Sweat Equity

Today I finished my sweat equity requirements for Bike & Build. Each rider is required to complete at least eight hours of sweat equity with an affordable housing organization, so I did two six hour trips with BU's Habitat Chapter. Todays trip wasn't really a build trip because we spent the day making last minute touch ups on several units in a larger habitat project in Boston that are going to be shown to people tomorrow. I spent most of the day scrapping dried paint off of linoleum floors and painting over scuff marks on the walls. It wasn't so bad and really I only wish I could have been outside instead of cooped up inside all day (take note that it was 70 degrees, something I'm not likely to see again for several months), but the units look great and ready for tomorrow. It's kinda funny that now that I'm supposed to be gaining actual building experience for this summer the build trips I go on end up not really involving building (the last one I spent nearly the whole day caulking and sanding). I guess it's good I've been on so many other build trips.
The other big news for today is that I made a special trip home this weekend to collect my bike and the packages that have arrived containing exciting goodies like pedals, a bike computer (that was amazingly easy to install and worked on the first try), and Chamois Butt'r. My next great adventure is going to be learning to clip in and out of my new pedals. I'm hoping I only fall over once or twice.

Bike and Build: Be The Change

There is this great documentary that a couple riders from last summers Southern route made about their trip entitled "Bike and Build: Be The Change". It does a really good job talking about what Bike & Build is really about, so you should all check it out here: http://vimeo.com/10183174

Thanks to everyone who has donated so far and for those who haven't keep the donations coming.

First Ride

My new bike arrived last Friday, just in time for spring break, and after some frustration I was able to get it all together finally on Saturday or Sunday and the other day I went out for my first ride. The biggest difference with this new bike is with shifting gears. For the past year I had been using my Mom's old Motobecane, which is a very nice bike and one that they drool over at the bike shop whenever we bring it in, but has old fashioned shifters down on the frame of the bike that aren't always so user friendly. So out I went with my new bike for the first time on a beautiful day here in Newton and found myself wishing for the first half of the ride that I had the old shifters back. I'm very quickly coming around to the new ones though and after a few more rides I'm sure I'll like them infinitely better than the old ones.