I started off my trip with an early 90s GT Timberline, a bike I’ve been riding around DC for years.

It’s what you might describe as a tank of a bike. It’s got a steel frame that can go, and has gone, through everything. (Most bikes have aluminum frames, which are lighter. However, they are also stiffer and provide a less comfortable ride. And steel frames are easier to fix if something goes wrong. Long distance cyclists say that steel is real.)

I like this bike. Cyclist enthusiasts often talk to me when they see my old school steel-frame. And it looks distinctive enough to appeal to the common man, as well. Many are the childfolk who have pointed to my bike and yelled, “Orange tires!”

Most of the components are, I think, originals. You don’t find a lot of people biking around with 30-year old shifters, derailleurs and chain rings! And, consequently, they tend not to work so great. The front derailleur hardly works at all (especially since I had a mini-crash and really bent the large front chain ring.)

In Gainesville, VA, while holed up waiting for my first powerlifting meet, I searched the Internet and found an upgrade/sidegrade.

A Surly Long Haul trucker. Surly bikes are bikes made for touring; most companies make a bike for something else and tweak and it call it a touring bike. The country is mostly sold of Surly bikes at the moment as everyone discovers their new passion.

It’s about five years old, has mostly original components and works great. This is a road bike, so unlike with the mountain bike I’ll have to be a bit selective about the kinds of roads and trails I go on – even though it’s about as tough as road bikes come.

It’ll take a bit of getting used to the stem setup. The brakes are in a position different from where I would usually put them, and you can see you have to change grip to get from grips to shifters. The shifters are friction shifters – they aren’t indexed and you have to feel when they are in the right gear; not something I’m used to. (I did find a helpful article about friction shifters to get me started.) The stem itself is custom, designed to give a (yet) more upright position than the out-of-the box stem, to make long rides (even) easier on the back.

It’s a bit of learning curb for the newbie biker like myself, but the bike is well-made, well-balanced and fast. I’m very excited to see what it can do!