I was explaining this journey to two of my brothers, Mike and Greg. Mike was really excited to go but with only a few months to train and working non-stop as a teacher and tutor, he just couldn’t get enough miles ridden to be prepared for this trip. Greg on the other hand was all-in.
Greg has ridden a lot in the past, but a few years and some pounds may have snuck up on him. So I was a bit (actually a lot) skeptical at first and was super curious what he would be riding. He sent me this picture…

OH WOW!!! That was my first thought. My second thought was, “How much does that thing weigh?” He told me he loves this bike and they’ve been through a lot together and thought it would be just fine. Well — it weighed in at 74 lbs. When I stopped laughing, I told him mine weighed 23 and he needed an upgrade.
Before we could find him a new bike, he committed to doing the St. Mark’s trail (picture below) on “the beast” to see how ready he was. He made the 58 mile out and back. I guess a bit sore the next day, but he went from 20% to 60% on his readiness meter.

Greg looked online and at the local bike store but didn’t find anything that would work for this journey. I went to my local bike store and found him one. It cost $50 to box it back up and $175 to ship it via BikeFlights.com. That sounds like a lot, but the retail price for shipping at the UPS store was $350 — so “total bargain.” I think this bike weighs 25 lbs. That’s about a 50 pound improvement.

Greg isn’t speechless very often. He was when he got the bike. He’s never had anything so nice and he even stopped whining about the “burnt orange” color. I’m laughing as I type this because I’m sure he’ll wreck this thing by adding fenders, kickstand, bags, and all the other crap he had on his other one, but we’ll see.
He’s got his new bike and apparently he’s hanging out at Panama Beach, FL. This was after our conversation about how lousy this Spring in Michigan has been to train outdoors. He had to send me this picture to rub it in. I had to remind him that he’s laying his bike down on the wrong side (you don’t want to wreck the derailleur.) A little fun all in jest.
I think I see fenders on the bike. Here come the “improvements.” This thing will be up to 50 lbs before you know it 😉

We’ve got a month to go before the trip begins. He’s got what he needs from an equipment perspective and he’s getting time on the bike. Can’t wait for this to begin!!!
GO GREGG!!!!!!!!!
Rooting for you and very jealous!
Sorry about the third G. Couldn’t help it!!!
As this picture shows, the “Triple G” was self inflicted by Greg (2 G). My mom had us make these a long time ago. For some reason, an extra G was added. Mike never misses anything 🙂