there is a new book in the twilight series

height: 6’6″

favorite mythical creature: unicorn

favorite color: purple

silly thing about seattle: amphibious duck boat tour driver offended him with his hands

silly thing about bellingham: all of it

born: boulder colorado

hospital: ?

parental occupations: nursing

uphill or downhill: up

favorite song: the big ship, by brian eno

Eric has been a huge help these last few days, and if it is not well known already, p2p NEEDS volunteers! As a community resource we seek to engage with the community, and as we develop and try to help in a wider variety of ways, we are in continual need of all sorts of aid. Everything from mechanics to photographers, volunteer coordinators to chefs, all are welcome. So if you are interested please do drop in or explore the rest of our web page. We’re all about making friends and having a good time in the friendliest space we can provide.  Thanks, and take care. Ride safe and use helmets.

hand gesture (live long and prosper)

Today is day one hundred and four. He began in mpls and spent his first night sleeping under the bridge which demarcates Wisconsin from Minnesota.

Not much time in the shop, he adjusted his index and then helped his warmshowerhost get a new shift cable.

Corey and I ran into him last evening on our ride home, I think he said he was heading over to pigout. Anyway, we invited him to the shop for some stand time, and I’m glad he stopped in. As I prepare for my own tour it’s nice to talk to others about their journeys.

He went east from mpls, bobbed up into Canada, stopping in Toronto and Montreal, dropped into Vermont, and then rolled down the whole coast to Georgia. He skipped riding, somehow, and made it to Denver, then it was on to Yellowstone and Glacier, and on over to our little love shack. Next up is Seattle and the rest of the west. He’s thinking of just staying the winter in Mexico.

A loose kickstand chipped a hole in his long haul's chain stay, so he filled it in with glue and wrapped it in thin aluminum. That was 2000 miles ago.

Well Shane Carlson from mpls, have a good time! See you later, hasta luego! (he has a blog: thesideoftheroad.us)

Three things before I embark on some picture uploading:

• P2P will be closed Saturday 9-3 & Sunday 9-4 for the labor day weekend.
• Sunday 9-11 is the 4th annual Spokefest. There are lots of routes so come take a ride.
• Sunday 9-18 is our last open Sunday of the year! It’s also… our last FREE TUNE-UP DAY!!!! Noon – Four, Kids First, All are Welcome, vegan food.

Shop will be closed this Sat and Sunday for Labor Day. Hope to see you today or tomorrow!

Are you tired of derailleurs that don’t hold your chain taut? Well have we got the springs to save you!

those swirly things hold your hanger back, extra hard.

Not the worst idea, but the price it came marked with just seems silly. See you in September!

What a beautiful morning! Breakfast was delish, the sun is warm, I’m on my way to work early, I can get some emails out, I can  finish the cadenza. Crap! Ok Ok, I’ve forgotten some stuff at home, I need to turn around. No worries you can still make it back in time. Toodle-doo Toodle-dee! Oh wow! I’m already back on Sprague, this is great. La la, lo lo, only four blocks left, la la, car noise from the rear right, lo lo, AHHHH!!!!

which one

Cool project (hack job). It had solid rings (made of sunshine) for its previous bearings, so mid-war (today), we got to do some headset fondling, some skipping of teeth, and a lot of bendex-bending (a possibly pre-war-index/friction-sis.compatible-tank armored-hub-overhaul method that anthropologists have yet to carbonforkdate). Opps, well… two people steer-tubed me (bovine redbox business proposal) into writing this one!

Here are some highlights from the first few days in August.  Below is a tank of a single speed. The project was for an amazing guy, Rusty Hand, who needed a real simple ride.

this bike gets a nice-n-slow-with-a-big-smile on the spokane toodle index

Part of this gig was to make the bike free. So I took this as a signal to go ahead and hack and burn, or rather, to hack and grind. Chain Line was an early obstacle. So after dishing and BB swapping, and since we don’t have any dedicated single-speed crank arms, or ring bolts, or enough of the spacers I wanted, I was delighted to create some helpful objects.

in the middle

is there an easier way? yes. but what is ease? hot pockets!

It was great to work with Rusty, and we wish him well on his big journey with L’arche Spokane. If you would like to learn more about ‘the ark’ you can visit their webpage: larcheofspokane.org, where you can also learn more about Jim Olson’s Bike-a-Thon to benefit their work.

back from the first ride

Early on this week Corey and I began our newest duty, that of maintaining a small count of bikes for the use of City of  Spokane employees. We nabbed some tools and went to their kick butt warehouse where we rolled around on these lovely sheets.

stable in the stables

But, by far the cutest thing in the shop is our newest volunteer. She can fix reflectors like a pro.

heart melting in progress

then she went to check tire pressure. instant heart soup, on the floor

On the silly side, I spent an hour today trying to figure out how to route an internal cable. Yeah, that could have taken two seconds if I’d flipped the thing, oh well. Also, I got stung by a hornet, on my hand.