Category: Uncategorized

After a year of observation, followed by another year of observation with actual practice with a dummy pole and housing.  Today we have our first shots with the camera in the hands of the munchkin!

A little bit of coaching and she had it all under control.

A pretty great start to the day

The Expo was now in the rear view mirror.  And this is where the kindness of friends of friends kicked up to a whole new level.  Not that it had been lacking, just mentioning it now.  Jason, was along for the ride, helped out more than I can thank for and has friends up and down the coast who gave us a place to stay.  The next two nights we were living in Belltown.

Exhausted from the show, we were off to find a meal, then settle n with out hosts.  The weather had gone back to what I think is normal for Seattle, not bad but damp for sure.  The schedule was jam packed over the next two days.

Day one kicked off at the work shop of Haulin Colin and Garth.  I feel lucky to have crossed paths with Machinist / Artist guys who speak the language of bike.  When working on prototypes it is invaluable to parter with folks who are on the same page as you.  They have helped me out on a few projects in the past and there are still a couple of irons in the fire with them.  I was dropping off a Rambler fork so they could have a platform for out upcoming rack project.

That rapidly evolved into relocating a new set of front fork dropouts on Rambler No.1 to the final design location, HOORAY for no more adapter plates on my bike.

That as most things when you are having fun, ran long.  These two are great to work with.  It is a rare thing to have machinists that are bot exceedingly accurate and creative.  It was time to jet to out next meeting with Martina over at Swift Industries.

The building was awesome, and I will for ever regret not taking more pictures here.  (Jason, if you have any I can use I will put them in )  Martina is another gift to the world of cycling that is still relatively unknown to the masses.  The energy she brings to the creation of well thought out, functional, and fun bicycle travel gear has yet to be matched by anyone else I have met, a whole new bar has been set.  This trip laid the ground work for a collaboration project that will help to fulfill my dream bags.  I am convinced there are a couple of holes in the market with the available gear, and we plan to fill them.  By the time we were done it was apparent that a whole day had passed again with skipped meals.  Time to eat and crash.

Day two started out with Kathleen at Free Range Cycles.  Taking a minute to look back.  At the Expo I started asking locals, If you could get a Rambler at a shop in town where would it be?  Every single answer was Free Range.  I knew I had to find Kathleen and set up a meeting, by lunch time on the first day she had found me, meeting set, and now Was standing in front of her shop.

I knew from the first moment that this was going to be a very good thing.  As part of bringing a bike like the Rambler into a retail shop, I needed to find places that would know what it is by looking at it, no explanation needed.  Kathleen not only sells real world bikes, but rides them every day, Rivendells (hers tucked under the stairs in the pic), customs all the way though to basic rainy day commuter bikes.  Not only that but it has the feel of a well run local Bike shop

Well stocked, with the things you need and want for every day riding, with staff who not only knows it, but uses it.  We talked for a while, hit it off well, She took a Rambler out for a spin and came back with a pretty big smile.  Have I said this is going to be a good thing?  If you are in Seattle and want a Rambler, this will be the place to go.

Frosting on the cake was lunch at the brewery across the street.  The food was great, the fries incredible, and I look forward to my next trip up.  And if you could have frosting on frosting it happened.  The corner across form her is the Theo Chocolate factory.  Lots and lots of samples, no time for a tour, but we stocked up on supplies for the road and gifts for our ladies.

There was time for one last stop on the way out of town and back to Portland.  Jason wanted to see the Public Library down town.  There is a large place in my heart for good design and fun buildings.  This was a surprise for me in so many ways.  You could explore this like Alice in Wonderland for hours,

And there were even books, maps and all the other things a library is supposed to have.  We were there an hour and a half, time flew, shot a ton of pictures, but it was time to get going back south to Portland.

Thank you Seattle for an amazing time, the Cascade Bike Club does an amazing job, I will be back.

It has been almost a month now since getting back from my multi week trip up and down the west coast in the pursuit of getting the word out about Ocean Air Cycles and the Rambler.  I have had such a mass of pictures it was hard enough to keep up with it on the trip and I have been putting it off until now.  The catalyst for the trip was the Seattle Bike Expo, with a whole mess of diversions.  The trip went well, very well, and that is part of why I have been buried for weeks now trying to keep the business up to speed.  Thank you to everybody out there who has been keeping my busy!

Things started out by sorting and cramming 3 Ramblers and a show booth’s worth of stuff

into the back of a rented mini van

Saying goodbye to the Munchikin (Photographer in training)

And starting leg one of the long drive north.

Leg one stopped in Oakland where I picked up Co-Pilot Jason.

We worked through the night getting Rambler No.4 ready for the trip.  It looked like we had possibly dodged the impending snow storm hitting the PNW.  Last year I was stuck in 10 inches of snow in central Oregon.  We had an uneventful trip this time, but did see snow passing through the Shasta area.

We made it to Portland late, passed out, woke up to coffee with Russ and Laura, then had more coffee at Velo Cult

before heading to Seattle to pick up Aly at the air port.

After 3 days of driving and jamming to get things read, not even counting all the days / weeks of prep, we were really there and unloading for the expo.  Well almost there, we get lost finding the ramp to the expo and found this park with an incredible view.

 

Then we made it to the ship terminal to unload.  The folks at the Cascade bike club were incredible from start to finish.

Somebody thought it would be funny to shoot this, so it must be good enough to share, right?

Set up went quick, thanks to lots help, from the back of the van to the booth, there is no way I could have pulled this off alone.

Home to bed, and then the next day started.  Aly was able to get one shot in early

And it was off to the races.  I was able to take one short break, but it was a really long day for all three of us.  I met tons of new people, put faces and handshakes to internet friends and customers, and made the initial connection for what will be our first retail outlet.  Day one was a huge learning experience, mostly listening and a bit of explaining.  I was energized and fried at the same time.

There was dinner and a crazy party in the basement of a building down town.  I was too tired to keep shooting pictures.  That proved to be one of the hardest parts of the trip.  The times that you are really busy making memories and connections the camera is often still in the bag.  Day two was a repeat, then Aly took off for the airport with her uncle, Jason and I loaded out, and Part one of the journey was complete.  Seattle was awesome, with a few days to go.  If the weather was always that nice I think I could live there, at least for a bit.

Even though it has been a month (or more) of buried keeping the machine moving, there are still mornings that remind me how lucky I am and it is all OK, has been and will be.

Another Sunday ride to the farmer’s market.  It really is amazing the weather swings we get in the spring here in Ventura.  In the last seven days we have had everything from rain to blue bird days and now back to the fog and gray.

Any day out on the bike is better than a day sitting at home.  I was trying to time a closer intersection with the blue heron in the pic, these birds really are huge and the picture does not do it the justice it deserves.  I also crossed paths with reader David and his wife, out on a bike no less.  It really is awesome meeting folks out in the wild who have been reading my blog, if you see me out there stop and say hi.