Gee Whiz UPS

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Scotty

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Jul 20, 2011, 4:03:51 PM7/20/11
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My new Hilsen has been on the truck "Out For Delivery" since 7:00 this morning. Got my camera ready, my tools laid out and I am pacing around my living room wondering if he delivered to the wrong  house, got in an accident, stole my bike, LOL. I wish he would hurry up. I have been waiting 4 months for this bike but the last 2 hours have been the worst. :-)

Garth

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Jul 20, 2011, 4:14:57 PM7/20/11
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FYI ... UPS doesn't start deliver to homes until 9:00 AM and can run
until at least 7:00 PM, later at Christmas time. Just check your
tracking info, it always tells you the exact time time when delivered,
and sometimes even where. With a bike, likely it requires a signature,
but that's up to Riv to request that.

In my area there are typically two times a day when UPS trucks come
around ... once mid morning ... then once late afternoon... but that's
just here.

Don't worry, tomorrow when you've got the bike and slept ... you'll
get a good laugh over the anguish of today. Have fun with it . . .
relish the anticipation. It's a one of a kind experience :)

Steve Palincsar

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Jul 20, 2011, 4:30:03 PM7/20/11
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I wish you good luck.

When I was in that status with my new MAP Randonneur, I went out in the
back yard to get the parts together for the build. While I was out
there, FedEx came, knocked on the door and went away.

I saw the "Delivery Exception" report on the internet. Realized unless
I spent the day out on the front porch, they'd only go through the same
thing again tomorrow, and then the day afterward -- and at the
temperatures we were having last week that would be impossible -- so put
in for them to change the destination to a FedEx store a mile away.

I visit the store the next day to ship something and learn it can take
them an additional 24 hours to deliver to a changed destination. This
even though the FedEx store is less than five miles from the depot!

So I ship the package I brought down and go home. Maybe they'll phone
later on. It is on the truck, after all, and Alexandria isn't all that
big.

Three hours later, it's gone from a hot but sunny day to a rip snorter
thunderstorm with rain that's lashing down so hard the city of
Alexandria issued a flash flood warning, temperatures dropped 30 degrees
in fifteen minutes, and they call. Come get your package.

So I drive down there through the downpour, turn into the 0 shaped
driveway in front of the store, and find there's a tow truck with a
disabled taxi cab parked in the middle of the driveway. No way I can
park, can't back up without hitting a pole. And there's the store, ten
feet away. With my frame.

So I shut off the car and go in to get my package, and while I'm the
store somebody comes in and starts going on about who left their car
blocking the driveway, and they're going to call the police.

Fortunately, the woman at the desk had taken all my info when I was
there earlier, and by the time I got the car started and moved out of
the middle of the driveway she'd brought the box to the door, and it
only took me a second to grab it, stow it and drive away, up to the LBS.

That was a week ago. It's still at the LBS being built up. It's been
hard putting that out of my mind. Not supposed to be done until Friday
or Saturday. Don't even think about it.

Still, it'd be nice to actually see it. So far, I've seen this photo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mapcycles/5905585828/in/photostream and a
bubble-wrapped frame-like shape we took out of the shipping box at the
LBS.


Lyle Bogart

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Jul 20, 2011, 4:36:09 PM7/20/11
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Anticipation definitely slows time. It was that way as I anticipated the delivery of my Atlantis. . . remember to post lotsa pics :)
 
lyle

On 20 July 2011 16:03, Scotty <bong...@verizon.net> wrote:
My new Hilsen has been on the truck "Out For Delivery" since 7:00 this morning. Got my camera ready, my tools laid out and I am pacing around my living room wondering if he delivered to the wrong  house, got in an accident, stole my bike, LOL. I wish he would hurry up. I have been waiting 4 months for this bike but the last 2 hours have been the worst. :-)

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lyle f bogart dpt

156 bradford rd
wiscasset, me 04578

George Schick

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Jul 20, 2011, 5:36:30 PM7/20/11
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It gets better. A realty office and my house have exactly the same
"prefix" number and "street" name. The only difference is the suffix,
of which mine is "drive" and theirs is "square east." Needless to
say, we're always getting some of their mail and vice versa which we
both have to point out to the post office to forward to the correct
destination.

So, a couple of years ago I was awaiting a UPS delivery for some
product - can't even remember what it was. It came and I received it
directly from the driver. While I was out in the garage unpacking it
I noticed that he was taking an exceptional amount of time (which they
rarely do) clearing the delivery on his hand-held CPU and driving on.
Finally, I noticed him walking back up my driveway. He explained
that the package had been delivered to the wrong place and that he'd
have to take it back. I told him that, no, it had indeed been
delivered to the person who ordered it, but that the suffix was always
getting confused with the realty office a few blocks away. Didn't
matter, he said, it would have to be repackaged, taken back to the
shipping center, and put back onto a truck the next day for correct
delivery destination. Seeing that I wasn't going to win the argument
I reluctantly got out my packaging tape dispenser and repacked
everything. Next day, sure enough, here came the UPS truck, the
driver handing me my recently repacked order.
> Still, it'd be nice to actually see it.  So far, I've seen this photohttp://www.flickr.com/photos/mapcycles/5905585828/in/photostream  and a

Steve Palincsar

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Jul 20, 2011, 5:45:09 PM7/20/11
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On Wed, 2011-07-20 at 14:36 -0700, George Schick wrote:
> It gets better. A realty office and my house have exactly the same
> "prefix" number and "street" name. The only difference is the suffix,
> of which mine is "drive" and theirs is "square east." Needless to
> say, we're always getting some of their mail and vice versa which we
> both have to point out to the post office to forward to the correct
> destination.

I live on East Howell. Three blocks away, across Commonwealth Ave., is
West Howell. We get their mail, they get our mail, the restaurants are
always trying to deliver their take-out dinners to us and several times
last year the lawn service fertilized their lawn when it was supposed to
be ours. (At least, they not only came back and did ours, too, they
gave us the all of last year's service free.)

dougP

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Jul 20, 2011, 6:26:24 PM7/20/11
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"Don't worry, tomorrow when you've got the bike and slept ... "

I don't think there will be much sleeping going on there tonight.

I had an interesting experience when my Atlantis arrived. I worked
from home, & got frequent UPS & Fed Ex deliveries. Late afternoon,
doorbill rings. "Who...?". Open the door & there's a really, really
BIG bike box....OMG! Today's the day! The office is now closed & the
bike shop open!

Being on the same coast with Riv, my bike got down here in something
like a couple of days compared to the week I was expecting. I didn't
expect to see it for several more days. Pleasant surprise.

dougP

Scotty

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Jul 20, 2011, 6:36:17 PM7/20/11
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I am probably going to leave it in the box until tomorrow after work since it is still not here and I have to be at work at 3AM. If I start on it tonight I wont stop until its exactly how I want it. That just wont do. I was hoping to get my first ride in today but that definitely wont happen. Oh well. At least the wait is almost over.

Steve Palincsar

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Jul 20, 2011, 6:44:14 PM7/20/11
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Building up a bike in a hurry in the dead of night when you are tired is
a seriously bad idea.

When I brought our first tandem back from JFK, getting home to Beacon NY
well after midnight, I simply couldn't wait to unpack the bike and
reassemble it.

I learned a few weeks later, riding on a bike trail on Martha's Vineyard
when one of the pedals started wobbling from side to side, in my
desperate hurry to see the bike assembled I had cross-threaded it. What
joy! Good thing it was French. The nearest bike shop was able to
re-thread that crank arm to English, and I was able to purchase a pedal
that worked.

Darin G.

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Jul 20, 2011, 9:09:32 PM7/20/11
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I too wish to feel the pangs of desire as a new Rivendell lumbers to
my door.

Scotty

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Jul 20, 2011, 9:28:05 PM7/20/11
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Well folks, she finally arrived and I put it together, mostly. Here are a few pics. I have a rear Tubus rack to install but it looks like the fender struts will be in the way so I will have to deal with that and need to adjust everything up a bit but I rode it up and down the street a bit and it sure rides nice. I cant wait to get it out for a real ride.
 
 

Steve Palincsar

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Jul 20, 2011, 9:39:21 PM7/20/11
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Joy!


Mike

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Jul 20, 2011, 9:47:58 PM7/20/11
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Hey Scotty, congrats on the new bike. I remember I ordered my Hilsen
frame when my wife unexpectedly gave me the greenlight. It arrived and
I held onto it for about 2 months before I had all the parts for
putting it together. That first ride home was fun. Hope you enjoy your
new bike. Be sure to add pictures to the AHH group.

--mike

Brett Lindenbach

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Jul 21, 2011, 3:15:06 AM7/21/11
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This past January I bought my Rivendell Bleriot from someone on this list via eBay. The fedex guy tried to deliver it during a blizzard. We were home, but he had no way to ring the doorbell and the phone # on the invoice was the shipper's, so the driver left. I tried to get him to come back but to no avail. This was on a Friday, so I thought I would have to wait until Monday.. Turns out the shipper used a light, residential version of Fedex that doesn't deliver on Tuesdays. Grrrr. Rather than misconnect again I asked to have them hold it at the depot. For some reason this tacked on extra days for the paperwork. And although the nearest standard fedex depot is about a mile from my house, they don't handle the "light" fedex. So I need up driving 15 miles in and wave of blizzard to pick up the frame, nearly a week after it was supposed to have been delivered. Don't worry, the agony is worth it. You will love that bike all the more for it.

Brett Lindenbach

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Jul 21, 2011, 3:24:32 AM7/21/11
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Scotty, what's the deal? You put the bike together in a few hours? Why is there snow on the ground? Why are your photos dated February 2007? Are you punkin us?

Scotty

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Jul 21, 2011, 3:54:37 AM7/21/11
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LOL. Yes I put the bike together in about 2 hours. It was built by Riv and I just assembled it. Everything was already measured and cut and I used the assembly video on the Riv youtube channel which helped.  That is not snow it is white rock in my very un weeded landscape bed. I was sweating my butt off when those pictures were taken, and they are dated Feb because I dont know how to use my camera and I didnt even realize they were dated at all until you pointed it out but if you feel punked, then I guess Im punkin you LOL but this excitement about that bike sure feels real LOL

Brett Lindenbach

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Jul 21, 2011, 12:08:48 PM7/21/11
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awesome!  enjoy your ride!
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