Cycling Coast to Coast

In all my excitement over getting a bike (I placed my order with Zane’s yesterday, for a 56cm, red, Specialized Allez Elite Compact), I haven’t posted any updates about my fundraising efforts.

The fantastic news is that fundraising has been going great, and not only have I met my $5,500 goal, I’ve raised over $8,000–$8,245 to be exact. I can’t even begin to express my thanks to everyone who has donated. Also, Bike & Build told me that they will be sending out donation receipts in the next week, so if you’re waiting for a receipt for tax-deduction purposes, it’s on it’s way. A great big thanks to:

• The Soon Family
• Francis Chang
• Mike & Tonia Hsieh
• Audie & Susan Chang
• Amy Tong
• Stefanie Tong
• Eleanor Chang
• John Ting
• Madeline Tong
• Mona Chow
• Michael Tong
• Steve Leonard
• Tony Keng

Now that I’ve reached the fundraising goal, I’ll be focusing more on two other aspects of the trip: learning and becoming more involved in the affordable housing issues, and learning more about cycling and training for the trip.

Breaking news! Bike & Build has finalized its deal with Zane’s in Connecticut, which means now I can get a bike. B&B is going with the Specialized Allez Triple, but we’re also getting the chance to upgrade to a better bike. My trip leader, Jose, suggested that I spend some extra money to upgrade to the Specialized Elite Compact, and I think I will. For not that much more money, the Elite Compact is a nice upgrade from the Triple (better components, wheels, etc), and, in my opinion, it’s a much nicer looking bike. One big difference is that the Triple has a triple crankset, whereas the Elite Compact has a compact double. With a triple cranket, you get more gear ratios, but it turns out the the gear range for a compact double and triple is pretty comparable. Because I’m a geek, I spent some time reading about gearing, and made a spreadsheet comparing the Elite Compact and the Triple. It’s online here.

For curious readers, I used Sheldon Brown’s (an excellent web resource for technical bike info) Online Gear Calculator to make the spreadsheet. Another great resource is the Exploratorium’s Science of Cycling. Chain Reaction Bicycles also has short page about double and triple cranksets.

Today, I hopped on my bike and rode over to Landry’s Bicycles in Boston to test ride the Allez Elite Compact and get sized. It was fun to ride, and shifted very smoothly (unlike my current bike). I’m looking forward to to putting a lot of miles on my new bike. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos to post, but hopefully I will soon. I need to get in contact with Zane’s to work out the order, give them my sizing info, and figure out shipping details. Until then, here are the product shots from the Specialized website. I can’t decide which color I like better, blue or red.

Every since I passed the $1,000 fundraising mark, I’ve been really excited about getting my bike. Bike & Build hasn’t finalized the details yet, but Jose (my trip leader) says that most likely it’ll be the Specialized Allez.

So… black or red?

Happy new year!

I’ve been home in California for winter break, and it’s been pretty relaxing. The donations have kept coming in (thanks so much to everyone!), and I’ve also done some shopping for bike gear. Performance Bikes has a retail store in San Francisco, so I picked up my first pair of spandex cycling shorts, a wind shell, and arm & leg warmers.

Last week, I volunteered with Habitat for Humanity SF, who is building 12 single-family homes in the Outer Mission neighborhood. They’ve already finished a few houses, and the first family moved in just before the holidays. It was really inspiring to see what’s possible with volunteer labor. They’ve started laying down the foundations for two new houses, but because it started raining, most of the work we did was indoors in one of the houses nearing completion. I spent the day getting my hands dirty painting all the windowsills and door frames in the house.