We
found lots of good riding in Eugene today, plus roads closed by street
fairs and construction. Our first stop was the visitor center to get a
bike route map. That was an easy bike route from our campground. Getting to the next stop was a bit more challenging. One way streets and closed streets had David having to keep modify his planned route. I had my phone as a back-up plan, but of course he didn't want to give up...and he did find Bike Friday. They had two tandems for us to try, and they gave us a super tour. We even got to meet the company president and co-founder of the company Alan Scholz. He was extremely nice as were all the staff...Here Paul is showing us how the Tandem Two's Day folds up.
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These are incredible bikes... and a most interesting company. Everything in the shop is well organized. Even things like shop supplies are on boards with marks indicating reorder points. The original Industrial Age efficiency experts would love how this shop runs.
The welder below has air pumped into his helmet so he isn't breathing fumes. Work stations aren't fancy, but they stress proper ergonomics.
Next stop was Co-Motion Bike Company. A much neater looking office and showroom, but the production floor didn't seem to be structured as efficiently as Bike Friday. Below is their 29'r Java model with lots of upgrades. Fortunately it was the wrong size frame, because it was very tempting. We didn't get to meet the president of the company here; but Brian gave us a great tour, set up a bike for us to ride, and answered all our questions.
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| This Java has the Rohlof hub and Gates belt drive with the disk brake set up. |
Brian pulled out this PeriScope Torpedo (blue) and Mocha (metallic dark silver) for us to try. We've heard nice things about Co-Motion tandems for years. They are very nice bikes. The Torpedo was tempting if we could get some of our young'un's to ride. But then what would I do... They market three models of the PeriScope to families with young kids, to get them started riding. I think the Ventana El Conquistador de Montaña (or ECM) is still my favorite...but we aren't sure it will fit in the MH. So many variables with the build.
Co-Motion paints their bikes vs. the powdercoating used by Bike Friday and Ventana. The paint booths were amazing. This tandem frame is ready for paint. They do all sorts of designs and graphics. Brian said the wet paint process gives them many more options over powder.
During our wandering around Eugene today we stopped off at Lowe's to take care of more mundane tasks. Our compartment doors have struts to keep them from opening to far, but most of the screws holding them on have failed. We were a bit shocked to discover this while in Grass Valley, but that wasn't the best place to find stainless steel machine screws. Lowe's had the size needed, so he worked on this project a bit tonight. We only put 23.1 miles on our bike today, but we did ride three other tandems.
This wasn't a huge job although he did need to use the drill bits I brought, even though he told me they wouldn't be needed. It was a much easier task to take on than the RV horror story he was told about this morning. One of our "neighbors" stopped to ask David about the motorcycle lift (seems so odd this has drawn so much attention this trip). He mentioned having a water problem with his RV. He is here to see his daughter graduate from college and in a week or two later, she was getting married. He towed his trailer from Montana. When he hooked the water up, it started a flood inside his RV. Turns out he trained his tank to "winterize" it, but didn't realize he had to drain the water heater and other water lines. His first flood was from the water heater. Once he bypassed that device, it still leaked. So he had more repairs to make. :-( Yep these screws are a minor problem.
Looking forward to some riding tomorrow.
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