And so it begins...

A long time ago in a neighborhood far, far away (or in Sheboygan, WI anyway), I was once young lad who was quite attached to my bicycle. It wasn't some fancy expensive store bought piece, more of a hodge-podge mix of parts my dad bought, traded, found and what have you and lovingly put together to create a completely custom and bullet proof bike for myself and one for my older brother. My father had always been a passionate cyclist, and still rides his Giant brand road bike daily, the same one he had since I could remember, and probably beyond that as well. It also helped that every summer our city held, what was called at the time, the Heritage Square Classic, a bicycle race populated by some of the most famous road racing bicyclists of the time. The starting line was only a couple of blocks away and our road was the "cool down" run where the cyclists took to get back to the pit area.

My brother and I would often try to race them down the road, most ignored us, as they were too tired or too focused to care, while a few gave in to our antics and quickly showed us why they did what they did, often getting to the end of our street before we could even blink.

After middle school, I never really got back into cycling. There was the odd foray into BMX, but it mostly consisted of me cautiously going over a homemade jump, just fast enough to feel like I got lift, but didn't really do much else. My brother was much more brazen and actually attempted many jumps on the poorly planned, more than likely illegally built BMX circuit in the woods behind one of the local middle schools. My brother was also much more fit than I was at this point in life, as I was...well...to be polite, quite husky.

When I got into high school, I no longer biked at all. The main goal for me at that time was to A.) learn to drive and B.) get a girlfriend. The latter of which didn't happen until nearly the end of my senior year. After graduation I moved with my parents out to central Wisconsin while I contemplated whether to work a few years or jump right into college. Considering our living area, and having grown up in the city, I really didn't see the need or appeal of a bike in the country since, to me, a bike was to get from point A to point B. I was 22 miles away from point A and 35 miles away from point B. I had a vehicle, gas was relatively inexpensive at the time, so I thought "What's the point?"

After a few years of working, I went on to college. I lived on campus in a dorm, and considering the campus was quite small and everything within reasonable walking distance, again, a bike really didn't pop into my head as ideal transport. I had two legs and knew how to walk. The only gas I had was from the chilli cheese fries from the night before.

But then came Japan. I participated in a study abroad program ran by my college which happened to be in the heart of Tokyo. A bike, aside from Japan's awesome public rail system, would be my transportation. Once again I felt the freedom and the joy I had once thought was lost.

After getting out of college I was back in the work force, and shortly thereafter, married to my wonderful wife Nicole. We've now settled in Eau Claire, WI, a wonderful bike friendly town. Which brings to me this, my blog, and my project.

I was originally going to rebuild an old Peugeot U08 road bike I had found locally via Craigslist, however, it was not meant to be as I did the final fit measurements and realized it's too tall for me (I'm 5' 10"). So I was back to the drawing board a.k.a. Craigslist.

I had looked around at the new bikes and really didn't see ones I either wanted or could afford. The ones that I could had less than desirable parts that I would later just chuck in the junk pile, and the new ones...well...just go look for yourself. So an older bike was the best choice, and I chose this:

My $60 bucket of magnificence as Jeremy Clarkson would say. It's a 1993 Taiwanese built Trek 700 Multitrack hybrid bike. For the most part, it would appear it has spent most of it's life in a garage somewhere, in a corner, unloved and unwanted. It even has the factory tires it came with off the show room floor.

So here I am, older, fatter (than I was in Japan anyway) and with ailing knees that like to announce their accent down the stairs with a wonderful popping sound. The plan is to turn this thing into full fledged commuter, fenders and all. We'll see how far this takes me. As for now, only around the block. Be nice if it stopped raining.