Gear

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Sniff...Ahhh

Thats right, spring is in the air and a fresh new design is up and running for Bingle by Bingle.  It's easy to read, and has a more homey look that reflects better the writings that will be showing up here over the next months.

Speaking of months, if you have friends or family living anywhere in:

  • Michigan
  • Wisconsin
  • Minnesota
  • North Dakota
  • South Dakota
  • Wyoming
  • Idaho
  • Montana
let me know and I will ever so graciously visit them for you and sleep on their couch and eat their food.  Anywho, things are rolling on pre-trip planning.  I am in the mid stages of building a touring bike.  I am using a steel Binachi frame, cherry red.  so far, I have a nice bottom bracket, touring crank set and 8 speed freewheel.  I also got my quill stem and flat bars.  I'll be putting bar ends, linear pull brakes (front only) and either trigger shifters or down tube friction shifters, not sure, yet.  I'll be rocking 700c x 25 tires, not normal touring width but i love riding on these tires.  I have orders rear panniers that will supplment my burley nomad trailer so that i can dump the trailer if i am staying in one place for a few days.  besides that, figuring out the proper tools needed, getting some route figured out for the first 1,000 miles, and trying to not bust my gut over the fact that i'm finally doing this. 

Yesterday it was 60, this morning it was snowing.  Now it's sunny and getting warm again.  Crazy.  Anywho, send me a shout about places you know about that need to be seen and explored or other suggestions about where to bike.  I'm wide open.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Big Sky Country

Like the great open spaces that I hope to visit, my plans, ideas, thoughts, etc are wide open.  Except for one thing.  I'm going biking.  But not just biking.  For years and years I have dreamed of experiencing the North American landscape, of learning about the people, nature, communities that are scattered among the mountains, prairies, valleys, badlands, goodlands, tetons, cliffs, hidden rivers and soft spots covered in pine. 

More or less on May 1st, I will embark on a new life chapter. Some call it wunderlust, some call it adventure.  Thats all correct, but it's also more.  It's an expression for my love of biking, of desires to learn more about limitations, to learn, to write, to fall in love with the varied beauty that surrounds us but often we fail to see.  Amongsts the city streets, shops, and banners life seems displaced.  There is more, so much more. More that is real, immediate, daring, heartbreaking, heartfilling.  It's all within, but the world outside can help bring it to boil. 

So my little bingler's, once again we'll have changes here.  We'll keep on bingle by bingle, cause thats how its goes, but i'll be documenting more my life travels among the land here.  So I hope whoever you are that is reading this, you'll join me.