Hey all, road biking was the best thing that ever happened to me and I would like to share my experiences. I dont really know were to begin so I'll just begin from the start .

Last summer i bought myself a trek mtn bike and I sort of got into biking, going around town, 10-20 mile rides, etc. I live 2 miles away from GWB and rt. 9W so I would see road bikers everywhere... after a while I started admiring their skill and their bikes. Then i told myself that i would get a road bike next summer.

Finaly summer 06 came and I just capriciously bought a bike because I made a promise to myself 1 year ago, mercier aquila AL from guess where . I put the bike to use immediatly, with in a week i did 50+ miles on a 7 mile closed flat loop in sandy hook, nj. The following week i did 60 miles in nyc, and every day i would come back from work I would ride about 2 hours of hills, among the hills is a 500ft 0.85 mile long hill at the half way point. Before long I would sacrifice everything, friends, family, just for the sake of riding. After a month, i did a century from babylon to montauk (tip of long island), flat ride but i was completely exhausted. Then every weekend i started doing centuries to west point and back, hilly, through bear mountain. While the whole time still keeping with my after work regiment. When it rained, I ran like theres no tommorow (on a treadmill), when it shined I biked like theres no tommorow.. sometimes i didnt know whether running was break from biking or vice versa.

My friends and I always go to montreal often (i already been there 3 times this year alone lol) so in July i mentioned the idea of going to montreal by bike. I pretty much pulled the idea out of my ass but soon enough everyone i knew was aware of my idea--it seemed like they didnt understand that it was just a thought. As soon as you slightly mention a radical thing like that, people just get shocked. So the more people spoke to me about it the more it dugg into me, the more i believed that i will do it. So one day on august 21th I just left my house (ok ok it wasnt that dramatic, i actualy planned for it) and rode away.

The first day I did 120+ miles, the second day i did 110+ miles, the third day i did 124 miles through 60 miles adirondack mountains, and then 60 more miles. The third day was just amaizing, i rode 1 and a half hours in complete utter darkness, with only my dinky blackburn light combo kit. On my last hour i had enough adrenaline to pull off about 18-19mph. I had to reach canada, it was manifest destiny.. The 3rd day was 9:41 hours on the saddle.....

and the 4th day i expected to cruise in to montreal and just meet up with my friends but it turned out complete hell. I forbode all travelers to montreal: PLAN PLAN PLAN. The route from border to montreal is maze-like. In addition, my rear gatorskin got a 1/5 inch gash in it which i covered up with gum and fig newton wrapper and put like 60 psi in it. Then I had to get a ride from this guy on pick up truck to outskirts of montreal were i took the jean cartier bridge over to montreal. IT WAS HELL, i wish to forget that day and exclude it from my journey.

I dont want to rant any further but it was a great experience, and biking is very mental.. you can give up physically 1000 times before you give up mentally. Its all about hard work and diligence. It literally changed my life, i feel like i could do anythign right now because i know what hard work is and what it feels like. Lastly, i have to say, this whole time i been following my own pace, my own beat. I didnt look at other bikers as competition or jealousy, i looked at them as motivation. One particular biker was this guy with a prosthetic limb from knee down, i would run into him all the time, and all he would do is run up and down the 500ft hill. It was truely an inspiration, took my breath away.

This was a long post.. sorry .. i can mention more technical details about the journey or soemthing else per request if anyone has time to read..

As of this point i have 1720 miles on the bike that i bought in 1st week of july. And here are some pix, i regret not bringing a real camera but i was weight conscious:
http://web.njit.edu/~dr43/bikemontreal/