Gatherings

Now that I have my vision, biking down the coast of Oregon this summer, I realized that I need the gear next.  While I have lots of gear for just about everything else, bike touring is not something that I have done before.  Inspired by my dad who has done many bike trips, I began to search for a bike-often checking with him with many different questions.  I chose a Trek FX 7.2 for the job-or at least a bike to allow me to start training.  It's a commuter/road bike hybrid-definitely entry level it seems, but is the right size and has the features that I wanted-plus got it cheaper and used from Craigslist.  I also bought a Bob cargo trailer.  It's an older model and was used on a couple of touring missions with it's previous owner. I'll use the cargo trailer and front panniers to carry my gear.

The next task was to figure out a way to create a surfboard rack for my board to accompany me on this trip.  As I said earlier, I had previously sought out different ideas from various people around the country.  Using these ideas I went to Ace Hardware down the street.  I went to the PVC section when I saw something out of the corner of my eye...bamboo!  While there are no fancy attachment pieces for bamboo, I thought it would look and feel extra amazing to actually cut, saw, lash together, and build a rack rather than just piece it together.  Two large pieces of bamboo later and I was set to begin this process.  Here is what I did using both my 9 foot longboard and 5'10" shortboard as rack models:

The bare bones: Bike, trailer, and marterials

My surf rack completed.  It took a few attempts, but this is the first model completed!

It holds the shortboard just fine!  Someone commented that it was elegant!  I've also heard that it looks like a table to eat on while camping and that is looks like an ironing board.