Gearing Up: The Mystery Shoppers

January 24, 2012

Most couples we know have a limited tolerance for looking in stores together. In fact most people have a limited tolerance, even if on their own. Dodie and I have been married 44 years and I guess over that time have developed a few tolerances. In the case of stores, we positively enjoy prowling around. In the case of outfitting stores, we doubly enjoy it.

So today, aside from continuing to drive South, to hopefully happier (ot at least warmer) cycling grounds, we took advantage of the insane density of retail stores in urbanized parts of the US. Specifically, we hit two more REIs and two additional bike shops.

If you have a limited tolerance for looking in stores, even as an armchair reader, then for today at least you need to look up a blog from someone cycling through Siberia, or such like. But if you like gearing up and looking at stuff, hang in here and see what we saw.

**Bonus Review** We slept in a rest stop on I-5, somewhere North of Portland. There were piles of snow around, though on the pavement all was clear. The temperature in the van in the morning was 8 Celsius, which is pretty warm. Dodie's new "Gosling" down bag from MEC is rated to 5 Celsius and she was very warm. My "Cygnet" is rated to -10 Celsius, and I was a bit chilly. The -10 rating is a fair representation of the loft of the bag, but not a fair representation of how whimpy I am!

A bit of a San Francisco preview in Portland

We cruised into Portland and straight to the downtown REI. It's a medium sized store, big enough to have the items we came to see, and lots more. There is free indoor parking, and we were pleased to see that our "traditional" spot on the ground floor was waiting for us.

Locking Skewers

In Brian Ogilvie's recent Review of the Bike Friday New World Tourist, he mentions using the Pitlock brand of locking skewers. Not only can this prevent your wheels being swiped, but by locking the wheels they provide a way to lock the whole bike. Otherwise the Bike Friday presents almost no point where a U Lock or cable can get a hold.

We discovered at REI another brand of locking skewer - from On Guard. These ones sell for $68, which is a bit cheaper than the Pitlock, which we have seen at up to $100. The principle for both designs is the same: the bolt that travels along the skewer can only be turned by a special "keyed" "wrench". In the case of the On Guard, the bolt has three custom indentations which match the "key". The whole thing feels about the same weight as standard skewers, and does seem that it would prevent unauthorized removal of the wheel and seat post. The down side, of course, is the time and nuisance factor that come with the added security. Americans (and visiting Canadians) have noticed the same thing with Homeland security. In this one case, though, we went for it and bought a pair of these kits.

The skewer nut indents are custom to each package.

Waterproof Gloves

The Portland area gets lots of Winter rain, and also has a strong cycling culture. REI has responded with a section stuffed with a vast array of waterproof, insulated gloves. Add the existence of nearby skiing, and the total glove section is as large as some stores.

Our own approach to waterproof gloves was developed during a ride out on the highway not that far from home. A sudden cold rain had our hands (in normal long fingered cycling gloves) soaked and freezing. We dashed into a grocery store and came out with large size rubber dish gloves. These saved the day. After that we busied ourselves finding he ideal size of dish gloves (most are too small) and the ideal inner liner for them. We have this perfected now, and they work for everything including sleet.

That is, they work for Dodie. In sleet, the wimpy Steve suffers. So last year we got an offering from REI that claimed to be waterproof and warm, clustering the fingers into a thumb and two other parts and looking much like a ski glove. In the rain last May, these became quickly saturated, leading us to spray them repeatedly with silicone before at last giving up on them. We were both back to dish gloves.

That is, before running into Portland's waterproof display. The ones that caught our eye were firstly the Seirus Hyperlite Ultra Thin Weatherproof Gloves. These, says the package, have durable 4 way stretch and a wind/waterproof breathable membrane, plus a wicking micro fleece inner lining! ($30). It sounded good, but the REI staffer (kept hopping just with people's questions in the glove area) confided that in Portland weather these would not cut it.

Fortunately (for those with an extra $20 to spend) the same company makes a model that is (presumably) actually waterproof. These are styled the "Xtreme All Weather" ones. The difference is that the seams are sealed. Well duh.

"Tough guy" Dodie went with the regular "all weather" ones while wimpy Steve now has the "Xtreme"! The dish gloves, I guess, go back to the kitchen, and the long fingered cycling gloves go for mid summer cruises. Our $4.50 investment in waterproof gloves goes to $80!

Portland REI did not have Dodie's size in the gloves, so we hopped to another of their four stores in the area - the one in Tualatin. This one looked a bit cute and small on the outside, but like a Tardis, had enough going on inside for a lot more prowling.

Serious and maybe not so serious waterproof gloves

Thermarest - not auto inflating. The other day we had the pleasure of chatting on Skype with Trish Graham (A River Route Through Europe). She mentioned that she was now feeling the need for a more comfortable sleeping pad than the 3/4" standard Thermarest. Keying on what we had learned from Glenn Goodwin (Old Man on a Bike), I recommended the purely blow up models, like the Thermarest NeoAir. They are costly (are there any cheap things in this blog??) but Glenn, anyway, loved them.

The first one of the non-self inflating pads I tried out was an REI branded model, with the tubes running the length of the pad. The second was the actual Thermarest NeoAir. In both cases it seems to me that although the pads were much thicker than the standard self inflating pad, the pressure of air needed to support the thickness makes the pad as firm as if it were thinner. So it was thumbs down from me. Dodie tried them and declared she could feel every bump (tube) on the REI, but that the Thermarest, with its transverse partitions, was quite comfortable. Despite this, the difference was not marked, compared to the standard pad. That means the only advantage could be in lighter weight and more compact storage. That would not be enough to support the cost of an upgrade. Sorry Trish!

There are lots available, if you are into it.

Fun Stuff. There is lots of kid's stuff at REI, and Dodie fell for these shoes. They just looked pretty to her. On the other hand we saw Merrills and Keanes that were just scaled down versions of the lovely adult products. We are not beyond getting these for the twins and Amelia, but they will have to be just a little bigger before we can justify "technical" stuff for them.

Kids Keenes for Avi or Violet. Other models look just like the grownup ones.

One of our other kids, Jeremy, is already quite big and a serious mountain biker. We think he will like this for his birthday at the end of the month:

We said goodbye to our last REI (in this region).

Right on, another REI (even if it is getting a little late).

No matter, Wikipedia says they have 110 stores in 30 states. With annual sales of 1.45 billion dollars to maintain, I am sure they are waiting anxiously for us to come back!

Hawthorne Street in Portland is a cool strip, like commercial Drive in Vancouver. Cool for us means not only coffee shops but also bike shops. We stumbled on the street and on to Clever Cycles and Coventry Bike Works. These places are worth a trip to Portland, particularly Clever. They specialize in just folders, Dutch style large black shopping bikes, and miscellaneous unique tandems, delivery bikes, and other tricky stuff.

The folders are Terns and Bromptons. The Tern is the line brought out by the son and wife of the senior Mr. Dahon, after their dispute over Dahon company ownership. Until now, Tern was just a part of the fable. Now we saw a full line of these folders on display. Clever said they are the first (and only?) dealer in the US. We did not look at the bikes in detail, but it was fun to see them all there.

Brompton is the famous "original" folder. Something just of fable to us before this. They really are remarkable. Not sure, but they do seem to fold smaller than a BF Tikit. Unlike the Tikit, their parts (like handlebars) seemed unique. That may not be a bad thing, but having things as standard as possible seems a good idea for replacements and upgrades.

Finally the Dutch type bikes. All black and large they gave a stern impression. We really don't know what their specs are, but for tourists like us 20 of them in a row were WOW.

Dutch type bikes at Clever Cycle (made in Sweden)

Racks for large wine bottles. Could be good in France except we never developed a taste for wine.

Similarly, down the street, Coventry Cycle Works is specialized, with recliners (oops, make that recumbents, these are not Easy Boys!) and with Dahons. The young man in the shop knew all the bike paths around our South Vancouver Island home, so he obviously scored high. Also at Coventry we saw a selection of Minoura accessories, some of which we have not seen elsewhere. Of most interest were the ones that affix to your handlebar and project forward and upward a second stretch of bar that can accommodate extra accessories. This seemed like a good idea, since my bar is not very wide and valuable turf is eaten by the trigger shifters. Unfortunately the Minoura arrangement would interfere with the handlebar bag, we thought.

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