Camping by bike

Did a light (fixed-gear-friendly) bike-camping trip over the weekend. I'll do a proper post soon, but have also put up a few photos on the 'book. If you don't know what "book" I'm talking about, good for you. You continue to live in reality while the rest of us give our lives away to this guy.

Oregon Bike Polo Championships

Midnight maintenance the day before.

Garret changes the oil in the Ford Kill-O-Matic Friday morning.

Also glued a cog.

Really caked that J-B Weld on.

A good omen: this blossom opened on our cherry tree just before we hit the road. We took five people and seven bikes 107 miles up I-5 with no incident.

Arrived and unloaded at my friend Jordan's house in NE, off Alberta. We rode three blocks to play cul-de-sac polo outside the Polo Haus. They also had an awesome live DJ, a keg of Ninkasi Oatis Stout, and a micro pump-track. Unreal. That's our man Sean from EUG.

This guy's helmet caught my attention immediately. His name's Rory, and he's from Vancouver, B.C.

We made it home and slept for a few hours. Saturday morning, we prepared for the actual tourney. Boone found out his cog and lock-ring were loose.

Garret towed his polo bike and Brendan's disc'd 650. You can just make out Bob Ross above the brown bag by the stand.

A bunch of sissies drove there.

We rode. Look for Boone and Danya on the path in the background. Garrett and I chose to take the lane the whole way because traffic was light and the side path was steep.

The organizers were very organized, with fancy brackets and stuff. That's Jeff's arm.

Division 3 was the dirtiest division. "BMFP" stands for Bike Mutha Fuckin' Polo.

The Reverend Phil, representing.

An alleycat came through. Polo was a checkpoint. These guys were a little lost.

Garrett warming up in a pickup game. Meanwhile, my bike lays in wait.

I didn't saddle up at all until we had to play an actual points game.

A Portlander films from the fence as this dude from Los Angeles guards his goal.

There are no time outs in polo, but play magically stopped when this tough gal took a really mean spill.

I shot this sloppy panorama with Geordan's rented Rebel on continuous shutter mode and let Photoshop paste it together for me. Click on it for the full-size experience.

Sunday's games were on a single-serving court at the more nearby Alberta park.

Spectators spread out.

Most of the EUG crew hung out by this goal.

A Shift2Bikes group ride stopped to watch for a few minutes.

Some really impressive plays in the final rounds. I often found myself interrupting one "woah" with another, then another, and finally just yelling.

"Dirty Sock," a team comprised of Sean and Udelai from Eugene and our expatriate Abe, made it pretty deep into the bracket.

There were always a few standing around and pointing at this piece of cardboard.

Dirty Sock shuffling off the courts after their final defeat. They did Eugene proud.

This photog was shooting some nice on-court stuff until he had to jump up the fence to stay out of play.

GOAL!
Yes, that's Eilif eating strawberry rhubarb pie with a lock-ring wrench.

Amazing snot rocket. Caught on film. This is bike related because he's on a bike.

Former messenger turned Union Pacific engine operator, "Disco" stuck around to watch all day. Has one of the classiest road conversion fixed-gears I've ever seen.

Jordan was a really enthusiastic spectator. I mean he was really, really pumped about the whole thing. He should have won an award.

Eilif wanted to make sure everybody knew his team beat DFB, 5-0.

Organizers called all players onto the court at the end for the awards ceremony. Along with the cup and some sweet pads from Black Star Bags, they gave away these metallic purple risers with under-clearcoat decals. Do want.

Vancouver's "Balls Deep" won the whole thing.

Here they are claiming their cup.

The final bracket.

I saw this on my way out of town. I think it sums up a weekend of serious foolishness rather well.

look ma, no hands!

Lane is selling the demo production model of his cargo bike for $400 off.


It's been "slightly used."

Watch him ride it no hands!

free time

Being unemployed, I get to structure my time as I choose. Last week, I was sitting outside the 'Goat, having a coffee, reading Savage Love and watching the train pass, when my friend Sammi called:

I want to get Kyle a bike for Valentine's day and it's only two days away! Help me!

Never one to turn down a lady in need, I assured her we would be able to make it happen, hung up the phone, and went back to my coffee.

The next day, we set out to buy a bike. There's Sammi, being all Hollywood on her cell. The red bike is hers, but the sweet Nutcase helmet is borrowed.

She picked it up from the UO Bike Loan Program for a refundable $5 deposit. That's their resident mechanic, Noah, guarding his hanging helmet plant with a mullet and a sneer. He's actually quite friendly and approachable.

Sammi and I were going to ride five miles into Springfield to look at a couple mountain bikes from Craigslist, but found this tall road frame from a friend at a local bike shop. She paid $50 for the 59cm steel skeleton with fork and headset. We picked out lights, a bottom bracket, crankset, seatpost, stem, handlebars and grips at Eugene Bicycle Works for another $70.

After digging the remaining parts out of my garage, I put it all together and ended up with what you see above...And I got these sweet BMX platform pedals from my homie Ian's parts box. He was kind enough to hook it up for free! What an awesome guy.

Kyle was more than pleased. His car died a few months ago, and he's been hoofing it everywhere with a bum ankle. We set him up with big 27" wheels, which have a low rolling resistance, a 5-speed rear, a small single front ring and short cranks for easy spinning. Taking a page from the UO BLP's book, I made sure he had fenders and a rack as well.

While in the garage, I started another project. Our mail carrier was slipping our post through a slot in the door, as we didn't have a mailbox.

So I made one. Both items are from Goodwill. The yellow box contained a bunch of maps and must have been a promotional item for National Geographic subscribers. I glued the little blue box on top for spillover.

Also:
Here's someone's sweet cargo setup, spotted outside Sundance.

It's an old Trek road frame, with almost entirely custom components. Note the poppin' yellow risers and hot pink fenders. The rear brake is disconnected, but the front sports a big fat disc.