Bret Van Horn Dot Org

First, I knew better. I should have stayed inside and rested. You see, this odd summer cold has stricken me and my family this week and I felt rather low all day today, what with the throat burning and the coughing and the tiredness. But I felt like I hadn’t made any progress and had a tiny bit of energy, so I did it. I went out to the garage and began putting away the camping gear from last weekend (more on that later this week). Then I thought, well, I could at least just get the lumber ready. Oh, and while I’m at it, maybe I could at least cut the pieces… and you know how the rest of that story goes. Having been one of the hotter days today, I think I sweat about a gallon of fluids out, at one point my son looking at me with concern on his face and asking me, “Daddy, are you okay?” Apparently I was sweating a lot.

Anyhow, if you’ve been following along, you saw Phase I of the DIY bike repair stand from last week. As stated in Phase I, I stole a bunch of different ideas from this article and used them for my design. So yeah, Phase I, I managed to get the clamp and clamp arm put together. Tonight I built and tested the stand. It actually took me a lot less time than I thought (I also had some help from my very willing son who was  more than happy to run the chop saw and ratchet in some lag screws). I pretty much just used spare lumber I’d had sitting in my garage for a few years. It actually worked out really well. I used:

• 4×4 Fir Post
• 2×6 fir planks
• Several lag screws recycled from the disassembly of our old deck
• Left over washers from the construction of our play structure

Once done, we tested it out with the kids hanging off it and it didn’t even pretend to want to think about falling over. Score!

Now I don’t have any more excuses to put off the tear-down of the bike, other than time itself. And more importantly, I shall now lay on the couch and curse myself for not having rested, secretly basking in the feeling of success.

Check out some photos (apologies for the photo quality, I had to use the iPhone in low light):

To the casual newcomer here, one might assume I haven’t logged much time on bikes, but quite the contrary, I’ve been into bikes my whole life. I’ve always loved the feeling of flying down an open road on a bike. It’s just that in recent years, I’ve been, um, busy with life and have not been very good at keeping at it. Below are some photos and anecdotes of all the bikes I’ve owned (admittedly not a lot) over the years. I think this is more for my edification than anything else, but hopefully it can help spark some nostalgia with someone else out there.

The Big Wheel

I know, technically not a bike, but I rode the hell outta this thing. That is actually me in the photo, at our old house on Lynnridge in Cedar Hills, Oregon. I used to ride this thing down our driveway into the street and nearly was run over on at least two occasions when I rode out in front of moving cars that could not be seen due to the tall hedges between our house and our neighbors’ house.

Fate: Unknown.

Image courtesy of bygonebikes.com

The Schwinn Stingray

First, this is not the actual bike, but is pretty much how I remember mine. This was the bike that I learned to ride bikes on. I loved this bike with all my heart, it was a thing of majestic beauty. Unfortunately, one night I didn’t put it away and left it sitting outside the side garage door. Then next day when I went outside to ride my bike, all that I found was the word, “Sorry” scrawled into the cement with a bark chip. I was devastated.

Fate: Stolen and rubbed in

Image courtesy of franksbikes.com

The Frankenstein Bike

This, again, is not the exact bike. After my Stingray was stolen, my dad found a used bike and fixed it up for me. I think he painted mine gold. I remember going to the bike shop with him and seeing some beautiful anodized gold BMX handlebars and begging for them. My parents bought the handlebars and I had to earn them. I went into their room every day to gaze longingly at the handlebars and then, after much repeated nagging on my part, convinced my parents to give me the bars early. I think I also got one of those huge cushy seats like the Schwinn Hurricane in the photo that said, “MX” on the back, because it looked like a motorcycle seat. My bike ended up being so cool that the school bully tried to talk me into trading bikes with him. I declined and never saw a day of respite from his bullying. Damn you, Richard Hilton. Damn you.

Fate: Can’t remember

Image courtesy of oldtenspeedgallery.com

The Raleigh Grand Prix

Again, not an actual photo of my bike. Somewhere around the third grade, I saw the movie Breaking Away, which was basically about bicycle racing. That combined with my dad owning a Bianchi racing bike made me want to have a ten speed and become a racer. For Christmas that year, my parents surprised me with a brand new Raleigh Grand Prix. I was awe struck. I loved that bike so and rode it everywhere, did combat rolls off it, treated it like absolute crap and it held up to every ounce of abuse. I’d put on my Campagnolo racing cap and cruise up and down the street like a madman. I had that bike for a good 4 years before we moved enough that it was lost somewhere along the way.

Fate: MIA

The Rebuilt Raleigh of Indeterminate Origin (No Photo)

When I was in high school one summer while staying with my dad, we rebuilt an old Raleigh he’d managed to get his hands on. We stripped the paint off and painted the frame all white, then rebuilt it, fixing or replacing what needed to be replaced along the way. I used that bike a bit to do some rides and get around a bit. It was a decent little ride.

Fate: MIA

The Novara Ponderosa

When I worked at REI in the early ’90s, I was able to get a tremendous deal on one of their bikes. I saved up some money and bought their Ponderosa, which at the time, was a mid-range mountain bike that came with RockShox (this was when shocks were just starting to come out on Mtn. Bikes). I made a few changes to the bike, namely putting some regular steel forks on (I’d mostly be riding roads at that time), removing the Novara decals and adding some accessories. This bike has lasted me nearly 20 years now, and I don’t think I’ve ever replaced the tires. Granted, I’ve not logged a ton of hours on it, but it’s been a great bike for me overall. I recently replaced the saddle with a more comfortable one and added some climb bar ends. Mostly it gets used to cruise around with the kids and tow my daughter in our trusty Burly trailer. Not sure what I’ll do with it once I upgrade to something in the Cyclocross family, but we’ll see.

Fate: Still in Posession

1964 Bianchi Team Racing Bike

My dad recently handed down his vintage Bianchi team bike, which you can read more about here. I’m going to restore it and keep it around as a road bike to ride once in awhile. I dig it and can’t wait to get it back into shape.

Fate: Yet to be seen

I’m not entirely sure how long it took me to accept the facts that I’m now a parent and that my life has significantly changed in many ways as a result. But when it did sink in, it hit me hard. I realized that much of my freedom was not, in fact, going to return any time soon. I also realized that my days of hanging out in smoky rock clubs, going deaf to the soundtrack of indie rock bands turned up to eleven and drinking with my friends had been replaced by arranged dinners and play dates with parents of kids that my kids liked. And my evenings, once spent staying up late writing, goofing off, making music—all gone in favor of the elusive and rarely consistent sleep.

The Waiting List, a completely indie film produced in Portland, OR, is the Catcher in the Rye for Generation X parents. Written by director/producer, Mike Vogel while he was a stay-at-home dad, the film takes the perspective of parenting that many parents would never express out loud. The idea that it’s okay to love our kids and do things for them we wouldn’t even do for ourselves, but also okay to feel or express regret over our losses of freedom is a sentiment that is not often communicated in modern media. Using humor that ranges from raunchy to subtle, the film is a witty and sometimes edgy take on parenting in the 21st century.

The film itself  takes place in a fictitious preschool where parents are required to spend the night at the school to maintain their childrens’ spot on the waiting list. When this particular group of parents is united, we discover that they all have regrets, issues, anxieties and complaints about being parents, which ends up being the common bond that joins them all together. I’ve seen this film compared to The Breakfast Club—and rightfully so—because it locks a group of varied personalities into a room together and forces them to communicate, commiserate and to understand one another. I can totally see that comparison. But it also has elements of a great Woody Allen film or even a Kevin Smith film, with pointed monologues and witty, complex dialog, respectively.

However, more than just a bunch of comparisons, this film is the launching pad for Mike Vogel, who demonstrates that he is a filmmaker with his own unique voice and style. Woven throughout the humor, one can also find some sincere sentiments, betrayal, emotional conflict and young parents making amends with what their lives have become.

The cast is great, with impressive performances by Audrey Walker as the reluctant mother, Jayme S Hall as the comedic stay-at-home dad, Bryce Flint-Somerville as Ben the workaholic troubled husband, Amada Englund as the scheming Kathryn and Teresa Decher as the potentially pregnant teen, Ella. Mercedes Rose also puts in a great performance as the modern day schoolmarm who debriefs the parents on their upcoming night’s mission. Never overstated or melodramatic, the acting is incredibly well-done for an indie film. Each member of the cast is great in his or her own way, putting out natural performances that are convincing and never forced.

The cinematography and editing, for a low budget film, were also well done. There were some genuinely beautiful shots of Portland and some excellent stylized transitions to cut between scenes. I’d also be remiss to leave out the soundtrack, which had a unique and fitting style to it. This film is clearly a labor of love, with no details left to spare.

Is The Waiting List right for you? In short, any parent who’s been forced to sit through Dora the Explorer, watch endless princess movies, strike up awkward conversations at play dates or just generally wonder why they do the things they do for their kids will be able to relate to this film. On an entirely different level, the film has also reminded me that as parents, we can (and need to) carve out time to do things for ourselves or we can’t be good parents. We need to get out with our friends once in awhile, work on our hobbies, do the things that make us ourselves or we become someone we’re not familiar with, someone we may not want raising our children.

If you’re a parent, or hell, if you simply love indie films, keep an eye on the film’s web site for upcoming showings. Next one up is at the Eugene Film Festival and Mike Vogel says he’s trying to get a Portland screening going soon. Did I mention it won for best local feature film at the Washougal International Film Festival this year? Yep. Do check this out if you get the opportunity. And if you don’t, make it happen some other way.

The Green Room @ The Washougal International Film Festival

I had promised myself I’d get back to the Washougal International Film Festival before it left, and the morning after attending my wife’s surreal high school reunion (more on that another day), I decided I needed a quick break. My mission was to catch Clones Gone Wild!, which I was politely asked to check out on Twitter by none other than its star/writer/producer, Chad Mathews. More on Clones Gone Wild! later.

I showed up at the festival around noon and went straight to the Green Room, which was a smallish room, normally used as the Drama classroom at the highschool. While waiting for the noon block to start, one of the festival volunteers came in and we had a brief chat. Turns out their attendance doubled this year, which is great. Shortly after we started talking, the lights went out and the films started. Here’s what I saw:

Thanksgiving

I really liked this short film, full of a deep, dark tension where you feel like something is about to go horribly wrong, but don’t know exactly what or when. It’s the story of a man dealing with life after war and is very timely and real as we learn how to help our soldiers cope with the things they’ve seen and/or done in the name of war. Very well done, with natural acting and a great sense of brooding. Made me want to see more of these characters and witness them develop further.

Diamond

Diamond is a short film that illustrates the effects of drug and alcohol abuse on children. It’s a sad story about a boy who loses his mother to an overdose and his father to jail. When his grandmother comes to take care of him, a battle of wills ensues to keep him from maintaining contact with his father. While it felt a little melodramatic at times, I felt that the film came from a sincere place and was shot very well.

Reflection

Reflection was a dark, almost graphic novel-style short film that felt as though it should have been a full-length film. The acting was well done and, really, for a low-budget short film, the action and special effects were exemplary. Much of the cinematography and editing reminded me of John Woo films, with poetic, graceful and dramatic action sequences. Overall, I wanted to see more character and story development, but I also understand that the story can only be told so much with a short time frame to work with. Hope to see more from this team in the future.

Clones Gone Wild!

This was it, the one I had been waiting for, and I tell you, it did not disappoint. The premise of this short comedy is something along the lines of: what if we lived in a world with clones, and those clones went crazy (wild!) and were eradicated due to their uprising? And: what if a few clones still existed? And: oh, what if you found out you have a clone who is way more successful at, well, everything, than you are? This premise opens up the doors for a short film packed with ironic humor, satire and some great supporting characters. I don’t like to make comparisons, because each film maker has their own slant on things, but I really felt like I was watching a lost Mike Judge film, which is a good thing. The characters were adorably quirky and the plot kept me engaged, never growing tired or looking at my watch. Plus, there were lots of great mustache jokes (always a selling point) and my new favorite punchline, “TONY DANZA!” Seriously, catch a showing of this if the opportunity arises.

The Twenty

Unfortunately I had to leave to make it to an appointment, so I wasn’t able to watch The Twenty. By all accounts, it looks like a well-done film with a great cast, so I hope I get the chance to see it some day.

Thanks again to the folks at the WIFF, the film makers and to everyone I met along the way. Can’t wait for next year’s festival.

When I decided to take on the restoration of this vintage Bianchi, I quickly realized I was grossly under-equipped for the task at hand. Not only am I lacking experience in the ways of bike repair fu, but I don’t have a decent set of bike-specific tools. Nevermind the fact that I have nowhere to perch my bike while I work on it. For the tools, I realized that if I ordered a decent basic toolkit, that would get me started and that I would probably need some specialized tools to work on this old bike anyhow (which I can pick up as needed).

Which left me with the repair stand issue. I don’t have a lot of extra money laying around these days, and after researching commercial bike repair stands, quickly realized I needed to find an alternative. So I put Google to work and found an article that answered my call. I decided on a conglomeration of the various designs I came across. Tonight, I worked on the clamping mechanism, which is built using a 1 1/4″ PVC tee, a couple hinges and a hasp latch. As you can see from the photos below, the whole thing will be attached to a 1 1/4″ steel pipe that’s threaded on both ends, which will be screwed into a pipe base (also note that I have an extension for it, in the event I need more clearance). That’s as far as I got tonight. The hinges got on a little crooked and the hasp latch could use a little adjusting, but this should hold the Bianchi (and a our other bikes) in place quite well.

Next step will be to build a stand for it, as I realized I don’t have any open wall space in our garage on which to mount this. Luckily, I have a pristine 4×4 in the garage that I’ve been saving for several years “just in case.” Yay for packrat behavior rewarding. I plan to build a base for the 4×4, which I will cut down to about head height. Then I’ll lag screw the steel pipe base onto the post.

Kind of excited about this, and hope it works well. The clamp works well enough, but will be a little cumbersome to put on, I think. At any rate, more pics to follow once I get Phase II completed.

When I heard that there’s an actual International film festival just down the street from my house I promised myself I’d make it at least once to check things out. I have to say, I’m really excited that Breven Angaelica Warren has put this whole thing together and is attempting to bring some culture to Washougal. I was sad to see that the attendance wasn’t great, because there were some really great films this evening. I don’t blame the Film Festival folks for the low attendance, I just think it’s going to take a few more years for this event to catch on, and for the local residents to catch on, as well.

At any rate, I caught several films, of which I’ll do some quick write-ups below. I want to thank Breven and her people for putting this on and keeping it free. It really is a cool thing and I’m going to try to make it back before it’s done this year.

The Waiting List

I came in during the last five minutes or so of The Waiting List, but it looked like a really well-done film. There was a great element of humor that felt to me, similar to a Judd Apatow flick, which is a plus in my book. I really want to see the whole thing now.  The  Director was on-hand and gave a q&a afterward. Oh, and it was all produced in Portland!

Bathtub to Happiness

This was a really cute German-made short film. The story is quirky, romantic and humorous in a very European way. The director for this was also present.

Surprise!

One of my favorites. Really well-paced and written, funny and entertaining (sorry, could not find an embeddable version).

http://www.vodmania.com/bande_annonce_aWQ9MjEyJmJhbmRlYW5ub25jZT03MDg=

Clown’s Lament

One of the creepiest things I’ve seen in a long time. What this short film lacks in stamina, it more than makes up for in chills.

Zufallbringen

This is the most ambitious film I saw this evening. Very beautifully shot and edited. One of the Swiss directors was also on hand and he stated that the entire cast was made up of novice actors, which really surprised me, as they put in some epic performances. It had a very Darin Aronofsky feel to it. The story felt a little muddled towards the middle, but don’t let that distract from the overall achievement these two guys have made, who started making this film at the ripe age of 19.

UPDATE: It was very politely pointed out to me that I had incorrectly attributed Sweden as the country of origin for this film, when in fact, it was Swiss made. My sincere apologies for the error. I imagine that would be like saying a Canadian-made movie was made in the USA, so I’ve updated the article to reflect the correct country. That’ll teach me to write blog posts late at night…

There were a couple other shorts, two animations and one comedy. I’m not going into detail on these, but they were also entertaining in their own ways. Thanks again to the Washougal Film Festival team!

So I’m looking at my tools and realizing I don’t have much in the way of bike tools. Looking online, there are a lot of options, from smaller “essentials” type kits, to full on retirement-fund-cashing-out master mechanic kits. What I need to know is, well, what do I need? In the short term, I need to disassemble this Bianchi. Over the long term, I’ll be doing maintenance and repairs on my own bikes (and the rest of the family bikes).

So, does anyone have recommendations for repair stands and essential tools that also won’t put me into debt?

Dylan's new bike

A few weeks ago, my son was scheduled to ride his new bike in the Camas Bike and Sport portion of the parade. When I showed up, slyly thinking I’d be dropping my son off, I was quickly asked if I wanted to ride in the parade, too. Me being the shy artsy type who doesn’t usually like being the center of attention in any form, asked my son if he wanted me to ride with him, which of course he did. Ed, from Camas Bikes loaned me a bike—a nice little cruiser—and a helmet, and we were on our way.

Dylan, with me right next to him

We had a nice time, despite the ridiculous heat and an hour or so of waiting in the glaring sun. The route was really simple and Dylan did an amazing job of navigating within the throng of cyclists who had to stop and start regularly to avoid becoming one with the fire truck that was in front of us. While I was skeptical of riding through the gauntlet of parade goers, I had a nice time, but mostly, I remembered how much I miss cycling on somewhat of a regular basis. I used to do that a lot and now I intend to make time to do it more, especially before the dreary and wet winter days come rumbling through town again.

I’m a sucker for a great adventure story and with my recent re-stoked interest in cycling, I’ve been glued to the blog of Jason Mauer, a Portland-based tech guy who decided he’d cycle from Portland to San Diego for his vacation. I find it completely inspiring and romantic to just get out on the open road and explore the Oregon and Washington coast lines on a bike, camping along the way. Never mind that I’d be petrified of becoming road pizza or suffering an aneurysm on an uphill climb, Mauer shows that one doesn’t have to be Lance Armstrong to embark on such a journey.

I figure I’ve got a year to train and then, maybe I could start out with the Seattle to Portland ride next Summer. But until I set a goal, I need to, a) get a road bike, and b) get into some kind of shape that doesn’t resemble a pear.

Dropped by Camas Bikes today to pick up a Presta-Schrader adapter so I could pump up the tires and take the Bianchi for a spin. While I was there, I asked Ed, the owner, if they can order Surly bikes and to my delight, he said they could! He also said I should check out the Co-Motion Nor’Wester, which sounds like a nice ride — hand built in Eugene, OR. However, I’ve had so many people give me such high ratings for the Cross Check that I kind of feel I’d be cursing myself to get any other bike. Of course, there is that small issue of where to find the money to buy a bike (as well as fixing up the Bianchi), but I’m sure it will all sort itself out… right?

Anyhow, back to the first test ride. After pumping up the tires (and somehow snapping the tip off one of the Presta valves—D’oh!), I took a quick ride down the street and back, as I didn’t want to do too much with only one working brake. The bike fits better than I thought, but the ride felt a little clunky. The bike definitely needs a mechanical overhaul. Can’t wait to get it stripped down and start the process though.

I’m also constantly amazed at how fast the Internets work. I posted some photos of the bike to my Facebook account last night and already have been connected with a guy who is a vintage Bianchi expert and who owns a 1971 Bianchi Team bike of his own, which has been beautifully restored. He was able to confirm that this bike is most likely a Team bike and also point me towards a guy who does great frame restoration work. I was also shown this link, which shows a 1952 team bike that looks incredibly similar to mine.

I can clearly see that this is going to be a long term project, so make yourself some popcorn, grab a beer and get comfy. This could take awhile.