I recovered my bike from an eBay listing!

You may have seen this article I posted at the end of last month.

I went through the process of the insurance paperwork (now needs to be undone)

As I was just wrapping that up, my ebay query showed a hit and I found a link to my bike. The picture was blurry and a google image search happened to show me that the image came from a video reviewing the bike. It didn’t look exactly like mine so I decided to trust the seller and I was prepared to buy the bike if it wasn’t mine because it would have been close enough to be a replacement. I chatted with a cop beforehand and then I decided I would go in as a buyer and test-ride the bike. My brother came with me to stake out the bike. When we met up with the seller, it was immediately clear that it was my bike, it even had the fenders, rack and trailer hitch still there.

The next step was to pretend to go get cash from an ATM and we called the cops to go get the bike. Luckily, I had a key to the battery so that would prove the bike was mine. A serial number is what I should have brought with me.

Things to remember:
a) lock your bike up, always (double-check)
b) register all your bikes on https://bikeindex.org/ with serial number there! (Now)
c) if you want to find your bike these tips might help, they helped me http://ift.tt/1IiEApe

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4 Tips to Prepare Your Bathroom for Winter Months

Content originally published and Shared from http://perfectbath.com

Winter is on the horizon. If you haven’t prepared your bathrooms for cold weather, now is the time. Here are some tips to help you prepare your bathroom for the upcoming winter months, including: checking windows and pipes, adding some heating, setting the mood & winterizing your toilet.

Image Source: Flickr

Below are 4 tips to prepare your bathroom for the winter months:

Check Windows and Pipes

Bathrooms can be draughty places, so it’s a good idea to check your windows for cracks and reseal any worn silicone. It might also be a good idea to check your pipes for cracks and leaks, as well as ensuring all your pipework is properly insulated. By ensuring there are no problems in your bathroom to begin with, you can avoid small problems getting bigger down the track, which can often happen in winter with frozen pipes causing expensive issues. Source: BathroomCity

Add Some Heating
Is there anything more unpleasant than having to make a trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night, only to discover that the entire room is freezing cold?  You can avoid this unpleasant scenario – to a point, anyway – by adding a heating element to your bathroom during the winter months. If your bathroom doesn’t already have its own heat source, add a space heater or other portable heating device that can be switched on to heat up at least part of the room as quickly as possible. Source: AmericanBathInd

Set the mood
Speaking of simple swaps, trading out bathroom accessories to fit the season is a great way to change the look of the bath. Display cozy, plush robes to keep bathers warm when stepping out of the shower and make guests feel right at home. Consider installing robe hooks close to the shower door for easy access. For added flair, incorporate accessories such as towels in a festive pattern, splashes of gold in soap dishes, or hints of bronze in candle holders and picture frames. Source: WaynecoJournalBanner

Winterize Your Toilet
You may be unaware that you can winterize your toilet and prevent this fixture from freezing during cold weather. In fact winterizing the toilet is quite easy and does not take much time at all to complete. This process involves using plumber’s antifreeze, which you can buy at most home improvement or hardware stores.
Before you pour in the antifreeze, you should first empty the water out of the back tank. Once the water is drained, you can then pour in the antifreeze and then flush it into the bowl and drainage system. After you flush, you should then pour a half cup of plumber’s antifreeze into each sink, shower, and tub in your house. This step winterizes the entire drainage system in your bathroom. Source: KitchenCabinetKings

Contact:
Perfect Bath
Phone: Toll Free 1-866-843-1641
Calgary, Alberta
Email: info@perfectbath.com

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New bike shop opens on Williams while another preps to expand

(Photos: Metropolis Cycle Repair)

Portland’s busiest cycling street is about to get even better for bike lovers.

A new shop has opened in the bustling commercial block of North Williams Avenue between Failing Street and Shaver. And Metropolis Cycle Repair on North Page Street is planning to move across the street to a new and larger location.

The new shop is called 3928 Bike Shop and is located at — surprise, surprise — at 3928 N Williams Ave. That’s right across the street from the Hopworks Bike Bar in the old Jesuit Volunteer Corps building. It’s a new endeavor from Portland Bicycle Studio owner Molly Cameron. Cameron, a well-known figure in the racing scene, calls her new store a “pop-up bike shop”. She’s not a newcomer to the area, having opened her first shop (“Veloshop”) a four blocks east on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. back in 2001.

In a blog post last week Cameron said she wanted to open a shop, “Where we could work within the community that has always given so much to us.” Cameron credits support from the northeast Portland community for helping her first small shop gain the foothold it needed to help her expand it into downtown. In 2010 Cameron closed Veloshop and opened Portland Bicycle Studio. That shop’s niche has been mostly centered on high-end performance parts, bikes, fit and service for competitive riders.

Cameron says the Portland Bicycle Studio brand isn’t going anywhere and will remain in northwest Portland where she plans to open a new studio that will offer fitting, spinning and training services. 3928 Bike Shop is being positioned as more of a neighborhood bike shop for “the everyday Portland rider.” Drop in and say hi to Molly and the crew. Hours are Tuesday through Friday 11:00 to 6:00 pm and Saturday 11:00 to 5:00 (closed Sunday and Monday).

The new Metropolis coming soon to the corner of N Page and Williams.

On the southern end of the Williams bike corridor, Metropolis Cycle Repair is planning to move across the street. Metropolis has been in its current location on the corner of Williams and Page since 2008. Shop owner Nathan Roll says the move will allow the shop to expand and have a larger parking lot for customer access and test rides. Roll and his partner Bradley Parker have applied for a liquor license and plan to create a tavern in the new shop that will offer a range of beverages (including “artfully curated awesome soft drinks” in addition to the usual beer, cider, wine, and so on).

The new Metropolis won’t be ready until the new location can be remodeled and prepped. Roll expects the moving to start in January and the tavern ready to go by spring.

— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org

BikePortland is supported by the community (that means you!). Please become a subscriber or make a donation today.

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The Monday Roundup: A vision zero must-read, Trek prez on Trump, ADA and e-MTBs, and more

“If you have places in your system where you have unprotected road users and protected road users, according to Vision Zero you can’t allow a higher speed than 30 kilometers per hour [18.6 mph].”
— Matts-Ake Belin, Director of the Vision Zero Academy at Sweden’s transportation agency via Citylab

Welcome back from the long weekend everyone. Hope you had time to enjoy your friends, your family, and yourself. We’ve got another full week of news cooking for you. But before we dive in, make sure you check out the best bike and transportation-related news we came across last week…

Straight dope on Vision Zero: This week’s must-read is Citylab’s interview with Sweden’s head traffic safety strategist. I wish all U.S. electeds and engineers would adopt his perspective — or at least print out this article, tape it to the wall of their cubicle, and bring it to their project meetings.

Rare candor about “safety”: It’s rare to have a city staffer admit so bluntly that political reality was put ahead of vulnerable road user safety.

Wheelchair bike program takes off: ‘Healing Rides’ is the name of a new program in Illinois that gets wheelchair users out on the trails thanks to volunteers on customized bikes.

Seattle’s bike share saga: Seattle city council has made the end of Pronto official by setting a shutdown date. Read all about it on Seattle Bike Blog.

Daily bike riders = hunter-gatherers: People in Africa that still hunt-and-gather daily have excellent health and new research underscores the importance of daily physical activity. So keep riding your bike and you should be fine too.

More wilderness at Crater Lake: Conservation groups want to vastly expand the amount of federally-designated wilderness areas near Crater Lake in southern Oregon, a policy that would prohibit expansion of cycling access.

Trek president on Trump: Trek Bicycles President John Burke has 12 “pieces of advice” for Trump and says, “Like it or not, Mr. Trump will be the President and we should give him a chance.”

Trump infrastructure plan 101: City Observatory has published a guide to Trump’s infrastructure plan and what smart analysts are saying about it.

ADA meets e-MTBs: A woman with a muscular disease who rides a electric-assisted MTB says she should have access to non-motorized roads and trails under the American with Disabilities Act. The Forest Service disagrees.

‘Driving mode’ for smartphones: People respect airline safety enough to use ‘Airplane mode’ while flying — so why don’t phone makers have a ‘driving mode’? That’s one suggestion in a new set of guidelines from the federal government aimed at discouraging distraction.

Portland’s 37th traffic death: A man was arrested for homicide on Saturday because he drove his truck into and killed a man who was walking across SE Stark at 160th. The deceased man was in a crosswalk that had a rapid flash beacon turned on at the time of the collision.

Seat belts in school buses: Every state has mandatory bicycle helmet laws for kids. So why not require seat belts in school buses?

Bicycles rule: For some women and girls in India and Kenya having access to a bicycle is about much more than simply getting from A-to-B.

Thanks to everyone who sent us suggestions via email and flagged articles on Twitter (which where we find most of these).

— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org

BikePortland is supported by the community (that means you!). Please become a subscriber or make a donation today.

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Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Making stuffed pork tenderloin is easier than you may think and it’s a terrific party dish, especially around the holidays.

Here’s my trick: Instead of tying the stuffed tenderloin together with twine, just wrap it in bacon instead. It’s less demanding, and the bacon makes this an especially rich and flavorful meal. Plus everything is better with bacon, right?

This bacon-wrapped tenderloin seems fancy-ish, but is actually quite quick and easy. Roast a tray of potatoes in the oven at the same time, and dinner is all set.

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Jungalow Holiday Makeover

This post was created in partnership with Joss & Main

Photo by Nicole Gerulat

Last year at this time we were kinda mid-swing with our renovations. We didn’t yet have a proper dining room and we weren’t quite ready to entertain in our new Jungalow, but things have changed. I’m finally ready to invite folks over and have some serious holiday fun and yumminess.

Our dining room is now maybe my favorite room in the house and I’m ready to do it up this year. We had 23 people over for Thanksgiving!! And we have plans for lots of family and friends rolling through around Christmas, Hanukkah and New Years this year. I’m excited. I got a chance to work with Joss & Main to decorate the Jungalow for the holidays, and, well, things got very colorful, patternful and oh so jungalicious.

Photo by Nicole Gerulat

Photo by Nicole Gerulat

My vibe with the holidays is always festive, but not too on-the-nose anything. I love to incorporate lights, stars, angels, and a ton of vibrant color. I feel like those symbols feel festive across most faiths and traditions. I used a vintage suzani as a tablecloth and then layered on fun patternful plates, copper flatware and a ton of glassware — more than three glasses per person — because I think all the sparkle really makes the table look fancy and fun.

And to make all that glassware *really* sparkle, we added string lights down the center of the table too. It lights up all the glass and makes the whole table twinkle.

I’m really digging on these little straw ornaments (kinda like these) as well. I used the little angles as a little charm on each plate. Sweetness.

Photo by Nicole Gerulat

Photo by Nicole Gerulat

We decorated are Euphorbia Ammak with ornaments too (the big cactus-looking plant that lives in our living room). The straw stars contrast beautifully with the shiny gold polyhedron bobbles. Some ornaments were also added to our vertical cubby garden!

A bar cart for the holidays seems especially fun. I’m ready for egg-nog and mulled wine! To get the bar cart holiday-ready we added a lot of gold. I think that’s the key to holiday decorating. Gold, gold gold.

Photo by Nicole Gerulat

…and copper ;)

       

Find more shots from our holiday makeover and everything that we used to decorate over here at our Joss & Main curated event and enjoy using copious amounts of color and pattern to decorate for the holidays!

This post was created in partnership with Joss&Main. All opinions are my own.

Photos by Nicole Gerulat marked as such. All other photos by Justina Blakeney.

 

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Gingerbread Waffles

When I think of the holidays, gingerbread is always the first thing that comes to mind. I can just close my eyes and smell the sweet aromas of spices and ginger swirling in my kitchen right now. Mmm…

I often start off the holidays with a loaf of gingerbread cake, but this year I thought I’d add a fun twist by making gingerbread waffles instead!

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