test ride

We picked up the bike Thursday night just after what was supposed to be closing time forClever Cycles (we called en-route to say we would be late and the reply was something along the lines of, we never get out of here at six anyway); they were still friendly and I didn't feel too bad as there was another customer who appeared to have just begun looking for a travel case for a Brompton.

After just a few minutes, it helped that I had brought along a copy of the deposit receipt from when we'd booked the rental, I was out the door with the same Bakfiets we'd test rode - good old number five. After a few to replace my sweater from work with a thermal and fleece, and to put on my helmet and gloves, I was off. 

Here is the route I took (well, mostly - we don't actually live in the park, but it seemed like a better idea than giving the world directions to our door). I'm not going to say how long it took me to make the trip, but I will say I was quite surprised to find it within just a few minutes of how long the same had taken me on my mt bike the previous Friday morning. The weather was perfect, clear sunny and about 54 degrees, and traffic, for six thirty, was pretty minimal (I tried to pick the most vertically-direct route I could find that generally coincided with Portland's prescribed bike routes or at least bike friendly streets), and I had a really good time. 

This is me halfway-ish and pretty much at the top of the gradual but persistent incline away from the river.

There was only one section I didn't ride up and I sort of planned for that in that I picked a rather steep but rather short hill in one case instead of choosing a longer bit of more gradual slope (I figured if I was going to have to push it anywhere, it might as well be getting the most out of it) - if you're looking at the map/know the area, me feet left the pedals going up the ridge on the north side of the Rose City Golf Course.

First impressions of the bike were much the same as my short test ride: lots of fun to ride, very easy in the flats, a bit of work in gradual hills (and I'm well away from being able to ride it loaded up steep hills and maybe even extended gradual hills - or at least it wouldn't be much fun), gets a fair number of looks for passersby (interestingly, or maybe not, interest seemed to increase in direct proportion to my distance from downtown Portland - perhaps those living close-in are just too cool to stare, or perhaps they see more Bakfiets - personally, I think I've seen less than half a dozen cargo bikes in operation since we moved to Portland in 2007, though I have seen a few more parked here and there).

Problems so far - most are probably due to wear and tear related to being a rental bike: I'm not smart enough to get the headlight to work - I got the bottle jack to engage, the wiring is hooked up (it seems, though I was futzing with it in the dark), and there seems to only be one switch of any kind, but no light - the rear light works just fine; the bike will often drop down a gear from 5th (sometimes 4th and 6th as well - the rest of the range holds well) if you are pushing hard - this happened when we did our mini-test too but we were told it would be adjusted/fixed before the rental - not sure if they didn't get to it, or there's something amiss; I managed to have my finger in just the wrong place when releasing the frame lock and got a bit of smashed up cuticle as a result - lots of blood but surprisingly not much discomfort (and a clear lesson to remember that you DO NOT need to touch the red lever to disengage the lock - it springs back quite readily on its own).