The things I did right and things I wish I did right

[jasonryan]

Hey all,

So this year was my first year and I had an amazing time and it was largely thanks to all the advanced preparation and research I was able to do, from the reading the official site to searching these boards, to getting to talk to veteran burners and pick their brains. But there are some things I still had to learn on the playa because I just couldn't find any information about them (or I forgot to ask), so I thought I would put my thoughts out there in the hope that the next first timer will be that much more prepared. Here are some of the things I did right, and some of the things I wish I did right...

The number one tip I had in my mind all week has to do with locking up your bike. Okay, so, I remember having the question in my head, "when you go to the porta potties, are there racks to lock your bikes to, or do you have to like tie a string to the bike so you know when someone tries to make off with it?" Well the answer to that question is, you lock your bike to itself. They should say this on the main burning man site. 9 times out of 10 you are locking your wheel to the frame so it's unrideable and some drunk dude cannot mistake your bike for his and ride off into the night. Seriously, nobody is going to pick your bike up and carry it off. That brings me to my tip: bring a U-Lock for your bike. Do NOT bring a frickin' fabric-covered chain lock like I did this year (I was thinking, oh it'll be hot, the fabric covering will keep me from getting burned), or even a spiral cable lock. You will be struggling with those locks all day long, particularly when you're not quite sober. You want a lock you can get on and off the quickest, plain and simple. There is so much to do and see out there, you may want to stop everywhere to check things out--by the 12th time I was unwrapping my chain lock, I was pretty over it. Also, if you are thinking it's a better idea to have a combination lock instead of a key lock, think about that time of the night when you're too fucked up to read the numbers. This happened to the girl I was with and I had to help her out. Yeah, get a key lock dude. Use a carabiner to clip it to yourself and keep the second key back at camp just in case.

Bring the bike you are most comfortable with. 90% of people bring beach cruisers. Why? Because 90% of people haven't ridden a bike since they were kids and their asses will get numb after 20-30 minutes. Beach cruisers have nice big comfy seats and an upright sitting position (helpful when you're carrying that heavy camelbak), but are hard to steer and kinda heavy. Despite what you might think because of the whole rebar thing, the playa isn't rock hard everywhere, it's got a lot of sandy berms. Many times the sand defeated me! It made my front wheel go wonky, and I had to stop and walk the bike out of it. This is because of that damn upright sitting position and the swept back handlebars--you look like a schoolbus driver constantly making corrections to your steering, and when you hit the sand, it's all too easy to lose it. The answer to making it through the sand, btw, is to hit it at speed. So when you see some sand coming that you can't go around, speed up! Personally, I prefer something closer to a mountain bike, so I'm leaning my weight closer to the front wheel and I have control. Wiping out all the time gets old. All I'm saying is, you can still put a beach cruiser seat on a mountain bike. But I'm probably nitpicking here.

If you must get a beach cruiser, there are two basic kinds you will see for sale on craigslist, those with lever-operated brakes on the handlebar and 5-7 gears, and those with no gears and coaster brakes. Those are the kind where you pedal backward to activate the brake. The advantage to the single-speed bikes is that there is very little that will go wrong--nothing will need adjustment, but you've got only one gear and trust me there were times when I was using my highest gear and times when I was using my lowest gear (SAND!), so it was nice to have them. Then again, I was also really fucked up one night and my chain came off and got super tangled--the next morning I noticed my derailleur was bent so I must have wiped out at some point! If this happens to you, don't worry--there are bike repair camps that will help you.

I go biking for an hour every day, so I have no issues with seats, but I let myself be convinced that I needed a beach cruiser because I really had no idea how long I would be on the bike each day. The answer is, you probably won't be on your bike for more than 15 to 30 minutes at a time, unless you decide to take an extended tour of the open playa or the back city streets. It only takes about 15 minutes to cut across the open playa to get from one side of the city to the other, so bring the kind of bike you are most comfortable with and be happy. A road or mountain bike will be just as bumpy as a beach cruiser. A full suspension mountain bike would be really nice--I saw quite a few people riding them. I'm definitely doing that next year.

Oh and having a basket on your bike is really nice. Helps you to carry ice back to camp AND I was constantly plopping my pack in it during rides.

Bring small solar pathway lights to light up your rebar at night. Even if you cover your rebar with tennis balls or soda bottles, someone will still trip on it if they can't see it.

Bring two of every item (a main and a backup) you are likely to loose, such as keys, cups, carabiners, your ID (get an ID card in addition to your Driver License and use it out on the playa), headlamp, goggles, dust mask, etc. If you can't afford a second camelbak, get a cheap backpack (I love the Walmart collapsible daypack for $7.88) and a 1 gallon water container. It's better than nuthin! Even if you don't end up using your extra dust mask, I guarantee you someone else in your camp will lose theirs. Two of my camp mates lost their head lamps and I ended up going to the "inconvenience store" camp to get some flashlights (I donated an Emergency Feminine Overflow Kit, courtesy of Camp Overflow). Someone else forgot to bring bar soap for the shower. I could have fit another bar in my stuff if I had known to do so, but I was going by the rule "how much am I really gonna need"? Just bring an extra if you can--within reason.

I think everyone is going to have different "necessities" in the pack they wear when away from camp. One person might not be able to do without eye drops or a misting fan, but you will be different. You'll overpack your camelbak the first day and then the next day you'll figure out what you can leave behind (half of it) and what you should have had with you all along. For me that was hand lotion, and I was happy that I had that back at camp. The moral is, bring EVERYTHING you think you MIGHT need but aren't really sure because you really won't know until you get there and get boots on the ground.

A note about the porta potties: I never once came upon one without toilet paper. They do an amazing job keeping those things stocked (it still doesn't hurt to keep an emergency roll of 1-ply back at camp or better yet a small camping roll in your pack), but nobody comes around to refill the hand sanitizer stations at either end of each bank. They were pretty much empty by Wednesday. It must not be the porta potty contractor who sets those up in the first place. So bring a little bottle of hand sanitizer with you. For some reason I only brought a big bottle for back at base camp--probably because I never ever use hand sanitizer in real life so I didn't really give much thought to what I would be using it for--I just got it because it was one of the things everybody mentioned on their lists. Now I know why: in BRC there is no sink to wash your hands after you pee.

Put all your shit into ziplock bags and label them with the contents. This will help you when restocking next year. Your clothes won't fit in the 1 gallons, you'll need the 2 gallons. Put everything into Rubbermaid/Sterlite containers so you can stack them. I used one for food, one for clothes, and two for miscellaneous shit (which I think I can cut down to one now that I know what I don't need). I wish I had bought the ones with lids that lock on with the side clamps. The snap on lids are a little flimsy and can't support much weight. Get one or two smaller containers for inside your tent for the items you'll want close at hand (again, you won't *really* know what those are until you get there).

Try out your eye goggles AND your dust mask together. Wear them for a while, outside. Make sure they aren't annoying to wear for extended periods of time. I wear eyeglasses so I had to have those goggles that fit over them, and they have to sit on your nose, but a dust mask also has to sit on your nose too, they have those little bendable metal strips that conform to your nose--so they got in each other's way. Moral of the story, get goggles that don't sit on your nose, if you can. I ended up using a bandana for a dust mask because it's the most conforming and yet it still works very well (honestly, I never once ended up using a "mask", even when out on the playa--but then again I don't recall getting caught in a whiteout).

I strongly recommend you wear a good comfortable pair of high top hiking boots at least most of the time to keep out the playa, costumes notwithstanding. Actually, go ahead and design your costumes with some kind of boots in mind rather than open-toed shoes. Whatever boots you choose, you need to GO HIKING IN THEM. I cannot stress enough how important this is. Last year I bought a new pair of hiking boots and didn't realize how uncomfortable they were until after my first hike. Bad pair of boots. Waste of $120. Thank God I found a 10 year old pair of boots in the back of my closet I had forgotten about--I think I only used them twice, but damn if they didn't turn out to be the perfect pair after all. You do not want to find this out on the playa. If you are buying new boots, go for a 30 minute walk or a light hike.

Earlier in the year I went on a date with this long time burner chick who told me to bring vinegar and soak my feet religiously, every night, even if they didn't hurt. I brought it but ended up not using it because I wore my boots all week long, only taking them off when I got into bed, and my feet really thanked me at the end of the week. I also wore some pairs of Thorlon thickly padded hiking socks. Yes, these are a really expensive luxury ($16 for one pair), but damn worth it. If you have two pairs you can wash and dry one while wearing the other. I did wish I had also brought a pair of sandals for going to pee in the morning, and maybe for lounging around in camp. I always had to put my boots on once I woke up, and since I was doing that, I figured I'd get dressed all the way, blah, blah...next time, sandals.

Bring a watch. An old fashioned one. If you're like me, your phone is your clock now, and do you really want to carry your smartphone with you everywhere? There's no service, what's the point? Using it as a camera? That's a power hungry camera--bring an actual camera and bring a watch, preferably one with an alarm. I found this so useful if there was something I wanted to make sure I didn't miss.

But speaking of that, DON'T MAKE PLANS beyond the next thing you're doing. This way you will never be disappointed. There are so many frickin things to do it is just impossible to do them all, and any time you go and do something you will lose track of time and you'll never make it to that thing you wanted to do. They give you this book when you enter that contains the schedule of all the camps and what they are doing each day. I never even read it. I knew not to. Instead, I just took each thing as it came. Some friends wanted to go here and do that--okay, sounds like fun, let's do it!

I also highly recommend that you don't repeat anything. Burning Man is about so much more than dance music and big camp "clubs" like Districkt. Go jump on an art car and take a tour of the deep playa or wander around and say yes to every camp that invites you in to do something. Even though I was traveling and camping with good friends, I knew I was gonna go off and do my own thing at times rather than play tag along. Think about it, do you really want to waste half your burn waiting for everyone to get ready, or waiting for them to show up back at camp around nightfall so you can all go and do what you were planning? Chances are, you're gonna miss it anyway. Don't wait, not for anything. The greatest thing about my burn was being able to just go and do whatever I wanted, right at that moment. One time I got back to camp, no one was there, I saw an art car stopped by the porta potties, ran and jumped on and wound up talking to a cute blond chick all night. If you have no expectations, you won't be disappointed. After my burn, I could tell one of my camp mates, the one who talked me into going in the first place, didn't have as good a time as I did. He mentioned that he and his wife never made it to any of the things they wanted to do and next year they were going to for sure and I just wanted to scream "Noooo... don't make the same mistake again next year man!"

What should you eat? When it comes to food, everyone has different tastes. Food recommendations can go all over the place, especially when it comes to packaged products. Here's what I did. I decided to cook my own meals and vacuum seal and freeze them during the month leading up to the burn. I did not want to be cooking from scratch out on the playa, that's for sure. If you do this, you have to think about how you're going to reheat the meals. You can boil the sealed pouches in water on a camp stove, but that's a lot of water to waste. Instead, bring a 12-inch non-stick skillet--you can wipe it clean with a paper towel.

One big tip I read beforehand was to make sure you include enough meat in your menu. One girl was part of a camp who decided each member would make a communal meal each night and like four people decided to make pasta--they were all craving meat so bad by the end of the week! So I concentrated on "meat and potatoes". In other words, comfort food. For me that was a mix of American (pot roast and chicken chili and campfire potatoes) and Mexican classics (chicken tacos and carnitas). For my campmates it was chicken curries and beans and rice. And Indian food, for sure. I had considered bringing the Indian food too (ie. get takeout from your favorite curryhouse and freeze it), but I didn't want to chance getting an upset stomach out there, which is more likely for me than most people. Ironically, I was the only one in my group who was rock solid all week. I wanted the Indian food! The moral is, bring it, you just might be craving it. Also, bring extra food. It's true that your appetite will naturally decrease a little out there (whether or not it's the environment that causes this or the particular substances you choose to consume is up for debate), but at times I definitely had an appetite. I made individual portions for each meal. I planned for 8 meals and I made 4 dishes, so I had 2 portions of each. I found that I craved certain things more than others and as I ran out of them I wished I had made an extra portion. Would have been nice. I also ended up feeding a girl, which I hadn't planned on. So bring extra food, dude.

And speaking of being rock solid, I have several tips for you. First off, this is one I got from a friend when we went to Jamaica in 2011: Metamucil. It's a fiber supplement. Hey, I had the same reaction: "what am I, 70?" But I have since come to embrace it as one of my tools for staying right when I'm abusing my body. Drink it before or just after every meal. It will make everything come out...well, nice and easy and (I'm sorry, I have to say it), solid. Trust me.

Next tip: Get good sleep! This is probably the single biggest reason I was able to party for seven days straight. I don't care how you do it, whether you use Tylenol PM, Xanax, Ambien, or nothing at all--whatever your thing is, whatever works for you, bring enough of it to last you and you will be golden like I was. One of my camp mates never got more than an hour or two every night and he was a zombie by Saturday. Dude, the whole point is to make it to Saturday--the night the man burns is like no other. Take my advice, or at the very least make Friday night a recovery night.

Finally, a pragmatic word about the playa. It's not an alien fucking planet! It's a dirt plain in the desert. Your skin is not going to flake off and you aren't going to be zapped by alien death rays if you forget your sunscreen (still, don't forget it). Human beings are amazingly adaptable and we can live on nearly every part of this planet. You will be surprised at how fast you acclimate to the playa. I hadn't been camping since I was a kid--I am the kind of person who gets grumpy sleeping on any other bed but my own. I thought I was going to be absolutely miserable--in fact my friend said this exact thing to me, that he thought I'd be done by day 4. But I loved it more than anybody! I didn't really mind any of it. I was just religious about sunscreen and lipbalm. You know, ironically, it was hotter in Los Angeles when we were taking down and packing up our shade structure (we put it up a month earlier as practice) than it was the first few days on the playa (we got more burned in LA than BRC!). Yes, it can be hot, but it's also dry. One really nice thing about low humidity is that even if you break a sweat, it will evaporate really fast (even still, I wore breathable exercise shirts during the hottest parts of the day). I'd much rather do 110 on the playa than 90 in Orlando, FL. If you can survive Disneyworld, you can survive Black Rock City. 68,000 people survived this year, and next year you will too!

-Jason

[BBadger]

You know, when an employer receives your resume, it helps a lot to organize your information using bullets and subheads. Otherwise the reader's eyes gloss over and the resume gets filed at the back of the drawer.

Likewise, when you write something like your topic post, you ought to break up the post using heads, bullets, or even pictures. A wall of text scares people away. It's the reason why newspapers and magazines include pictures, no matter how cliche or pointless they may be.

[Sham]

thanks for posting those great tips. A lot of us jaded old timers know this information and do it all instinctively, but it's nice for you to remind everyone of these great pointers.

[trilobyte]

Some good advice in there... a couple comments:

The reason beach cruisers are such a popular choice is because they come with wide knobby tires as standard equipment, and are generally much cheaper than off-road/mountain bikes.

I'm not sure where you got the idea that the playa was hard as a rock, I thought that it was pretty common knowledge that it's layer upon layer of dust. While I don't use rebar myself, the idea behind people choosing that is that stakes need to be long enough to get through the crumbly stuff and sturdy enough to secure a structure. Rebar's just a cheap solution.

Better than bringing a watch or carrying your phone with you... don't. Time is an illusion (lunchtime doubly so). Escaping that man-made construct can be a truly wonderful thing, and it only comes after you spend a few days not wearing any kind of timekeeping device. It's morning, it's afternoon, it's dark thirty, it's almost sunrise. Unless you've gotten yourself signed up for a volunteer shift requires you to be paying attention to the particulars of time, don't.

[danibel]

Whew. That was a lot of reading.

Though I agree with you on some stuff, I don't agree with you on a lot. I am not going to post each and every thing though, because that would take me too long, but I will say this:

The cable lock works just fine for me. It's long enough to go around two bikes, and I have it "curled" around my frame for easy locking to the wheel at the portos or elsewhere. And my cable lock uses a combo, because I do not want another key to lose while on playa. My lock is a word one, so I picked a simple one that I will always remember. If you use a number one, set it to your bank ATM of something that you us a lot in default. Maybe the last four digits of your phone number. Easy.

You will not "waste" a lot of water heating up vacuumed sealed foods. In fact, this is a great way to save water! Just bring one big pot with a good lid and reuse the water over and over. If it gets dusty, dump it and start again. Since it's clean water you can simply use it to keep the dust down on the road or something.

I second Trilo's comment about the cruisers. I ride a cruiser, and yes, it's a bit heavier than a MT bike, but it has one simple chain and I find that I do just fine when I hit a "beach" on the open playa. I just stand up and power through. A good headlight on your bike can help you avoid the "beaches" at night.

I came upon many portos that were out of paper. Mostly towards the end of the week. I bring extra rolls of one ply and I leave them in the jots that are empty for my fellow burner. Maybe you were just following me around?

[BeeWeeDee]

Did right:

Dry ice chest that held ice cream bars, breakfast casseroles, chocolate chip cookie dough, blocks of ice, and cheese sandwiches frozen for 12 days.
Camp oven
Tipi
Pre cooked bacon
Pre made cheese sandwiches for grilling over the embers of the Thursday core burn

Did wrong:
Stacked the cheese sandwich butter side to butter side thusly

Butter|Bread|Cheese1|Cheese2|Bread|Butter|Butter|Bread|Cheese1|Cheese2|Bread|Butter|Butter|Bread|Cheese1|Cheese2|Bread|Butter|......

and then froze the lot. NEXT TIME!!!! do this

Butter|Bread|Cheese1|Cheese2|Bread|Butter|WAXPAPER|Butter|Bread|Cheese1|Cheese2|Bread|Butter|WAXPAPER|Butter|Bread|Cheese1|Cheese2|Bread|Butter|WAXPAPER........

[Nipple]

Better than bringing a watch or carrying your phone with you... don't. Time is an illusion (lunchtime doubly so). Escaping that man-made construct can be a truly wonderful thing, and it only comes after you spend a few days not wearing any kind of timekeeping device. It's morning, it's afternoon, it's dark thirty, it's almost sunrise. Unless you've gotten yourself signed up for a volunteer shift requires you to be paying attention to the particulars of time, don't.

I brought a watch with me, and wore it to keep track of volunteer shifts I had scheduled for earlier in the week. I set an alarm, the first night I was there for 11pm.

Every night the watch went off.

Every night I thought, "Oh... I don't have any shifts scheduled. I should turn that off."

Every night it remained set to go off the next night.

[ACfromSAC]

Did right: HEXAYURT. Playa life will never be the same.

[BBadger]

I second Trilo's comment about the cruisers. I ride a cruiser, and yes, it's a bit heavier than a MT bike, but it has one simple chain and I find that I do just fine when I hit a "beach" on the open playa. I just stand up and power through. A good headlight on your bike can help you avoid the "beaches" at night.

I dunno... when I tried someone else's cruiser I didn't like it. Normally I bring a light mountain bike and used ultra-low ratioed gearing. It's almost as effortless as walking, only I'm sitting, can coast around, and can move faster if I want. When charging across the playa, it also meant that if I hit a dune, I could power through it without feeling the force-feedback through my legs.

On the cruiser, often I'd have to stand up to move through some of the playa grounds. For me, that defeats the purpose of "cruising" around. I want the equivalent of a low-grade incline plane if I'm to be relaxing on the bike. The wider wheels should facilitate that, but also the gearing. I guess my ideal bike would be a cruiser with low gearing.

One thing that really helped with me was attaching something to the handlebars so that I could lean back and balance over the seat rather than have to bend out to reach the handlebars. That'd be another benefit of the cruiser body; though maybe I'd just fix some of those long handlebars on a mountain bike.

Definitely what I'll do next time is put a basket on my bike. Then I can just toss some food and drinks in there, and not need to use a camelbak. Helps for grabbing MOOP too.

[jasonryan]

The reason beach cruisers are such a popular choice is because they come with wide knobby tires as standard equipment, and are generally much cheaper than off-road/mountain bikes.

I gotta disagree a little about the tires thing. Beach cruisers do come with "wide" tires, but they aren't "knobby", they are smooth because they are meant for bike paths and roads:



Mountain bikes also come with "wide" tires and THEY are the ones that are "knobby" because they are meant to go on both road and dirt trails:



I also have to disagree about prices. From what I've seen, used bikes go for about $60 in working condition, doesn't matter if they are beach cruisers, mountain bikes, full suspension mountain bikes, or even 80s road bikes. I've bought them all from craigslist for about $60 (actually I got my beach cruiser for an incredible $20 just because the tires were flat!) here in Los Angeles. It might be different in another city, like San Fran... everything is twice as expensive there so I dunno.

Someone else mentioned that he likes the coiled cable word locks. I can understand why--its easy to remember a word and they are definitely much lighter than the U-locks. I use them on my road bikes for that reason, plus the ones I got have a handy little mounting attachment that fits around the bike tube:



Still, this is my second favorite lock on the playa just because it's a little bit more unruly for repeated locking and unlocking, but you're right it does allow you to lock two bikes together, so that's an important consideration.

When in doubt, bring both! That's my new playa motto.

[jasonryan]

I second Trilo's comment about the cruisers. I ride a cruiser, and yes, it's a bit heavier than a MT bike, but it has one simple chain and I find that I do just fine when I hit a "beach" on the open playa. I just stand up and power through. A good headlight on your bike can help you avoid the "beaches" at night.

Ah, I dunno if I would recommend people stand up while pedaling a beach cruiser, not unless you've got really good balance on it. That's just a fall waiting to happen.

I was using my headlamp (that goes around my head) as my bike headlight and it was doing very well, but even still I think it's nearly impossible to see the sand berms at night, especially if you've been drinking!

And because it's impossible to see/avoid them, the ride gets quite bumpy--especially if you are camped over on the 3:00 side. This is why I'm taking a full suspension mountain bike next year!

[Jackass]

If you can't stand and pedal at the same time perhaps walking is a better option... you can't make it thru half of those dunes if don't stand and crank on it.(single speed unmodified)

[Savannah]

I haven't stood while pedaling for any of those dunes; I'm good at eyeing the best path.

Note: I don't camp on the 3 o'clock side.

[BBadger]

I haven't stood while pedaling for any of those dunes; I'm good at eyeing the best path.

Note: I don't camp on the 3 o'clock side.

I remember when I wandered over to that "bad side" of town how the roads were a lot more broken up and everything more dusty.


Hmm... maybe I shouldn't have said anything. The last thing we need is reverse-gentrification of the evening-side of the city...

[Savannah]

I'm thinking of camping on the quiet side for once. It's not in my nature--at all--but neither is sleeping three hours a night.

[mgb327]

Well, I camp at 3:30 and J. I like that side, nice mix, not as noisy as the 9 side. The roads seem to be crappier at the 3 side, but not a big deal. I ride a 1972 Olympic 3 speed trike with two baskets. Best decision I ever made for a bike. Only got off and pushed twice this year....while looking for the Bijou late one night. It was a mess out there in the deep. I have never had to stand up, as first gear is a nice low one. The bike was and is right for me. Bringing a Jayco 12" pop-up camper was like staying at the Sands.....gawd it was comfy. Worth dragging it 6,000 miles.

[MyDearFriend]

If you can't stand and pedal at the same time perhaps walking is a better option... you can't make it thru half of those dunes if don't stand and crank on it.(single speed unmodified)

I agree!!! And I LOVE standing on the pedals while moving at speed; that bumpy ride takes me back to my childhood, playing "wild indians" and jumping off my bike at the edge of the ravine... my heavy old bike almost made it all the way across the creek once!

Not to mention, standing up to power through the dust-bowls really eases my middle-aged butt muscles.

So, yeah for me this year borrowing a bike from Elliot is definitley a thing I did right! (((Elliot)))

[robbidobbs]

From jasonryan:
(/quote) A note about the porta potties: I never once came upon one without toilet paper. They do an amazing job keeping those things stocked (it still doesn't hurt to keep an emergency roll of 1-ply back at camp or better yet a small camping roll in your pack), but nobody comes around to refill the hand sanitizer stations at either end of each bank. They were pretty much empty by Wednesday. It must not be the porta potty contractor who sets those up in the first place. So bring a little bottle of hand sanitizer with you. For some reason I only brought a big bottle for back at base camp--probably because I never ever use hand sanitizer in real life so I didn't really give much thought to what I would be using it for--I just got it because it was one of the things everybody mentioned on their lists. Now I know why: in BRC there is no sink to wash your hands after you pee.(/quote)

That is good advice to keep some tp on your person at all times. I have Pottie Friends all over the City replenishing the units at night, but our population was ridiculous this year, and I heard from the operations manager of USS that it was a struggle to keep up with tp demand. This is a do-ocracy, so if you can carry tp with you, do so. One suggestion is to adopt the porta-pottie bank near where you live and volunteer as a Pottie Friend, to make the excremental experience of your neighborhood potties a positive one each and every time.

It was in 2003 that hand sanitizers were first put into place. I know, I personally refilled them for 2 years. After that, USS has their employees restock them during the event. Because of the population explosion this year it was again a struggle to keep them stocked. There is no guarantee that they will be stocked 100% of the time. Plan accordingly. If you become a Pottie Friend, then I can supply you with boxes of hand sanitizer.

There is one behavior that really jacks this system: participants using the hand sanitizers like washing stations - using WAY more than is necessary or appropriate. It only takes a tablespoonfull to do the job. For YEARS I have observed people pumping +5x or more, and that's just wasteful. Short answer: if you think you want it, take some with you, and quit your bitching.

Done.
RobbiDobbs clear
Chief Poopervisor of the Pottie Project

[Elliot]

...

Not to mention, standing up to power through the dust-bowls really eases my middle-aged butt muscles.

So, yeah for me this year borrowing a bike from Elliot is definitley a thing I did right! (((Elliot)))

Thank you. My pleasure.

Actually, I am slowly (as the parts fall into my hands) changing the loaner cruisers to "easier" gearing. I do this by installing a smaller front sprocket. Feedback last year suggested this is the predominant preference.

As for doing things right and wrong.... The first few days, most of the bikes I repaired were defective from the moment the owner bought it -- on CL or out of the back of a truck. People admitted this -- that they expected somebody's $40.- discard was perfectly rideable! Methinks they did it wrong.

Luckily, soooooo many things were done right!

[Ratty]

Bbadger, You and I will have to go on a bike ride next year. (We'll switch bikes). My cruiser is so comfy and easy. They are not all equal.

Hi Robbi. I'm working on those little signs, (in my mind but it is still work), for the TP dispensers.

"Really! You need THAT much paper for a bit of pee?"

"How about you leave some for the next asshole".

"Use a lot today. Wipe with your bandanna tomorrow."

"Bunch or roll...Go easy."

"Remember. Only YOU can prevent an empty TP holder."

"Only Jerk-Wads use too much paper."

"Mama says, 'Only 3 squares for pee pee'."

"Save a tree. Shake it dry."

[Eric]

"How about you leave some for the next asshole".

"Use a lot today. Wipe with your bandanna tomorrow."

I love these two.

[BBadger]

Bbadger, You and I will have to go on a bike ride next year. (We'll switch bikes). My cruiser is so comfy and easy. They are not all equal.

Yeah, it was probably because I was using the rickety old cruiser borrowed from someone in camp.

I think I'll have that "Slow Ride" song in my head if I try riding that one in your avatar.

[Ratty]

Bbadger, That is not my bike in the avatar. That is a Schwinn Chopper. I couldn't be comfortable on it. I have a big ol cruiser but it's no Huffy bike. It's more of a high end bike that I got for nothing because it had no front rim. I like it so I'm putting my stickers on it. OH, stickers for the new trailer!! I better mail some.

[danwax]

Elliot,

I will be a virgin in 2014. I fly from Quebec and take a Burner Express bus to the playa.

As I cannot bring a lot of stuff, do you think I could borrow one of your bikes?

Dan

[FIGJAM]

OH, stickers for the new trailer!! I better mail some.

You'll be the first.

[Elliot]

Elliot,

I will be a virgin in 2014. I fly from Quebec and take a Burner Express bus to the playa.

As I cannot bring a lot of stuff, do you think I could borrow one of your bikes?

Dan

No. No Quebecois allowed.

THAT’S A JOKE!

Absolutely, most certainly, you will have a bicycle waiting for you. You will be joining several other fantastic folks from Quebec, such as Patsh and Delle on this forum.
I’m starting the 2014 bike reservation list now.

I keep hearing good things about Burner Express, so that is probably a good choice.

And welcome to ePlaya! Feel free to engage in all sorts of conversations here.

[Blueschaser]

Done right (being we were virgins):

read 1000's of pages on Eplaya! Well worth the time.
rotated 2 3-liter camelbak bladders in/out of cooler>>>result: always had ice water for the bike rides
shipped all my gear to my company's store (REI) in Reno. No muss, no fuss. And CHEAP, for 6 boxes.
Aluminet.
stayed awake during 6 hour wait Monday night getting into BRC...major victory, considering by time we erected and crawled into our tent at 4 AM Tuesday we'd been up 27 hours traveling in from Chicago. Yeah, my gal and I had our exhausted bitchy moments>>>>>cured by passing greeters station portal.

Done wrong:

same night: turning down offer of MV ride aboard Gypsy Queen at 3:30 am!!! DUH! Thanks, neighbors....won't happen twice; we'd have been snoozing aboard ship---in spite of music volume.
failing to secure a 4 liter box of wine during open playa night-time bike ride. Hit unseen sand dune and apparently the wine
box fell out of basket, unnoticed. So much for a night of gifting cabernet. All of one glass had been drunk---hope
someone enjoyed their find.

All in all, a great 60th birthday present....thanks, Jill! Best compliment lavished upon our camp set-up:
"You don't look like virgins." We'll be back in '14.

[Martiansky]

Elliot, how do you "match" a bike to a borrower when lending them out?
Do you ask what kind of bike/speeds/bar or no bar, etc and then tag it with a name so that you have a mental note of how many bikes are left to lend?

[misfit]

>>> gotta disagree a little about the tires thing. Beach cruisers do come with "wide" tires, but they aren't "knobby", they are smooth because they are meant for bike paths and roads<<<

26x2.125 knobby tires are avalible for cruiser bikes, and are easy to find..... check your local bike shop.....

[Elliot]

Elliot, how do you "match" a bike to a borrower when lending them out?
Do you ask what kind of bike/speeds/bar or no bar, etc and then tag it with a name so that you have a mental note of how many bikes are left to lend?

Well, this probably belongs on some other thread. But quickly... This year I asked questions and took notes when I made reservations. And I tried to bring a compatible selection of bikes. But of course, on Playa it all became wonderfully random and I just did my best to match sizes, and whatever preferences I could coax out of the borrower at the time -- gears or no gears, and such. But it seemed to turn out "right" anyway.

I suppose I ought to tag bikes with names, but I have failed to organized myself well enough.

I do tag some bikes, for "special" customers. At the top of that list is Patsh (Triken) who has the same bike every year -- a high-quality 5-speed with a BMX bar and big cargo baskets. Woe unto anyone who tampers with that bike. This year I assigned "dedicated" bikes to MyDearFriend and MaryAnimal, and maybe a couple more. MDF; ladies cruiser with BMX bar and customized basket for pouring wine. MA; taller ladies bike with BMX bar -- she wanted to be sure to have a step-thru (ladies) frame, which she now has. So this got done "right".

I found I had plenty of small bikes, but not enough mid-size bikes. (I've been hoarding tall bikes for years, so have a fair number of those.) Also, I have too many multi-gear bikes, and not enough single speed. So I wish I could have done this "righter".

One trick I use to reduce the complications of 10- to 28- speed bikes is that I remove the front derailer and shifter. Just take them off the bike and throw them away. I then put the chain on the middle front sprocket and all is well. Another "right".

An other trick that I seem to "do right", is to replace straight (mountain bike) and cruiser (rearward swept) handlebars with taller BMX bars. I get good feedback on this. Less back strain for us occasional cyclists. And see examples above.

I brought a few more bikes than I had reservations for, to be safe, yes. And they all got put to good use. I even un-boobytrapped one of the "bait" bikes to lend out. Much demand.

One thing I wish to do righter is the bait bikes. We have fun building them and talking about them here on ePlaya, but it is probably not realistic to conduct any organized sting with them. Three or four years now, and it just does not happen. I did have a couple of people ride the Slow Bike, to much laughter, and likewise the Wrong Way Bike, which no-one has been able to master yet. So I will keep those two, but part out the widow-makers.

Hmm.... That wasn't quickly at all, so I did this wrong. Since the Bicycle Service is growing, maybe I ought to start a Theme Camp thread for it, even though I do not foresee registering as a Theme Camp.

OP, you may have your thread back now.