My current bike is a 1987 Fuji Sagres that I originally purchased while living in New York. My motivations were twofold; first, I wanted a more affordable (free) method of commuting to class, and second, I had been inspired by people sharing their bikepacking adventures online. Secondhand parts were sourced over the span of a month to modify the bike into a gravel-ish, sort-of-bikepacking setup that could also be used as a daily commuter. Since then, I successfully rode it to campus every single day of my last semester (including rain, snow, and sleet), completed the NYC Century Bike Tour, and bikepacked in The Netherlands, Portugal, and the length of Long Island.
I purchased the bike for $100 from a man living in New Jersey and rode it back to Manhattan that very day. It served as a decent commuter while I collected parts to bring it closer to what I envisioned; the changes included but were not limited to: tubeless tires and rims, a wider front fork, longer front brakes, 9-speed cassette and chain, a widened rear triangle, and a rear rack for the Trek (Bontrager) interchange system. None of this work would have been possible without the lovely help of the folks at Time's Up!, a bike co-op near Stuy Town (check them out here). Among many other things, they taught me how to perform a full rebuild of the rear hub and true both rims.
The first true test for the upgraded bike was a trip along the length of Long Island, the "length" being from my apartment in Alphabet City to Montauk. I chose this mostly because it was a decidedly concrete milestone, and also because it seemed relatively achievable (150 miles over two days). The last parts were installed the night before at 10pm and I promptly set out at 7am that morning. I carried with me an emergency repair kit, a full set of camping gear, and a change of clothes. The first day was frankly quite arduous, boring, and a little disheartening. I spent the night stealth camping in the woods near Shoreham Power Plant. The second day proved more varied in terms of landscape and was overall a little more interesting; by 2pm I had arrived at the lighthouse on the furthest side of Montauk. The bike did not present me with any issues throughout the ride and held up much better than myself. After some rest I took the LIRR back to Jamaica and the J train from there.
Later that year I also particpated in Transportation Authority's NYC Century Bike Tour. The course wound its way through four of the five boroughs (sorry Staten Island) and is supposedly the only all-urban centry ride in the US. This is still my longest (continuous) ride to date and took around 9 hours.
In February of 2026 I decided to take my bike to Portugal to use up airline credit from a previous trip. The plan was to ride from Porto to Lisbon over the course of six days, averaging around 40 miles (80km) per day. Unfortunately, the airline couldn't transfer my bike during a short layover and I lost almost the full first day of riding. To make up for this I later took a bus from Coimbra to Marinha Grande and got back on track, with the total milage eventually sitting somewhere around 200. This was also just after the country had been hit by two consecutive tropical storms, so there was a noticable amount of damage thrughout the journey. I had pre-planned the route beforehand and uploaded it all to my bike computer, but midway through decided to see what Google Maps had to offer. This was a mistake. I was sent through farmers' fields, deep sandy trails, and steep hike-a-bike sections. A spoke was lost on the rear rim and I also got a slow puncture at some point. All things considered, though, the bike made it through just fine and I met a number of lovely people along the way, many doing the Camino Portugues. I made a short video to commemorate and document the trip.
August of 2025 saw me biking through The Netherlands while my mom attended a conference in the area. This was my first time taking my bike overseas and when it recieved its first commemorative dent (courtesy of the airline). The cycling was of course lovely, both in terms of scenery and infrastructure. I first went from Schiphol to Lelystad, stopping at a go-kart track and aviation museum along the way. Taking the train back, I then biked from Schiphol to Delft, and from there to Rotterdam. This was followed by an out-and-back to Kinderdijk with my mom, and finally from Rotterdam back to Amsterdam on the last day. The final numbers rounded out to 220 miles, 22 hours of saddle time, and four apple tarts eaten.
