March 19, 2012
Sleep Tight Sweet Bike: Our bags are packed, we're ready to go (not quite)
We know we are pretty weak, after five months of no long distance cycling. But looking out the door we see plenty of reasons for not jumping on the bikes.
One good substitute for having any strength is cutting down on the weight. The mail back after a few days on the road is traditional for touring, but since the mailback this time would travel about 10,000 km, we decided to hold it in advance - like while we are still at home!
There is still lots of gear to keep track of!
Now, about the bikes. They need to go into their black standard suitcases. We know the gorillas employed by airlines to wreck luggage will administer some good shaking and crushing to the cases. So the bikes inside need protection. Bike Friday sells a packing kit. We have bought some of the parts (like the crush protector) and improvised others.
The bikes get a final cleaning and lube and get ready to go into stasis.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Again following advice from Bike Friday, we enclose some papers that we hope will help anyone who opens the cases to not wreck our bikes. There is a photo of what the properly packed case looks like, some tips on what goes where, and an appeal to not rip things apart willy nilly.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Now, with our gear either drop kicked off the tour, or put carefully to bed, all that remains is to actually figure out where we are going!
We do now have a pile of maps, so that should be helpful. Only thing, the maps are among the thing that got drop kicked! The Bikeline map books are glorious - with glossy plasticized thick paper, description of places and routing details, interesting side trips, alternative ways to go. Yeah, yeah, but all that blah blah is heavy!
Our answer is to scan and colour print only the parts we absolutely need. One last catch, though. Most of the books are in German. So how do we know what we need? Answer: Sandra - our resident (or technically "non-resident" - but she is working on resident status) German expert. (Actually, our resident German!)
Sandra is helping decide which side of the river and such we should follow. We will only take maps for routes we are actually likely to travel on. It's a bit risky, in case we change plans, but maps for 6000-7000 km of riding at about 15 km per map is ridiculous!
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
We would like to reasonably finalize the route - meaning having cue sheets that at least detail the towns in order, if not how to get from one to another, before leaving. It's a bit of a chore, because Europe seems to have a zillion towns! For example, we want to ride down the Rhine and into Holland. We figure that means passing though over a hundred towns, from Basel to Utrecht! Yikes, what if each one has a pastry shop?
There are also a lot of smaller details to cover. These range from making sure the taxes are paid and next year's firewood stacked to putting a tab on my high viz vest for attaching the camera strap. Of course, even having a lot to do does not necessarily mean a slap dash job (if Dodie has any say in it!). Here is my camera tab:
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |