eLIFELIST.com Bike Trip

I sat down with my friend George Babiak this past weekend to talk about the Bike Trip and some of George’s biking journeys.  In 1995 George biked with his wife from New York City to Alberta Canada and covered over 4,000 miles. 

George now works for the 52nd Street Project and has been there for several years.  The 52nd Street project as described by their website is “a not for profit organization that matches kids (age 9-18) of Hell’s Kitchen in New York City with professional theatre artists to create original theatre.”  The 52nd Street project is an exceptional organization and they do an amazing job of connecting with the young community in Hell’s Kitchen.  There are several types of theatre programs that the kids and professional artists can work on together.  One is called “One on Ones” where a playwright and kid work together and the playwright then writes a play specifically for that kid.  The kid then rehearses with a professional actor to perform the play in front an audience.  Another program is called “Playmaking” where the kids take classes in playwrighting eventually leading to them writing their own play, which is then produced with a professional director and performed by two professional actors.  The 52 Street Project productions are hands down the best theatre I’ve ever seen. 

George took a minute to sit down with me and talk about some of the things he ran into on his big trip.  George is also a pretty serious bike mechanic having worked at Bicycle Habitat in New York for eight years.  He also helped create the Recycle a Bicycle program that trains kids to repair and ride bikes.  One of the craziest things George and his wife Vanessa ran into on their long bike ride was a reckless driver in Canada hit both of them.  It was a hit and run, the car first struck Vanessa from behind and then moved on to hit George.  Luckily, they both turned out to be fine but one of their bikes was destroyed in the accident.  I guess it just goes to show that you can’t prepare for everything.  He said they also had a couple times where things were stolen, but nothing too major.   

George gave me a few tips on some of the basic maintenance issues we might run into on the road.  Watching him change a tire looked like it was on the same level of difficulty as him snapping his fingers.  I appreciate him taking the time to talk and show me a bit of his skills.  I’ll have his number on speed dial during the ride just in case.  

I biked the perimeter of Manhattan yesterday, starting on the Upper East Side, on up the FDR around the top, over to the Upper West side, down around the tip, across the Brooklyn Bridge, then back up the FDR to finish where I started.  It's about 32 miles around the island and I did it in about 2:30 with significant detours at some places.  It was about 90 degrees out yesterday with pretty heavy humidity, so it should be relatively similar to a lot of the conditions we will encounter on the trip, except for the deserts in Nevada, which we don't really know what to expect. 

Overall the ride was good, my energy was fine and it was no problem, but I could really just taste the smog and car exhaust at times and a lot of the road construction etc. was pretty obnoxious.  Riding on the West side is so much better than the East, this was the first time I've biked that much on the FDR, I usually stick to the west side and the park.

We've been talking with a few people that have done a transamerica trip before, getting advice and tips from them.  One thing they all say is eat more food and drink way more water than you think you need.  We're really focusing on taking as little stuff as possible, I think I'm taking 2-3 biking shorts, a few jerseys, 2 t-shirts and 1-2 pair of pants if that.  I'm sure they'll be smelling pretty yummy after a week.  Going light as possible is the name of the game.

Funny shot of the day it was quite the opposite of this if you ask me.