underway. I sistered a 2x4 board to each of the chain link posts already there and doubled up the 2x4 where it extends above the steel post of the existing fence, which left me with posts roughly 6 feet tall. Then I stick built the fence from the ground up. The little copper caps are solar lighting.

One of the lights. They are really pretty at night, running along the top of the pickets. Not that solar lights can run, but you get the idea.

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The fence turned out great if I do say so myself. Now if we can just get that house sold we'll be in business!

Deck Box

Marinas across Florida have these storage locker thing bolted to the pier in front of each slip, right next to the fresh water and power hook-ups. Deck boxes are used for storage of maintenance items for the boat, like fiberglass and stainless steel polishes, scrub-down and deck brushes, and incidentals for engine, sail and generator maintenance...things you wouldn't need while underway. Don't want to be tripping over the Brasso while you're on the river for the 4th of July? Deck Box!

My mid-century modern-ish house (read; 1940's tract home with a flat roof!) has a wing wall/planter box on either side of the front facade. On the right side, the wall is still intact although some dingle berry knocked out the planter...I'll get to that project in a bit.

On the left side, our original carport has been enclosed as a den, and there is a newer two car carport off the front of the original one car. The carport works fine with one exception, and that is that the planter box is still there, in front of the wing wall and inside of the carport...shaded from sunlight and rain, and therefor filled with scraggly ferns and dirt. Solution? Deck Box!

Here I've dug out to a depth of about 20 inches or so, and framed for the supporting side structure and a slatted floor. The floor will allow the contents of the box to be up off the ground, while the slats provide drainage for any heavy rain that may blow in under the carport and get into the deck box. The entire box is designed so that no holes were drilled into the original structure of the house, and that the weight of the box itself, coupled with the weight of the contents, keep the box from being lifted out of the planter.

The Depth of the deck box, shown here using my drill for scale. The two-by at the top of the wall is the framing for the top swing side hinged lid to the box.


Doing work. See the wall cap framing here?

All finished and locked up tight. There's a bunch of greasy car stuff inside it now, my leaky 3 ton floor jack is in there, 4 gas cans and 8 rusty jack stands, and a set of moldy jumper cables. All the little to no value car maintenance stuff that you use occasionally, but otherwise just find yourself tripping over in a garage or shop. Now, it's right by the cars ready to go!

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No Brasso though...

Tsali on the orange E-motion!

Like I mentioned in a few previous posts, I took the new(ish) E-motion up to Tsali to give it the run-around. I met up with my friends Paul and Caroline, and a few of their cronies, Steve and Elizabeth, for a bit of camping and boozing. As usual, it was a good trip. As usual, unfortunately, Matt came up with a reason to not be able to make it. Punk.
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Turkey running for his life as I roared around the corner in the Rover. Stay skinny, Mr Turkey. November will be here before you know it!!

Friday morning we ate breakfast at the Nantahala Village. Their usual breakfast buffet was not in session, I guess because of the stress of the economic situation we're all in, but the quiche and coffee and fresh fruit that I had instead still went down well.

Fuzzy Trees. A sign of Armageddon?

After breakfast, we headed down the road a bit to the NOC to enjoy the river and drink our coffees. It was early yet, and on a Friday in September, very quiet.

It's not often you see this in one spot...three orange EWRs? AND an old VW Westie?! The culture of it all... I mean, can't you just smell the intellectual depth in these North Carolina woods?

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We were staging up for the ride...two laps, one each of Left and Right, a total of about 20 miles on the E-motion. It is a fast, fast bike, and the 32-34 gear combo gives just enough boost for climbing. I like it. Like my white EWR tho, it could use a 135mm 10 degree stem, as opposed to the 130mm 5 degree that's on there. By today's standards, that would seem like a huge stem, but remember that this bike was designed in the mid 90s, and the standard stems of the day would have been around 135/10.

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Left and Right were in pretty good shape, with a few puddles, but not nearly as bad as we would have to deal with on Saturday...

Saturday AM...breakfast at the NOC and then a nice sit down on the benches out by the river and the Founder's Bridge. Misty North Carolina mountains, a warm cup of coffee and an early morning combine for one of life's great pleasures. Peace.

Old men at Peace. Alright, I'm no that old, but I'm pretty peaceful.

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See Matt...THIS is why you go to Tsali with friends. At my age and with all the stuff going on in my life, the riding is almost second fiddle to a quiet moment with a warm beverage. The traffic, the computer, the boss...miles away. You should try it, and leave your other expectations about who we once were and what we could do on a bike way back when, at home.

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Although I can rip pretty good for pushing 40!

Or a quiet moment with about 14 cold beverages! Our "Wall of Shame" Was pretty impressive for there being only 5 of us. I gotta dry out!

We did three laps on Saturday, and for this outing I used the blue EWR...at least to start. Saturday is Thompson Downhill day, and I wanted the suspension fork that the blue bike has, with me on the ride. So, off we went on Thompson, which was pretty gooey in places, and then Mouse. Climbing out of Mouse, I tweaked my XO rear derailleur on the blue EWR with a stick that got itself stuck in the spokes. So, with one derailleur baked, but a spare bike still on the truck, I took down the orange EWR and we did one more run on Thomson, on the orange E-motion, rigid fork and all.

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In the camp ground on the way out. We commented to each other that the campground seemed less tended than in the past. I wonder if money from the facilities fee services still stay only at Tsali, or if that pilot program is over, and the dollars from successful sites like this campground are now being used to support other more remote and less profitable locations. The campground was pretty full.

And I'm spent!

We'll be back on October 18th, this time with both of my lovely ladies in tow.

Matt?

EWR E-Motion

Finished the orange EWR E-Motion this weekend. Daddy likes.



Sram X-0 for the rear derailleur, and Sram 980 for the cassette and 991 for the chain.

Kona K-Nine steel cranks with a single 32 chain ring and a bash guard. Deore DX clipless pedals.

Made in the states, baby. Although X-0 is now made in Taiwan. Still ships in cookie tins and crayon boxes.

Race Face bar and stem. King mango headset.

Sram X-0 twisty shifty, Oury grips and Altek levers.

Kona P2II Disc fork, with a strategic Race Face sticker. Salsa skewers and Avid BB7 brakes.

Non drive side. Look at that beautiful...rain barrel.

*edit* I wrote this post a week ago and forgot to post it up. In that time I've also taken it t North Carolina and gotten the old beast dirty. I'll post up some mud pics and some comments on how the beastie rides later. I will say this...a fun bike for sure, but it is a medium, and not a large as was advertised. The large would have a full 24 inches in top tube length, and here I've got 23 inches, maybe a bit less. Still the frame measures close to my large Rascal, and with the right bar stem combo I think I can still use it. More on that in a bit...

Fire Pit

Did a little work around the house this weekend. Getting ready to tie up a few loose strings on some lingering projects I've had kicking around the house.



First up, finishing the rustic patio area out near the shed under the trees. I built the dry stack stone wall out of the pavers from the old shed floor, did that a few years ago, and just had some scraggy grass out there for a while. I went out and picked up some brick pavers to set in a soldier course to edge off the patio from the rest of the yard, and then created a 36 inch square paver pad for the fire pit, set on a diagonal in the middle of the patio, and filed the rest with 10 bags of pine bark.




"But wait!" I hear you say in a very Hemingway-esque tone. "Pavers are good. Bricks are good. The soldier course is straight, and nice. The pine bark was aromatic. But pine bark is flammable!"

Of course, pine bark is flammable. But I'm not worried. First off, the hose is nearby. Second, there a fire extinguisher in the shop. Third, the fire pit will never have a fire big enough for tossed embers to be an issue, and for the most part, here in Florida, will see Duraflame duty only. My yard will not go up in flames, thanks.

Kristen's brother Ryan made me this Bucs flag out of some test plot and scrap material at his job, where he's a graphic artist guru. I hit it with about 6 coats of UV resistant spray, and hung it by chain from the eves of the shed over the patio. All that's missing now is the chairs.

And of course, the missing chairs are another project of mine... 4 Adirondack jobs still in the making. Home projects are never done.

SDG eBay Heaven

The only thing uglier than an orange EWR is an orange EWR with an orange SDG saddle. I myself am a tremendously hideous man, so you know that since I picked up an orange EWR 8 months ago, I've been orange-SDG-saddle-shopping for the last 8 months!

To the patient comes Ambrosia.

And yes, I plucked the pic straight from the auction, like a Pufferite swipes Twinkies from the Circle-K. *plink!* Ownership.

Now, where did I put those nasty looking orange Oury grips?

Goodbye Oregon

...and we're out!


The Oregon trip was a great time. The state is very beautiful, and the people were some of the nicest I've met in my travels across the US. From the Pacific Coast to Bend, Crater Lake to Portland, I'd do it all again.

If you haven't been go.

Thanks Oregon!

Vanishing Species - Oregon

When I lived in Colorado, one of the things that really surprised me was the negativity I experienced when folks found out I was not from in state, that instead I was from Florida. Seems that Coloradoans hate three things...people from California, people from Texas, and people from Florida. I had heard that Oregonians shared that animosity for the three interloper states, and I was not misguided.

Some of that though, is just a natural concern that Oregonians have about being able to support and protect the great indigenous peoples of their fine state. Biodiversity is a beautiful thing.

Harritains - A once noble people, identified by their disheveled ponytails and their dirty striped green wool sweaters and 'Sub Pop' t-shirts. Females of the species are distinguished by their penchant for sleeve tattoos and their hairy armpits. Once the dominant species in metropolitan settings such as Portland and Salem, they were nearly eradicated when the healthiest and heartiest of the breed flocked en mass to Seattle and took their teen spirits with them. The remnants of the species were left to wallow in their self loathing and pump quarts of heroin into their veins, longing for the days when Pearl Jam was relevant. Today, Harritains live in small enclaves, called 'coffee shops', sprinkled throughout the urban landscape.


Pufferites - A once numerous and proud people, the Pufferites came to dominate the landscape of this fine Pacific Northwest state after the reduction in stature and importance of the then occupying, silviculture practicing, troops of the great western peoples of Loggerania. The Pufferites are a happy and pleasant people, warm and sensitive and sometimes moody, and seemingly always hungry. Pufferites are concerned individuals, both for the health and well being of their communities and for the communities of others. Strangely, Pufferites seek anonymity in their lives, and bristle at the concept that they may actually be, after all, Pufferites. Easily identified during mating season by their empathetic pleas of "Dude!" and "Whoa!", and sometimes even, "Whoa, dude!" Pufferites spend much of their days cultivating their most cherished crop, "weed" and avoiding their more predatory nemesis, Law Enforcement.

Furrieleggs - Mountain peoples, easily identified by their 10 year old Subarus, although more senior members of the troop and the nobility of the clan occupy the more prestigious and desirable mating vessels known as Vanagon Westfalias. Females of the species are easily identified by the bushy scrub that flows from not only their armpits, like the Harritains, but also from their calves. Subaru favoring subspecies are known as the Antierus-Mazdacantus, while the Westfalia sporting of the breed are called Convertius Poptoptenticus. Furrieleggs spend much of their time crafting and enjoying their prized elixir of life, called "micro brew", and listening to Obama quotes broadcast on NPR.

To the inhabitants of the great state of Florida, or North Cuba as it is called today, the three great peoples of Oregon all seem pretty much the same!



OK OK OK OK OK! All kidding aside...

Packaging

Ever wonder what product managers are thinking? What makes the marketing guys think that shipping out rear derailleurs or other bicycle parts in cookie tins is a good idea?

At least cookie tins are usable for small part storage.





Newer release of the Sram X-0 goodies don't get cookie tins. Nope, no longer. Today, X-0 stuff comes in a nice clear pencil box.

Good job, marketing goons. Good job.

Pulp

Ezekiel 25:17...

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"Maybe it means, you're the evil man, and I'm the righteous man, and Mr. Nine Millimeter here, he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness."
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"Or it could mean, you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd, and its the world that's evil and selfish. Now I'd like that, but that &%$@ aint the truth."

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"The truth is, you're the weak, and I am the tyranny of evil men. But I'm trying, Ringo. I'm trying real hard to be the shepherd."

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"Go."
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Oregon Bike Shop #5 - Bend Bike and Sport, Bend

Last stop!
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Bend Bike and Sport. A slick little operation located in an old house-ish setting similar to Chain Reaction in Gainesville, although here in Bend the exterior gets a much more tasteful paint color to distinguish the theme. Bonus Points for the slick rack out front...Where have I seen these before?...hmmmm.

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Oh Yeah!

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Inside...hardwood floors, high ceilings, split levels from one side of the shop to the other. Very nice environment makes customers want to kick the hemp and get in touch with their inner athlete. There were a few too many shaved leggers here, though. Working too. Never a good sign.... As a general rule of thumb, shaved leggers suck at selling stuff.
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Rack it up and space em out, boys!

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Persons!

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- 2 Crisped "smooth as a baby's ass" shaved leggers! Need I say more. Something about these hard core roadies just leaves me clammy. I'm an arrogant prick, mind you, but even I'm put off by the Lycra attitude. One of my local stores suffers the same disease. Here's a tip, fellas...there's no room for a Peloton IN the store. Take it outside.
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Stuff!

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- 3 Smoking Time-suckers! There were the usual assortment of geegaws sprinkled around in an inviting if not terribly organized fashion. You could build a bike here if, say...your rig got crunched by FedEx on its way from Florida to the west coast....not that I needed to worry about that! The inventory did lack that 'gotta have it' goodness that makes the drooling tourist drop loads of debt markers around the store and leave with arms packed with unnecessary but arguably uber-cool goodies.
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Bikes!
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- 4 Torched Tots! They had it covered. High dollar, low dollar, full suspension and road. lots to choose from and well stocked. Both the fury of legs and the shaver set could be happy with the selection here. Thumbs up!
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Merchandising!

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- 4 Torched Tots! Well set up and fun to peruse. I walked around the place and looked for a while...long enough for the sales dude to finally notice me, but not long enough for him to break off his conversation about his swim time in his last Tri event. Where the hell do you swim in Oregon anyway? Mosquito Reservoir?

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Fuzzy!

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- 5 Fully Involved Fledgelings! With the high ceilings and wood floors, the place was great to be in...made me want to parade around and investigate, and yet seemed inviting enough to make me want to just cuddle in and lounge with a good suspension fork recall notice and read. There was no couch, however...but that's ticky tacky on my part. Rude little roadies be darned, it was a slick little shop. Bitches.

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Tally!

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- 4 Torched Tots! From the selection of bikes, to the parts and merchandising, to the warm and inviting layout, this place had a lot going for it, and if the arrogance level could have been controlled then they probably would have squeaked out a 5...maybe. I'll never understand why roadies who work in shops are as obnoxiously competitive as they are, even with customers. I get that the arrogance helps in a competitive event...clearly Lance is successful in no small part because he's a jerk, but stop there kids. You are working in a bike shop...or owning said shop...because you are NOT Lance. If keeping the hair on your legs makes you act just a little bit sweeter to your customers, then I'd suggest you put down the Nair. This is the highest rated shop I visited in Bend, and yet the stiff-lipped attitude kept me from reaching for my cash, inventory selection and merchandising be damned.

eBay!

Avid Tridangle cable hangers for cantilever brakes...one full bikes worth.


And the cantilevers to go with 'em...NOS Deore DX. Both front and rear. These are actually coming over from Italy. Cool!

Oregon Bike Shop #4 - Pine Mountain Sports/Cog Wild Adventures, Bend

Second to the last stop on the Oregon Bike Shop World Tour! (uh...Oregon World Tour?!)

Pine Mountain Sports in the Mill District of Bend. "In the Mill District" is a nice way of saying "In the redeveloped sprawlishness that was once some sort of industrial use, but is now considered as a planning utopia because of its bike lanes and roundabouts." You could tattoo roundabouts on an elephants ass and planners would brainlessly hump the poor beast into submission.

Needs to be said that the operation here is also home to Cog Wild mountain bike tours. Woo.

The shop has a very 'Local Bar-B-Q chain' look about it on the outside. Were it not for the row of rentals parked out front, I'd be tempted to walk in and ask for the pork and ribs platter.

And of course...as I pointed out earlier in my post about Bend, at this shop they have "Pigs" parked right out front in the lot.

Inside it looked like a shop. I could be anywhere in the states standing here and looking around. Bend? Jacksonville?

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Apopka?

But redemption comes in the form of two dressed Titus full suspension jobs, sitting front and center and ready to roll...were any pot-puffing hemp-weavers so inclined to dust off their truastafarian checkbooks.

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Matching Crank Brothers headsets and wheels abound.

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Ring it up...one bargain plate chicken basket and a large french fry please...oh wait. Wrong store!

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Persons Employed Therein!

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-3 Crusties! There were two pierced and tattooed dudes parading around in the repair area, and I was not nearly cool enough to garner their attention. Which is OK I guess...I wouldn't want to talk to me either. The girl behind the counter was genuinely concerned that I took pictures though...something about wearing an EWR t-shirt and toting a camera maybe? Or perhaps they had an evil Trek sales rep that stalked them on a regular basis and ratted them out if they deviated from the Waterloo Company Line.
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Stuff!

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-3 More Crusta-dilly Poobahs! They had bike stuff for sale. I'm not so sure I can say more than that. The place had tubes and helmets and crap, but I'm not sure I could tell you what they were, or even where they were in the store. *yawn!*
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Bikes!

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- 4 Toasted Titus Ticklers! (?) Hey, what can I say. I'm not super uber-sweaty fan of Titus bikes, but hats off to stocking quite a few, and dressing them with some expensive goodies to boot. I'm not buying that overprices Crank Brothers crap, but somebody will, I'm sure. Hey, its BLUE!
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Merchandising!

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-2 Flamers! The big snore again. Somebody read a lot of industry magazines and trade show publications about how to stock and merchandise a bike shop, and in the process they set the place up so that somebody like me, who's been in a billion different shops over the years, and who spends way too much money on bike crap, just walks in and rotates his face about the place once or twice and then walks out with only a "Bend OR" sticker and a receipt for the $2 sale. Be inventive people. Cyclists LOVE to spend money.

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Ambiance!

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-3 Toasted Tots! The joint had a nice high ceiling and lots of light, and the wood floors were very clean and warm, but up and above the basic canvass there wasn't much going on. This shop could fold, and reopen as a Gap with very little effort, and that's not good.

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Overall Rating!

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-an even-steven 3 Toasted Tots! Not a shlecky score, but not a home run either. This place has the right idea...and it's parked out front in the parking lot, painted in a faded patina-rich red and white two tone scheme and slathered with stickers that just screams 'hip healthy outdoor bike culture'. Transplant THAT vibe INSIDE and you've got a winner.

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Pine Mountain Sports

255 SW Century Dr.

Bend, Oregon 97702
541-385-8080

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Stay Tuned...One More Shop to go, and then it's a goodbye to Oregon!

Oregon Bike Shop #3 - Gear Peddler, Bend

Stop number 3...Gear Peddler in Bend Oregon!

Wild murals on the outside....looks interesting.

Fences made from beat skis....high marks for creativeness.

Exposed wood rafters and a veritable flotilla of used and unwanted canoes and kayaks!

And on the far wall...what's this?

An Old bonded carbon fiber Giant Cadex mountain bike frame from about 1992. Funky!

Odyssey seat binder quick release, and them funky cast aluminum lugs bonded to carbon tubes and stays. Back in the day this was swank! Look at the dorky little brake cantilever cable stop! I love it!

And the goofy two-part dropouts, again bonded to carbon stays! These things creaked like mad back in the day too, as the dropouts wriggled in the nutted stay junction. Weirdness! You gotta love a shop that's actually tyring to SELL bizarreness like this! The sales guy, who was regularly blinded by the glare from the huge skylights reflecting from the glass display case, was wondering aloud why the hell I was taking pictures of this old hunk of poo.

Alongside the normal consignment fare of Fisher Sugars and Trek Fuels and other mass produced boring grunge. Deductions for the recumbents in the foreground...

Rate it!

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Persons!
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-2 Crispy Creamers! Hey, there was an employee, but he was way too busy building his hemp-farm grow-house of the future in his head to help me out up and above a half-hearted "hey". Plus, I'm not sure he even knew what a Cadex was, as if he did he'd not have had to bug me about why I was bothered to photograph the thing. Hey...I'm not shipping THAT thing home!

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Merchandising!

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-3 Baked Bewber Bumpers! There were glass cases all over packed with lots of useful parts. XT derailleurs and Deore stuff...mostly 9 speed, but some older cantilever sets and period stuff as well. Smorgasbord. All arranged in a way that prompted a goodly amount of case-drooling. I dig case-drooling.
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Ambiance!

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-4 Toasted Tots! The place was bad ass, with lots of light from the skylight, and the exposed wood beams and kayaks and canoes adding to the outdoorsy feel. I liked it. Good job.

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Stuff!

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-2 Toasted Tinklers! Not too much on the walls, but admittedly, if you haven't figured it out already, this joint was a used outdoor equipment retailer, and bikes are only a portion of the business.

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Bikes!

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-er, zero? No bikes to hug really, and the Cadex only offered freak-show value, but I'll cut the place a break as again, bikes are not the main gig.

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Overall?

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-3 Crispy Critters! If you need a used pair of Danner's, or maybe a beat Kelty external frame, and you're also hankering to stroke up some bonded carbon fiber, because hey...you're lonely like that...then stop on in and bake under the skylight!

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Gear Peddler

184 NE Greenwood Ave

Bend, OR 97701-4602

(541) 617-5254

EWR sale!

Like rats from a ship...the economy is officially down the crapper!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Eastern-Woods-Research-EWR-Vintage-Frame-Medium-Black_W0QQitemZ300342958836QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMountain_Bikes?hash=item45edd5daf4&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14

Iron Horse

Currently on the old fleabay. These old Iron Horse "A-frame" bikes were pretty funky back in the day. Designed by Bob Morales, they offered greater stand over clearance than many of the bicycles available at the time...good for guys like me with long torsos and short legs. Iron Horse also made aluminum variants on the theme too...which were a nifty alternative to the much more common GT Zaskar and imported Avalanche and Pantera. Cool Paint!

No, I'm not going to bring this one home with me...its a size too large!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260467091752&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

edit! Sold for $199 BIN. Good deal for somebody!

EWR History - More

This frame auction on eBay launched a thread on Retrobike about who the early EWR frames were welded up by, and where and when. When the thread reached wide enough that a previous employee of Grove Innovations spoke up and corrected some of the more obvious oversights, I figured, Rody put his hand up so why not ask him to clear up a few questions that I've had for quite a while about my EWRs! Here's what Rody, (who today welds up very smart looking frames, stems, forks and bars under the Groovy Cycleworks banner,) said.

Utahdog! - Did all Grove built EWRs have serial numbers?
Rody - No

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U! - Were you with Grove at the time (EWRs were built under licence)?
R - At Grove during the 90's

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U! - From your understanding, all production of the first generation bikes, up until 1997-8 would have been either made by Kenn/Jay and then Grove only? No involvement by Bilenky or any other contract manufacturer?

R -No other manufacturer that I am aware of, Fresh Frame did the paint, however.

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U! - Do the answers to the above extend to the E-Motion and B2 frames also, and not just the OWB?

R - Hairy Eyeball, E-motion, and full sussy frames...no Aluminum Trials

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So according to Rody, all steel bikes from the first incarnation of the EWR brand are Groves, regardless of dropouts...excepting the few made by Jay and Kenn very early.

Therefore, according to Rody, even my 1997 E-Motion is a Grove. Thanks for the info Rody! You've been a big help to all of us in the retrobike-addict world!

Believe it or not, Hairy Eyeball was the first name for the OWB! Hairy Eyeball?!?

eBay goodies

Been at it a little bit. I plan to have the EWR E-Motion built for my trip to North Carolina with the fellas in two weeks....and the SDG here and the Kona P2II disc brake fork will go on that. The Hugi hub was also intended for that purpose, but like an idiot I bid my max price and only noticed after the auction ended that it was a 36 holer. I have a Hugi/Mavic 217 Sunset front wheel already built, and I've amassed a pretty good stash ot Sunset rims over the years, (before everyone and their cousin begain bidding the price of them up thru the stratosphere anyway) so all I need is a 32 hole Hugi rear hub in good shape, preferably NOS actually. Looks like now I'll be sitting on the hub for a short time looking for a 36 hole 217 Sunset, or maybe I'll just dump the hub back on eBay and keep looking for the 32 holer. I need to learn to read....at least before I bid.

Total number of SDG saddles? 14! Maybe it is time for me to be a featured 'patient' on Hoarders after all!

Total number of Kona P2II forks? 4

Total number of holes?... Too many!

Pics, as always, shamelessly ganked from the auction pages.