Life will never be the same for the foursome that made up Biking for a Better World.

How could it after a nine-month, 15,120-mile mission from the seats of their bikes?

Starting from Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay on June 12, the men — each current or former North Tahoe residents — averaged about 84 miles a day and more than 2,000 miles a month while cycling through 15 countries and two continents. On Feb. 10, a full month and two days ahead of schedule, Biking for a Better World rolled into Ushuaia, Argentina, on the province of Tierra del Fuego.

Their mission was to raise $18,000 through their non-profit organization to help finance the construction of a school in Nicaragua. The trip was be used to meet as many people as possible to spread word about the cause, all while bringing in more funds to meet the financial goal.

Although the school is now completed and the Alaska-to-Argentina trip his over, the adventure represents the beginning of the altruistic organization.

The team is currently trying to promote new ideas and is in the process of reworking its Web site, www.bikingforabetterworld.org. Biking for a Better World also hopes to bring a slide show to Tahoe in August.

While some of the team members have returned to their hometowns to save money and figure out what to do next with their lives, Duncan Sisson is now living back in North Lake Tahoe. Other members of the team include Jake Spero and John Witherspoon. Original member Sam Skrocke split from the group during the trip.

In celebration of Earth Day this past week, Morgan Kriz of the Tahoe World caught up with Spero via e-mail for a Q&A. Kriz plans to further dissect the team’s journey in the pages of the Tahoe World in the coming weeks.

TW: Biking for a Better World was to benefit underdeveloped communities, but did you ever consider it as being an environmentally friendly adventure as well?

Jake Spero: We set up Biking for a Better World to be just what it says. The four of us who started the charity, we love to ride bikes, and we figured that a ride from Alaska to Argentina was a good opportunity to do something good for the world, to give back. It was also a good way for us to start our organization. We decided to work with Building with Books, an organization that builds schools all over the world. The school in Nicaragua was funded and built. The ride was completed. Now we have that project as a foundation for our future, and we now want to show that BFABW is an organization that is open to any project that will better the world. We are open to working for causes to help the environment as well.

We never really promoted our trip as anything environmental, but in the end, it could definitely be construed as an environmentally-friendly adventure. For one, the members of the team used no gasoline for nine months. Sam and Spoon carried solar chargers which they laid out on their trailers to collect a charge on sunny days. We used them to charge our iPods and cameras and batteries when we could. We also worked hard to leave no trace for the entire journey.

When we camped out, we made sure we left the area clean, and very often we toted out some extra garbage we’d find nearby. It always felt good to take out a little more than we came with. Alaska and Canada were fairly pristine, but through the US and south of the border, things changed. Many areas of Central and South America were plagued by tons of litter, and it was difficult for us, as Americans who understand and respect the “Green” movement and appreciate and respect nature’s beauty, to understand how the people could let it get so bad. We had to realize that times and perspective are different than what we're used to, and of course do the little we could to help.

TW: What efforts (if any) have you taken to reduce your dependence on motorized transportation?

Jake Spero: Now that I have returned, I have been driving only small distances to work in New York. I do not own a car and plan to use my bicycle as much as possible this summer to save money on the ridiculously over-priced gasoline (a sort of rebellion against the evil petroleum corporations) and to do my part to protect the atmosphere. I encourage anyone to try and work close to home and pedal whenever possible. Biking a small distance many times a week will keep anyone in great shape.