Behold Butters the Winnecycle!

According to Ivan, Butters won't officially become a Winnecycle (or a Bikabago) until it's fully loaded down for our trip, but I wanted to see what the title looked like in print.

I don't yet own Butters, but we went down to Angle Lake Cyclery - the only place in Seattle to get a recumbent - where I got on one and pedaled around for the first time. It was kind of scary at first. I didn't fall over or anything, but the shift in body position from vertical to semi-horizontal is off-putting. You have to move your body differently and the turn radius is larger than in a traditional diamond frame upright.

But both Ivan and Dale, the owner of Angle Lake who ran behind me for a while holding on to me while I got the knack, said I did really well for my first time and placed me high up on the learning curve. I was happy with the assessment because this isn't a cheap toy we're buying and I would hate to make the purchase and then discover that I have no aptitude for the style at all. Additionally, it struck me that, putting the trip aside, Butters will need to become my main bike to further justify the cost so I'd damn well better learn to love riding a recumbent. Since Ivan has accepted a position with the Fremont Solstice Parade this spring I'll have a good three months to both acclimate and get into shape as we won't be leaving now until July.

In the meantime, we went ahead and placed and order. A yellow Bacchetta Giro 26 (just like the picture) with a few modifications: wider handle bars; wider, tougher tires to handle the long miles; a rear rack; bottle rack, and clipless pedals (which are both a misnomer and scare the hell out of me.) With luck, it will be ready in a couple of weeks.

Spring is for Biking

We took our bikes out for the first time this year (2008) on Sunday. We didn't go very far in our travels - from breakfast to coffee to REI to home - maybe about 5 miles but, man alive, was I exhausted from the moment I got home till I went to bed the following night! Perhaps it were the hills that did me in but I still felt like a complete loser for not being able to hack 5 measly miles. Jeez.

Well, whatever. I rode my bike to work this morning in preparation for the start of the Ride in the Rain challenge that begins next week. (We have the worst team name ever in the history of team names. It's so bad, I just pretend that we don't have one.) My ride will be a little over 6 miles round trip and the return home is all. up. hill. Tough but, if nothing else, my ass will look great and it is great incentive to start training for the big ride later this spring and the mountains we will surely climb.

Speaking of which, Ivan ordered two different sets of maps this weekend from Adventure Cycling so we can get a closer look at the two routes we're considering: the TransAmerican and the Northern Tier. I've decided to let him decide what route, or combination of routes, we'll take. I'm pretty jazzed just about doing the trip and doing it together that I really don't care what route we'll take because I can't imagine not finding all of it interesting. He's been a little more discerning about it, so I figure it should be his call.

I hadn't planned on getting my bike for the trip until early April, but Ivan pointed out that sooner is better than later as we may need to put in an order for what I want which may delay us in getting it. So we'll probably head down to Angle Lake Cycles in the next couple of weeks. At this point, we're thinking about getting the same model as his. We'll see if that'll work out.

BAA!

OK. See this picture of a map of the US with a red and blue line snaking across it? Well, keep this image somewhere in the back of your mind. It will be important in the very near future!