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A Bike Friday, a regular bike, or a Ciclismo Classico bike - Dave Pruitt and the Gal choose different ways to Bike Across Italy Some notes on the gear and getting to/from for Ciclismo Classico's Bike Across Italy trip, as experienced by former Bike Friday Customer Evangelist, Lynette Chiang, who did the trip in the May 2007. FLIGHTS and CONNECTIONS The Ciclismo Classico staff, Erika and Jewel, were able to both arrange all travel and give me detailed advice on the connections. Because Bike Friday folks tend to be independent, I wanted to know if it was necessary to bring the Bike Friday Travel Trailer. My connections were as follows: NYC -> (London, 6 hour flight) -> Rome (4 hour wait, 2 hour flight) -> Rome Airport Train Station (has elevator) -> Roma Termini Train Station (30 mins, 11 euro) -> Overnight in Hotel San Remo, Rome (20 minute walk from station with bags, tired) -> next morning, Roma Termini Train Station (10 min walk with bags, havi

A duffel, a Bike Friday, and a laptop on your back - the uniform of the professional BF World Traveler  May 12, 2007: Day 1 PHOTO GALLERY JUST MY LUCK. I haven't landed in Italy in primo health. I've been uncharacteristically under the weather for more than a month after suffering a bout of laryngitis that came down on me like a ton of bricks on Easter Sunday. It took an eternity to pass. Darn damp Oregon weather. I had to cancel my Indianapolis and Chicago talks and head straight for NYC. All the fitness I'd acquired from 3 months in Australia riding three times a week with the BF Club of Sydney over winter and attending Desert Camp in March seemed to go down the tubes. Well that's how it feels. But rather than complain, we must simply treat life like the weather - there will be sunny days and stormy days and you just, well, weather it. I got on the plane in 97% condition and, suffered a second setback. Somehow I must have eaten someth

Towns: Calmazzo, Furlo, Acqualangna, Cagli, Frontone, Serra San Abbondio, Sassoferrato, Genga Stazione The spectaular Gola di Furlo river gorge, in the Le Marche region May 14, 2007: Day 3 PHOTO GALLERY NOTHING like a museum visit to start the day. The Duke Federico da Montefeltro , one of the five bigwigs ruling Italy in the 15th century, lived in a 365 room house decorated with stupendous inlay, sculptures, tapestries, and paintings. This old house is now called the Museo Palazzo Ducale, and is considered a relatively small but significant center for the kind of art within. We got to cruise a lot of the rooms thanks to a special guide who came all the way from Fano. I marveled at doors and entire walls paneled with intricate inlay, using 47 different kinds of wood. When I say intricate, I'm talking the eyebrows, nosehairs, and various folds of cloth are rendered in different kinds of woods. Our guide told us how a school party defaced one of the paintings whi

You non-cyclists won't get this. Skip it. I just had to vent. The hilarious video by MC Spandex aka Robin Moore, "Performance" displays a very good use for flakey floor pumps.  I can't believe it. I get home last night late after trying to fix the flats on both my Crusoe and the showroom Pro Petite. What should have taken me just a few minutes (even if I was not using the Jim Langley leverless tire removal technique) took over an hour, and I still left with deflated tires. Why? Frigging floor pumps. And as if by divine cosmic resonance, the first YAK! item of the day is all about ... floor pumps! I don't know who is responsible for designing floorpumps, but if I get a hold of him (it's gotta be a him, women would not put up with a gadget that poops out just by looking at it) I shall insert the long tube somewhere narrow and I will not even remove the valve first. And I'll continue inserting it until the entire pump has disappeared into