April 23, 2017
Refinements: Experience is the best teacher - and the best deterrent
We have been asked a number of times what we would do differently on our next tour. There really aren't many things we would change.
Our packing list was just about right. As is the case with almost all tourists, any packing issues were about having too much, not too little. But there is nothing significant we would change with what we carry.
We take enough cycling and street clothes for three days, a few extra pieces for cooler weather and basic toiletries.
Electronic devices are crucial, of course, so we will each have our own Garmin, cell phone and Surface Pro tablet. We also use a Terrano wireless communication system, a rechargeable taillight and the GoPro. Adding it all up, we usually have ten things plugged in every night!
Kerry tries to pack enough spare parts to keep us going. Over the years, we have found it is not always easy to find parts while travelling, so the parts list keeps growing. Besides tires and tubes, we carry spare cables, brake pads, mirrors, shoe cleats and an assortment of screws, bolts and zip ties. Some of the more unusual parts we carry are the Gates belts and an oil change kit for the Rohloff hub, as we have never come across a bike shop that have these in stock.
We pack everything in plastic zipper bags. The bags serve for both water protection and organization. We use the 2.5 gallon size bags for clothing and our tablets. Other things get packed in smaller bags. Each bag goes into a specific pannier. We put everything in the exact same place every day and it takes us only about ten minutes to pack up each morning. This system has kept us from losing or forgetting items a number of times.
Our route planning worked well most of the time. We won't be on any long unpaved trails as we were on the C&O Canal last year. All the people who told us it was not a good trail for our bike were right. As much as possible, we'll stick to paved roads, with some hardpack crushed stone trails. I wish that we had a way to reliably identify unpaved roads when planning a route. We had a few surprise gravel or dirt stretches last summer that we would have liked to avoid. Using Google Earth allows us to catch most of them, but not every one.
The biggest improvement that experience has lead us to make is the mounting for Kerry's GoPro. While riding on the unpaved C&O Canal last summer, Kerry had the GoPro mounted on his helmet. He saw an old railroad trestle overhead which he looked up at to capture on video. This poorly executed maneuver led to his riding off the edge of the trail and causing us (ME!) to fall off the bike. I let him know in the kindest way I could manage at that moment that the GoPro WOULD NOT be mounted on his helmet EVER AGAIN while he was riding tandem with me. He worked with a couple of friends (thanks Jerry and Walt) to design and build an improved mount for his GoPro as shown below:
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