The Bike
This was my 4th tour on a 2007 Bacchetta Giro 20 short wheelbase recumbent.
I made substantial changes to the bike this year. I replaced the original Bacchetta "Re-Curve" seat with a narrower "Euro-Mesh" seat that weighs 1.5 pounds less and is more aerodynamic. In addition, a new Terracycle underseat rack replaces the Bacchetta rack that broke during last year's tour. The new rack is much stronger, but it weighs 1/2 pound more. So the bike weighs one pound less with the new seat and rack. As shown below it weighs 39 pounds. That's with 4 empty water bottles and the pouch behind the seat filled with tools and 2 spare inner tubes. The bike's stock wheels are 32-spoke with lightweight Alex DA16 rims. During tours I use stronger wheels that I hand-built with 36 butted spokes and heavier Velocity Aeroheat rims.
The new underseat rack is mounted a bit higher than the old rack. That makes it easier to reach inside the panniers while riding and makes the bottom of the panniers less likely to scrape a curb or scrape the pavement during a U-turn. During this tour the underseat panniers never once scraped on the pavement.
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The Euro-Mesh seat needs to be reclined more than the previous seat. That causes the rear rack to be pushed back and tilted backwards. I compensated by running the seat stays "through" the rack as shown below. The rack is still tilted backwards somewhat, but not as much as it would be if the entire rack platform was behind the seat stays. The rack is fastened to the seat crossbar with 4 zip ties. The pouch contains tools and spare tubes, so I can repair stuff even when riding without panniers.
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Here's a beauty shot of the loaded bike in Rocky Mountain National Park. The rear panniers are Madden Buzzards. The underseat panniers are Arkel RT-40 "recumbent panniers". The total capacity is so large that I seldom need to put anything on top of the rear rack. Note that the rear panniers are reversed to put the rear pouch in front. That minimizes weight behind the rear axle.
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I started the tour with new 40mm wide Schwalbe Marathon tires and had 4 flats during the 2810-mile tour. That was disappointing considering that I had no flats during last year's 1884-mile tour. Most of the time I pump the tires to 75 psi rear, 65 psi front. But on difficult gravel roads I have the option to lower the pressure to 30 psi rear, 25 psi front. I started the tour with new tires, brake pads, and chain. I trued the wheels and adjusted the hubs just before the tour. The bike was very reliable during the tour, but persistent blowing dust in Utah caused the cyclocomputer to fail. And the rear rim had increasingly "pulsing" braking at the end of the tour, a sign that the rim needs to be replaced.
This tour has long sections with no water. Besides 4 water bottles on the bike, I have a 1-quart water jug in the rear pocket of both underseat panniers. In addition, I can put a 1-gallon water jug on the rear rack. That gives me the ability to haul 2.4 gallons (9 liters) of water, which I did on 3 occasions when I needed a 2-day supply of water.
Here are the weights just before the tour.
Me: 179 pounds, down to 169 pounds at the end of the tour
Unloaded bike: 39 pounds
Left underseat pannier: 17 pounds
Right underseat pannier: 13 pounds
Left rear pannier: 14 pounds
Right rear pannier: 8 pounds
The loaded bike adds up to 91 pounds with no water, but including a large supply of food and consumables such as laundry detergent, shampoo, cooking oil, powdered milk, sugar, tea bags. Add 2 fuel canisters (not allowed on the train) and fill 4 water bottles, and the loaded bike tips the scale at 100 pounds (45.5 kg). Obviously my packing style is "expedition", not "ultra-light".
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