Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Night Riding like Batman

The sun went down yesterday before I had time to ride. With excitement, I decided to brave the night. I grabbed my most reflective jersey, put a rear blinker on my seat post, a light on my handle bars, and headed out the door. The streets were quiet and well lit until I got to Percy Warner park.

As I rode into the wooded entrance of the park, I felt like I was Batman flying toward the entrance of the bat cave. My light illuminated the one lane road, and my blinding speed caused the trees that lined the path to blur together. As I approached the downhill, I dropped in my handlebars to get under then wind. Then out of nowhere . . .

It was a quick blow - like a half-hearted sucker punch. Something hit my shoulder. I had just been attacked by a kamikaze bat. He flew right into my shoulder! Awesome story huh?

~Austin

Monday, April 24, 2006

For Gear Heads

I went to Atlanta this weekend to pick up all of our equipment from Roswell Bicycles. The guys at the shop had warned me that it was like a big candy store, but I don't think that I was adequately prepared. They hooked us up with almost everything that we'll need during the tour.

Here is a list for our equipment:

2 Giant OCR1 Bicycles
2 sets of aerobars
2 equipment pouches
2 pairs of cycling shoes
2 helmets
2 rear view mirrors
2 cycling computers
2 head lights
2 rear blinkers
2 heart rate monitors
2 pairs of glasses
1 pump
3 spare tubes
1 tube of chamois cream
4 water bottles
4 pairs of socks
4 pairs of cycling shorts
5 shirts
1 gear cleaning brush
1 universal tool
3 Cone wrenches
1 spoke wrench
1 chain tool
1 awesome folding repair stand

We're still gonna need a few spare parts, but overall it's a gear head's pardise in our dorm room!

~ Austin