I can't believe it's almost here! In 3 days - Wednesday evening - I will be departing for a bicycle tour of England. As many of you already know, I love this organization that I bike with, Bike The US For MS, and they have a sister organization, called Bike The UK For MS. Basically the same deal - we ride very long distances to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. Well, the longest you can ride in England is from bottom to top, called "LEJOG", or Land's End to John O' Groats. So on Thursday I will be staying in the appropriately named Land's End, near Penzance, in the South of England.
Yesterday I went on a "test ride", I rode about 40 miles up and around the Oakland and Berkeley Hills, and also went out the Bay Bridge bike path. I just bought a new techie thing, the Garmin Edge 1030, the highest end bike computer they make. I expected to be disappointed by it - Garmin products are often known for their tradeoffs - but instead it actually was a joy to use and worked perfectly. I started out by using it for good old fashioned navigation to the Apple store. Then I told it to play a course I'd downloaded from someone else and it guided me to the start and then took me along the path. I got lost briefly once but figured it out. Then in the middle of that path I got tired and searched for a convenience store, got some water and coffee, then just rode around until I was done. It worked great, and in 4 hours I only lost 15% battery life, which is amazing. I bought this one because it comes with a clippable spare battery pack, but I may not even need it!
As always, the organization could use your donations. It's for a great cause.
http://www.biketheukforms.org/cyclists/detail.asp?cid=1479
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2837025112
