July 15, 2013
Getting the Gear Sorted
Four previous tours have meant that our gear is really fairly well worked out but there are always little improvements to be made.
We are taking the same bikes as last year. Ken has his trusty Turbo Mountain Bike which is the veteran of all our trips, I have the Avanti Discovery, I find it so easy to get on and off. It makes me look like the old Grandma that I am but I suppose that is to be expected. Have made a couple of improvements for this year. Firstly I have changed the chain ring to 22 32 44 which should make the hills a bit easier, actually I am amazed that coming up the hill to our place, which is my standard for steepness, when I use the 22 on the front I don't have to get into the lowest gear on the back. One of the problems with my bike has always been attaching water bottles, because with the low front frame they tend to rub on the front mudguard but now the problem is fixed. I have a found a two water bottle holder that fits behind the back seat. It looks as if I am hoping for jet assistance and may be that would be a good idea if things become too desperate.
Although we are only very occasional campers we like the security of having camping gear so this is coming with us again though we will leave the cooking gear behind as yummy deli food is always easy to find.
Thanks to Claire Treffy (CGOAB) Ken has bought a Da Brim which is the nerdiest looking attachment for his helmet which should be a help as he has very fair skin. A disaster occurred in the weekend when I was washing the rain jackets we are so attached to. I followed the washing instructions exactly but the waterproofing of Ken’s delaminated at the back. On reflection I think the reason is that he always wears a small back pack when he is riding and the delamination occurred where this rubbed. Panic! These are coats we find ideal and how could we get a replacement the same. A short while browsing on the internet I found the exact same thing and what is more they had a half price sale on.
Our biggest and I hope best change is how we intend to deal with internet connections. This is thanks to John Hutchison (www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Baltic2013 )who has really helped me sort out my ideas. On his suggestion I have bought a Woolworths Global Roaming Sim. This has reasonably inexpensive data packages for Europe. It is not as cheap as some and certainly not as cheap as buying individual sims in each country but for me comes with a lot of other advantages. The main one is that I have been able to set it up at home and test it to make sure that all is working as expected. I have set it up with two icons on my phone one of which turns the data on and the other that allows me to tether my netbook or Ipad to the phone. The other advantage is that I have an Australian number I can ring if all goes pear shaped and I will get someone whom I can understand and who can understand me. Hope it all works and we aren’t as dependent on finding Wifi as we have been in the past. One thing I am sure of is that I will have better luck with it than the German dongle I got last year and could never get to work.
Maps are always a challenge. Although we carry a GPS we really like to have paper maps. Getting them is no problem at all and we can get what we want from either Stanfords in the UK or Cartovelo in France. The problem however on a relatively extensive trip like the one we are doing the pile gets enormous and very heavy. What to do? I know that some people photocopy relevant parts but I find this extremely cumbersome. Now comes the vandalism, I took to our maps with scissors. Chopping up the first map made me feel really very bad but then I got into the swing of it and now I have a smallish pile of maps neatly filed in plastic bags and they weight only 1.2kg and what is more they will fit easily into our front map cases.
We have everything I think. The bikes are going to Isaac tomorrow for a final check and for him to box them for us. All that will remain then will be for us to pack, then weigh everything and decide what we will have to leave behind and how many of our clothes we will have to wear so that we can play the game of getting it all to weigh exactly 30kg each with 7kg each of carry on. We did it last year so no doubt it will happen again
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