Category: Preparations

  • What’s that sound?

    This is a story based upon the events of Wednesday, May 14, 2008. We headed down to Alfred Station NY to pick up our new bikes, and then onto Stony Fork Pennsylvania to camp. It had been warm during the day, but as evening approached the temperature dropped. On the drive down to Stony Fork…

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  • Bikes and Crossing the Atlantic

    This is a really quick update, as we are participating in the Canadian Unitarian Council’s Annual Conference and Meeting this weekend. I’ll try and update with more details and pictures pictures sometime this weekend. We successfully picked up our bikes this week. We made a quick trip down to Afred Station NY to get the…

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  • A quick update

    We are slowly but surely getting ready for this trip. The reality of it all is setting in. We have: Completed our immunizations (all that needed to be done before we leave North America. We still need to take the Cholera vaccine just before we leave North America). Completed our Servas interviews. We have our…

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  • Buying a bicycle as a spiritual journey

    I pedal quickly, practicing my spinning. The road has a gentle decline and the trees are a dingy orange-brown, typical of the early spring after the snow is gone but before the green buds begin to take over the landscape. I remind myself to take a deep breath, smell the fresh air, and experience the…

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  • And the winner is …

    After lots of analysis we’ve decided the HP Velotechnik Streetmachine Gte is the best bike for our needs. Peter worked hard to not influence our decision, but in the end he did tell us he agreed with us given our plans. The HP Velotechnik Streetmachine Gte won for us because: It fit Becky better (seat…

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  • What bicycle? Propulsion

    Our other major debate was Shimano XT groupo vs Rohloff Speedhub for the gear train. In one corner we had Keith (go with a derailleur!), Bryan in the other corner (the Rohloff is really nice, and virtually maintenance free!), and Peter somewhere in the middle. It wasn’t quite that black and white, with Keith enthusing…

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  • What bicycle? Analysis and more analysis

    Friday was dreary, wet and intermittently rainy, so we didn’t end up test driving any bikes. We did spend many hours at the BicycleMan shop though, looking at options and discussing. Since it was a grey, dreary day we pretty much had the shop to ourselves, and were able to take a lot of Peter’s…

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  • I want to buy a bicycle …

    I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride my bike I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride it where I like by Queen Change the word “ride” to “buy” and you’ll have the song that has been going through my head for the last day and a half. We have…

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