Hobbyist, Minus Hobby

07.6.2015 | 12:51 pm

A Super-Excited Announcement from Fatty: Today I have a guest post from Kenny. It’s fantastic. So be sure to keep reading after I announce this announcement, OK? OK.

There are a lot of really great reasons I’m very excited about The Grand Slam for Kenya. I’m excited about the cause. I’m excited about the location. I’m excited to be a part of making the world a better place and having an immediate effect with my donation dollars. I’m excited about how generous everyone is being with their donations for this contest.

And, as you’d expect, I’m excited about the prizes. Today, I’d like to tell you about a couple reasons I’m excited for these prizes.

First, I’m incredibly excited — okay, let me be perfectly honest and say that what I’m feeling is closer to envious and astonished — to announce the first grand prize to be given as part of the Grand Slam for Kenya, which I can’t help but write in all-caps, bold, and red:

ANY TREK PROJECT ONE BIKE YOU WANT

What does that mean? It means that should you win, you can pick pretty much any top-end Trek you want, then choose a super-sweet paint job for it, and outfit it with the highest-end SRAM and Zipp components available.

For example, you could start with a custom Émonda SLR frameset:

Then add a candy-apple red paint job to it and build it up with Zipp 202 wheels and SRAM Red 22 parts.

You would have yourself a bike that is so light, so fast, you would have to tether it down when you park it in the garage, to prevent it from floating around, wafting its way toward the ceiling.

(There are some limitations regarding paint and components, so be sure to read the details in the rules.)

Or you could build a Madone. Yeah, the new one.

Or any other Trek frame. And let me assure you: right now, Trek is coming out with bikes that are making me really, really really want to make some room in my garage.

Sadly, I am not eligible to win. But you are. And you should try very, very hard to win. Which you can do, by donating in the Grand Slam fundraiser.

What’s the Second Thing?

Oh, that’s right, I did say there were a couple of things I was going to announce, didn’t I? Well, I’m going to have to haul out the all-caps, red, and bold again:

WIN ANOTHER TREK PROJECT ONE BIKE

Yeah. For reals. This year, we’re not just giving away one Trek Project One bike. We’re giving away two.

Which means your chances of winning one of these incredible dream bikes — bikes that generally retail for $8K – $13K — have doubled.

You want to know what bike I would really love to get? The Procaliber SL. It’s a ridiculously light hardtail mountain bike, while managing to be incredibly smooth-riding, thanks to the IsoSpeed decoupler. 

I want one of these so bad. I want to build it up with SRAM XX1 components, an RS-1 Fork, and Rise 60 Wheels. 

And then I would flaunt it. Flaunt it hard. And I would ride that bike thirty-five hours per day.

At least.

We’re Just Getting Started

So there you go: the first two bikes in the Grand Slam are any Trek Project One bikes you want. Regardless of whether your itch tends toward road or mountain, racing or riding, you’re going to be able to find and build something that perfectly suits your needs and aesthetic.

If I were you, I’d be interested in donating. Very interested indeed.

So: 

• Donate here
• Get an overview here
• Read rules and details here 

Hobbyist, Minus Hobby
by Kenny Jones 

What if you started a hobby, and that hobby was so incredible that it transcended your everyday life? This hobby, which you started as a diversion to your work and “real” life, took hold of you and you decided that this hobby now was your real life and that your previous work life would be secondary.

What if you decided that you would just let Hobby sweep you up and start taking you on adventures? And you discover that you are Hobby talented, and you wonder how you ever lived without it in your life. Your goals change and what was important to you is no longer important in the same way. Your time spent Hobbying increases year by year, and you spend less and less time on other things.

And Hobby keeps growing, taking you to amazing places to see things you would never have seen otherwise. You start traveling weeks at a time to Hobby, sometimes to Hobbying events and sometimes just practicing Hobby in the most beautiful settings imaginable.

Hobby makes you feel young, healthy and fit, much like you felt as a small child. And not only does it make you feel good, it is also beneficial for your body. Because of the increased Hobby-related physical activity, you get to eat more of the things you love. And that cold beer you drink afterwards goes down without guilt or remorse.

And of course, Hobbying so much, you start hanging around other people who also Hobby – people who have similar views on the grandness of life’s adventures. You start to create lasting friendships with these Hobby people, even though they are often dirty with scabby knees. In fact, you take one of these Hobby people into your heart and make them your life partner.

Oh, wait a minute…

And then you decide to move to a place where you can Hobby year round, undisturbed by cold weather and short days. And you build a house with the sole purpose of being able to Hobby every day in your back yard. And then you do – day in and day out – never looking back, never regretting a thing.

And when there comes a time where it’s no longer enough to just Hobby for yourself, you decide to give back somehow. You start volunteering as a high-school coach, teaching kids all about Hobby – how to Hobby skillfully and safely, how to Hobby fast. You find that you become even more energized spending time with these kids as you share with them the love of our abundant natural wilderness through Hobby healthy activity.

Sometimes, however, you realize that your aging body is fragile and that frequent injuries take longer and longer to heal. And that doing your Hobby could lessen your ability to participate in Hobby. Is it worth it? How do you balance your desire to keep going with the pending possibility of crippling injury?

And what do you do when abruptly, your Hobby crashes into you with the force of a very large, unfriendly rock, and you are now facing a prolonged period of can’t-Hobby time?

I now find myself immobile with a long recovery ahead – at least 8 weeks of non-weight bearing. I’m torn with the reality of being laid up. The physical pain of the injury pales in comparison to the emotional turmoil I feel from the restrictions I now have. Hobby has put me here, and it scares me that it could have been worse.

I started this post with “What if”, and the biggest “What if” that clouds my head these days is… What if I could no longer do my Hobby? What could fill this void? How would it affect my relationships with my partner and my friends? Who will I be when I can no longer do this thing that so greatly defines my life? I struggle with the answers to these questions. I’m sure that most people as they age are faced with the reality of their limitations. I usually ignore the possibility that I am mortal and I rarely think about being injured or worse.

Fortunately, I’m expected to have a full recovery. Two to three months, and I’ll be back doing the things that I love and need.

I am not yet faced with the permanent “what if” of a non-Hobby life. But even this temporary injury-enforced time of rest helps me reflect and prepare for what that time in my life will look like.

What is life, if not discovering what you enjoy and who you enjoy doing it with? Our time on this earth is short. What’s the better life? Growing old on the couch or fighting through the highs and lows of doing stuff you love with people you love. When I’m old and feeble, I’ll have plenty of time to sit around. While I’m able, I will always choose to hit that fast, swoopy, rock-and-rooted gnar gnar piece of ripping single track and to accept the consequences of that decision.

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The 2015 Grand Slam…For Kenya!

07.2.2015 | 2:36 pm

A Note from Fatty: If you already know what’s going on here and are ready to donate, just click here. You’re awesome. Thanks!

This is the big one. The biggest fundraiser I’m going to do this year. 

No, not just big. “Big” is too small of a word. This is the grand one. 

This month — the whole month of July — we’re going to work together to get a thousand (at a bare minimum) bikes  over to the newest country supported by World Bicycle Relief: Kenya. 

We’re going to make it possible for 1000 children (70% of them girls) get to school faster, stay in school longer, and have better opportunities for work afterward.

And those thousand children are going to share their bicycles, education and opportunities, making the lives of their loved ones immeasurably better.

We are, together this month, going to suddenly, massively, and tangibly improve the lives of thousands and thousands of people.

And you know what? As you help, you’re going to have a remarkably good chance at winning one of half a dozen dream bikes, or a cycling trip to Italy.

Prizes

Let me tell you this: I’m going to be a little sneaky in this edition of The Grand Slam. Instead of revealing all the prizes you can win right up front, I’m going to tell you about them a little bit at a time.

You know, to keep you guessing. And also, so the sheer magnitude of the number and quality of prizes can really sink in.

But I will tell you this: As you donate, you get a chance at every single one of the prizes.

And I will also tell you this: I have never given away so many dream bicycles, from so many bicycle makers.

Every single one of these bicycles will be a top-of-the-line model, outfitted with the best components possible. 

There will be at least half a dozen bikes, and each is worth more than $5000. And some are worth more than $10,000. In fact, looking at the bike specs here, I’d say most of them are closer to a value of $10,000 than $5,000.

Since I’m dropping hints, I’ll let you know that some of the bikes come from loyal supporters of my WBR efforts, and some will be here for the first time.

Intrigued? 

Well, you might also be intrigued to know that we’ll also be giving away a cycling trip to Italy.

I’ll be revealing what the first prize is next week, once we’re all back from vacation.

How This Works 

For complete details on this contest — all the rules, legalese and whatnot — click here. Seriously, you should read this. It goes into detail about how winners will be notified, where the money’s going, the taxability of donations made in this contest, everything.

The short version, though, is that for every $10 you donate, you get one chance at winning a prize.

If you donate $147 (the cost of one bike), you get twenty chances, which includes five bonus chances. 

And of course, if you donate the value of multiple bikes, you get multiple bonuses.

Once July ends, we’ll draw chances randomly from all the donations made to my fundraising page. We’ll contact the first person drawn, and that person gets to choose from the complete pool of prizes. Then we contact the second person, who gets to choose from the remaining prizes in the pool. 

We continue this game of prize-giving musical chairs until all the prizes are selected. 

Matchy-Matchy

Giving because your money goes toward a bike that’s going to change someone’s life in a drastically positive way is enough reason to donate.

Giving because you also have a chance at winning an incredible bike or trip just adds to the goodness of the first reason.

But during this month, your donated money is being anonymously matched, dollar-for-dollar, by the Saks Kavanaugh Foundation.

And that makes for an absolute superstorm of great reasons to donate.

Yep, if you donate $147, another $147 gets donated. Your bike becomes two bikes.

And if we raise enough to buy 1000 bikes…well, that becomes two thousand bikes.

Which means a hugely beneficial change to even more thousands of people.

Why This Matters

Together with WBR, we’ve made a huge difference in Zambia. And now we’re going to help Kenya. 

Starting right now, World Bicycle Relief is starting work on changing the lives of 3,000 students from 20-30 schools throughout the rural regions of Nyanza and Western Province in Kenya.

Why? 

Because in rural areas in Africa, children travel huge distances to reach school, often having to leave home two hours before the start of school in order to arrive on time.

That is, quite simply, ridiculous.

As you’d expect, this amount of commute — two hours, each way, each day — results in tardiness, absenteeism, and exhaustion. It’s no surprise that a lot of kids, particularly girls, give up.

You know how to immediately solve this problem? Make it so it doesn’t take two hours to get to school. In other words, give the kid a bike.

Which is what WBR does. 

And it works. 

A two-year study in Zambia measured a 28% lift in attendance rates and a 59% improvement in academic performance among girls who received bicycles from WBR.

Seriously. 59% improvement in academic performance. Good luck getting that kind of boost in any other way.

Let’s Do This 

I’ll be back next week to reveal the first in the many prizes we’ll be offering. But let me encourage you to donate now, and you’ll be all set for the drawings for all the prizes that come out.

Not to mention you’ll be making a huge difference in someone’s life and future.

Not to mention your money will get doubled by the Saks Kavanaugh Foundation. Yow.

3000 bikes is a great goal. And I think that between us and the anonymous matching, we can be responsible for 2,000 of this 3,000 bikes.

We’ll let other folks take care of the remaining 1000.

Let’s get started. Click here to donate now.

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