Bikes

A few months ago I sold my beloved Raleigh Olympian touring bike. It was with me since the beginning on my first tour in 1986. I replaced with a brand spankin' new Salsa Vaya. I built up the Vaya over the winter and it is almost ready to roll. That being said, I also have a Cannondale F1000SL off-road bike that I have converted to a proper tourer. With some of the Greenway route being unpaved and some seemingly through fields, I am going to take the wider-tired Cannondale. My wife has the same frame for her touring though it is a Bad Boy Ultra. Both are the CAAD4 framesets.

We have toured a couple of times on these bikes before though it has been a few years. In 2009 and 2010 we cycled Cuba: Off the Map. The bikes worked well, though we both had some back pain and have adjusted them accordingly - higher and different bars. We both got the Jones SG handlebars. These bars raise the hand position and sweep the position to one that is more natural. I hope this helps our backs and our hands. Initial traning rides at home are very encouraging.

As for racks on the bikes, I will bring both front and rear racks and MA will have only a rear rack.

Panniers

Anyone who knows me realizes that I love anything Arkel. MA will use our two Arkel Bug bags which come with backpack-style carrying straps. I will be using my regular EXR 35s. Love them, can't be without them. Just the right size and fool-proof.

GPS

I have used my Garmin eTrex 30 for a number of tours, and with each one, I figure out a new feature or two. Recently I discovered the Mapy.cz app and site. With it, I can use the maps offline (without having wifi all of the time) and it can read the gpx tracks that I download from the Cycle.travel Route Planner site. Not only can I plan and download a specific route (in this case usually the Greenway route) to follow, but I can load our hotels, restaurants or any other sites into it and navigate to them with the gps or device. Love it. I really like physical maps, but this technology works better for me on a bike.

Phone or Device

Call me a semi-luddite, but I don't have a mobile phone. I do, however, have a tablet. And wifi is everywhere. And I have a voip phone account. Basically, then, I can connect to pretty much anyone I wish if I wish. I usually read a few books on tour - via the tablet. My co-navigation tool will be Mapy.cz as I mentioned above. Noise-cancelling earbuds will round out the electronic goodies. They work wonders to block out airplane noise on the flight so I can actually hear one of the movies I bring along on the tablet.

The Rest

On pretty much every other journal I have written, I listed my fine-tuned assortment of everything else to bring. I may include it here, or I may just refer to my Faro to Lisbon, Portugal, tour earlier this year. I will bring the same stuff other than one or two little things that I didn't use - light/mp3 player/radio.