The first week of bike school has been a whirlwind for me – getting settled into my small apartment, learning the route to school, and finding my footing. Things like, how many groceries can I carry on my bike? Which route has the best-controlled intersections? How can I best time my ride to avoid the commuter and freight trains?
The first week of bike school is an Introduction to Bicycle Maintenance. Here is where I learned how bad of a bike owner I am. Even though my bike was less than a year old, I learned how many services had been neglected. The instructors marveled out how stretched out my chain was. Why was that important? The chain stretch was so bad that it destroyed my rear cassette and I needed to replace that too.
Going through these fundamentals, we replaced and repacked the ball bearings in the hubs, serviced the bottom brackets, replaced all the cables and cable housings, and cleaned the bike much better than I have ever done. It really made me question how my childhood bike lasted so long without any sort of maintenance. Well, that and being left in the rain so often.
I really enjoyed being somewhere that values bike commuting so much. I ride about 6.5-miles one-way and typically find it enjoyable. Portland, OR, has taken great care to create bike lanes and strong ordinances to protect cyclists. I actually go out of my way to ride along the riverfront to enjoy the scenery. It’s been nice watching the cherry blossoms develop.
My first weekend in Portland, my wife came out to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We got into St. Paddy’s Day shenanigans and explored a lot of great restaurants in the area. I bored her to tears with talk about the intricacies of bikes and various bikes I wanted to build.
Week Two began the Professional Mechanics and Shop Operations course for bike school. This and the next week repeated a lot of the material covered in the very first week, but this time we had to show proficiency in being able to diagnose and repair the same issue on various versions of the same components. This meant understanding the differences between Sram and Shimano brakes or cantilever versus linear pull brakes.
We did go into advanced diagnostics and how to handle more in-depth repairs. The big takeaway was that grease and a proper adjustment can cure what ails you – I’m learning this myself as I get older. It was also the first time I built a wheel and came to truly understand how wheel truing works. These are skills I look forward to advancing in.
The next weekend adventure for me was going out with my classmate Skip to explore several of the waterfalls up the Columbia River Gorge. A lot of the trail network was still recovering from the 2017 wildfires so many trails were closed.
Sunday, I went out for the longest bike ride I’ve ever made. I pedaled round for a while until I had gone 48 miles. It was nice to get out of the city and explore some different things on my bike. I really enjoyed the aspect of just tooling around get a strong workout. It made me start considering trying out bike touring or bikepacking.
After finishing the Pro class, I went with another classmate to check out mountain biking in Oregon. We drove about an hour to outside Salem where I got my first taste of West Coast riding. It is definitely different from the trail riding that I am used to. First you start by climbing a few miles up logging roads. Back home we have a lot of rolling trails so you only have small chunks of climbing punctuated by some descending.
Here I had to learn to slow down and just casually crank as we climbed for long periods of time. Once we got to the top we stopped for some rest and to get ready to drop in. I was excited to try this long flowing trail that had several built up wooden ramps and rides. I dropped in and made it through the first turn easily. Then on the second turn I get scared by the amount of speed I was carrying and hit my rear brake, which was a mistake. It lead to me losing control and crashing my bike. In true GnarlyRam fashion, I picked myself up and kept riding knowing that there was more adventure to be had.
Without much beta on the trails, I found myself moving cautiously and skipping a few obstacles. As I rode I also found myself practicing better form and looking through the turns. This opened me up to getting a better flow. It left me feeling excited about progressing as a rider. So we climbed back up to hit the trail again but harder.
How did that turn out? I made the same mistake on the same turn but this one left me with my two fingers hyperextended and some bruised ribs. I finished the ride and assessed that none of my injuries were actually fractures. So, after some rest and a couple of beers, I headed back up to conquer the trail one last time before returning to Bike School.
The fourth week of Bike School included the advanced lectures. We did a DT Swiss wheel building class for two days and then a Suspension Technician class. I struggled with the wheel building class as this was only the second time I had ever assembled a wheel yet it had to be done at a professional level. I lost a bunch of time because I actually built one of my wheels backwards, requiring that I disassemble it and put it back to together.
I was most excited for the suspension class. I wanted to know how to service my suspension and fix more things on my bike. I actually enjoyed the three days of talking about different styles of forks and rear-shocks. It definitely helped me understand a lot more about my bike. I also now can service a lot of different suspension systems.
I would definitely say that this was a great learning experience for me. I came away better understanding of what I needed to do to take care of my bicycles and continue to grow as a mechanic. I truly enjoyed being able to experience living on the West Coast for a short time. I feel like I did not get to see much and cannot wait for my next adventure out there. With great access to rivers, the Pacific, and mountains I can see why people from the West Coast love it so much.