Day 6: Monday, January 10
After the Half Moon Bay ride, lexm chooses only to separate the TSR-2, rather than disassemble it for travel. The Los Alamitos Creek Trail is only two miles from his parents' home and he hopes to get in a ride on Monday before packing the bike away for the journey home to Chicago.
With two speeds coming in at 50 and 70 gear inches, respectively, the TSR-2 is a little like having the Strida (49.5 gear inches) and the Brompton M1R (60.6 gear inches) in one. Versatile though that promises to be in virtually flat Chicago, California easily demonstrates its limits. lexm always thinks of the rolling terrain around his parents' home in New Almaden as being
effectively flat, but it's not (effectively or otherwise) as you try to navigate the gentle but
long inclines the Santa Cruz Mountains' foothills throw at you. Though considerably tired before even reaching the trail, lexm knuckles down and traverses its ten miles roundtrip, aided considerably by the TSR-2's silky smooth suspended ride.
Once home, lexm and father-of-lexm set out to pack the TSR-2 for travel. It goes in like this:
With copious photography, lexm and father-of-lexm construct printed instructions for unpacking and repacking the TSR-2 so detailed even a TSA inspector could follow them. As an additional measure, following the advice of Bike Friday customer evangelist Lynette Chiang lexm includes a cover sheet reading 'this bike-in-suitcase is hard to repack without breaking something'. (See below what effect this has.)
A hard afternoon's packing done, lexm and family retire to Dish-Dash, a fine middle eastern restaurant in Sunnyvale, for dinner. lexm eats too many kebabs and drinks too few Lebanese beers.
Days 7 and 8: Tuesday and Wednesday, January 11-12
lexm rises early, says his goodbyes to the family, and drives back to Oakland. He and MLV visit In 'n' Out Burger, whose shakes MLV declares world-beating in the fast food category. After playing with MLV's two cats it's soon time to pick up Greta from work.
The assembled gang makes its way to Emeryville for cocktails at the newly-remodelled Trader Vic's. They did a good job on the interior. It's at once more open and more retro at the same time. However, Trader Vic's also reformulated their Mai Tai to make it more palatable to Sex in the City-type drinkers. Aficionados of tiki drinks should opt for the 1944 Mai Tai, which tastes the way a Mai Tai ought to taste.
After Trader Vic's, it's dinner at Juan's. Depending upon who you read on Yelp, Juan's is either the ultimate old-school Mexican joint or the shortest path to food poisoning in the East Bay. We find it old-school, all the way.
Rising even earlier, MLV takes lexm to Oakland airport. Here, things get strange. lexm tries to check in curbside and is told that the Dahon Airporter is oversize, so must be checked inside. Inside at the counter, lexm is told the bag is two pounds overweight and asked if he wants to remove anything to avoid a $50 fee. Upon indicating that he's happy to pay the money, the check-in agent opines that the bag may be oversize, too, thus incurring an additional $50. Upon indicating that he's happy to pay that, too, the check-in agent says, "Well, I'm gonna let you off this time. But don't bring any more overweight bags, okay?" lexm's reply: "I promise I'll never do it again, ma'am."
Wondering what TSA will do to his shiny new Moulton back in the luggage area, lexm clears security with only one hiccup: Sister-of-lexm is a culinary genius and sends lexm to the airport with expertly prepared short ribs a la Craftsteak frozen and in vacuum pack. TSA agents are first alarmed, but later envious, and lexm is allowed to pass with his short ribs in tow.
Hours later at Midway, lexm waits anxiously for the Dahon Airporter to emerge at the baggage carousel. He fears the worst until it slides off the conveyor belt, one of the first bags to arrive. Taking it to a safe corner, he opens the suitcase to find it...exactly as he and father-of-lexm packed it - everything in the right order and
no TSA slip. Was it just uninteresting to them? Did Lynette Chiang's warning note hypnotize TSA? We'll never know.
On the cab ride home, lexm's throat begins to hurt. After pulling into the building, paying the cabbie, riding the elevator upstairs, and greeting the cats, he falls into bed. Waking two hours later, it's official: He has a cold. The TSR-2 remains in its suitcase as lexm convalesces.
*The End*
Two acknowledgements:
I'd like to thank Bruce Metras for being the only dealer I'd trust to buy a first-in-North-America bike from. He's in it for the love of bikes, not for the money, and he's gone above and beyond the call of duty in more ways than I can recount here.
I'd like also to thank SesameCrunch for hosting such a fun and relaxing ride with stellar company. His hospitality and friendly manner helped to make this the best trip I've taken in a long time.