Helping Others

I found this comment on a website, "Yeah, I realized after posting this that with this guy's career, if he had saved like a mustachian he could easily have funded it himself."

To which I say guilty as charged. Six years ago I had no debt and had a nice little retirement nest egg. I had enough saved that I could have paid for a South Pole exposition out my savings. But I wanted to give back. I quit my well paid career, bought a few hundred bikes, tools, parts, and accessories. I went to mechanics school to make sure I was properly trained to work on other people's bikes. I took my life savings and put it into a bike store.

I'm no longer debt free. I work 14+ hours a day. I only get Sundays and 4 or 5 other days a year off.

However, I have helped a lot of people improve their health by helping to get them out on a bike. I have fixed a lot of bikes for a lot of people that most bike shops won't work on. I have worked hard to make sure my customers are treated well and get good value. I think, because of my bike store, I have made a real contribution to my community. I feel I have put the money I earned as a computer programmer to great use.

So, yes I do need to raise money to do the South Pole Epic, and then I can use the expedition in my efforts to bring the health benefits of cycling to even more people. You can contribute to the expedition at www.epicbiking.com/product/south-pole-epic-donation-570.htm or to my Kickstarter project at www.kickstarter.com/projects/southpoleepic/the-south-pole-epic and help me help others.

South Pole Snowman

I'm getting to work a lot later than I wanted because I worked on taking pictures of our prototype South Pole Snowman.
Here he is as a happy prototype snowman with "coal" eyes and a "carrot" nose.

After a few hours of sitting around in the heat he melted, but luckily we got all of him except his hat into a jar before he turned to water.

Each snowman will include a certificate of authenticity.

Our prototype snowman was not made with South Pole snow. The actual snowman you can get as a reward for backing our project will be made of real Antarctic snow from the South Pole. Other features of the real snowman, bottle, and certificate may be different than pictured.

 The snowmen from the South Pole will cost over $8,000 to collect, however you can have one of these extremely rare items if you pledge $200 or more. So I guess you can say you are saving over $7,800!

Go to http://southpole.epicbiking.com and make your pledge today!

Play List

I had a great meeting with the VP of a potential sponsor on Tuesday. It was very happy with how it went and I'm hopeful that they will be a sponsor. It is a great company with great people. It is so cool talking with people that, well, just get it.

A few weeks ago I talked to a different sponsor that I thought was a perfect match, one that would get a great return on their investment, one that I figured, based on the business they are in, would instantly see the benefit of being a sponsor, just didn't get it.

So I was out on the fat bike and listening to some songs. First it is "What is This?" from Nightmare Before Christmas. Jack learns about Christmas and is excited about it, reminding me of how most people get excited about the expedition.

Then "Town Meeting" from the same soundtrack. No matter how hard Jack tries, they just don't get it. Reminding me of the company I so wanted to be a sponsor.


Finally "Too Many Fish in the Sea" by Karmin. Yup, there are plenty of potential sponsors out there that can benefit from being a partner in a great race.

A Race to the South Pole -- by Bicycle

Three Expeditions are Striving to be the First to Bike to the South Pole

A race reminiscent of the historic Amundsen-Scott race to the South Pole is coming. In mid February an American team headed up by Daniel Burton announced their planned expedition, The South Pole Epic, from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back by bicycle. Then in late April, Kate Leeming of Australia announced her expedition, Breaking the Cycle South Pole, that closely resembled the plans announced earlier by the American team. Finally, in early May Spaniard Juan Menendez Granados announced that he, too, intends to bike to the South Pole. All three expeditions are planned for this coming Antarctic summer.

The American team is planning on producing a documentary and TV series chronicling the 1,400 mile expedition as it braves strong katabatic headwinds, dangerous crevasses, and -40F temperatures on its journey to the South Pole. 

Everyone is invited to get involved in helping the American team win the race by contributing to the team's Kickstarter project. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/southpoleepic/the-south-pole-epic/ The project has some unique rewards for those who pledge money to fund the expedition. By getting support from the general public and corporate sponsors, The South Pole Epic team will be able to have the equipment to be competitive in the race to the South Pole.

Nobody has yet been able to complete a bicycle journey across Antarctica to the South Pole. Burton says, "In 2012 a polar explorer, Eric Larsen, attempted to be the first to bike to the South Pole. While his expedition failed to reach the bottom of the world, it did prove that fat tired bikes work in the Antarctic conditions." The American team will be using "fat bikes" that have tires which exceed 4 inches in width that are designed for travel in snow and sand. "These bikes," Burton says, "allow people to ride a bike in places never before possible, and have set the stage for the ultimate bicycle race."

Burton has also created a facebook page www.facebook.com/SouthPoleEpic and blog epicsouthpole.blogspot.com to keep everyone up to speed on the project. 

Good Morning Utah

On Saturday we took the fat bikes out to Neptune Park in Saratoga Springs, for their Fun With Science event. There were a lot of people there having a lot of fun with everything from rockets to robots and of course fat bikes. We talked about how the fat tires are great in snow and sand and showed off some of the engineering need to make a bike with big fat tires. Then the best part, gave everyone a chance to ride the bikes around the park.

This morning I had an interview with Good Morning Utah. 

It is great to see so many people getting excited about biking. If we can help get people out riding a bike and being active it makes all this worth while.

Busy Weeks

Had a busy week. As the temperatures warm up everyone wants their bikes fixed up. It was difficult to try and keep up with the repair work. I have been talking with companies about sponsorship, and on Friday, I took a photographer for the Daily Herald on a bike ride.

Tomorrow I have an interview with Good Morning Utah. I was thinking I would ride my fat bike from my house to the studio for my Monday morning early ride, but it would require more time than I have available. So I'll drive to the interview and have to do a shorter ride on Monday.

I'm planning on doing my 5 hour ride on Tuesday. I'll leave the house at my normal 4am, and bike to the trail head in Draper, where I'll meet up with a good friend and biking buddy and ride the Corner Canyon trails.

Jacob's Ladder

My 5 hour training rides on Monday mornings are working well. I didn't get enough sleep this last Sunday, so by the end of the day working at the store I was quite tired. Getting up at 3am riding 5 hours and then working til 7pm make for a long day, but I love being able to get that long ride in to start out the week. On Monday I rode to the real top of Jacob's Ladder in Corner Canyon. Most people turn and head down Jacob's Ladder where the single track breaks off from the dirt road, but if you continue up the dirt road another .6 miles you come to a great cliff overlooking Utah Valley.

The trail to here is loose and steep, but the fat tires give great traction, and although the bike is heavier than my mountain bike, it does a better job getting up this trail.

Yesterday was a hard day. I was building a new storage rack for the store, and fell onto the end pole of the rack and hurt myself pretty good. So I was feeling bad for myself and then I got a call from my wife. My daughter is in Serbia, and she and her companion were attacked by a man. He hit my daughter in the face a few times, but she isn't hurt bad. Her companion though was beat up pretty badly. She is having to go to Frankfurt to get surgery to fix a broken jaw and knocked in teeth. My daughter is moving back to Croatia today. Overall it sounds like things are going to be OK, but it is sad that a man would think he needed to beat up a couple of defenseless young women.

Red Fox

I saw a red fox as I was walking to church today. It ran off too quickly for me to get a picture. But I did get a picture of these flowers. They don't run as fast as foxes.

Tickville Gulch

I have been working on the Tickville Gulch trail, trying to get the entrance down the cliff more rideable. I cut a new section a couple of days ago. I was surprised to see horse tracks going down the new section. I am trying to make it so it will be safe for horses, but thought it was still a bit sketchy.

Bike Month

In the USA May is National Bike Month.

Here are some dates for your 2013 calendar:
May 13-17 -- Bike to Work Week
May 17 -- Bike to Word Day
May 8 Bike to School Day

Sunday "Training"

I started writing this blog entry last Sunday, but it is hard to type and arrange pictures on the small screen of an iPod. Anyway I finally am getting around to finishing this entry.

Scattered in this blog entry are a few pictures from the walk to church.

I ride a bike of one kind or another most every day. But I believe in having Sunday be a day of rest. So I don't work out on Sundays. However, I don't see anything wrong with getting to church. There is nowhere safe to lock a bike up at the church, and it really isn't that far so my day of rest training is walking to church.

Indian Paintbrush

Everyone in our neighborhood knows I'm the crazy guy that walks to church every sunday no matter what the weather. It use to be that I would get a lot of people that would stop and offer to give me a ride. I would politely tell them that I was walking on purpose. People have gotten so use to the connivence of driving that they can't imagine someone would walk if the didn't have to.

Wild flowers

It got to where people would only ask me when it was raining, snowing, or just really cold. If I wanted to go buy car I could ride with the rest of my family. Anyway, it is really nice that so many people would offer me a ride, I have great neighbors.

Wild flowers

They changed the location we meet for church. It use to be about 1 mile to church, which I would walk each week. Now it is about two miles by road. However, there is a "horse trail" I can take. Unfortunately it is a bit shorter, but the cool thing is that it is much more adventurous.

A new section of trail

The trail system route was created when the subdivision weas created. However the trails were never actually made. Over the years I have worked the trail from my house down Tickville Gulch. The new church is in the opposite direction. So now I'm working on fixing the trail going up the gulch.

I'm working on pulling the trail out of the bottom of the gully where the occasional runoff ruins the trail up onto the sides so that the trail can stay in better condition. It may take a few years but it will be nice when it is finished.

I saw a couple chickens last week. I think a fox must of found them also.

Bird nests in the side of the cliff

Kickstarter

Biking to the South Pole is going to be an amazing feat. However, getting everything done that will be required before we even head south is also going to be an amazing feat. I made a big step today with the launch of my Kickstarter page.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/southpoleepic/the-south-pole-epic

This is a chance for you to share in this awesome adventure, and to be a part of the historic first bike ride to the South Pole.

To give my Kickstarter project a kickstart, I am giving away an Epic Action Sports Video Camera pictured here.

I will give this to a random person that either becomes a Kickstarter backer, or follows me on Kickstarter.  So click on this link  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/southpoleepic/the-south-pole-epic and join the fun!