Building Ramps and Taking Names

While one half of the crew was at the MS walk. Don, Mason, and Kristen's father went up to Salem to build a ramp for a woman with MS. It was a 2-day project and all the materials were donated through Grayson Place Building, Inc.

See the Ramp

Its easy to forget the necessities needing access to a building. Stairs are seemingly universal and available to all..... all that can walk. It's amazing how powerful a ramp can be because it goes way beyond just MS. Anyone with ANY disability that prevents a person from walking is limited in their points of entry. A ramp is key to the rest of the population who is unable to use the stairs. Think about how many people that really is in the scheme of things. Wow.

A day with Arnie the Ardvark

A couple of weekends ago the BiketheUSforMS crew headed down to Radford to volunteer some man power for MS Society Blue Ridge chapter's walk. We arrived around 8 to start setting up and it was cold as could be, but the sun was on its way. I was on the registration table and baloon duty.

I had been to a few events of similar neature back in high school through my youth group, but this was an operation, holy smokes. People showed up in hordes. There must have been over 300 people in this small little park. I met a lot of great individuals who were willing to tell me their story once I engaged them in conversation. All I had to do was approach them with a smile and a 'hello'. It was a real eye opener to see this many people rally behind a cause like this. Everyone there was walking for someone; a friend, family member, co-worker, etc.

It showed me just how prevalent a disease like this is to our society. It also showed me that there was an omnipresent energy that prevails even beyond these events and that walks like this are just and avenue to come together and exercise their will to fight this disease. People will show up, whether its a walk, or a bike ride. Our venue begins in 39 days. AHHH!

A flyer is born

I created an e-flyer to send out through my parents and friends to draw attention to BiketheUSforMS's social network, i.e main website, google maps, blogs, twitter, facebook, etc.

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/terbtay/BiketheUStheMS/BUS4MS2.pdf

You will be able to follow us virtually, from your computer, this summer as we ride. From the google map, on our main website, interactive place markers will be generated as we ride with pictures and blogs attached.

You will be able to see our tweets as we ride. If i get a flat tire, and our team leader is a mile ahead, when I text a tweet from my phone, not only will Donald know that I have a flat, but YOU will too!

Now I just need to practice my tube changing abilities!

Saturday's Ride

Saturday was wet in the morning. A ride didn't look too promising but the weather report only said 30% chance of rain, so I crossed my fingers and went for it. I had already told myself I was going no matter what, I had business to attend to. This OGIS symposium I am submitting a project for is this Friday, the 17th, so I needed a beta trial for geotagging the route when I ride.

The idea for geotagging is that you, the end user, will be able to click on interactive placemarkers, on our Google map which has the route overlayed, and an info box will pop up with a picture from that exact location, and info regarding the picture (i.e. time/date, coordinates, and a brief description).

I went out on a solo trip this time leaving around 11:30 am. Stopped by Bike Barn and snagged a helmet mirror, then started my gps tract from the parking lot. I road 29 miles, which took about 2 - 1/2 hours. Could have been shorter but I had to get off my bike to take the pictures. The route came out great when I imported it into Google maps. I will make these routes available for viewing soon.Soon I will have a handlebar bag so I can keep my valuables/necessities (ie. my phone, camera, sunglasses, granola bar etc.) accessible while I'm riding. Also, I found a great way to inexpensively affix a camera mount to my handle bars. This will allow me to take stable pictures with minimal distraction from the road. Even better, I'll be able to take videos when I'm zooming down mountains at 45 mph and post them, via YouTube, to my blog and, even cooler, to the exact location it was taken on our Google Map. When it is fully realized I will post some pictures.

*I'm having some difficulty with lining up my gpx time stamps with my photo time stamps. Currently I'm using OJW's image locator script. If anyone is familiar with this or has any advice please leave a comment. Thanks!

Photo's from Saturday's ride are posted!

My Stallion is ready for Battle!

The ole' gal is back and in primo condition. Over the past few weeks I've broken down and reconditioned the bike. I replaced both front and rear brake cables and housing. Since there was so little mileage on the bike to begin with, the pads looked good so I kept them, but the cables were a little rusty and stuck somewhat. Now, to say the least, they're slicker'n heck. I also replaced the front shifter cable and housing. I left the rear shifter cable because it's not giving me any problems.

I took off the rear hub because it was a wiggled a little bit at the axle. I started going after it but didn't really know what I was doing. Turns out I was going at it from the wrong direction. On Shimano hubs you never go at it from the cassette side. Learned that lesson!! But anyway, got some great advice from the local bike shop, Yeah Bike Barn!!, and went at it from the other side. Greased the bearings, and after about an hour of figuring out how to tighten the axle inside of the hub without pinching the bearings, I finally got it back on. Perfect!!

I then retaped the handle bars and she was good as new again. Then.... the best part, I put on my new Brooks Flyer saddle. Oh man is she sweet! Every time I get on I feel like I'm mounting a stallion ready for battle.

I'll post some pictures of all the progress and update all that's been going on here in the next few blogs. A lots happen in the past month or so, but no worries, I'll fill you in!

Check this out

Here is a journal about the comparisons between the Transamerica Route and the Northern Tier Route, which Don and biketheusforms completed summer of '07.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?page_id=69584

It's a fantastic and accurate description of what lays ahead for us. He talks about riding westbound, starting in Appalachia, prevailing winds and why they're a crock, and the toll the endless plains of the Midwest take on the psyche. I love this guy's attitude!

Man am I glad I get to train in the mountains so I don't completely freak out when we're in them for weeks!

Maiden Voyage!

65 degrees in early February?!? Boy, you have to love global warming. Couldn't pass up the opportunity to get the bike out on the open roads to stretch her legs. No less than a week ago did I stir her from her decade+ of hibernation, and here she is crushing 36 miles no problem. She loved it, and so did I. We couldn't get enough!
I headed over to Don's on Saturday morning to get the bike squared away. Greased her up, put the handle bars back on, put new tires on, tinkered with the cables and away we went.
Words do little to express, let alone compliment, the pure joy and freedom I felt as I peddled out of town and into the mountains. One mile outside of Blacksburg and we were in the open countryside that is Appalachia. Endless streams, grand pastures, flowing mountains, the occasional farm house. Am I really this lucky to see America's landscape from this perspective?!?
I took some pictures, not as many as I'd like to to show the world what I saw but in due time. Next time I'm going to take a GPS unit along so I can gain some experience geotagging my pictures. This will allow you to see my pictures from a map so as to identify where the pictures were taken. Exciting stuff!!
The bike definitely still needs some work. Next step is to replace all the tension cables (braking and shifting), among other things. I've never biked that far before, but it felt great, and the bike was a champion, so overall this trip was a very promising preface for the adventures to come.