Santa Barbara :: Meeting John Jones

After a wonderful night’s sleep at Refugio State Park, we rode through Goleta then on to Santa Barbara for the evening. We couldn’t help but stop to window shop as we made our way to the Agave Inn, a sweet little place, which we strategically picked due to its proximity to our scheduled appointment with world-renowned and master wheel builder, John Jones. [Read More…]

The Building of Sheila's Bike: 99% Done

We finally have some photos of Sheila’s touring bike in an almost-done condition. As a friend recently stated, Sheila’s bicycle is “very elegant”, and we tend to agree. I’ll walk you through some of the finer points of her bicycle in this post.

 

Stem

Right off you’ll notice her bike’s odd looking stem and lack of handlebar tape. Our wonderful friend David from the Winooski Bike [Read More…]

Final Preparations, Launch Date & Customizations

Ah. Yes. Here we are. In the midst of the final chaos of preparing for an open-ended multi-year cycling expedition. It appears it doesn’t matter how many years ahead you start to plan, feedback from other cyclists indicates that this is just part of the process. They’re also telling us that this is the most stressful part, which is good to know. Even though we’ve been burning the [Read More…]

The Building of My Bike: The Frame V

Folk Engineered put the finishing touches on my frame and fork and it’s safe to say that I was thrilled to see photos of the final product today. I’ve only been through their facebook album 30 times tonight and I still can’t believe she’s mine! Gorgeous, strong, elegant. What more could a girl ask for?

**All photos by Folk [Read More…]

The Building of My Bike: The Frame IV

More progress on my frame! See more photos via Folk Engineered’s Facebook page.

[Read More…]

More Bits for my Bike

Recently acquired bits for my bike-to-be and our trip:

#1 rule for enjoyable touring – start with a solid foundation for your bum!

My beautiful Brooks saddle: a Flyers S Special, especially for the Ladies.

I’ll start off with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires with Smart Guard

[Read More…]