New Cards, New Cameras, New Bike!

Day 19(2) – 2/24/09 + 2/25/09

The weather was great then the one-day I was able to actually go biking snowfalls like that’s its job. Well I have to say it does make me sad that getting on my bike is dangerous, but I can’t be too sad because these last couple of days have been very productive for the planning stages of my trip. I have received my business cards so it is easier to tell people about my blog (www.vistaprint.com) and I have received some funding to buy a new bike! This trip is really coming around. I have been looking at bikes of all different brands. The ones that have peeked my interest so far has been Fuji bikes (www.fujibikes.com), and Bike Fridays (www.bikefriday.com) and there are many more that I haven’t checked out yet. The fuji bike is probably no what I am going to go with, I just like the look and the name but I think fuji focuses on race bikes more and I don’t need a race bike. Bike Fridays are a very interesting type of bike. I was told about them by my mom (Kathy) because when she biked across the country for her 50th (that’s right she did it!), one of the women that she was riding with is now continuing to bike all around the world using a Bike Friday. It is a folding bike that has a high amount of gears so it can counteract the size of the wheels and then the case that the bike folds up into, after getting off the plan in, I don’t know…New Zealand, you can just use it as a trailer to store your travel goods. This bike really interests me, it’s the right price $999, it is specifically designed for what I want to do, it would be very useful in the future after my trip across the country, but there is just something that bothers me about the size of the wheels. I feel as though no matter how many gears you add, the amount of energy you exert will still be greater than if you had larger wheels. I could be wrong but it just doesn’t feel right. I looked at some reviews and they said that the bike is fantastic and the only down side is that when going up hills the speed is slower and also the amount of shock that gets absorbed by the wheels is significantly less than a larger wheel type. There is a bike shop not far away from my apartment called Harris Cyclery (www.HarrisCyclery.com) this shop has several Bike Fridays so I was going to go check it out and see what I’m missing out on. I am going to continue to keep looking and researching for the best bike for me and then I will get it…ride it, and well obsess over it.

So along with this exiting news of finances for my bike I have been doing some research on cameras and storage devices. I went to Boston camera (which is a rental place) and asked around about lipstick camera…which are called that because they look like a tube of lipstick….I was told to check out Rule (S/P) in Watertown because they could definitely advise me on more details about what I am going to want to get the picture that I want. I plan on having 3 cameras. I would have one lipstick on my bike, one in my parents RV (to capture their day to day activity), and one HD camera that I can use to capture locations that I stop at. I would store these to a hard drive and upload them to a server so Cody my friend/producer can start editing the footage together so we can release the documentary in sections as I travel. This style of creation will allow for people to interact with me through the Internet and in person and be directly involved in the documentary and my trip.

I keep looking outside while I am writing this and saying to my self I can get on my bike in that amazing wind and small pellets of snow…. I probably shouldn’t though. Well I will just continue to plan my trip and keep you all up to date on my next adventures.

P.S. There is a Facebook fan page names “Against the Wind” please join it and help support me and the documentary. Thank you all.

TOTAL DISTANCE FOR DAY (TDD) : 5 miles
TOTAL TIME FOR THE DAY (TTD) : 25 min

TOTAL TIME TRAINING: 19 hrs 20 min
TOTAL DISTANCE TRAVELED: 134.58 Miles