Hello brothers and sisters!
Taking decision is something that I really have a hard time about lately… well, lately maybe means longer than what I think… The fact is, if you never take a decision, then you are sure to never make any mistake or never be wrong about the decision you ended up not even taking :-)… and it is bringing me back to a few of my long term issues… I don’t want to be “failing”.
But with a project such as bicycling all the way down to south america, you better make your mind about a few things if you want to see your idea becoming one day something else than just a dream you talk about (to everyone)… The first decision I felt I had to make for that trip to happen, was to chose THE ride… maybe because I needed to see a part of that dream already getting materialized. A bike for a bicycle tour, it seems to make sense so far.
The problem with me is that everything seems to be very clear, up until I really start researching about what I am looking for…and then… wowwwww, the maze of all the possibilities/ideas/opinions (and so on) opens up to me and I feel like a child in the world’s biggest candy store, knowing she can only get one piece of candy… :-s
Everybody has their own reason why they decide to go with one thing or the other (either you decide what diet is good for you, how you should be giving birth ( 😉 ), what type of education you will give to your child, what brand of blender, water purifier, car, etc you will choose,… I know you don’t choose your child’s education the same way you would choose your blender but I hope you got my point 🙂 ).
There is definitely no “wrong” decision about making a choice as long as you make a conscious, well-thought one, based on people’s experience, the technicity of what you are looking for (to satisfy your logical and rational mind), your own convictions, but at the end, on your own “guts”feeling and, obviously, your budget… Am-I speaking Chinese here? What I want to say is that in this particular adventure, I felt like I was needing to take my “broad-spectrum parameters” (money/ duration of the trip/ types of roads/ availability of parts where I will go…) and make it works for me at the best…. researching it, but at the end, trusting myself and my guts, and letting go of the possible negative outcomes resulting in that final decision. You can’t always control everything, right?!
Thanks to the “crazy blog world” of people sharing their stories of touring the world (and particularly central and south america) , I was able to be helped through my quest. (http://familyonbikes.org , https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?page_id=174187, http://frenchguyonabike.blogspot.com/2010/06/journal.html…)
I know I am making a big gamble here by taking a “small budget” bike with 700c wheels to other countries than Canada and the USA, where it will be much more difficult to find parts for my wheels when they will get beaten by the journey, but I can’t manage to find (within my price range) any perfect answer/choice to all the possible problems I know I will encounter so :
Here is my Novara Safari bike! The Shift Mobile is taking shape!
One Love Maud / The Shift Mobile
PS: Thank you Baptiste from http://frenchguyonabike.blogspot.com/2010/06/journal.html, for your help and reassuring advices!
theshiftmobile.wordpress.com 