Borealis Bikes

Fat-Bike.com had a story about the Borealis Bikes' new carbon fiber fat bike today. Apparently their phones are ringing off the hook, including a call from me.

A nice lightweight carbon bike like this could be a great bike for our South Pole expedition. The bike has rear rack mounts, and three water bottle mounts, making it a great expedition bike.

I Can, Yukon, We Alcan

I have been helping a family prepare for their awesome biking expedition. They will be biking from Alaska to Montana on the ALCAN highway. The expedition members range in age from 61 to 4. I have been working with them to get their bikes ready for the trip, and teaching them how to work on their bikes. Teaching them how to adjust brakes, shifting, replace changes, true wheels, replace spokes, and much more. They now have a blog for their expedition. Wishing them good luck!

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.