All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

haha. for some reason all I could think of was this: "WHERE'S FRANCIS?!" (fair warning. language. )https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-BoauRriOk&t=49s

 

Crazy story Honda50R. Good detective work.

Today’s temp was 55° and clear blue sunny in NorCo. It’s going to be like this and warmer all the way to Wednesday. I had the day off and took advantage of it.

These two photos were taken from the same vantage point. One looking west and the other looking east. It amazes me that two geological features are so different yet so close to one another.

 

Anyone else hate FedEx? Easily the bottom feeder of the courier world in my eyes.

They finally delivered my new fork today. Over a week past its original out for deliver date, and numerous phone calls with their ‘investigations team members.’

Hope to try and make some headway on getting the build put together after work today.

 

I dislike usps more. They’re always late. Ups and fedex do ok, but the holidays clearly have them behind. Been getting ups deliveries from people in what seems to be personal vehicles lol

 

UPS is the worst. Damaged goods constantly. Lost stuff. Packages just left on driveway. Easily the worst.

 

I noticed that the other day, I was like who the hell is dropping off my package. I think mine was USPS though. USPS tracking is also way off recently, a package will show not in system then get delivered a couple days later.

 

Check this out via USPS. I ordered something from RockAuto. USPS from TN (Don't know where before that but I think they're near there) up to the northeast. I am in Providence. Went to CT. Then Providence. But then back to CT. And now, nothing since Tuesday. It was supposed to be delivered last Friday the 28th or whatever the date is.

Fortunately it's just 1 of 2 license plate lights for my truck, the other is on there and working (long story. Well, not actually, backed into a wall wheeling and ripped up one side). But jeebus. PS I do not blame Rock Auto for this shenanigans. If tracking isn't updated by like, Tuesday I'll call and ask WTF. I like this though, every (working) day it just updates the "In transit, Arriving Late" day. So on December 3 is showed December 3 there at the top. Bunch of shenanigans.

United package smashers.

 

well, got the big three covered for being the shittiest deliverer. hahaha.

all y'all talking shit and i'm just here like, "uh...haven't had any problems with any one of them... :/"

 

Sticking with my original line of thought, F FedEx. I prefer UPS over all other courier options.
My household receives a shit ton of deliveries due to a spouse that seems to order things on the hour every hour. And FedEx is the ring leader for delivery failures/mishaps.

The tracking for this fork went from "Out for Delivery" on date X, to "Delivery Not Attempted due to Local Weather" (I live outside Atlanta, GA so theres no such thing as bad weather) to "No Schedule Delivery Date" then back to "Out for Delivery" on date X, and then finally yesterday morning updated to "Delivered on 12/1/2020"

The last update to "Delivered on 12/1/2020" is when I really lost my shit. At that point I had already had 3 or 4 conversations with the FedEx Investiagations teams who had all confirmed they could see on their systems that some wonky shit was going on.

 

I will say, in my experience at least, my success rate with all the carriers is about 99%. Problems are few and far between. This one seems like something is jacked up, and I have heard that the USPS route is all silly because of hubs. So the hub in CT goes to the hub in Providence which then dispatches to the delivery hub in CT to the delivery hub in (either Warwick or Providence most likely), so I think there's kind of two parts to USPS in Providence, so that part is fine. Right now it's the "Hey so we have it, delivery date is gone and we'll update the 'it's in transit' message every day until it's delivered because we don't know where it is" shenanigans.

PEBCAK. Someone jacked it up and nobody knows how to fix it or has permissions to fix it without a few levels of management up, so they'll just toss it back into line and pass the problem onto the next person to pick up.

I will say, the "hold for pickup" option is bitchin'. USPS screwed that up once, they had the tracking info for what the package was (size, shape, weight, etc) so I did hold for pickup, it got to the hold for pickup location and then got rejected because "that package doesn't work at this location" SERIOUSLY!? pain in the arse. It was forks for my road bike actually now that I think of it! I didn't want them delivered when I still lived in the city. Now anything worth a damn I route for hold for pickup, either Amazon lockers or UPS/Fedex stores. Come to think of it, I haven't had to do that for USPS yet other than the time they screwed up with my forks, so not sure how that would go.

 

Huge problem with porch pirates this year. So many are ordering online it’s easy shopping for the scum bags.

 

You close to stores? Seriously, routing for pickup is awesome to eliminate that. I am sort of lucky, I don't like cities but I live in the 'burbs, I am close to a UPS and Fedex store at work, and at home, and I have an Amazon locker thing at the grocery store I frequent anyway. Check it out, at least in my experience it's been free to pick up in store/location.

 

Went in to my LBS to look at the Camo Green TLD A2 and ended up coming out with a Green Specialized Ambush Comp. Helmets really do fit everyone differently and im thankful i went in and was able to try different ones on. The A2 felt a bit too wide for my head. Or i needed to size down but they did not have a small there. But the Ambush felt great, their Angi technology is a nice feature, but its a nuisance that you have to open the App on your phone and "start your ride" for it to notify someone if a fall happens. Who knows how well that even works, and hopefully ill never have to find out!


Oh, and there were 2 other nice Tacoma's in the lot. I want taco's for lunch now

 

Anyone owned a 1up for a while and noticed increased wobbling over the years? Ive had a little wobble for a while that I assumed was due to our RakAttach. I moved the rack over to our new car for a ride today and it was definitely not as stable as i was expecting without the swing out. I double checked all the bolts mounting the hitch receiver to the car frame, since it's a new hitch.

Im thinking the wobble is due to the tilt mechanism on the 1up getting worn/sloppy. Any other thoughts or experience with this? Any problem bolts on the rack i need to check out?

 

no experience with that rack but these exist if it’s what you’re talking about.

MAXXHAUL 50023 Tightener Anti Rattle Stabilizer for 1.25" to 2" Hitches

$11 MaxxHaul 50023 Hitch Tightener Anti Rattle Stabilizer for 1.25" to 2" Hitches Reduce Movement On Hitch Mount Cargo Carrier Bike Rack

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JDD8L3H/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_fabc_mFcZFbB9TMPNE?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

1up has an expanding ball hitch mechanism so there's no wobble at the hitch itself. It's one of the best features of these racks in my opinion.

I also have one of those anti wobble plates on my swing out. Thanks though

 

No wobble, but some up/down play. I think it’s always been like that though.

 

Yea, it's definitely up and down. It just seems worse than it used to be.

 

I just a ordered a 1UP two weeks ago. Four buddies of mine have the 1UP's and rave about them being problem free. Looking forward to replacing my 12.5 year old Yakima rack.

 

Yes, I route packages to my local FedEx or UPS facility. I then track it and pick it up as soon as it arrives. Not many do that and on our local NextDoor neighborhood site there’s been a lot of threads on porch pirates following the trucks. Even porch cams catching some of the action.