So I’ve been wondering where this is going now. My last post was teeming with adrenaline from my freshly purchased ticket and the all the excitement of seeing my unedited words published instantly. It was a rush knowing that my words would hit the information superhighway at the speed of light and be seen by millions, potentially, or at least my four faithful followers.
As of the time that I am writing this there are officially 133 days 13 hours 30 minutes and 23 seconds until I get on the plane in Newark, NJ. Now that’s boarding time for old people and babies, and I always try to get on a little after that, so, more like 40 minutes 37 seconds. Who’s counting anyway, right? Me, I guess….
What exactly am I going to do for the next 4 months? First thing is to build a bike. Well, I finished that. I thought it was going to take longer. I guess I was pretty excited.
Before I go off on how great my new bike is, I need to preface this. While I was building, I was all over various Internet forums and these things are full of people who spend way too much time fawning over their bicycles. While it was a great help to someone who needed advice about which parts here and what setup there, it got a little nauseating. Apparently, there’s a lot of people out there who, it seems, have nothing better to do than take pictures of their bikes from every angle possible and write about how other people should buy the same bike. (With a face like this, could you believe it?) Plus, their bikes are always clean. They must not ride them, or else they degrease, powerwash and re-lube everything after every ride. After all that, they still have time to post 6 pictures and 3 pages worth of commentary on their epic singletrack adventure of the day. I have to check myself before I become one.
On that note, I tried a little photo shoot with my bike yesterday. I didn’t get very far at all before real life called me back. My roommate, Sebastian, kept trying to escape.
He’s working on a Houdini-esque act where he flattens himself against the driveway and slips away unnoticed to freedom. We really would let him explore, except he doesn’t quite get the concept of a car. Let's see him unflatten himself out of that one.
So I tried again today, with clearly amateur success.
Here's a pretty epic shot. I think i just went off a jump or something.
And here’s one of my handlebars. I know you were interested.
I still maintain that I am not one of those people.
After much deliberation, I settled on a Surly Troll. I really like the Surly brand: my research tells me that they make strong bikes and I love the attitude of the guys. They are big proponents of the adventure cycling movement. They are pushing the lines of what you can do with a bike.
The Troll is their do-everything bike. I’ve built it up as a touring rig, but you could theoretically even do a single speed on it. Its got horizontal drop-outs, mounts for disc brakes or cantilever brakes, and enough eyelets to… uh… attach lots of things to it. I plan on trying it out in a couple different modes this summer.
So, ya, a bike. And now I only have 123 days left till I pack it up and take off. I need to find myself another hobby.
