Davey-Dave

Seattle finally saw some sunshine today, so I thought I’d take a beauty shot, one last photo before I move out of The Great Northwest. (Still, I should have washed it first.)

This is my Surly Cross Check rebuilt with nearly entirely Velo Orange components and accessories: racks (only one is on right now), handlebars, headset, stem, crank, bottom bracket, fenders, brakes, seatpost, and bottle cage. The only stock parts are the frame, brake levers, and seat clamp.

If anyone ever wondered, yes, you can fit 35’s on a Cross Check with fenders. These are kevlar Panaracer Pasela Tourguards under VO’s hammered 45mm fenders. They look like 650B’s, don’t they? This setup really helps smooth out Seattle’s patented street cracks, which are doubly bad in Queen Anne.

Everywhere I go, people compliment the bike. I was heading to Portland one morning before light last week, and even in the dark a man leaving the ferry yelled out, “Nice bike. What is it?” While it’s a little embarrassing, the extra attention from motorists is great; and the chrome helps. In fact, everything on this is serves a practical purpose, nothing is just for the style. It’s an example of what Ferdinand Porsche referred to as form following function.

And speaking of Porsche, I traded in my 356 for this and haven’t looked back. I feel much more connected this bike than any car I’ve owned. You could say having a really great bike instead of a car is more like owning a horse rather than an appliance.

And the places we’ve been! I’ve done two multi-week tours with this bike, once from San Francisco to Seattle, and the other was documented here last summer, through Vancouver BC. I’m about to start another, shorter tour on Oahu where I’ll be moving next week. If everything works out, I’ll be heading to New Zealand’s south island this spring for another long one before coming back to Hawaii to pair up with a friend from the Peace Corps for a ride around the Big Island.

You CAN Remember Every Password… Forever!

I have noticed people tend to think “free” can’t be as good as “an app for that.”

Take for instance password managers. You pay up to $30 for a “good one”, spend days copying your passwords into it, which they then upload to the internet, just so it can sometimes fill it out correctly for you. People are so afraid of forgetting their passwords that they’ll waste money to pay someone else to remember for them. And how lazy and secure is that?

Well, I call bull hockey. Bull hockey, I say!

You can remember every password without telling anyone else a thing. Here’s how.

A “strong” password has these characteristics:

• Only you know it
• It is changed often
• It is not used for more than one place or site
• Has a minimum of 8 characters
• Contains at least one UPPER-CASE letter
• Contains at least 1 number
• Contains at least one special character (*!?&_ etc.)

Well, right off the bat you can see using a password manager violates the first rule.

You can remember EVERY password by turning these rules into a formula that only you know. Here’s how (this is only an example):

• The first three characters are your initials, reversed, in uppercase
• The next two characters are your lucky number
• The next two characters are the first two letters of the site (or company)
• The last character is an exclamation point

Let’s say you are Olivia Jane Wilde, whose lucky number is 22, and you are visiting gmail. Then your password would be WJO22go!.

The ‘go’ part changes for every site, but you could use the color of their logo or something else that changes with each site. The rest is all information about you, except the exclamation point, which is semi-random.

All of the rules for strong passwords are satisfied, it is easy to remember and doesn’t cost you thirty bucks. So, there you go.

If you are still skeptical, use the link below and send me a donation (not mandatory).

Vancouver, BC With the nice weather I did some spinning around the bay completely unloaded.

It’s easy to see why Vancouver is rated among the most beautiful cities in the world.

Horseshoe Bay, BC This place was picturesque. There were a lot of hills between here and Vancouver though. I kept passing and then being passed by two couples riding together on touring bikes.

One couple was on matching Long Haul Truckers identical to the guy I met a few days ago who had 15,000 km so far this year and was heading to South America next. I saw him this day too, on the way to Langdale terminal, heading in the opposite direction.

Langdale, BC Just waiting for the last ferry of my trip, the one to Horseshoe Bay, 12 miles outside of Vancouver.

If Saturday was a sprint, then yesterday was my hill climbing workout. 4800 feet of climbing, average speed of 13.5 mph, and another 2400 calories burned.

I felt aweful this morning, I think it was the Chinese food I had for dinner. I didn’t want to leave this morning, but I didn’t want to stay either. After the last tour, I know that getting on the road sometimes makes me feel better, and it did. The headache went away as did the stomach cramps. I’m still feeling a little low on energy, but in a pretty good mood. I think that’s because I have two days of playing around in Vancouver ahead if me.

Near Half Moon Bay, BC I should continue to listen to those little voices as there was a real mechanical problem while I barrelled down the hill.

After I got off the ferry, I felt a nice cushy, springy feeling, one that shouldn’t be there.

After checking the tire pressure, which was only 20 psi (the manufacturer recommends 95 psi) I put the pump on and heard “fshhhheeewooooowoooo.” Thats how it goes: fshhhheeewooooowoooo. The valve stem broke. I’m glad it didn’t go fshhhheeewooooowoooo when I was doing 45 mph or I’d be writing a different kind if post right now.

I also learned (again) how much I hate Surly’s vertical dropouts on the Cross Check, but that’s another story. Suffice to say, if you’re in a hurry to remove and replace the back tire with, say, a hoard of mosquitos coming at you, you’ll hate these dropouts too and probably write Surly a surly letter about it.

Well, just 10 more miles to go. I just needed a break so I stopped by a pond to write.

Saltery Bay, BC Here you see the first meal if the day, including my first cup of coffee. I feel much better now. The BC Ferries have nicer food than WA Ferries.

After a big uphill for that last picture, came a big downhill, and by “big” I mean “short”. Short and fast! I’m pretty sure that 45 mph is the fastest I’ve been on a bike, especially a 65lbs bike.

As I got faster and faster, I sort of felt the bike ‘sit down’. I’m not sure how else to describe it. The word “seatbelt” suddenly came into my head followed by “bumpers”.

As I mentally enumerated the parts that most vehicles have at this speed, my eyes welled up with tears from the wind.

Then I heard the words, “Brace, brace, brace!” from a few days before when our ferry rammed the dock. As exhilleration and acceleration gave way to terror, I did the only thing I still had control over and tapped the brakes a little. But the image of frayed brake cables entagled in spokes became quite clear, so I slowly released them just as the downhill evened out a bit. I was no longer accelerating but still going quite fast.

As I approached the ferry terminal, I realized everyone there had passed me on the road, but no one had the fun I did.

Outside Saltery Bay I had a killer hill to get up here to take this picture, and you better darn well look at it! ;)

Powell River, BC Just look at that hotel ocean view! I never expected the Sunshie Coast to be so rainy.

But the weatherman says it’ll be sunny tomorrow and through the rest of the week. This suits me just fine. I’m setup just fine for riding in the rain, not so much for camping in it.

Our ferry literally crashed into the dock. For some reason the pilot didn’t slow down, the crew started yelling to everyone to brace, brace, brace! And then the loading ramp, which was raised, came into the port. Even with the engines still running at speed, the dock bumpers did their job but then sent the boat backwards. A handicapped man was the only foot passenger to fall. The second attempt was better but the loading ramp was damaged and it took a while for them to get it down.

Otherwise it was a pleasant crossing with pretty good food on board.

A Tourist’s Prerogative

I stopped at the last bike shop going North to ask about campsites, road conditions and convenience store availability. I got basically, “Well, ya could do that but why?” “It’s doable,” she said dully.

Apparently after Sayward, the road width goes down while the number of logging trucks goes up, this according to a cyclist who was in the shop. He was also quick to remind me that Port Hardy is not the top of the island and it wasn’t accessible by a road bike even with wide tires.

Add to that the weather gets wetter and cooler as I head north, this according to the weatherman, and I have several signs pointing me in another direction.

Instead, I’m going back south and take a ferry to the Sunshine Coast, my plan B. This’ll be nice, less focused on mileage and more on camping and exploring.

The further I go north, though, the more I hear “eh” reminding me I’m somewhere other than home.