Tuesday, July 01, 2008
No Problems
A couple of weeks ago the water felt a bit hard… It only took me two days to realize I hadn’t put any salt into the brine tank in quite a spell.
I dumped the bag I had spare - recycled that night - everything’s back to normal.
Duh…
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Great Riding
Just a note to say my trips to and from work are going well…
Almost got slammed by a lady last Friday. She was pulling out of a Child Care place on Hwy 390 and I was in the Bike Lane on her side of the road - riding against traffic. I admit - it was probably partially my fault by being on that side of things. Luckily, she saw me immediately upon gassing it and she stopped abruptly - saving us both a lot of grief.
Yesterday, some dill-weed in a Black F-150 had his two tires well inside the bike lane when he turned from Jenks, west onto Hwy 390. If he reads lips, I’m sure he’ll hit me on purpose next time.
Other than those couple of incidents… the riding has been peachy. I’ve put on around 400 miles so far and have discovered that for each 17 days I ride to work instead of drive, I’m saving a tankful of gasoline. Since I filled up 8 days ago, I’ve put less than 40 miles on the truck.
I’ve did pick up a small jwin radio at the BX a couple of week ago for $10. It clips on a backpack strap and has a speaker that allows me to listen to Bob and Tom in the mornings… I was missing that a bit. It doesn’t get the best of reception so I’ve ordered a Sangean DT-200VX thru Amazon.com. The 200VX is in a league of it’s own as portable radios go… and should do much better than the jwin. It should be here in a day or so, and the wife wants the jwin for her trips to the gym.
I also ordered the Extended Trunk Bag from Breezer to give me a little better carrying capacity. I’m sure Grocery Panniers are in the future.
This morning, on the way to work I ran by my Mom’s apartment complex and dropped off her rent check and cruised by an ATM and made a deposit. Both of those tasks have always been by truck. How cool is this???
Gasoline here is above $4.00 per gallon most places in town - and up to $4.19 on Panama City Beach.
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Thursday, June 12, 2008
I have a taillight…
Parts from Joe arrived on Saturday. I immediately went to the garage and started work.
Rather than just rip all the old stuff off, I opted to try my most suspect part of the circuit - the crimp-on connector on the positive wire at the headlight.
I snipped off the suspect connector, stripped a quarter inch of insulation and used the multi-meter to confirm that I now had continuity between the headlight end and the other end of this wire.
I soldered on a replacement connector that was in Joe’s shipment and viola’ I had taillight…
I didn’t need to replace the entire wire and all associated connectors from front to back… just the offending connector.
Joe told me to keep the extra parts for spares.
All is well… Biking to and from work; a round-trip of 16.4 miles, as many days as I can.
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Friday, May 30, 2008
Update - with Picture
Well… I’m doing the 16.4 mile round trip almost every day now (Grocery Shopping yesterday after work - no bicycle riding) and saving a gallon of gas each and every day. It takes me about 45 - 50 minutes most days.
This morning I had to go on-line to the Credit Union’s on-line banking just to see when I last filled up my truck. It was on the 13th of May. I still have 1/4 tank remaining.
It’s a very pleasant ride in the mornings… cool and quite… This morning I peddled past a couple of bunnies out for their morning roadside grass…
I take water with me… and I have a backpack into which I put a replacement tee-shirt and whatever collared shirt I plan on wearing that day. Once at work, I just take about 40 minutes too cool down and then swap tee-shirts and put on my collared shirt and I’m good to go. I’m all decked out for the day by 0800 before anyone of note arrives. I park the bicycle in my “office” that we all refer to as “the hooch”
The evenings - going home - is a little hotter and sweatier - but no big deal. Usually it’s straight to the shower and I’m good to go for the rest of the day…
I really love the bike… it’s worth all the dollars I forked out for it…
Here’s a picture of it, parked in the hooch…
Here’s a good article about the Uptown8 - Click Here.
I noticed that when I decided to go two-wheel as my little protest against the price of gasoline, it was $3.36 a gallon. This week it is $3.95 a gallon here in Panama City.
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Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Joe Breeze
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Parts on the way
So I get an email yesterday from none other than Joe Breeze - President and founder of Breezer Bikes…
He called me today and I went over all of what I’d found in my troubleshooting of the problem. He agreed - open wire.
Joe was a bit ticked that the problem occurred but I told him I wasn’t worried. I was very happy with the bike.
Joe took down all my info and said he’d ship the repair parts immediately…
Once they’re here, it will be a simple task of soldering the new wire to the old wire in order to get it threaded through the frame tube when I pull the original wire out… if that is even necessary…
Now I ask you… how many times have you had a difficulty with a product, contact the manufacturer and were contacted by the president of the company? This is a first for me and it says volumes about Breezer Bikes and their dedication to making the customer happy.
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Thursday, May 22, 2008
Open Wire Confirmed
I jumpered around the suspect open wire from the positive post on the headlight to where this wire connects to the rear fender through a button connector.
I spun the front wheel and for the first time, the taillight came on.
I rehooked up the suspect wire and got no taillight.
Confirmed open wire.
Sent email to Mitch and CC’d Amy… advising them what I’d found and what I’d need to make the repair myself:
- 4 or 5 feet of new wire
- 3 button connectors for rear fender end of new wire (two to use, one for spare).
- 3 small blade connectors for headlight end of new wire (two to use, one for spare).
Awaiting word from Mitch.
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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Riding to work
Taillight is not a show stopper… After a Saturday Afternoon ride from home to Publix Plaza on 23rd Street and Monday and Tuesday evening rides to the Southport stoplight… I’m was ready to hit the to and fron work route.
I rode to work this morning and found out a few things…
- I’m not 30-years-old anymore
- Life is good on 2 wheels
- I need to bring water along
- There are a lot of things to see and hear in the mornings besides Bob & Tom… (although I do miss them)
All in all it was a very pleasant trip - although it was a lot of “peddle, peddle, coast......................... peddle, peddle, coast”. It was a bit harder than I expected - but not a show stopper… not at all. Getting across the biggies - 23rd Street and 15th Street were a cinch… and I had bike lane, sidewalk or quiet residential streets for about 95% of my ride.
The only part of the ride that I would lable “iffy” was the 2 block from the Wal-Mart parking lot to the State Ave/19th Street roundabout. No bike lane, no sidewalk… but it wasn’t bad at all.
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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Tail Light not working
Everything is good - except I can’t get the taillight to light. I’ve troubleshot things down to an “open” in the positive wire from the headlight, through the frame tube, to the back fender.
I’ve written Breezer and asked for advice…
I was contacted by Mitch and we went over the proper wiring of the headlight and the taillight. I told Mitch I’d double-check everything when I got home tonight and let him know what I found - even though I am pretty sure of the open wire.
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Saturday, May 17, 2008
The New Bike
I got a call at Noon today from Laura, telling me the bike was ready for pickup.
I had just gotten home from the Commissary run with Regina. I headed right out after getting the groceries put away.
The bike is beautiful and ready to go… althoug Danni said something about the lights… I wasn’t really listening.
He also pointed out a blemish in the saddle that he said should be addressed by the Breezer people and a new saddle requested. I confirmed the blemish… it looked like something had hung up on the saddle and punctured a small hole… I told hime I’d do that.
I trucked the bike home in the back of my pickup and put it into the garage - and did a cursory inspection - removing various bits of shipping protection.
When I took the plastic bag off the saddle, I poked at the “hole” and found it to not be a hole at all… just some extraneous material from the saddle manufacture. I plucked it off and the saddle was perfect. I did call Danni and tell him that is was no big deal - just in case he was concerned.
The bike is good to go!
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Friday, May 16, 2008
Bike ready for pickup tomorrow
I didn’t want to bug Danni too much - since the order was placed on Monday. I waited until today to call him and inquire… trying to look like I was too cool to be as excited as I really am.
Danni said the bike arrived today and he was getting it all assembled. He said it should be ready for pickup Saturday afternoon sometime.
I told him I’d be by around 2:00 PM on Saturday to check.
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Monday, May 12, 2008
The order has been placed
Received email from Amy confirming that Po Man’s has ordered and paid for the Uptown8.
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Saturday, May 10, 2008
The Check has been delivered
Check for full amount has been dropped off at Po Man’s.
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Friday, May 09, 2008
Contacted Po Man’s
Out and about this morning… and knowing that Po Man’s has been made aware that the bike is ready to be shipped… I dropped by. Danni said he was good to go and needed a check. I told him I’d bring one by tomorrow, Saturday.
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Thursday, May 08, 2008
It’ in the pipeline!
Note from Amy that the container has been offloaded at their distribution center in Ohio and mine will be ready to ship as soon as the order is placed by Po Man’s.
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