Now that we are fully entrenched in June with sunny days and amazing riding ahead of us, it is time for David to go back to France. He’ll be gone from 6/19-7/16. We will reopen for business on Wednesday 7/17. We gloss over quite a bit of what this trip really is and allow the glory of the many days of riding through beautiful France to hide the work and stress that go into it. This year I’m going to try to pull back the curtain and show you what it really takes to prep for these weeks abroad. In late fall of the previous year, talk begins on the bikes that will need to be brought into existence to make the next trip exceed the previous. With the talk begins the research, and as the Vivax Assist motor kits are no longer available in the US, the research took the Overlord through cyber space to Spain and then to Germany. The Overlord began to throw money at Europe in the hopes that a motor or two would appear. Six months or more of waiting, and hoping, and of being told there are no motors. Finally, Germany came through, but the motors and batteries could not be shipped to the US. Instead, alternate shipping plans had to be made. The Overlord was lucky that his mother resides in the UK and the Vivax Assist products could be shipped there, and from there the motors alone could be brought to the states. The batteries will have to meet them at one hotel or another on the trip route. While the hunt was on for the motors, the bicycle frame, wheels, components, cockpit, etc all had to be decided on. Once the Parlee Z Zero was made with custom geometry, it had to be sent to Canada where the Overlord’s favorite painters reside. Paint schemes were discussed, and discussed and changed and added, and tweaked until finally agreed upon. The whole time the clock is counting down. The whole time the shop is open, and the Overlord is working on bikes, is selling bikes, and is hoping for the painted items to land in the shop with time for assembly to occur. June arrives and the first of the two bikes that need to come to fruition has arrived at the shop. There are some differences to the frame from the last Vivax Assist build and the Overlord had to take a full day off at the shop to work on it in quiet. He had to pull out the electronics that live in the seat post and then reassemble in the new frames integrated seat post. It worked. The bike can be built. Now, the second bike needs to arrive. Days are scooting by in a haze of sun and heat, but the second frame still isn’t at the shop. Calls from the client keep coming in, checking on the status, and the news is not positive. We are now just a few days away, and bikes that have previously gone on the trip are slipping into service for tunes, and the wait continues for the last bike to arrive. And the stress mounts. While the end result is riding for three weeks through Europe and summiting some of the most famous climbs in cycling, the build up is one of waiting and stressing. And the Overlord, he wouldn’t change it at all.