i have ambition

Tarckives Bikes
1

wish me luck.

130 miles in the morning

then the same for a return trip on either sun or mon

doing these routes:

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Po ... State-Park

to

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Po ... lley-Route

(the site is down right now, but it’ll pop back up soon)

i will go thru such great spots as Oregon City, Silverton, Canby, Sublimity, Stayton, Scio, Brownsville, and Crabtree

pdx to Eugene to pdx

on my kilo, 45x16, week-old no-name road drops with a front brake and a dummy lever. sugino 75s and spd-sl’s, and LANCE ARMSTONG SHOOZ

srsly, i can’t fail in LANCE ARMSTRONG SHOOZ. amirite?

one big ortlieb rolltop backpack, which may or may not sit awkwardly atop the seat rail-mount water bottle holder i’m using.

i may or may not also see trackatino/tarckatino/stumptown/andre nickatina/jeremy.

got an alarm set for 6:40 in the am. have some fun without me for a few days, tarck!

2

good luck. i bet you’re going to be sorry you have that backpack on after about 50 miles.

3
4

The Kilo has braze-ons for a rack. USE THEM. Your local bike co-op of recycled bicycle place should have an old rack they’ll sell for cheap. Shit, even a new one is like $20. You will not regret it.

5

good luck man. Atleast when you’re done you’ll know you pedaled the whole way. (que fix push skaters video)

6
  • a jillion on the rack!
    My cousin tried to ride 50mi with me with a full Seagull black bag and he was in so much pain that we actually stopped mid way at a fortuitously located shop, bought a rack and strapped his bag to it.
7

toast you didn’t return my message. anyways i’ve had second thoughts about doing a ride to portland this weekend, but you’re welcome to come hang out in eugene or go on a road ride sunday ~8:30am.

brownsville is a cool old town. stop off there to eat a sandwich and look around for a minute… once you come out of it, you only have about 30 miles to go so you’ll be in the homestretch, and after some initial hills leaving town it’s 100 percent flat. good luck.

p.s. even the messenger-with-titanium-testicles, sharky, was in pain after he did an sf-to-pdx race with a messenger bag and ended up throwing the majority of the shit he packed out. heavy loads suck on your back on the long stuff, though 5-10lb isn’t too bad if you have the abs and back to support it.

8

Best of luck man. Let us know how it goes.

9

yea seriously, i don’t know how some of those bike messengers do it. I’d like to know if riding with heavy loads actually works your upper body or is it damaging your back

10

I’d say it’s just damaging to your back.

11

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12

I’d say it’s just damaging to your back.[/quote]

a properly loaded and positioned backpack with a waist belt that is used properly shouldnt be bad for your back at all.

13

I’d say it’s just damaging to your back.[/quote]

a properly loaded and positioned backpack with a waist belt that is used properly shouldnt be bad for your back at all.[/quote]
True, but how many messengers do you think have a properly loaded and positioned backpack with a waist belt?

14

It’s been a decent couple of days for biking, I hope this weather holds for a while longer.

15

Ignore these wussies. Panniers will probably be more comfortable and it would be really gross in the middle of summer, but unless you’re carrying bricks, you’ll be fine with a bag. I’ve done 200 mile days with a messenger bag (containing food, clothes and extra water) and my back was one of the least awful-feeling parts of my body at the end of the day. Pack light and you’ll be fine.

16

is basically what he’s saying here. go on!

17

Toast, if you left on this I wish you luck and feel bad for you… I rode 2 hours in 28 degree weather today in thick fog and the whole having my fingers-losing-feeling thing wasn’t a whole lotta fun. At least it’s dry…

18

[quote=“toast”]
Silverton, Canby![/quote] Both are cool lil’ towns, its a little out of the way but Silverton falls is awesome, there is a huge cave behind the water fall

19

neither really.

20

I’d say it’s just damaging to your back.[/quote]

a properly loaded and positioned backpack with a waist belt that is used properly shouldnt be bad for your back at all.[/quote]

yessir david. keep it tight and high on the back and it wasn’t TOO bad. the first 60 miles or so were bad, but then i took out like half the clothes i had packed and put them on (i was expecting 45 or 50, it was 33ish) and drank my spare gatorade and it was fine after that.

highlight of trip down- TAKING A FERRY. zomg these still exist? so rad. and for free! i felt kinda like aguirre from the werner herzog film, although i guess the only connection is we both crossed rivers.

bad beat- being deliberate and taking lots of breaks and getting a late-ish start (8:30am) so by the time i turned off hwy 34 to go towards brownsville, it was pretty dark. seeing my way by a blinking knog… at least it had a fresh battery. i got to brownsville, the century mark/thirty to go, at like 6:30pm. i took a 90minute dinner break, chatted with some locals, made an effort to find a free room with someone at the cafe (the two waiters there… one was 15, one was pregnant, so no dice). i did warm up nicely, though. they gave me directions to a hotel, but it was like 5 miles away and not in the direction of eugene. i said, fuck it, and did the last 30. the rolling hills out of town were kind of scary, and i walked up the first climb since i didn’t want my weary and wobbly ass to be in the middle of the road and have some truck bear down on me. the last ten or so into eugene were nice and flat, and i got some fixed gear ZEN out of that nice little moment. then i couldn’t find my way to the UO campus once i got into eugene, so i spent another half hour wandering around town. met the guys i was crashing with at a bar, then walked back to the apartment and claimed my spot on the couch.

also- on one of my rest stops early on, i texted an ex-gf i had seen twice in the last two years, but we were/are on good enough terms… i got a text back, “sry who is this?”, ha. we actually exchanged texts and a call for the next two days but failed to meet up since she was doing a rapid-water river rescue training program in a spot nearer to portland, then her VW van died as she was trying to drive back down. oh well.

sat- chilling. got some bagels in the morning, then safeway groceries. more high school friends showed up, we went early to a house party and played some pong, got some FAT TIRE (fuck your pabst, i’m a grown-ass man), chilled. left the house party for a concert in a dorm basement with two rad portland bands. got a free guidance counselor EP. went back to house party and it had gone from 12 kids to 100 or 200, packed in like sardines. i went inside anyway, not feeling the scene but too cold to stay outside and not willing to go back to my couch. i talked to one girl who brought an apple to the party, traded her some sips of beer for bite of apple. she had a friend named brooklyn, lol. brooklyn and apple girl left for another, hopefully milder, scene, and i was invited, but i lost them between the kitchen where we were perched on the counter and the front door. damn. night ended with kettle chips and sportscenter.

sun- both nfl games, a microwave pot pie, stretching packing.

(more on return trip later… going over to mah gurl’s)