Tag Archives: mixte

Photo: March Starts

March has been very eventful for me so far, but there haven’t been any big topics I have wanted to blog about yet.

Last week I got to go on a nice long ride with a friend outside of Eugene; we got to sit and watch some cute baby pigs for a little bit. The next day, Angel and I had a nice ride around Eugene. We went to the Masonic Cemetery, and got a lot of great photos of some wild flowers. I’ll write about the cemetery next time I go there. It’s a great place to spend some time looking around. Afterwards we went to Viva! Vegetarian Grill for some ice cream and sweet potato fries. (Recently, I  won a free ice cream cone, for guessing the flavor right on their Facebook Page, but haven’t had the chance to clam my prize. It’s peanut butter. YUM!) Later that night Angel and I went out to eat with some friends at Cornbread Cafe, our first time there. We have had really nice weather so far this month, but it looks like the next couple weeks might not be that great.

Rant:
Most recently Angel and I went to see The Lorax. When we got our movie tickets we didn’t really look at the tickets themselves right away. (We got the tickets early). Later we realized we had received IMAX tickets. We have never seen anything in IMAX, and neither of us have ever seen a 3D movie. We don’t care for the idea of 3D movies,  as we both have glasses (and don’t want to deal with the 3D pair), and find all the hype annoying.  After we went to exchange the IMAX tickets for normal 2D tickets, we were told they were for John Carter, (didn’t notice that part) not what we wanted at all. We just wanted to see The Lorax, standard 2D, not John Carter IMAX 3D.

Well anyway, here are some nice photos I have taken since the beginning of the month.

Nice Fork Detail and New Rack Mounts On The Surly LHT Gamboling Goats Little Piglets Rooting Sow My Yellow Porch Chair - Warmer outside than inside. Safety Melon at The Library I Would Live There Flower at The Masonic Cemetery Flower at The Masonic Cemetery Flower at The Masonic Cemetery Finger Pointing Down Hope Abbey Hope Abbey Hope Abbey Apple Spice Icecream at Viva! Sweet Potato Fries and Vegan CheeSauce 
Angel Hot Things! Mac unCheese and Cornbread The Eugenewich and Crinkle Fries Gravy Fries Eating On The Front Porch One Other Bike My Pants :: New Pants Bike Pin Broom Stand When you ask for the Lorax 2D, make sure you don't get John Carter 3D.

End of January Bike Ride

Angel and I got ice cream from Viva! Vegetarian Grill today. The second greatest vegan ice cream, only to my own. ;-) Viva has the best soft serve, with great flavors to choose from, all organic, with specialty ingredients. They have new flavors every couple weeks. Angel got Mocha and I got Apple Spice. After that, we rode down to the river paths around Alton Baker Park to see the flooded areas. The flooding had receded, but the water is still high enough that some of it covers or reaches the edges of the path. Later saw a Penny-farthing.

Mocha Icecream Apple Spice Icecream North Bank Path Sign Flooded Path May Be Flooded When River Rises By the River Bank Surly and The Tree Penny-farthing

Here’s a nice video we made of the ride.

New Year to Now: Collection of Photos

Here are some photos I like that I have taken since the first of the year. Including photos from today’s ride to West Eugene.

Big Fungi Mini Bulldozer
And this path goes where? Exit
Flakeboard - the other side of the Northwest timber industry. Angel and I
Pizza Night Sweet Potato Fries!
Beautiful Day for a Bike Ride with Angel Happy New Year with Top Gear and Naps

Video: Winter Bicycle Ride

This abnormally warm winter has brought us some great days for bike rides all over town. Here is a video from one of those days, riding along the river bike paths.

Angel’s New Ortliebs with a Splash

Angel's Ortlieb Spash Design - close upOrtlieb has recently added some flair to their beloved Back-Roller Classic Pannier, as mentioned in a previous review on the panniers. (HERE) The new Back-Roller Design-Editions come in 3 new styles: Wave, Dot, and Splash. Each design comes in 3 different colors,  MSRP $170 per pair. Angel chose the Splash in the Aubergine (purple) with pink splash graphic. The Design set panniers are the same as the Classic panniers, other then the cosmetic changes, graphic, color, and Ortlieb logo now in the plastic clips. I will say it is  interesting to see a crisp, clean, new set compared with my well warn 2 year old set.
Angel's Ortlieb Spash Design - with bike
This color of pannier looks amazing on Angel’s Sky Blue Linus Mixte 3speed. Angel has wanted to get a set of Ortliebs for a long time, but didn’t love any of the original classic colors. And after seeing these new designs/colors, she knew she would get one of these. Angel loves them now, and hopefully soon she will get a Ortlieb Carrying System to use these more easily off the bike. These Panniers are sure to treat Angel well for many years, just like mine have.
Angel's Ortlieb Spash Design - box Angel's Ortlieb Spash Design - unboxed Angel's Ortlieb Spash Design - buckel
Here is a review I wrote on my Ortlieb Back-Roller Classic Panniers.

Rainy Day Floods & Splash Cam Test

Flooded Bicycle PathYesterday after reading a blog post from Eugene Bicyclist about the Fern Ridge Bike Path flooding at the underpasses below the streets. (Read Here) I decided to I wanted to check this out for myself, being my first year in Eugene. Before the ride, I constructed something I’ve been meaning to try out. I mounted my Fuji Waterproof XP10 camera on the the end of some “bull-horn” handle bars I got from a friend. I used a camera mount from a cheap small tripod and attached them to the end of the bar. It seemed to work out alright for the first day.  This should give us a new perspective to add to the videos Angel and I make.
Camera Mount Camera Mount Camera Mount

Here are 2 short video of the first test with the camera mount.

Splash Through The Rain from Austin McKimmey on Vimeo.

Fern Ridge Bike Path Flood from Austin McKimmey on Vimeo.

Sunny September Photos for Cold December Days

It is not September anymore but I came across some photos I thought I had posted on here. I didn’t then so I will now, because I like these photos.

Angel took this photo, it shows how nice it was that day.

I hope these warm you up.

Fall Bicycle Ride Video

Yesterday Angel and I went on a nice ride yesterday during the warmer weather. We rode along the bicycle paths in Alton Baker Park.

Here are a couple other videos from earlier this year I haven’t posted.
Summertime ride similar to this last one.

From our bicycle tour in August.

This is a video from our very first day after we moved Eugene, it was in my first blog post.

Review: Copenhagen Dual Leg Kickstand

Copenhagen Dual Leg Kickstand frount view

4 months ago I bought the Copenhagen Dual Leg Kickstand from Velo Orange, in hopes of using it on my Surly Long Haul Trucker. Despite my wishes, the stand didn’t work on the bike. There was nothing wrong with the stand itself or VO, it was Surly’s decision not to make the LHT kickstand capable (you can read more about Surly’s view of kick stand HERE). I knew this was going to happen so I had a back up. I would let my girlfriend use it on her bike. The kickstand that came on the Linus Mixte was a low quality, single leg kickstand that made the bike lean too far over, and would easily fall over when loading up panniers.

The Copenhagen Dual Leg Kickstand seemed like wonderful solution for that. I had chosen this stand over others mainly because it had adjustable legs, no need to cut them. It can be mounted onto bikes with a kickstand plate, or without (if the spacing is right). It comes with all the hardware to mounted the way you need it. The legs have large, rugged, plastic feet that can be unscrewed and adjusted to the length you need them to be. The plastic feet has a large foot print to help support it on softer ground. The legs spread down with a “scissor-action”, and when kicked up they lay on the non-drive side of the bike like most kickstands.

The kickstand makes for great help when loading up the bike with any weight, and keeping the bike from shifting too much. It’s always a help when loading the panniers. It is even helpful to keep for needlessly leaning your bike up against things that can scratch it, and stopping it from being knocked down in a bike rack. This kickstand also make for quick changing of both front and back tires. I used it that way a couple of days ago after the bike got a flat at U of O. The wheel was able to be off the ground just enough to get it out, and was stable enough to stay up with just the stand and one wheel. Great, quick way to do any small maintenance out and about with the bike.

The kickstand is made out of strong aluminum and and rugged plastic feet. The “scissor” spring is good and strong, but still easy to kick down and up. The only problem we have ever had with it is the mounting bolt has come lose a couple times while riding, so the pedal can just barely reach the very end of the kickstand while riding. It took us a while to figure out where the noise was coming from. This could easily be fixed with a little lock-tight on the threads. The kickstand is not as sleek or pretty as some others, but still has some design quality to it, making it look nice on any bike and getting the job done.

This is a great stand for all bikes, recreational, utility cyclist, commuters and even touring bikes could take advantage of this stand.The Copenhagen Dual Leg Kickstand is carried by Velo Orange and sold for $30.00

Copenhagen Dual Leg Kickstand rear view

 

Copenhagen Dual Leg Kickstand legs up

Science Factory

The other day while Angel and I were riding around we found the Science Factory. It’s a brightly colored children’s museum in Alton Baker Park, across from Autzen Stadium. We took some photos in front of the building.

Surly Long Haul Trucker

Linus Mixte 3speed

Surly Long Haul Trucker, The sun is always in my eyes

Linus Mixte 3speed