enrolled in UBI course, Ashland, OR

[newfsmith]

I will be retiring this coming June 1st. After some dithering about whether my arthritic hands will be able to do it, I've decided that this will be my retirement treat. Any suggestions on places that shouldn't be missed around Ashland are highly desired. The course is only one week(6/23 to 6/27), but we will probably stay an extra week to look around. Looking for interesting, easy rides, redwoods, rain forest, car camping possibly, neat bike shops, maybe stop at TE, maybe look at Vanilla & Rodriquez. I wide open to suggestions.

[KnottedYet]

Are you going to stay at the UBI hostel?

[Starfish]

I guess it goes without saying about Ashland, but don't miss taking in a few of the plays at the festival.

[DebW]

Jean should be starting her UBI course tomorrow. Hi, Jean! I'm sure you'll love the course. You can get internet time at the library, but their evening hours are limited (I guess you know that if you're reading this). Shop at the food co-op. Ride the Bear Creek bike trail. Hike in Lithia Park. Try biking up Dead Indian Road. Have a great time and soak up all the knowledge you can.

Say hi to Steve, Matt, and Jeff for me. Tell them I'm starting part-time at a bike shop this week.

[evangundy]

See if there is a group that might do a ride up Crater Lake. Or at the very least, drive there to look around. Best done in good weather - the views are fantastic. The loop around the lake is 30 some miles of up and down and up and down and up and down ..... a fabulous ride, but in altitude.

Edna

[newfsmith]

My course was great. Basically it was a one-week, intensive, Park Tool School. We used the "Big Blue Book" as our text. That was fine, because based on what you brought with you, they let you do whatever you needed to do. There were 11 women in the class and 9 available work-benches. Folks came from all over the country, 1 from Alaska, 2 from Washington, 2 from Oregon, 1 from California, 1 from Wisconsin, 1 from Illinois, 1 from Missouri, and 2 from British Columbia. It was kind of like what I imagine a week-long ride with TE would be like. A lot of looking at each others' bikes, talking about the kind of riding we do, and asking each other for help with various parts of what we were doing. The range of bikes was incredible, from a pair of beaters to a Bike Friday, a custom Rodriguez, and a full Carbon Kestrel. Plus we used UBI's bikes for a lot of stuff before working on our own bikes. The guys were careful to check everyone's work at the end of the day that it was safe to ride. The main reason I went was because I was chicken to install a headset on my own. Technically, that wasn't part of the course, but they were great about talking me through it. Of course, I was also able to check that the torque was right on the BB and cranks I had previously installed. So now I'm waiting for the derailleurs to come in for my bike build, and then I can start to do the fitting. That was the one thing I was disappointed in. I had hoped for more on bike fitting, especially making stock frames work better for women and smaller people. But no regrets. I greatly improved my home mechanic skills, I got to use some tools that I can't justify buying, I got to meet a bunch of great bike people and had a wonderful time. I strongly recommend the course for anyone looking to develop home mechanic skills. It is also offered more frequently during the year as a co-ed basic bike maintenance course. The instructors did allow that they found the all woman course to be more co-operative and to have better teamwork than the largely male courses. Here is the web-site for the school
http://www.bikeschool.com/