T-minus a week

Well folks, I need to get into the habit of updating this daily so I am going to see how well I do here. I have had some people ask about the weight of the bike and the gear I will be using and I hope to have all that up here by Friday. I haven't gotten everything yet. But I have been riding with my panniers and with the tent and sleeping bag in there, which are going to be the two heaviest things I have to ride with. My bike will be getting overhauled in the next couple of days at work, with a new cassette and a chain. I am not going to re run any of the cables strictly because I won't have time to stretch in the cables before I get started.

I have also have some questions on my personal weight and some stats.

So I am 6'3" and 168 lbs. I expect to lose around 15-20 pounds over the course of the trip as I will be burning anywhere from 4,000-5,000 calories a day. I will be trying to consume that many calories daily, but it is going to be tough. As far as water in concerned I will be drinking a bottle of water every hour. So in the course of one day ride I will be consuming about 200 fl. oz. a day.

That being said I have some news. The home town newspaper did an article on the ride. Here is the link if you wish. Click here.

Also I have some toys coming in that will help document my trip. I have a Canon SD1000 camera on its way to document the trip from a photographic standpoint.

Now here is where I ask for your help. I want/need some suggestions on books I should consider reading while I am on my trip, so if you have time to leave me some suggestions and give me a little synopsis of the book that would be great. Thanks.

Stay tuned for the next post, which will most likely be Thursday when I have the camera to take pictures of all the gear I will be taking and the bike fully loaded.