A bike trip across America

David O’Mara has just completed his first bicycle transcontinental ride across the U.S. He began his ride on May 26 from the Santa Monica Pier. It took him 31 days to cover the entire distance to Washington, D.C. He decided to take this long trip to support his favorite charity, R.O.C.K. (Real Options for City Kids, http://www.rocksf.org/), an organization supporting girls and boys, ages 6-17, who live in or attend school in San Francisco's Visitacion Valley.

This is a photo at his start from the Santa Monica Pier.

It would just be your typical, heroic feat for a good cause, if it weren’t for the simple fact that Dave didn’t use to ride his bike very much, perhaps 5 miles since he bought it three years ago, until he decided to warm up his muscles on a trip across America.

He averaged 100 miles a day but on his longest day rode 178 miles. He hit trails and dust and storms, and on some stretches of the road he endured a temperature of 110 degrees. “I couldn’t breathe,” he complains—understandably. He lost 25 lbs during his ride. “I got fit on the bike,” he says. By any stretch of the imagination we shouldn’t throw ourselves into adventures of this kind, but not exactly knowing in what he was getting himself, Dave did it and came out triumphant.

His reliable charger is a Giant TCR C2, a bike that was part of the Giant line in 2007, when Dave bought it. It was then a state-of-the-art bicycle, equipped with a Shimano Ultegra gruppo and a Mavic Aksium wheelset: not the lightest setup by any means, but tough, loyal, and indestructible.

He’s now consigned his bike into BikeNüt’s loving hands for a well deserved checkup and new chain—and a wash, perhaps?
What next, a trip across Asia, from Mongolia to Paris?

Lots of kudos, Dave. You’re a hero!