Our most exotic customer, Cassie
We sell lots of great bikes to lots of interesting people, but one of our favorites in the past year has been a special order Bianchi that we sent to Tanzania. We had the pleasure to find the perfect bike for Cassie Wangsness, a young woman who has chosen to teach at a school in a small town in Tanzania. Cassie is originally from New York, but was going to be visited by a friend who lived in Brentwood. As she combed the Internet for a Nashville bike shop that might package the perfect ride to travel to Tanzania, we were lucky enough that she found us.
As we corresponded and Cassie described the rough roads and less than ideal riding conditions that would test her Bianchi, we recognized that Cassie needed a cyclocross bike. We quickly special ordered the Bianchi Axis in Cassie's size. We offered a discount in promise of a few stories and some great pictures about the Bianchi's new life in Africa.
Check out the fun below and don't be shy about sharing the exotic travels of your Bianchi...
A link to Cassie's blog
Be sure to check out the gorgeous wildlife photos...
Cassie's Students
Hi to all you angelically patient people of Gran Fondo!
Let me first begin with an apology for how long it has taken to deliver pictures to you. I was at first hesitant to ask friends to take pictures of me with my bike, somehow feeling sheepishly awkward to request to have various self-portraits taken... and then when realizing that these were in fact not pictures that I could produce alone, series of phone-tag events unfolded before any actual pictures were taken. I've come to accept the fact that everything over here simply takes more time, and am noticing myself adhere to a slightly more laid back pace of life than what I left behind in New York City.
Life out here has been wonderfully busy these last few months! Right now my life in Dar is split into two definitive parts: life in Dar before my bike, and life in Dar with my bike. The latter phase is characterized by a markedly greater freedom of movement and choices... which in turn have produced a much happier and free teacher. I really am so thankful for my bike!
I am training for my first ultra marathon which is now just around the corner next month in Cape Town, South Africa. I've felt so lucky to have my bike to help me in my cross-training. I'm heading to Mount Kilimanjaro this weekend for the Kili Marathon-- to be run as my last "training run" for the Cape Town race. Once all this racing is done next month, I'm looking at organizing some longer bike rides along the coast out here. I will be sure to document stories like these to keep you guys (hopefully) entertained with a glimpse of my life out here.
Please send my love to everyone at the shop. Let me know whatever else I can do for you-- more pictures? more stories? Just ask.
Cheers to you all!
Cassie
Because I live so close to the Indian Ocean, our roads in Dar es
Salaam are a inconsistent combination of sand and gravel. Potholes
here are a sight to be seen. I'm so grateful for my bike's ability
to perform in these conditions!
Here's our Tanzanian flag, coming home to Dar from a weekend in
Zanzibar. Not so bike related, but captures the flavor of my
environment somehow.
My friend Greg and I were cruising around my neighborhood snapping
pictures, and my sweet neighbor asked if he could have his picture
taken with us. Belonging to the Maasai tribe, this man has tried on
a number of occasions to teach me his language, Kimaasai. I'm
sticking to Swahili for the time being, but do enjoy exchanging
Kimaasai greetings as well as the thumbs-up I get from him when I
ride by. He has offered to trade many of his personal belongings for
my bike.
There are so many shades of green to be found in my front yard.
This is my favorite picture from the bunch. I ride my bike along
this shoreline daily, breathing in the fresh salt air and delighting
in the breeze whipping up off the water. Drivers fly past me on
either side, driving frantically along this curving road. Their
windows are rolled up and their air conditioners are on high.
Allowing my senses to really embrace my environment here on my bike
makes me feel like the luckiest commuter in the area!
The local daladala minibuses are remarkably efficient in maximizing
their numbers of commuting passengers. There are times when you deem
it impossible for another body to squeeze into its crammed space, and
yet another five somehow make their way in. Although fun for
occasional joy-riding adventures, I much prefer my wheels to theirs.
My neighborhood fruit cart! These carts can be seen throughout the
area, pulled down the road and expertly navigated through heavy
traffic. It's the freshest fruit out there, and the particular
vendors who regularly fill my belly with their tropical goodness
always send me on your my with a smile.
The colors of my community bring me great joy!
This is around the corner from my apartment near the fire truck full
of firefighters who, without fail, wave at my when I ride by.
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