Bike Building 101

Ville and I are in Bend, Oregon now and busy getting our bicicletas dialed for our trip. First, we got our bikes new with some help from a friend. New bikes are cool and shiny, but most importantly for us, they have less use and abuse on the frame and since we will be riding 20,000+ miles, this matters. Since we both got the same bike, different sizes, we have pretty blue matching bikes soon to be covered in gear and stickers. We also bought some leather Brooks saddles that are currently hard as rocks and we are riding every day around town to break our butts and saddles into each other. If you see us out there on our pretty blue matching bikes, wave, honk, yell, or toss us a beer.

Last week was a big week. We were in The Bulletin, and thanks all for reaching out to us with all the love, support, and well wishes for the trip. We are excited to see you all along the journey and share in the excitement of being on the road. Then, we were asked for an interview to be on 101.7 fm, which will air next week sometime on the morning show at 8 am. Stay tuned for the air time!

And now to equipping our worthy steeds that will get us the distance. Last week we sat down with John Frey at Hutches and dialed a list of goods needed for the ride. John is awesome, we went through the gear list part by part and made sure we will have everything we will need, including custom built wheels, to make the journey. He also walked us two newbies through the workings of the bikes and the must-dos to keeping our rigs trucking along the way. Thanks John for taking your time, after hours even, to help us out! 

Then there was Chris, THE wheel builder, at the East Side Hutches. Wheel builder you ask? Well yes. And it is an almost lost art, now that most bikes are standard machine made, not many kids are building special wheels up for their most special application these days. We decided to build our wheels because of the miles we will ride and how remote many places will be. Maybe best to spend the $$ on hand picking the best hubs, rims, spokes, and tires for the job and then not get stranded with broken parts in the middle of nowhere and wish we had dialed them when we had the chance. Thanks so much Chris for showing us how you put a wheel together and letting us ask a million dumb questions about them. See you in Oregon when we have broken those bad boys in!

Thanks also to Mike Fusaro and Paul Karr, you guys were incredibly helpful and generous with walking and talking the bike talk needed to get our gear dialed. We are incredibly grateful. And to everyone else who has liked us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/kristen.grund.7 or https://www.facebook.com/welostthemap2/) is following us on Instagram (www.instagram.com/welostthemap)  and just plain making the time for a beer, walk, or dinner before leaving. We love you all.

P.S. If you have some down time tomorrow, This Saturday, June 11 @ Drake Park is Camp Tamarack"s first annual Community Carnival! 10am-2pm. There will be games , archery, entertainment, music, obstacle courses, FUN GALORE for the whole family! And if your really lucky, you just might see Ville and I there helping support our very favorite foundation, Carly's Kids! Unlimited activities bracelets for $10 will be sold at the event. 100% of proceeds go to scholarship funds for participating Bend La Pine schools to reduce the cost of Outdoor school. Food will be sold separately. Come join us for some fun and family time. Help Celebrate the Magic of Camp Tamarack! Hope to see you there...