Bart's Ride

Welcome. I'm Bart Rupel, husband, father of two great kids, and to make ends meet an engineer.

My son, Matt, was diagnosed in 2004 with Friedreich's Ataxia, or FA for convienence. FA is a progressive neuro-muscular disease that robs a person’s ability to coordinate their movements. This eventually leads to full time wheelchair use and…

There is hope though. Some very hard working people have gotten us close to finding a cure for FA. This effort is spearheaded by FARA.

In 2007, Kyle Bryant, a young man with FA rode his recumbant bicycle 2,400 miles to the annual national ataxia conference in Memphis, TN. Along the way he raised $40,000 and generated a lot of publicity.

In 2008, Kyle is going to ride 600 miles to the conference in Las Vegas, NV. I’ve decided to join him for half the ride, starting in Bakersfield, CA.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Getting Ready

I have a road bike. It's not top of the line, but it's good enough. I used to ride at lunch time with some friends at work, but stopped a few years ago. The bike has been hanging in the garage for a while. So, if I'm going to do this ride, the wheels are going to need some fixing up.

I'm pretty handy with tools, and mechanical things, but I'm short on time and it's got to be right. Luckily there is a mobile bike mechanic who comes to my work place once a month. I only found out about this by chance on Tuesday and he was scheduled to come on Thursday. Funny how sometimes when you need something, it just appears.

So I made an appointment with the bike doctor. Wow, what a difference. The shifters work better than new. The new Super Flash tail light that he suggested is crazy bright. Cars will notice you in the daytime when you set it to flash mode.

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