Bicycle Adventure.
Earlier this month I read in the newspaper about proposals to build bike trails in John Day, and possibly connecting with neighboring cities. I started to do some research into normal bicycles and decided that a Trek Navigator would be a suitable bike. At the EORenew board meeting on the 8th Jennifer mentioned that she was going up to Pendleton to buy a new car on the 9th. The Trek website listed a dealer in Pendleton, unfortunately I wasn't able to call them before we left on the 9th to see what they had in stock.
I rode up with Jennifer and Lance in their VW microbus, about a 3 hour trip. When I got there I found out they only had about a dozen bicycles in stock, no Navigators. The "bike shop" owner stated that they were running down their inventory to get ready for snow boarding season. Oh well, like they used to say at Korb's trading post: "you can't do business from an empty wagon". So, I had lunch nearby and then waited to be picked up. While I was waiting a women came in looking for the same model of bike for her husband, another sale lost.
Later on I though about an electric-assisted bicycle and did some research. I ended up ordering a "Charger" from Electroportal in San Francisco, which turned into a fiasco, combining an incompetent shipper with an incompetent shipping company (Fedex Ground, aka RPS):
Sept 20 - Shipped, but "Judy Ethridge" at Electroportal managed to put a street address of 2600 instead of 26000 on the shipping tag, as well as mis-spell my last name.
Sept 22 - Get email with tracking number in it. Check tracking, It is in Hines, OR, about 60 miles south of here, marked as invalid address.
Sept 23 - Email Electroportal, they contact Fedex, they supposedly contact Hines with the correct address.
Sept 26 - Fedex, instead of delivering it, moves the bike to Bend, OR, 120 miles from here, I contact Electroportal again.
Sept 27 - Check tracking again, this time it showed they moved the bike to Portland, OR, about 200 miles from here, and then shipped it out (destination unknown) again early in the morning. It appears they are returning it to the shipper. Later in the day they, much to my surprise, they show up with the bike. The driver states that they couldn't find me in the phone book (because Electroportal mis-spelled my name) and that they couldn't read the FAX from their head office with the address correction!!!
Anyway, got it assembled in a few hours and took it for a test drive. Picked up a water bottle and rear-view mirror in town today. No decent bicycle helmets available locally, just those weird "aerodynamic" fad things. For now I'll just use my old equestrian helmet which is safer anyway.
Here's a couple of pictures, click on the picture for a bigger version.
By the way, got the new "West Wing" of the horse paddock done, so the boys now have some more room to roam around.
I rode up with Jennifer and Lance in their VW microbus, about a 3 hour trip. When I got there I found out they only had about a dozen bicycles in stock, no Navigators. The "bike shop" owner stated that they were running down their inventory to get ready for snow boarding season. Oh well, like they used to say at Korb's trading post: "you can't do business from an empty wagon". So, I had lunch nearby and then waited to be picked up. While I was waiting a women came in looking for the same model of bike for her husband, another sale lost.
Later on I though about an electric-assisted bicycle and did some research. I ended up ordering a "Charger" from Electroportal in San Francisco, which turned into a fiasco, combining an incompetent shipper with an incompetent shipping company (Fedex Ground, aka RPS):
Sept 20 - Shipped, but "Judy Ethridge" at Electroportal managed to put a street address of 2600 instead of 26000 on the shipping tag, as well as mis-spell my last name.
Sept 22 - Get email with tracking number in it. Check tracking, It is in Hines, OR, about 60 miles south of here, marked as invalid address.
Sept 23 - Email Electroportal, they contact Fedex, they supposedly contact Hines with the correct address.
Sept 26 - Fedex, instead of delivering it, moves the bike to Bend, OR, 120 miles from here, I contact Electroportal again.
Sept 27 - Check tracking again, this time it showed they moved the bike to Portland, OR, about 200 miles from here, and then shipped it out (destination unknown) again early in the morning. It appears they are returning it to the shipper. Later in the day they, much to my surprise, they show up with the bike. The driver states that they couldn't find me in the phone book (because Electroportal mis-spelled my name) and that they couldn't read the FAX from their head office with the address correction!!!
Anyway, got it assembled in a few hours and took it for a test drive. Picked up a water bottle and rear-view mirror in town today. No decent bicycle helmets available locally, just those weird "aerodynamic" fad things. For now I'll just use my old equestrian helmet which is safer anyway.
Here's a couple of pictures, click on the picture for a bigger version.
By the way, got the new "West Wing" of the horse paddock done, so the boys now have some more room to roam around.
posted by JDBob at 4:40 PM
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