“Go buy a Specialized (www.specialized.com) bike. I ride the Roubaix pro SL Dura-Ace – seriously smooth and seriously fast,” says Andy Levine, president of DuVine Adventures, a high end international bike touring company, “No need to spend over 2k on a bicycle; bikes are simple and you should by a simple bike that is comfortable and makes you want to ride it everyday.” Levine tells us that the great thing about DuVine Adventures is that top-of-the-line bikes are included in your trip (“so no need to buy a bicycle to bring on the trip”), but if you’re hot to pick up your own spokes, head over to Belmont Wheelworks (www.wheelworks.com), where Andy is impressed with a “great selection and smart staff.”
 

Andy Levine, president of DuVine Adventures, a high-end bike touring company, knows bikes and knows ‘em well. But even he needs a two-wheel surgeon once in a while. His go-to bike doc? “A friend of mine named Charlie Bent, but if you do not have a friend named Charlie who always carried around a tool kit, I go to Ace Wheelworks (www.wheelworks.com) in Somerville.  The technicians are very cool, real bikers, and do not make you feel like a rental when you need the quick repair.”

Booked your DuVine bike adventure, did you? Now pack! “If your derrière tends to gets soar then buy a $10 gel seat cover -- which works,” says Andy Levine, president of DuVine Adventures, a high end bike touring company. “We tell people no need to pack the kitchen sink. For a man a nice linen shirt so you can feel relaxed in the town square, chillin’ drinking an espresso. For the ladies, flip flops with a skirt and sunglasses will look tres chic.  We say: Do not bring your work nor talk about it - as it will get lost in a tiny village café and so will you.”

“I am not a fan of travel books that tell about a destination or guide books,” says Andy Levine, president of DuVine Adventures, a high-end bike touring company. “I write my own travel books in my head and enjoy visiting a new place with an empty canvas and no one telling me about guidelines or rules.  I have never understood the rating system of hotels and wines.  You need to experience them on your own without any preexisting notions, then you can judge and simply see if it works for you.” Still, there’s a place in Andy’s heart for one book: “I am a fan of Chocolates on the Pillow Aren't Enough (www.amazon.com) by hotelier Jonathan M. Tisch. I enjoy reading how to make the experience of travel exciting and what I should expect from hotels.”

“I love mountain biking,” says Andy Levine, president of DuVine Adventures, a high-end bike touring company. “I used to race in Colorado, but in New England I like the Fellsway in Medford.  Trust me, head out there on an early Saturday or a Sunday morning with your sneakers or a mountain bike. You’ll feel like you are deep in Vermont or Maine – it really rocks. The best place to road bike in Boston for me is to jump on my bike in Cambridge and head out to Concord, Carlisle and Harvard – epic riding – 50 miles.

Duvine Adventures president Andy Levine is a risk taker, and he’s practiced hard to be one.” The hardest thing is making the first step -- to bike, do yoga, to ski or to say hello to someone you have never met, but once you do it makes a world of difference.  The more you are active and the more you are social and being pleasant– life keeps on happening.  So my motto is shoot the hole. No backseat. Hands forward. Why not?”