Riding in tandem with his legally blind friend, Ron Burzese,
NSP's Mike Beadles completes a grueling and memorable cross-country bicycling trip

By Nancy Kluver

Mike Beadles was 20 miles away from the end of a Los Angeles-to-Boston bike trip when a car hit him and his tandem bike partner. But Beadles, NSP senior operations analyst, I/T Operating Services, and his partner, Ron Burzese, weren't going to let anything stop them from finishing that trip. In fact, they handled the accident with the same grace and good humor that saw them through the previous 3,370 miles of the trip. They dusted themselves off, checked for broken bones and bike parts and hopped back on.

"I actually felt sort of sorry for the driver," Beadles said. "She was just a teenager."

An avid biker, Beadles decided in the spring of 1999 to make the cross-country trip and asked Burzese, a friend he'd met through the Twin Cities Bike Club, to join him. Although both men had logged thousands of biking miles, neither had attempted a trip of this magnitude. An organization called America by Bicycle sponsored the tour, which appealed to the men because the bikers would stay in motel rooms at night rather than campgrounds.

Burzese, an independent travel instructor for Blind, Inc. in Minneapolis, has tunnel vision and is considered legally blind. When riding together, Beadles and Burzese usually rode Burzese's recumbent tandem bicycle, with Burzese in the back as "stoker." They decided, however, that an upright tandem would be better for the mountain ranges they would cross during the ride. After buying a new Cannondale tandem and shipping it to California, they boarded a plane to Los Angeles for the April 24 start of the trip.

"We started the day riding to the Pacific Ocean and dipping our wheels," wrote Beadles in an e-mail on one of the first days of their trip. He and Burzese kept in touch with family and friends via e-mails sent through a checkbook-size, Sharp TM-20 computer. Before leaving, Beadles posted a U.S. map outside his NSP office, and Dave Vonderharr, senior technical analyst, I/T Operating Services, updated it daily with pushpins indicating the bikers' progress.

Averaging 110 miles a day, the six women and 35 men in the group were experienced riders from a variety of countries, including Germany, South Africa and Australia. On a typical day, the group would rise at 4:30 a.m., eat breakfast at 5:30 and be on the road by 6:30. Support vans carrying luggage, lunch and mechanics accompanied the bikers and set up three rest stops along the way.

"The toughest time was in the beginning," Beadles says of the trip. The first eight days of the 33-day trip were the hottest and most hilly. For at least three of those days, the temperature averaged 105 degrees. "I'm pretty toasted tonight from riding so far in the high temps," Beadles wrote in one of his first e-malls. He remembers drinking 500 ounces of water - or 62 eight-ounce glasses in one day alone.

"There were times that we had great doubt after only the halfway point with the day's ride Beadles wrote early on, and yet we had many miles to go, with no shade in sight, our drinking water was hot, reapplying sunscreen often, a few people have heat rash. About seven of the 41 people have been picked up by the support vehicles (called SAG vans) and some have had to skip a day of riding to recover."

Beadles and Burzese also were discouraged early in the trip because they were often the last riders to arrive at the motel at day's end. Gradually, however, they picked up their speed and spirits.

"We had a few incentives to just stoke the fire today," Beadles wrote on day nine of the trip. "We knew that there were strong riders ahead and behind us. We would chase those we could see ahead of us, catching everyone we saw. Nobody will admit it, but there is a friendly competition that makes us all ride harder than we would by ourselves ... To our surprise, we were the first to arrive at the destination hotel by 1:15 p.m."

Day nine was particularly meaningful for Burzese, who had dedicated that day's ride to his 48-year-old brother, Rich, who died of cancer on the first day of the trip. Days before his brother's death, Burzese received encouragement from Rich to do the tour.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the trip was getting to know the other riders and experiencing the camaraderie of the group. "Every rider on this trip has a story," Beadles wrote. "Today, we rode some time with Syd and Cort. They are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary on this tour. Syd has a muscular disease, and her muscles are atrophying. But she and her husband are here doing the trip in style, great attitudes and easy-going."

The other riders nicknamed Beadles and Burzese the Gopher Boys because of the Minnesota Gopher bike jerseys they wore one day. Including the Gopher Boys, there were four tandem teams on the trip.

Riding a tandem requires special concentration and coordination, according to Beadles. "You have to work together shifting and spinning or you're going against each other," he said. "But you get faster speeds. It's a more efficient bike." Beadles and Burzese were accustomed to riding together and made a good team. In fact, they rode every mile of the trip on the bike, never opting for the support van.

Once the riders had finished biking for the day, they would check into the motel and immediately get something to eat, which enabled them to replace calories they'd lost on the ride. Then it was back to the motel for a shower and out to eat again. Despite all the food, Beadles lost eight pounds on the trip.

Riders occasionally took time to visit unusual points of interest along the way, including the Dalton Gang's hideout in Kansas and the Pedaling History Bicycle Museum and Fort Klock in New York, or pick up souvenirs. "There is a gas station across from the hotel tonight with all the individual state fridge magnets," Beadles wrote. "Time to go shopping!" At the request of his NSP co-workers, Beadles reported on unusual road kill he'd encountered, including rattlesnakes, a coyote, owls and an oriole. His favorite spots were Sedona, Ariz., and upstate New York, along the old Erie Canal.

On Friday, May 26, the riders completed their trip. "We reached our destination at Revere Beach amid congratulations, applause, hugs and handshakes," Beadles wrote of the end of the tour. Burzese was asked to pour the Pacific Ocean water into the Atlantic Ocean. Earlier, the other riders voted him the most inspirational rider.

Beadles experienced mixed emotions as the trip came to an end. "Glad to see our goal in sight," he wrote, "yet sad to realize that our new family of 45 people will never be together this way again." He's already looking forward to other trips, however. He plans to bike half of America by Bicycle's cross-country trip in 2001, this time solo. He's also planning bike trips in Holland and New Zealand. And, of course, he and Burzese will continue to ride together with the Twin Cities Bike Club. In fact, Beadles is the Web master of the club's Web site at www.biketcbc.com and his own Web site at www.mrbikey.com, where photos from the cross-country trip are posted.

Among several reasons for making the trip was "the belief that we can do anything we set our minds to," Beadles wrote before the trip began. Having verified that fact, Beadles and Burzese were grateful for a safe and memorable tour. Their final e-mall read, "Thanks for following along with us, and once again for your many kind and encouraging replies!"