Random Notes: Late February Edition

Busy busy busy: Things don’t seem to be slowing down here at the Urban Adventure League HQ. While there’s the usual upcoming bike events and working a day job nonsense, I’m also working on the next (and final) edition of the Zinester’s Guide to Portland. And I need to get that done by May 1st! So I need to light that fire under my ass.

Blogging schedule: Despite not having enough time for much of anything these days (at least I feel like that), I still want to keep to something approaching regularity here on the blog. So I thought of imposing a schedule on myself, and getting out two decent posts a week, on Tuesday and Friday. I may do some more stuff on top of all that, but I think twice-weekly is a good yardstick. Now I just have to keep to it!

Five Packs Going Away: Yes, I still have a “store” for my printed wares (and other ephemera). I really need to do a fancy storefront, but for now (and for reasons too boring to get into) my “Store” still exists only on the old blog. Everything’s pretty much the same for now, but with one important note: I won’t be offering the five-pack come March 1st. It’s due to the ever increasing costs of postage and printing. For example, the five pack International rate ($17 postpaid) costs me nearly $12 to ship! So I’ll still honor the five pack prices ($12 in US, $17 rest of world) until 11:59 PM Pacific Time on Friday, February 28. (Just to be clear, the zines/comics will still be available, just not at that price.)

Beater bikes broach basement (and yard): My roommate got some free chairs from a classmate. Part of the deal was to take some bikes and bike parts off the classmate’s hands (he was moving), which my roommate was happy to oblige. There were three bikes in the deal:

• Exklusiv folding bicycle. Pretty typical 70’s folder of low quality, made in Germany. There’s quite the flex in the clamp area, so my roommate is going to weld it shut.
• A no-name “road” bike from the 80’s. The crimped dropouts, one-piece crank, and 26″ x 1 3/8″ wheels definitely puts it in “gas pipe” category, probably made by Huffy and the like.
• An early ’90’s Schwinn Woodlands mountain bike. It’s the best of the bunch, as it was a mid-range bike. It’s got Shimano Deore LX brakes, for one.

The plan is to fix up some of these bikes as grocery getter/beater/loaner bikes.

Speaking about broken: Remember the old Wrights W3ST saddle that I bought in the beginning of December for $15? Well, it was always an experiment to see how long I could keep it “going”. And it didn’t last long. The leather around the nose started cracking on New Years Day. And on Thursday the nose cracked completely off. Despite being out a saddle, I think I got my $15 worth.

New stuff: I got an Eton Raptor weather radio to replace the broken Eton Scorpion. And I also got a new lightweight tent, a Marmot Eos 1. I’ll be testing them soon and reporting back here.

Hope everyone has a more-than-adequate weekend!