Thursday, March 31, 2011

Busy Busy Busy

Hello all, or one. My bike has come in however I am extremely busy working for the next couple of days. As soon as I get home on Monday I will snap some picks of my sweet new bike and post them. We are about 6 weeks out and are closer then ever to being ready. I have mostly odds and sods to pick up. on the physical side I am trying to shed some poundage before the big quest. At the very least I am eating better. I have to crash for an early call time tomorrow. Night!

Monday, March 14, 2011

A new arrival!

I have ordered my bike! A blue Surly Long Haul Trucker is on it's way. This is the biggest purchase I have for the adventure. I wanted to buy a road bike once and this is it! I had to make a few adjustments to the factory model. First up I swapped out the cantilever brakes for a set of Shimano V brakes. I am what's considered a Clydesdale biker. Meaning I'm a pretty big dude. I need a bit more stopping power that the cantilevers just are not built for. Along those lines I upgraded my crankset to a Shimano Splined model. I have a nasty habit of ripping the pedal arms off my bikes. My last customization was a purely vain one. I replaced the standard black for some cork tape. I think the brown will really pop with the blue. Once it comes in I will upload some photos.

Cheers!

Joe

Friday, March 4, 2011

Inspiration

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about this bike trip. Browsing forums, subreddits and various blogs trying to gather as much knowledge and inspiration for this trip as possible. With 8 weeks left before we leave everything is becoming much more real. Struggling to work out the finances, get all the gear we need and organize travel out to the coast are becoming very big priorities in our life right now. Needless to say it is a little intense and the stress is building. This isn't a bad thing, though it is both scary and exhilarating at the same time.

One of the few things that I find quite motivational is a documentary by Mike Beauchamp. You can visit his page at http://mikebeauchamp.com/crosscanada

The Cross Canada Project: Documenting a Bicycle Tour Across Canada from mike beauchamp on Vimeo.

I would like to apologize for the lack of posting. We are still learning and ironing out a few communication kinks and such. I will definitely be upping the frequency of posts in the next couple of weeks.