PDX prequel - Martinez

Ok here's a PDX prequel,

how did I end up here!

Long time readers will remember 

our crappy neighbors in 2012-2014.

That era wasn't fun.

Work wasn't super steady,

and as renters it was a war of the wills,

and we were the serious underdogs.

Unbeknownst to most of you,

I've got an urban planning BA degree.

It's helped me in ways 

that have nothing to do with the major.

Specialties were procrastinating til deadlines,

and avoiding or circumventing bureaucracy.

I did learn how to type,

and ramble on writing reports about minutiae.

This blog is a UCSD skills byproduct!

That USP degree did allow me to apply for city/county government jobs,

However after getting reamed on Planner positions,

I had an interest in mechanic/tinker slots.

Would I be happy pushing papers anyway?

Maybe someday...

Apps are all online and easy to churn out modifications,

as they mostly use the same base website.

I bookmarked many CA and OR government websites,

any place I'd be interested in moving the family.

A few times I rose up through the ashes of hundreds of applicants,

and got to the onsite testing stage.

Even longer time readers may remember the Humboldt trip.

Some jobs I passed on,

either the area or the $$ wasn't liveable.

One place I did road trip to was up in Martinez,

near Vallejo working for Contra Costa county.

The little city was nestled in a dead end area,

far removed from the typical Bay Area hype.

It was like Ventura north.

I really liked the small town atmosphere.

Alas I didn't make the cut,

but it was a great excuse to visit friends.

Other things would come up.

Til next time!

TP

PDX Klunker - Electra Rocket - ii

Anyone whose heard of the Portland area,

has got to associate it with the bike life.

After living here for a while,

that doesn't mean only granolas or hipsters,

there's just a lot of people who ride bikes.

Compared to San Diego,

it doesn't seem like the bike Mecca,

however SD riders don't ride in the rain,

unless they're from Portland.

During the packing frenzy,

I obviously was going to bring a bike,

but which one?

Without having a home base,

it would be risky to bring a collector bike,

unless money was needed for a fire sale.

I chose the hot rodded-dented frame Rauler,

the perfect mishmash of campy, suntour and beater parts.

This is actually a great riding 70's Italian bike,

that I'd be sad to lose equally as the others.

The van filled up quickly,

but there was still space left on the trailer.

As a last minute thought,

I tied up a newly acquired klunker project next to chief.

(If you look closely you'll see the wheels.)

It looked precarious enough 

that people wouldn't drive too close.

This was one of my summer swap meet scores,

an $80 Electra Rocket from the late 90's.

A cool aluminium cantilever frame,

with similar angles of a typical hardtail mountain bike,

so it rides more sporty then a raked cruiser.

The best part is the Nexus 7-speed hub.

I've always wanted to put one on a prewar frame,

but they're hard to find for cheap.

I cleared out my thin mtb stash,

adding the fatter tires, S-works crank and pedals,

also drilling holes in the brake levers.

Drillium always a priority,

running out of time for the Judy shock.

After a few short PDX rides,

(can ya see the bike in the back?)

the front suspension would be worth the effort.

I didn't trust the 20 year old aluminum fork,

I've smashed my face from a broken fork,

while also clearing junk out of the van. 

One cold night was spent swapping shocks/forks.

The headset was the bigger 1-1/8",

allowing a newer functional fork.

It's tough to find a working shock

for a 1" headset on a true vintage frame.

I also tried to rebuild the sticky Nexus hub,

the internal changing system 

would skip the middle gears.

Way more work for one evening,

I ended up just dribbling oil into the dry hub.

It actually worked much better!

Maybe adding a zirk fitting would help...

The next evening I was ready to ride,

even in the almost freezing 34 degree chill.

The first 3-4 miles were so smooth,

a great way to learn the neighborhood,

until the dreaded back tire pop.

Holey chit.

Typically I'd ride-flat to get back quick,

but the 2.30 Michelin tire wasn't cheap.

It was a brisk walk.

Fixing a Shimano Nexus flat sucks.

There's no quick change for lazy speed freaks,

and there's two cables - brake and shifter.

15mm and 10mm wrenches are needed,

as well as a pump and a rag,

throw in a half hour for adjusting chit.

Not something fun to do on the roadside let alone inside.

The Nexus was showing its flaws,

weight and maintenance.

It took a couple days to rally the flat fix.

In the meantime 

I found a cool clip-on fender by PDW,

designed in Portland... built in China.

$5!!

The seller got it as a work gift.

Thanks Tonya!!

A little blingy but matches the bare aluminum.

A windy saturday finally got the bike fixed,

ready for a perfect evening ride.

I figured I'd jaunt over to the bike shop

and get some overpriced bike lights.

The kinda heavy klunker 

loved the couple inches of crunchy snow.

I wore so many layers I was sweating.

Next time I'll bring clear safety glasses,

the snowflakes actually hit my eyeballs.

Portland is gun shy with the ice conditions,

as a result the bike shop closed early.

Buncha babies.

Now I'd have to ride back with no lights.

I've ridden hundreds of night miles lightless,

in my old age and fatherhood it seems riskier now,

just cause there's more drivers that suck.

I'll prolly end up going cheap and taping flashlights.

On the San Diego Christmas blast home,

Jake, his friend Jon and I took a bike ride to the Point.

He's been getting into riding as you can see,

but wearing the Xmas present helmet

was just not pimp.

We're riding and everything is cool,

other than me wheezing behind these two punks.

Close to the lighthouse entrance,

cars were backed up a quarter mile.

I lead the way slowly,

then some jerkwad in a black shiny truck

chooses to pull into the last cemetery entrance.

The kids thought I did a swell job avoiding catastrophe,

although I smacked his fender pretty good,

and was on the ground in a split second.

It had been a long time since I've had bike road rash!

The best part was the kids won't question wearing helmets...

Ok where were we... the LBS was closed,

I took way too many bike pics,

Oh yea.

So during the snow ride I found this phone.

Back at the house all of a sudden it rang,

and I ended up riding back out to meet them,

which was cool cause riding in the snow is great.

Madeline had lost it while riding her moped.

They were super nice,

and drunk kinda.

Thanks for the beer money M!

Could I write anymore about this?

Yep.

Don't mind the mess on the table,

check out the new bike project.

A 1978 Mercian Vincitore. 

So effin cool those lugs are bitchin.

I'll probably flip some of the speaker hoard 

to be able to fund the parts...

More later!

TP

How to - blend in - v-ii

If you clued in,

it may be apparent I've taken a little adventure.

A new gig in the Portland area opened,

and it seemed too good to pass up.

Let's say I'm living three TV shows,

parks and recreation, portlandia and monster garage...

There's a probation period,

so it's a solo mission for the first few months,

the perfect time to get to know the area

make sure it's right for the family.

The first few weeks were interesting,

long stretches of van camping,

punctuated by weekend hotel stays.

I've never been so rested!

Once it's dark it's bed time.

It reminded me of the VW bus days.

If it wasn't for the CA plates,

the van would blend in perfectly.

They say PDX is a bike city,

but there are plenty of beat up cars and trucks.

About 3 weeks in I found a safe place to room.

That nomadic excitement was over for now,

in many ways I would miss that spur of the moment life.

There are two main things that changed

with the housing situation,

being able to cook at any time,

and being able to pinch a loaf at any time.

It is surprising how life revolves around that

when it doesn't come easily!

With a fridge shopping has a new meaning,

especially since my wife's taken over this part.

I went to the store only needing clothes hangers!

Whoops...

With the room came another ability - acquisition.

Wi-Fi meant searching craigslist!!

(and writing blog posts!)

I had brought up the bottom speakers and receiver,

and found the others in a CL hunt.

Uh oh...

It didn't stop there!

Portland craigslist is not San Diego.

Stuff doesn't disappear in 15 minutes,

there's a lax sense of urgency.

There are a lot of great deals that linger

and the prices are steals.

Thankfully I came here with a job lined up,

as its like shark feeding time having a steady income!

Which brings me to the original idea for this post,

blending in...

The hot rod doesn't do that,

and the van with the CA plates screams noob. 

A quick Craigslist scan and voila,

Like a chameleon...

The guy had this listed for $400.

$400.

$400 for a registered running truck!?

The pics and words cracked me up,

leaving no bad surprises for condition.

The ad was listed for a whole week!

My first PDX bike ride was picking it up.

I probably thought it was cold that morning.

I had seen it the day before,

and did some SD tire kicking.

Guess what? 

$300!

$300 for a long bed stick shift minitruck!

Ok there were over 200K miles

and it needed some love,

tires were funky,

there was a growling sound,

and the engine leaked oil like a fountain.

Deal...

The first thing was to get some used tires.

This was the only original picture,

and it's hard to tell,

but the front tires were bigger than the rears.

I knew something was off,

however it took the tire guy to notice

there were 15" rims in front and 14" in back.

Now it's got proper big'n'littles.

The next thing was bad planning.

I played it smart and ordered a bunch of engine parts online,

only to find out the engine was upgraded years before.

So the 1986 Mazda b2000,

is actually a 1989+- b2200,

a little more refined engine.

New timing belt and crank seal,

no more leaks.

Amazingly with all the quick fixes,

including a replacement corner light,

the total is under $500.

Between the 8x2 mile work commute,

 and a lot of craigslist scrounging,

I'm almost to $1/ mile less gas.

And wow the 4-banger is a miserly gas sipper,

in comparison to the van anyway.

During the first snow freeze,

I thought the van would be the better snow ride.

Holey chit,

going up this hill the rear slid out!

Not bad but on such a heavy sled there's a momentum.

Of course I did have chains,

but left them in San Diego!

Doh!!

The wife and kids sent them up after the storm...

The second snow freeze happened with the truck.

It is amazing how fast the roads ice over,

at 130 it went from dusty snow...

And at 3:45 it looked like this.

Doesn't seem thick,

just for some reason it gets very slick.

That night it took an hour and a half

to go 8 miles!

The truck was not fun to drive.

With no weight in the rear,

the tires would just spin.

In bumper to bumper stop and go,

every take-off would be sketchy,

a half dozen times I got 45 degrees sideways!

The treads were hard with ice,

I could get into 3rd gear and not move!

Every truck like me was dancing the same.

Upon my safe arrival,

I scored half price chains on good ole CL.

Thanks Tim!!

Of course now it's been dry for weeks...

The funny thing was chief was the best ice driver,

the skinny rear tires would cut through quicker.

Hopefully I can get these guys up here!!

Anyway more later!

TP