On yer bike

Gonna ride my bike from Tallahassee Fl to Key west tomorrow with my buddy Eli I'm giddy with excitement gonna document it for posterity.

Hi TPT it's Hank reporting alive and well from a lovely part of Central Florida where the farm life has usurped the drunken life 5 years off it August going strong 😉

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Svën's body guard Kermit, 16 coastal haybale cargo pull 5 miles, Joy the feral sow orphaned by hunter who gifted her to me at 3 days old bottle fed for 5 weeks she's a monster now going on 1 y/o she has boyfriend named Dieter a castrated boar.

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So glad to see Sven is alive and well, he’s even more of a pimp than ever. Ha also really cool to see an update from you Hank. 5 years sober is above edible milestone. I’m in France just outside Paris next to Versailles. There’s some great bike riding here. Let me know if you ever make it this way.

Thanks Da_Nit I appreciate the offer I've heard Comrade Hidalgo has created a cycling mecca there in Paris. It's hard for me to get more than one county over with much regularity but who knows maybe I'll find a good farm sitter down the road which will allow me more flexibility to tramp. To conclude the great bike tour of 2019 me and Sven continued on from Austin west to Silver City NM where the Tour Divide a long distance unpaved MTB trail intersects with the Adventure Cycling Southern tier route which I was following. Here my plan was to ride north towards Canada, it was about 40 miles of very mountainous terrain on paved roads from Silver City to the unpaved start of Tour Divide which we did no problem. The picture below is from where that dirt road starts, around 1/4 to 1/2 mile further my fancy pinion gear bicycle stopped propelling me forward despite furious cycling of the cranks. Somehow the front sprocket had worked its way loose and annihilated the output splines on gearbox rendering it utterly useless!

( for me I was able to get transportation back to Silver City somewhat quickly where the kind owner operator of Silver City Bike works put me up for over a week while the gearbox company pinion sent me a refurbished unit. After installing the new box I decided to ride towards Los Angeles where I'd call it a ride. Some of the highlights along the way were being blown for almost an hour west at what must have been near 25mph towards Lordsburg NM by a dust storm, it was like a video game cheat code had been applied and despite all the kit we made more distance in an hour than I ever thought possible! Some other highlights were spending a week in Slab City during the height of summer at Dr. Spencer's (RIP) Temple of Enlightenment. Travelling around the Salton Sea and dropping into Bombay Beach for a seltzer at the Ski Inn. When I reached San Bernadino CA I chose to ride their light rail into Downtown LA where things got very interesting for close to two weeks. Spent a lot of time in Bell Gardens at the Motel 6 making pilgrimages to the Commerce and Bicycle casinos. It's quite amusing to me that the Bicycle Casino does not allow customers to park or lock up a real life bicycle anywhere on their compound and that includes the vast parking lot across the street. Somehow I managed to win the biggest pot of my life by a country mile playing less than a full orbit at 100-200 NL in a near total blackout. There were some well known killers at the table so I made no qualms about performing the hit and run, also they big timed me by denying entry at first saying the min buyin was 50k but later lowering it to allow me entry, perhaps one of the floor people relayed to them of my alcohol intake and antics at lower steaks.... Went to skid row a few times hung out, according to my fixer there buying alcohol is done via informal sales persons because the corner stores don't sell it? Played bike polo once and hurt myself worse than I've ever experienced by crashing a bicycle the resulting hematoma on my lower back was grotesque. It was a good trip all in all and the weeks long bender helped motivate me towards a radical hail mary life change which is working out better than I could have ever conceived of. I'll post some more pictures from the journey west soon, Hank

Wow Hank another amazing update. I’m googling everything as I wasn’t familiar with Slab City but do know of the Salton Sea and Bombay Beach. How on heck did you end up in a $100-$200 NL game? Have you thought about posting this someplace else? 2+2 is kind of dead ans thinking you might get more interaction at a place like Reddit, one of the subs for bike riding.

Well 100 200 seemed like a good idea after several days of round the clock drinking and I did have a little over 100bb to buy in with so I took the plunge and the poker gods smiled upon me Ak-Chin tribal lands feed lot south of Phoenix [Uploading Image...]

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Casa Grande AZ

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Kurt & Olga

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Hank love the stuff and thank you for the reminder on Steve Earle. What a great singer writer. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tGnUsl1Azm... (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tGnUsl1Azms&list=RDtGnUsl1Azms&start_radio=1) [YOUTUBE]RDtGnUsl1Azms&start_radio=1 [/YOUTUBE] Come on, come on, come on, let’s go.

Broken YouTube LinktGnUsl1Azms&pp=ygUac3RldmUgZWFybGUgdGVsZXBob25lIHJvYWQ%3D

Withla to Old Town today, Old Town to Tallahassee tomorrow 255 ish total gonna be a burner And Yes Da_Nit we will seek out some Steve Earle on the journey, he's great maybe find some cool FM stations out in the sparsely populated counties of Dixie, Taylor, and Lafayette!

A boy scout from many years ago installed a series of bike repair boxes with a pump, some minor tools as an eagle scout project although most of them are falling into a disrepair the floor pumps come in handy on a regular basis always good to top up on a long ride

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Little over an hour to do the 1st 13.8 miles just warming up heading over past ridge Manor to link up with the Withlacootchee trail a 49mi gem of a rail trail

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Passing through floral City 50 mi down, feeling ok nice canopy on trail for now gonna get broiled later on

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One burrito down 3 in reserve

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Getting into Dunnellon the end of Withlacootchee trail which used to be the home of a S.A.L seaboard airline train that had it's HQ in Richmond VA the mile marker indicates the distance to Richmond they are all along this and Van Fleet trail

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Sitting here at one of the two places in Otter Creek that sells food and beverage both are closed good thing I brought those burritos one left. Rolled the dice and took Google maps suggested Bicycle route here from Dunnellon that bypasses US98 and boy it was great virtually no cars, scenic beauty, challenging riding conditions plus private hunting club roads I'm not supposed to be on, even a fun crossing of a very decrepit rail road trestle. Over a hundred miles down another 25 or so to go, no more bypasses of 98 I'm too whipped.

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Made it to my intended camp by the rail trail trestle on Suwanee only to find the hammock in though was in my old hammock stuff sack was actually a damaged rain fly so my friend came and picked me up and took me to Tallahassee it was a good challenge ride and so will the return trip 133 miles on a hot day with cargo not bad had to dig deep at times that's what it's all about Check out my ride on Strava: https://strava.app.link/vhursBJrBVb

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by HankTheBank m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=59060853#post59060853)

Withla to Old Town today, Old Town to Tallahassee tomorrow 255 ish total gonna be a burner And Yes Da_Nit we will seek out some Steve Earle on the journey, he's great maybe find some cool FM stations out in the sparsely populated counties of Dixie, Taylor, and Lafayette!

You’re a wild man two days of 100 mile+ riding.

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Hey Hank how much gravel/dirt vs road biking are you doing? I feel like I asked this before but can you show discuss your bike setup? I’m curious and hoping to do some bike trips here in Europe. You catch any Steve Earle on the FM waves?

What's up Da_Nit, I'm back on the saddle 20 miles deep on this return trip no Steve Earle yet however I did catch a nice FM station "The Fox" that played Eagles "All Night long" and Boston's "Foreplay/Longtime'' two serious jams I didn't have on a Spotify playlist so I added em My bike is a Co-Motion Pangea which is a steel frame rigid touring bike with 26" wheels, mechanical disc brakes, and a Pinion drive 18 speed gear box which is belt driven. It's a heavy tank but I love it, if I encounter any mixed terrain today I'll make sure to bleed off some air from my tires had em max pressure on the last go round rookie mistake probably made things a good bit harder . I'm running 1.95 inch schwalbe marathon green tires the max I can fit is 2.25"

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Did 139 yesterday and it took me to Otter Creek which used to be known as Cooter Creek shame they changed it. Another 100 or so to go then home https://strava.app.link/M5zw0CCSGVb

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Saturday was 99 miles from Otter Creek to Withla, locomotive is a 1915 made by Vulcan Company in Wilkes Barre PA it now resides off US98 southbound lane in Gulf Hammock FL, it was used primarily for hauling cypress and pine logs, donated to Levy county in 1969 by a timber company Next trip might be to the concrete jungles of SoFlo there's a train out of MCO goes to West Palm bright line go work on my spanish[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk- cdn.com/20250811/8a403404c938b189fc2ccc8d4273e477.jpg[/IMG]

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Great stuff. I love the bike very much in line with what I’m tending to consider for a bike now.

Went to a restaurant in the north of France, Somme region and on the English Channel. Saw this picture and thought this would be a cool job for Hank.

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Ha that looks like a very sweat inducing cycle kit, wonder what he's doing collecting shellfish or buried artifacts/treasures out of the mudplain? I loved making money on my bike, Jimmy John's was great it made me more or less a professional cyclist! I've given quite a few carriage rides on my surly trailer just by placing plastic chairs on the deck even toted two heifers combined weight was probably 450-500 lbs no problem

Yeah they’re collecting shellfish. Seems like a sweet gig with a cigarette hanging from your mouth.

Even tho the barrel is empty still got the tires to squat

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Damn that seems like some serious hauling. What’s all that for?

I had to use the 10x10's for something off the property and was bringing them back, had some landscaping stones 4x a 50 lb bag of poultry feed, only 1 of the diesel cans was full, bunch of groceries, extra tent, only had to go 5 miles over flat ground but it still rocked my world probably avg 6 or 7mph

That bike is definitely a beast.

So you’ve inspired me to look into a touring/gravel type bike. I actually like your Pangea but it’s a bit pricey and not available here in France. I’m looking for something ideally around 1K maybe up to 2K euros. I’m really digging this Marin Four Corners, really like the setup. Also like this Kona Sutra. It has a lot of add-ons I’d plan on getting so maybe worth the extra cost. One thing that I’m not sure about is the number of gears. There’s a lot of decent size hills around me and I think I need more the 10spd on the Kona and the Marin has a 2x9. I have no idea about these new drivetrains though. https://www.marinbikes.com/bikes/2025-fo... (https://www.marinbikes.com/bikes/2025-four-corners-1) https://en-eu.konaworld.com/products/sut... (https://en-eu.konaworld.com/products/sutra)

Did you ever start posting in R/bicycletouring or elsewhere? I think they’d rally gig your stuff.

I don't think you can go wrong with either of those bikes Da_Nit I'm familiar with the Kona Sutra and know of Marin bikes both are very reputable, it would kind of marginal having those two extra gears and that is always something you can change down the road. I'd lean towards the Kona if you plan on using the bike for cargo and touring, maybe the marin if you are just doing workouts. The frame geometry and basic setup almost seems identical by my newb eye. Before they had all these large numbered cassette clusters lots of the touring bikes were set up as 3x chain rings neat to see how the technology has evolved. I'd say if you got a sweet bike like that it would almost be mandatory to do some touring, what do you have in mind? I've poked around reddit bike touring a long time ago there's some very ambitious creative people out there going hard I need to drop in more often. Maybe there is a cargo biking subreddit it would be cool to see what people are doing here I have the luxury of very flat terrain which helps immensely for

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Sven ❤️! Mostly plan on riding around my place. We have Versailles Forrest here with a lot of dirt and gravel trails and some good toad trails. I’d like to also have the potential to do some rides of a couple days. My wife talked doing rides along the Danube or Atlantic coast. I saw this and would like to something like this. https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycletouring/... (https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycletouring/comments/1mr3tdx/paris_to_dieppe_in_25_days/) One good thing about the Marin it’s setup that you can easily add cargo and other attachments touring gear.

Ha road not toad trails. I did some mountain biking with my neighbor before lunch in the hills around here in the Versailles Forrest they have some really good trails here.

() ] Afterwards I put the basket on that wife bought and picked up a couple things at the grocery store.

by HankTheBank m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=59061535#post59061535)

Made it to my intended camp by the rail trail trestle on Suwanee only to find the hammock in though was in my old hammock stuff sack was actually a damaged rain fly so my friend came and picked me up and took me to Tallahassee it was a good challenge ride and so will the return trip 133 miles on a hot day with cargo not bad had to dig deep at times that's what it's all aboutChe... See full post

Wow Florida you went over 200KM but the elevation gain in meters is less.

Yeh it's pretty flat out here, there is a central florida ridge with some climbing and areas of the panhandle where one can climb a tad but for me and my cargo tendencies dead flat works great. Still eyeing a trip down the Capital of South america for some causeway/drawbridge riding maybe a stop at the Magic City Casino for a little pokering. Love the fade on your Marin, got my polo bike repainted a while back lucky if I play once or twice a year just too much time away from paradise to justify all the travel. Are you rocking a beret and smoking ciggies yet? Back in the day the old school pro bikers smoked drank did meth, coke, you name it those guys were badass riding steel bikes none of this carbon non sense! Take care buddy, Hank

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Wow your polo bike is bad ass. Ha the elevation of your Florida rides is wild, here I’ll go 30KM and 300M of elevation change. I also have to be the only person in the world that moved to France and stopped smoking.

I’m a mad man I just went through your whole blog again. Did you ever do the Katy Trail in Missouri? I swear I recall you talking about it and remember you meeting a tramp with a trailer that lived on the trail and just did spent all his days riding it.

No I haven't been on that trail but it looks amazing, 240 the longest continuous rail trail following the course of the Missouri river and it's crushed limestone one of my favorite surfaces. Check out this mad Frenchie who just crushed the world record for longest continuous wheelie http://https://www.bikeradar.com/news/ma... (http://https//www.bikeradar.com/news/man-wheelies-bike-for-100-miles-destroying-world-record)

Ha that’s awesome.

by HankTheBank m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=59072898#post59072898)

Even tho the barrel is empty still got the tires to squat Sent from my moto g 5G - 2024 using Tapatalk... See full post

Just stumbled upon this Reddit sub below and I think this pic beats what I’ve seen on there. https://www.reddit.com/r/carryshitolympi... (https://www.reddit.com/r/carryshitolympics/)

Saw you posting, any updates on country living? Any cool bike rides. I posted your picture with the Surly trailer on the carryshitolympics.

Hey Da Nit whats up, thanks so much for checking in your comment was the nudge i needed to get up off my keister and go reclaim these telephone pole sections from the abandoned ranch 6 miles away. I vainly attempted to transport them both from the ranch to the bike trail but quickly accepted that was not going to happen so i rode the 1 mile across mixed surfaces with one, depoted it then peddled back fetched the other and loaded them both on the bitumen it was smooth sailing from there. They will serve as master posts for a farm gate that will be erected in the following months. Hows France are you sporting a beret yet while you peddle about carrying baguette in a wicker basket

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That’s awesome you’re Hank The Tank! Glad you’re still doing that healthy country living. No beret but I did start wearing a scarf last winter for the first time. No wicker basket but do have a basket and yes I’ve definitely rode to the boulangerie to get baguettes.

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