Obligatory Boring Gear Description
I love cycling, and I love bike touring, but I'm not really much interested in actual bicycles and their various components and accessories. As long as the bike works, I'm happy with it.
So, here's a cursory description of the bike, and other stuff I'm taking on this tour, for the one or two people who might be mildly interested in this boring subject.
The bike: It's a steel Salsa Fargo. It's a Medium size, which is technically too small for my height (6'2''), but I've always preferred bikes that are slightly too small. My wife, Joy, originally purchased the bike for herself in 2015, but, after doing a solo tour of the Katy Trail on it, she decided it was slightly too large for her, so I took it. I had to raise the seat post as high as possible to make it work, but I've been very happy with the bike.
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I remember thinking years ago, long before Joy bought this one, that the Fargo was surely one of the ugliest bikes ever made - I especially disliked the steeply sloping top tube. But over the years it's grown on me.
Tires: Joy did a lot of research before our Great Divide tour, and chose these tough Teravail Sparwood tires. It's the brand I've used ever since. I'm too cautious and conservative to go tubeless, and instead use tubes that I inject Stan's Sealant into. (Actually, Joy puts the sealant in for me before each tour, since I'm basically incompetent when it comes to things like that.) I have never had a flat tire with this setup!
Bags: Ortlieb rear panniers and handlebar bag. I don't know why anyone would use anything else, unless they're on a very tight budget. I especially don't understand why anyone would want to use panniers that are not waterproof. Interestingly, when we met, Joy used heavy, non-waterproof Arkel panniers. That was probably the most serious disagreement we had to overcome when we became a couple. (I'm mostly kidding, but not entirely.)
Pedals: Shimano SPD, set to be very, very loose. I unclip if I even think about stopping. I don't want to have to expend any energy to get unclipped, since I do it frequently.
Shoes: I've only owned three pairs of bike shoes since I started riding in 2005. I finally had to replace my literally-falling-apart second pair a few months ago. The new ones are Bontrager brand. They are uncomfortable and aren't broken in yet.
Saddle: I suppose I'm lucky, in that despite paying very, very little attention to saddles in the last eighteen years of riding, I've virtually never had any discomfort. The saddle on the Fargo is the oldest saddle I own: It came with my first real bicycle, a used, mid-90's Cannondale T-400 touring bike which I purchased for $100 in 2005. The saddle is starting to fall apart, but I'll keep riding with it until it's completely unusable.
Mirror: I believe a helmet-mounted mirror is essential while touring, and cycling in general. I can't remember the brand of my mirror, but it's large, dorky-looking and extremely effective - I am very, very rarely surprised by vehicles behind me. I'm always shocked at how few cyclists I meet who use a helmet-mounted mirror. I think it's crazy not to use one.
Camera: I like taking photos on bike tours, and I like taking them with a "real" camera: A Canon EOS Rebel SL1.
Shorts: I almost never wear tight padded Lycra bike shorts. Instead I prefer looser, very lightly padded, black J&G Touring Shorts. I love these things! The pockets are useful when walking around, the shorts dry very quickly after washing, and (unlike as sometimes happens when wearing tight padded bike shorts), you won't get the stares of disgust and contempt when you walk into rural country stores and bars wearing them.
Jersey: Most of the time I wear an Adventure Cycling TransAmerica jersey. I believe that I'm less likely to be accosted by angry redneck drivers because of the American flag design on the back.
Tent: I always carry a tent on tours longer than a few days, even though I much prefer indoor lodging, and rarely camp. Since I don't reserve lodging ahead of time, I have to carry camping gear just in case I can't find a place to stay inside. Since 2008, I've been using Joy's old orange Marmot tent, but this year she finally grew tired of my ignoring her repeated warnings that the old tent had lost its waterproof properties, and bought me a new tent from REI. I just set it up in our yard for the first time tonight:
Laptop: I've carried a laptop on almost every bicycle tour. If the tour is longer than three or four days, I feel like I have to carry a "real" computer with me, mostly because I'm a self-employed software developer, and I have to be able to to support my customers while on tour by answering questions, fixing bugs, and (hopefully only very rarely) adding new features to my software. My current laptop is a fairly recent Lenovo model running Windows 10. One of my rationalizations for mostly staying in motels on tours is that I find it hard to do any work while camping, although I have found myself writing code in a tent a few times; something that I definitely do not recommend.
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1 year ago