Day T7A: Insane Bike Logistics

February 11, 2023

Last Day Biking

I knew today was going to be crazy. Due to the failed phone errands to source a bag for the folding bike, and the unappeal of trying REI for a box, I came up with a plan that had a chance to succeeding.

Since there were so many unknowns, I wanted to get the earliest start possible. The bike had been locked up overnight inside the safety of the Airbnb as I didn't get a very good vibe about the neighborhood.

First order of business was to bike to 7/11 and buy an Uber gift card. Normally I lock the bike and leave the bags on the bike outside but I didn't feel safe about the neighborhood so I brought them inside. The attendant barked at me and said "Put your bags at the front of the store!" Not one to argue, I did as told but I was going to make a point and prove to him I wasn't some poor bum on a bike.

So I took out $200 from the ATM and asked him to put $100 into an Uber gift card. Let's see a poor bum do that huh. He did look surprised actually.

Along the way to the next errand I did see a bicycle shop on the route that wasn't expected so I got chatting with the guy. He said his roommate had the exact same Montague as I did and it was an awesome bike. Fantastic, and then I asked if he had any bags to take it with me on the airlines. That was a negative, they would have to be ordered online. He was a nice guy and wished me luck .

The next task was to bike to a mail packing service (Pak Mail) I had located ahead of time. The neighborhood had an even more sketchy feel to it as I kept on biking and all these police cars circling around were not making me feel at ease. Who knows what they would do. I was riding on the sidewalk to be safe as the car drivers here scare the shit out of me, but my appearance and my setup of gear might raise suspicions and they could think I was one of the homeless bums. In fact there were several of the tent camps nearby to prove this was not a good neighborhood. So I ended up stopping at another convenience store to buy more snacks and wait things out a bit.

Continuing on there was some sort of a 9/11 call and all these police and medics converging on a house. Things were looking horrible and I wanted to bike out of there fast. Thankfully the vibes improved closer to the city center as the bike lane infrastructure got better and there was a more relaxed feel in the air.

When I arrived at Pak Mail I left the bike in view of the people at the desk who then said it was really nice. I then explained what I wanted to do. They seemed to understand, after all their website said they were a packing service with over 30 years experience. So you think they could answer my question: "Do you all know if when this folding bike is shrink wrapped, will TSA accept it?" They said it was a really good question! Unfortunately they had no idea. The older guy said, "You know sir, I'm just guessing." I said, "I'm guessing too, but I think we should go ahead and shrink wrap the bike because I got this on the airlines the last time by doing this way."

The older guy said "You want the bike wrapped today?" I said "Yes" with an expression of incredulity and amusement that this was even a question. I mean, all over the world they have places like this and actually several are located right at the airports themselves. Bangkok has multiple luggage wrap machines at both airports. I've seen them in Vancouver and LA also, many places.

But here in downtown Austin Texas, apparently they did all this by hand! The gentleman went on to explain, "Oh we're so far behind sir. I'm sorry we can't do it." This was incredible. I've never seen stuff like this before in my life. Even the REI bike shop I called earlier insisted on a box, as did others. Here in Austin, the REI even said it would take 5-7 days to do a simple tune up for the bike!

In the end they sold me a roll of shrink wrap for $40. I would have to do the job myself. At least I could save $20 by not taking an Uber from there to my fitness class and bike there instead. So I did that and wrapped the bike up outside which was about a 30-minute job since I was not the most experienced at this sort of thing.

Then I explained my whole story (in brief) to a woman nearby who offered to help carry the shrink wrapped bike up the ramp to the fitness studio. She said, "Wow this whole thing is insane. You know, you should start a business to coordinate all these parts together and make life easier for others doing similar trips."

The universe has a way of making things move in a certain direction and her advice got me thinking this over big time.

But first I had to do a 90 minute Orange Theory fitness class. The workout was insane but to be honest that was the easy part for what was coming up next. The front desk was super helpful to store all my luggage while I worked out then I got an Uber to the airport right away.

The largest studio in Texas actually, they had 20 treadmills and 20 rowing machines, so a max class capacity of 60 people in certain classes.

Thankfully the airport wasn't busy. Check-in was surprisingly smooth, in fact I felt like something was wrong because it was too easy. The woman at the airline desk (United Airlines) really liked my shrinkwrap job and somehow I wangled my way on the flight with no extra charges. So I gave the rest of the shrink wrap to the check-in staff who really appreciated it. You never know when they might need it.

Delicious salad. Ironically it was the only place I could find in the airport that took cash.

The flight was super smooth despite the initial hassle of many restaurants in the airport not taking cash. On the flight I mulled over that woman's suggestion and began to wonder if maybe there is a business idea here. The idea I have other bike tourists pay me to run all this grunt work like sourcing bags, shrinkwrap, or any other hidden details the hadn't considered for bike logistics .

As a parallel example, the way people talk about online delivery makes it sound super convenient, but thats not the. case. You don't just push a few buttons on some app and the parcel arrives. There is a ton of hidden hassle on the receiving end where other people have to get involved. For example, my works in Vietnam and uses apps in Canada to order all the parcels he wants and sends them to an address ahead of time before he flies in. But someone has to be at that address to receive the parcel from UPS or even the mail and sign for it, etc... If nobody is there, the parcel gets sent to a holding location, i.e. a depot, but it doesn't stay very long and costs money to store. Other people must coordinate getting the parcel from the depot to where it ultimately needs to go. The business idea I have is to coordinate with all these hidden "other people" and/or hire a team.

As for traveling with a folding bike, this entire trip proved it was much harder than expected. If people say "put the bike in a box" then that defeats the purpose of using a folding bike. There are other ideas: a bag, and shrinkwrap as discovered.

The simplest case would be that you finish your bike trip and you want to relax and chill before flying out to the next destination, not stress out dealing with all this bullshit. So you call me or my team, and we find a solution for you.

While there are likely already people doing 'errand mule' business services in general, I think the unique opportunity would exist for folding bike logistics. Almost all the responses I got were that hardly anyone does this, and the people I talked to along the way at various stages hadn't the slightest clue what I was doing or why. But just imagine: there's a business that makes it easy to do all this, and a lot more people are going to be riding folding bikes and saying, "You know what, maybe I'll do a trip like this because there is a business that can handle all this logistics."

Those were my thoughts on the plane. Meanwhile the flight was quite nice, I landed successfully in LAX with the bike and a whole other drama was just beginning so that will be next entry.

Today's ride: 26 km (16 miles)
Total: 1,343 km (834 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	2
Comment on this entry	Comment	0