Finally - Saturday and I was off with my newly rented car to Eugene. I wanted to get a tour of the bike Friday shop. Actually I thought it might be a bike store too where I could buy bike parts etc.. Inside they had a room with cushioned chairs and about 10 bikes on display. about half of them were used. There were no other bike parts, no bike Friday labeled stuff like shirts. I found it interesting that even in the show room they had a cable that had to have been 30 feet long locking all the bike together. I have yet to have seen bikes locked IN a store. The tour through the back was even more interesting now that I can identify more bike building tools and equipment. They have a lot of room for machinery but precious little for workers! They have quite a collection of old, prototype and unique folding bikes ( and non-folding bikes) hanging, dirt covered, from the ceiling in the work room. I found myself more interested in looking up at the old bikes than looking at the current batch of bikes being worked on. I got the answer to two questions I had about a few models they offer or used to offer. For those interested I will put that info at the bottom.
From there I went to Eugene airport to see an air museum. Sadly this one did not measure up to others I have visited. The displays were all nicely done but they appear to be working with very little money. It might be unfair but I end up comparing these type of museums with Reading Pa's. They [Reading]have money and have used it to get unique planes in the air so they can be used to draw paying spectators when they fly.
The weather started cool but by noon it was approaching 90. Still the driving conditions for my over 5 hours on the road were excellent. The drivers I encountered today were very good.
Now, for those interested here are some details on the bike Friday questions I had. I wanted to know why they did not have an air Fridays on display. The salesman explained that the "beam" can be difficult to ride with both side to side and up and down movement while pedaling. He explained that you really need to know what you are doing to ride one. I asked about the sat-r-day which was a folding recumbent that they once sold. He explained that the market for folding recumbents was too small to make them profitable. I did get to see the first bike Friday made. It hung from the ceiling of the work area unlabeled and filthy. I saw a few tandems that were really interesting for folders. How so? One owner wanted campy equipment even though campy does not make things specific for folding tandems so existing campy parts were modified to work. One tandem looked like a viewpoint ( the viewpoint is made by Steve Bilinky in Philadephia) but instead was a modified bike made by a husband to take his paraplegic wife on rides. Don't think she got off easy! She used hand cranks!
As it was Saturday morning there were only a few people there but the tour was still very interesting. I will include a picture of the air Friday with this entry.
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