2024 Coffeeneuring Challenge #2: Sunflower days

Today was Sweetie’s birthday.Her oldest friend in Portland took her out for breakfast while I had an online counseling appointment. After that, I enjoyed a little bike ride through the Alberta Arts District.

I treated myself to a cheap quesadilla at La Sirenita. Strangely, it’s next door to another Mexican restaurant called La Bonita, and both places have remained successfully in business for over a decade. I prefer La Sirenita because it’s a little funkier, more down-at-heel, and the food is hot, fast and fresh. And cheaper than La Bonita.

Afterwards, I rode a little farther down Alberta Street, and ducked into Golden Pliers to use their restroom. I sat outside for a few minutes to read the free weekly and enjoy the people-watching along Alberta.

Finally, I unlocked my bike and prepared to ride home along residential streets. But as I walked my bike to the end of the block, I looked down at the next bench and found this:

I looked around, saw that there was no one near it or looking for it, so I pocketed it. It still works and has a pleasant sound. I might make a gift of it later, to someone in need of a nice bell.

The weather was cool and cloudy, enough for me to keep wearing my hoodie. Along the way, I admired the decay that has become more prevalent since the pandemic and anti-police protests of the past few years. There’s a fence up around this building, which may mean some forward progress. Maybe.

On the way home, I enjoyed autumn leaves in a rainbow of greens, golds, reds and oranges.

Gardens everywhere we’re in the process of turning into the next season, with tomato cages coming down and mulch being laid in.

We still have some sunny days ahead, but with gradually lowering temperatures and fewer hours of sunlight. I love this time of year, though I wish the transition wasn’t quite so gradual. In past years, the rainy season would have hinted at arriving by now, but global warming has made a difference. 

I passed by this enormous sunflower and had to stop for a closer look. When the buds turn to seeds, the birds will go crazy.

I’m not adhering to a strict schedule this year. The Challenge began during the intermediate period of the High Holy Days, and allowances simply needed to be made. But I’m hoping to keep up with a couple of rides a week throughout the Challenge. 

Riding is a little harder these days, because it depends on how my balance is, and from day to day it’s not as predictable as it was before Long Covid. So if I have a good day that’s too close to the previous week’s rides, I’m not going to worry about it, I’ll just ride.

Happy autumn.

2024 Coffeeneuring Challenge #1: Neighborhood jaunt

I began my Challenge with a neighborhood jaunt.

I took coffee with me in a thermos so I could sip along the way, and had no destination in mind. 

Did I ride at least two miles? Probably. I haven’t used a cyclometer in years so it’s all guesswork now.

Here are some photos.

Most of my ride was taken n an errand, but ended with a stop at Metropolis Cycles to use the restroom. I was pleasantly surprised to find an old former Citybikes co-worker turning wrenches there. She was glad to see me, and told me that she still enjoyed working on bikes, so she’ll keep doing it awhile longer. (She’s ten years younger than me, and probably in slightly better health, so more power to her.)

I enjoyed taking a look around at some lovely bikes, then rode home.

The end of Swrve

Because of my ADHD-type brain, I often don't follow the latest news from every source.
So when I checked in on Swrve, the California-based cycling-oriented clothing makers, I was surprised to see an announcement that was actually dated February of this year.

Swrve is closing down.

They are slowly selling off what stock they have left, at somewhat discounted prices, until they get down to the dregs. Then they will blow out what's left (by then it will be pants for 28-inch waists and some leftover pandemic masks), turn out the lights and go home.

In their announcement, they explain why they're closing down. Basically they had a good run for fifteen years. Then, though they don't allude to this in their memo, the pandemic came along and made all of us wonder why we were spending $125 on a pair of jeans, especially since our jobs were lost and the government checks hadn't started rolling in yet.

They say that the landscape has changed, and indeed it has. But not only because of Covid. The landscape changed for a million little reasons -- a thousand tiny cuts, as they say -- that signaled the end of the last bicycle boom, the last great gasp of Big Oil, the rise of electric vehicles and the revitalization of the car industry, and the beginning of late middle age for an entire generation.

The fast is, if you don't live in a bikeable place, you're not riding bikes so much right now. I can't speak for the rest of the country, but Portland is losing the momentum of previous decades and losing the ground gained on bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure. We're losing safe place to walk and ride for so many reasons, and have been since we began to "bounce back" from Covid. Bouncing back is looking different.

Hell, my body looks different after Covid, Long Covid and so much change.

Instead of keeping up with newly emerging realities, Swrve tried to stay in its old lane for too long. Their largest pants do not extend beyond a 38 inch waistline. (I have had to regularly go through my old Swrve pants and add gussets in the back to accommodate in increased girth. I stopped caring about what that looked like long ago, because I no longer tuck in my shirts.)

They insisted on limiting their sizing range to the young and skinny, long after I and others had grown beyond it. And they insisted on selling clothing that fewer and fewer people could afford in a post-Covid world.

Adapt or die.

Or, more accurately, you can adapt and it's probably a good idea.
But you will still die.

Save your resources for things you can use for a long time and then pass on.

Happy riding.

When nobody local carries what I need, don’t complain if I buy it online.

A nice ride, mostly to get away from the noise of roof replacement.

My pump strap, which is over 30 years old, is biting the dust. I sewed it a few times to hold it together, and then the strap material began to disintegrate, making the stitches pointless. I made some kludgy repairs with layers of duct and metal tape, which looked ugly and was barely functional.

Then I set out to buy a new one at a local bike shop.

I went to three different shops. None of them carried such an item anymore. 

After my third shop, I gave up, went home, and searched for it online. Happily, Jandd Mountaineering, an established maker of bike and hiking bags and accessories since the early 1990s — and whose web site still looks like a 1995 web site — had some in stock, and was offering them on sale at less than $4 each. The postage was a little more than the item, but by then I didn’t care. 

I gave it my best shot.

The internet killed local brick and mortar bike shops years ago. My online purchase won’t change that, any more than buying a single item locally would slow it down. That’s just the way it is. And next week, I’ll have a new pump strap to replace the one I wore out.

Some mountains are impossible to die on.

Happy riding.

Coffeeneuring returns! The 14th annual Coffeeneuring Challenge begins Oct 6

The 14th annual Coffeeneuring Challenge returns October 6.

This is your opportunity to keep riding after the rainy season gets underway, meet friends for a tasty cuppa and enjoy the season from the saddle of your bicycle.

My miles aren’t impressive anymore, but they are still lovely.

Prizes available for finishers who log their rides and follow the rules.

Or you can just log your rides and have fun.

Details here:  https://chasingmailboxes.com/2024/09/14/coffeeneuring-challenge-year-14-we-are-back-so-save-the-date/?unapproved=205417&moderation-hash=74c895eeb7a32f33c1d2f31000c174e6#comment-205417

Due to the High Holy Days, I’ll get a slightly later start this year. But I should still be able to make my rides happen, especially if Coffee Outside is happening in places I can get to easily. (The Council Crest ride two weeks ago was, frankly, unrealistic for someone like me. LOL.)

So get out your rain gear and patch the holes, put a dab of Proofhide on your saddlebag straps, make sure your fenders are solid (in Oregon, fenders stay on most bikes year round), and start planning your coffee stops.

Happy riding!

(Photo: the Rivvy in 2016. Since then, the shifters have moved to near the grips, the grips have been replaced at least twice and the basket has been replaced/upgraded. I’m especially hard on baskets and this bike is on its third since I’ve had it. But it remains a lovely ride.)

Citybikes is dead. I’m not sorry.

This just in, from BikePortland.org — 

https://bikeportland.org/2024/09/10/citybikes-will-cease-business-this-friday-389443

I’m not entirely shocked. Once the sale of the Annex building was complete, there was no longer a reason for the three remaining owners to pretend to play Bike Shop anymore. They made their mint, and all that remains is for them to pay the outstanding bills, divide up the spoils and throw themselves a little party.

The sale of the Annex gives them a little time to figure out what to do with the Mother Ship (the original location on Ankeny near SE 20th). Considering the condition of that building, a house built in 1896 and slowly dilapidating in real time, I’d guess they can just sell it as is to a developer for cash and walk away.

The fifty or so former owners will never see a dime, because the founders never considered the possibility of such a thing ever happening. They were young and idealistic and naive, and never wrote anything into the bylaws about an equitable distribution of assets in the event the business closed down. I suppose they expected it to continue into perpetuity. When you’re in your twenties, maybe you can’t imagine that any idea this good would ever end.

And so, three people (who all became owners long after I left) will stand to gain many, many thousands of dollars each, a nice nest egg that cannot be legally challenged. And the sweat of all the former owners will not matter, now or ever.

I admit to a little bit of schadenfreude here. Considering my history with Citybikes, it’s understandable.

We’d had all kinds of time to consider the issue and write an amendment to then laws which would have respected the sweat equity of everyone who’d ever been an owner in the cooperative’s nearly 35-year history. Instead, the idea was discussed, the ball was dropped, and never picked up again. I still have the meeting notes that prove it, though honestly I suppose I could toss them by now since nothing ever came of the discussion. Instead, time and hubris brought us to where we are today. 

I never expected Citybikes to provide me with a meaningful “retirement” and that’s why I’m not feeling especially sad or angry about today’s announcement. I probably stayed too long, but only because I loved repairing bicycles and I loved getting folks excited about commuting by bike. But a career in the bicycle industry is primarily a career for young people with strong hands, and there is very little precedent for a retail bike shop to create meaningful, living-age positions for very many older workers as they age. I also figured out very quickly that a cooperative is not a community, and a community is not a family. So when I did leave, I didn’t feel like I was leaving a free-love, hippie commune. It was a business, period.

In retrospect, I probably got out just in time.

Citybikes is dead. And it should stay that way. It’s past time to move on.

Rubber side down, kids.

Citybikes is ending. Slowly and painfully.

Citybikes, which hasn't been a workers cooperative in some time, is on its final march to the sea.

The Annex building sold a few weeks ago. Three people will become quite comfortable from that sale after all the bills are paid, at the expense of the many former co-owners whose hard work built the business over the last thirty years.
The original location posts hours but does not always honor them.
Today, I found that the web site is down, with only this written in tiny font at the top:

"Please come back later."

Yeah, no.

Is it the fault of the folks who wrote the by-laws back in 1990, and who never created a plan for closing down the business and distributing assets fairly to all former owners? Perhaps, though to be fair they never anticipated an outcome like this when they created an egalitarian workers' cooperative. They were young and a little naive, and everyone who signed on to be part of the co-op was in agreement about sharing resources and profits for the greater good. Most of those people are in their sixties or older now, and the younger generations just aren't buying into peace, love and understanding in the same way. They want what's theirs while there's still a world to spend it in.

Is it the fault of the three younger co-owners, who came on in the years after I left, who forced out (and literally locked out) the fourth remaining co-owner when he wanted to keep the co-op going, and who found a lawyer to be their pit bull against all the outcry? Sure it is. They could have handled this with a lot more maturity and patience, but instead they chose to cash out and take what they could while they could as quickly as they could. Is this indicative of an entire generation of small business owners? No, but it sure does tell me where their values lie. Generationally speaking they're only playing to type.
That doesn't bode well for the future of worker-owned co-ops in general in this country.

Is it the result of trying to run an idealistic co-op in a capitalist economy?
Absolutely. You cannot simultaneously buy into the cooperative ideal and check your self-interest at the door in the United States. It simply cannot be done. The balance will always tilt towards self-interest, and stronger personalities will always prevail against quieter ones. Sorry. This is America and it comes with bags and bags of self-interest woven into its DNA.

There is not one guilty party here.

But when I left in 2012, I knew that after my ownership share was paid back to me, I'd never see another dime. So I left with a clear conscience. Whatever would happen after my departure was not mine to worry about.

Although I no longer worked in a bike shop -- or full time -- ever again, and my personal finances have never been as steady, I dodged a huge bullet by walking away when I did. The longer this collapse takes, the more I see that every day.

I predict that Citybikes will close for good by Christmas.

Hopefully, I'll still be riding a bicycle.

No hard feelings, kids.