April 23, 2022 to April 25, 2022
Avoid Vaude
Days 62-64 - Ljubljana
Unfortunately we are still not feeling great, so are resting some more in Ljubljana. It's weird, when we were ill in Trieste I felt better soon and Sarah suffered, now I'm worse... It's pretty frustrating!
We aren't quite sure what route we are taking next - maybe inland more to Zagreb and Sarajevo, or maybe to the coast more directly. Either way, there are some serious hills coming up and we don't want to still be under the weather for them!
While here, we have managed to find some new panniers for me, as mine are falling apart. Basically all the rack clips are going or gone, and I've had one zip tied on for a few weeks, and holes have developed in both front ones and a pocket of a rear one, both pockets are detaching, the material itself is delaminating or something in several places, etc.
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Mine are Vaude, a well respected brand, and they have served me well. The pockets on the back ones are really useful, even if they make me a super-wide load! But they've only done maybe 10,000 kilometres, probably more like 9,000, and that is mostly over 2 long tours and a couple of short ones, of 6 or 7 months total, which I feel might be less damaging than the same distance done by a regular commute. The rest of the time they've been stored indoors! The real kicker is that Sarah's Ortliebs have done basically the exact same, and as far as we can tell have no issues at all! So I've managed to source some for myself. If you are deciding between the two, go Ortlieb!
I did contact Vaude and they told me to send them in for evaluation, despite the fact I said I was actively touring right now, and they didn't say what kind of refund or anything I was likely to expect, or even if they would refund the significant postage costs, so I doubt I will bother. If the bags had done say, twice the distance, I don't think I would have minded...
I should say the Vaude handlebar bag is still going strong, and I like it better than the Ortlieb version. It comes with the klickfix mount which is definitely better than Ortlieb's own brand version!
New panniers, plus all the hotels we have been staying in lately because of a) getting in the habit of it, early in Spain, when it was cold and cheap, then b) us both being pretty seriously unwell, which makes camping an unpleasant prospect, and makes staying in dorms extremely antisocial, have been decimating our budget. Also the system of the post office travel card we have been using to spend euros with has been broken for several days, so we've been unable to top that up, and £500 has somehow gotten lost between my bank account and the card...
Oh, I also got the first puncture of the trip a few days ago! A thorn was the culprit. Luckily the fail-safe secondary tube patch kit worked because the first one didn't, must've been old.
I also got a pretty big chunk of very sharp ceramic stuck in the tyre on the entry to Ljubljana, but amazingly it held air after taking it out. Pretty impressed with these super moto-x tyres so far! Really enjoying the size too, so much more versatile than a skinny tyre, you can let the pressure down for gravel etc, but when inflated they don't feel slow on the road.
I'm looking forward to some more successful cycling, camping, and less complaining in our future!!
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