what does T1P mean? who is T1P?

T1P

The first bike tour we did back in 2013 was from scratch. Matt's med school residency program is such that he gets a 4-month break (well, he had to horse-trade with his two co-residents). To fill that time, he out of the blue thought of cycling across the US. Thanks to the real world of aligning schedules, the 3 of us only got 3 weeks, a normal vacation stint. We had to learn how to do bike touring from 0 experience.

We were really afraid of doing it wrong. So when reading advice online, we typically erred on the side of buying the best stuff we could. And since we had nothing to start with, we bought everything -- bikes, panniers, jerseys, camp gear, etc. It was a lot of money.

When we were on the road, we saw folks doing the same tour as us with scraped together but still effective equipment. An old 10-speed road bike won't be as sturdy and won't have nice easy gears for going up hills, but it will get the job done. A trash bag with some bungee cords isn't as easy to use as an Ortlieb pannier, but you'll be fine. I'm not trying to make a statement about the cost of doing a bike tour; I'm just noting that we really noticed how much we had spent to do the tour. In a way, we had just thrown money at the problem, shelling out to get what we wanted.
And that is the origin of the Team 1% name -- that we were spending money to steamroll any issues that came up.

Even though we make fun of ourselves for it, the name is still relevant. Example:
This time around, Matt and I had to buy bikes again. Both of us sold ours in San Francisco at the end of the last tour, not knowing when we'd use them again. We had to rebuy a lot of gear. At least Gabe didn't make that mistake. When it came to sleeping bags, we were on the fence about new ones. The weather might not get cold enough to test our 40/50F bags, but if it did, it would suck.
And so we felt justified in shopping for a light and compact 30F bag.

My old bag was good for 45F, and surprisingly compact, given that I bought it for $60 at a sporting goods store 3 days into the tour [a story for another time]. But I wanted 35F, and I wanted something really light if possible.

I got a Sea to Summit Micro McII. Comparison of the 2 bags, fully compressed:

I know what you're thinking -- it's barely any smaller! The picure does downplay the actual size difference, but you're right. It's not much smaller. It might be all of half a pound lighter. But when you're rolling T1P, it's worth it. Ok, it's not really worth it, but you get the idea.

What did the others do? Matt was really tempted by a <1lb pita pocket style bag, but the ordering time was too long to risk. So he got some ultralight bag at REI. Gabe went for max warmth, eschewing weight and bulk entirely.

Bios

For the T1P South Africa trip, Matt wrote some bios: http://mmian-travel.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-squad.html

While accurate, I think it's always a bit jarring to read someone else's characterization of you.

So here I am to return the favor.

Matt

Matt is the reason this trip and all the other trips happen. He's for sure the most adventurous and the most driven to see the world. For me, the best part of the Odyssey is when Odysseus comes home and sees the familiar comforts of Ithaca. For Matt, it'd be the sailing out and treading onto foreign shores.

As the most ambitious traveler, he defaults to the team leader and organizer. He'll do some delegation, but actually likes to take care of things himself. Can't find someone better to do things right by doing them himself.

Matt's big thing is diving now, I think. I get the appeal -- to be in a different universe with different rules of physics and different species living a strange life. But that risk factor that he embraces makes it way too scary for me. When he signed us up to hike the Drakensberg, he put down our experience level as "climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro or similar." I'll let you guess who's been on Kilimanjaro and who's "similar."

Matt tends to be a little extra, to use modern slang. Always wanting to slot one more thing into the schedule or to skive off to check out this or that. 

Gabe

I would say Gabe and I have more similar backgrounds -- engineering jobs, playing the occasional video game, kind of sarcastic about stuff.

On these trips, I feel like I defer to Gabe for pacing -- are we rushing? Do we need to move on? Etc. My gut is that Gabe has more patience than either Matt or me, and tends to be more stoic. No trip ever goes off perfectly sunny and trouble free, and when there's some raised hackles, Gabe is probably the one to exert a calming, steadying influence on the situation. That's part of why he's the navigator, so the trip proceeds along his pace.

Gabe really enjoys find the humor in random things. In South Africa, it was spotting examples of the country's apparent obsession with puns.

Meng

I'm not a true traveler, in that I am content to see the world come to me through the TV screen. On the flip side, the things I've seen on trips -- those experiences could never be conveyed through pictures or video. You just have to be there. I think that's how I'd boil down the need to travel. If you just have to be there, well, then go there. And then when you're there, eat a ton of food. 

One of my flaws is that I can fall into bad moods. It was pretty bad on the first bike tour, and fairly minor in SA, but that's one of the downsides of traveling, I guess. On a trip to China with my folks, I got a stomach bug for several days, and I was so close to snapping the last few days. Knowing that this is one of my weaknesses, I'm always trying to get a handle on it, trying to make sure nothing boils over.

I'm one of those nerds who obsesses over material things. The bike tour really sets me off, what with having to make a million different choices on equipment. I've spent months tweaking my bike to perfection, so I really hope it shines on the road. I want to reap back all that time invested in setting up my bike in the form of little daily observations that, yes, the bike is handling everything thrown its way.