Because this photo can stand on it’s own.

Couch surfers showed up promptly in the morning, four of them.  A bit surprised, I had confidence they’d turn out to be good ones.  So far, they are.  After getting them all settled Dan and I dawned our outfits and loaded our bags.  Today we’d make another test run, this time not for time or distance but for strength.  We loaded our bags to the brim and added a little for good measure and headed north, up the hills.  One and a half hours later (including a long break to take a photo) we were at the top comfortable and ready for more riding.  What a pleasant surprise.  25 minutes later we were back at the bottom with a top speed from John at 56.0 kph and a top speed from dan of 57.8 kph.

There is a reason we bought bikes early.  Primarily we wanted to train, but truthfully we’d be stronger if we trained on our mountain bikes.  The important part of having bikes a month early was to test the components, break the bikes in, and make changes to the set up.  Today, we were happy to have failures.  Once back in the city, Dan hit a small cut in the road from construction and his bike came to a dead stop.  The deralur (sp) hinge had snapped and threw the mechanism into his rear spokes stopping the bike.  The impact of another cyclist into the side of Dan didn’t help the situation either.  Confused with what had happened we pulled aside and righted the chain and deralur and limped back to the Giant store.  A bit of negotiating convinced them that less than 300 km shouldn’t have component failures and they agreed and replaced it.  We hope to not run into that issue again.

We also accomplished getting a good photograph for our friends here to keep and to pass out to friends along the route.

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Here’s the story…

…It was the fifth of May, el Cinco de Mayo, and Dan had decided that he was willing to go vogue and embarked on this several hour adventure in the seat at a Chinese salon. While the pop music of the salon has been overdubbed, hopefully this short film conveys the experience well enough for anyone who would also dare give up ultimate control over their sense of style for an afternoon.

Please enjoy responsibly.

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Project Loki, as named sometime after we started work on it, was a work put together in less than three days and with a supprisingly minimal amount of man hours.  It was well focused and executed.  We only sustained minor injuries, and, as WE believe, yielded fantastic results.  I hope you enjoy & please share.

P.S. .. someone ask Franti if I can use his song for this.. I forgot to mention it last time we spoke.

In Other News:

Dan and I acquired our bicycles today, ordered saddle bags, planned our detailed route, and have confirmed another couple of hosts along the way.  More news to come as we create it.

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A while back we set out on a plan to enhance our neighborhood, now that it was finally spring time.  I’d say we accomplished our goal, 60%.  That’s more than half.  There’s still hope, but then again, winters are harsh here.  I who knows.  Perhaps turtles will find a new home beneath the public waters.