We thought it would be interesting to provide some background on the decision making that went into our choice of gear and equipment for this trip. Of course, much of what we chose was due to availability, or what we could scrounge or what we already had or simply due to cost. We are not ‘gear-heads’ by any means but can certainly appreciate well designed and appropriate gear.
Last summer, we became Warm Showers hosts (www.warmshowers.com). We received at least 8 groups of cycle tourers. This provided an opportunity to share info and learn from other bikers. The diversity of opinion and options was very interesting. Europeans tend to use wheels with hubs with integral dynamos (charging devices) for powering their gadgets. They also often use grip-shifts with internal-gear hubs. In general we found many riders opted for converted mountain bikes or hybrid bikes as opposed to the classic touring road bike. Some bikers opt to go super light while others are heavily laden, stating that one should not forgo the additional gear that makes the trip more comfortable. We will try to find a happy medium. We will touch on some of the differences in approach below. We will also do a thorough reassessment when this trip is over and update this page accordingly. So, here goes…….
Bikes: I (Jim) bought a second hand Trek 520 Touring Series for $700. It is apparently a well rated, classic style touring bike. I instantly felt comfortable on the bike and snapped it up without hesitation– the first bike I looked at! So far, it hasn’t let me down.
Claire bought a new Novara Randonee from REI in the US. It was on sale at approx. $900. Similarly, Claire felt good on the bike right away and though it is unfortunately a little heavier than my Trek, and given the lack of other affordable options, we still went for it. Both are durable steel frames that feel solid under load. In general we expect to be on decent roads throughout southern Europe. The efficiency of a road bike with thinner tires will far out-weigh the durability factor inherent in choosing a hybrid or mountain bike more suitable to tours in rougher environments.
Rims & tires: Claire has Mavic rims and I’m using Bontrager (both 36 spoke) We’re riding on Continental Touring Plus 700x32c tires – available locally and affordable. Breaking a rim is a concern not so readily resolved in the field so we have our fingers crossed. Our tires are both low mileage so I’m hoping (foolishly perhaps) they’ll last for the trip (approx. 10,000 Km). We’ll carry one spare.
Shifters & gears: Both bikes have tight radius drop bars with SRAM bar end shifters which are easily adapted to (we are used to STI shifters on our road bikes), durable and easy to fix. Both bikes have 3x9 gearing and though the crank and rear cog sets are different on either bike both offer a low range combination suitable for steep hills and heavily laden bikes, or at least we hope so! This is an essential feature of a good touring set-up.
Shoes & pedals: We will both use our tried and true Chimano M520 clipless pedals. Given we always ride our mountain bikes and road bikes clipped-in, the thought of riding without is not something we would entertain. We’ll use old pairs of mountain bike shoes that are comfortable (enough) to walk around in despite the cleats. Our back up shoes for fancy dress occasions, hiking and everything else will be Tevas (or similar).
Misc. add-ons: We’ve further outfitted the bikes with MEC brand front pannier racks, plastic fenders, bell ringers on the bars, front & rear lights, etc. High end pannier racks are expensive but super durable – we will see how the low-end ones hold out. We opted for inexpensive lights requiring run of the mill AA batteries – due to the limited time we expect to be riding at night we feel that this will be adequate. $30 gets you a 140 lumen, 3 mode Planet Bike front light with up to 64 hr burn time in flash mode. We opted against rechargeable batteries and USB cords to keep things simple/less costly plus all our other electronics will require regular charging. If a rechargeable battery dies when you need it, you’re hooped. Regular batteries can be easily changed. Finding a rear view mirror that fit drop bars was tricky – when we did, I had to permanently ‘weld’ one of the articulations as it would sag with any bouncing of the bike. We’ve never used helmet mounted mirrors (they look so dorky!), or any mirror in fact, plus we felt they would be easily broken. We went for the traditional, inexpensive Greenfield kickstand that mounts on the rear chain & seat stay. They’re light and durable though I think it won’t take much to knock the bike over. We believe the practicality of the kickstand will outweigh any drawbacks.
Panniers: Our panniers are a mixed bag. We’ve each got two, durable, waterproof roll-top panniers from MEC and two conventional MEC brand panniers with lots of pockets, straps, expandable tops, etc. We’ll use lightweight nylon pack covers to keep them waterproof. Having the two styles will provide us different packing/accessibility options. Both panniers are quite affordable compared to the more famous brands (i.e. Ortlieb) but we’ll see how they hold up. We also found some old, simple handle bar bags at a garage sale that will be our ‘off & on bags’ for valuables (money, camera, ipad, smart phone, etc.). These have simple Velcro mounts and have built in waist belts that double as shoulder straps.
Cooking & food prep: We will take our multi-fuel, MSR Whisper Lite International. Our hope is to use butane/propane cannisters (easy & fast) as much as possible but we will be prepared to use other fuels as necessary. We will take two smallish nesting pots with lids and a small backpacker Teflon frypan with folding handle. As long time cooks used to a high quality and varied diet it is going to be hard surviving on instant noodles so we will be taking assorted condiments, spices, oils, etc. and hope to
Tent: We decided to upgrade to a new lightweight tent. We went for the two person , 3 season, MSR Hubba Hubba. It is a beautiful design with many features (2 vestibules, good headroom, fly-only mounting, fast-pitch pole & hub system, etc. etc.) however to keep weight down all components are lightweight and we have some concerns about durability. A lifetime warranty will do little good if a zipper fails in Albania.
Sleeping: we are both using a summer weight down bag (we already had them) and for chilly nights we will add synthetic bag liners (Sea To Summit, Thermolite Liners) that will double as stand alone bags on hot summer nights. The bag liners are more easily washed than sleeping bags and dry quickly. We feel this will give us good flexibility and serviceability. We are both using the new generation Therm-o-Rest Prolite sleeping pads. They are super light and small but require more time and effort to inflate. I hope the lighter material is durable enough. We also opted for inflatable backpacking pillows. Neither of us sleep well so this was our one nod to luxury (as well as a good supply of Zopiclone!).
Camera: We recently purchased a Fuji x20 digital camera that is reasonably small, good quality with all the required bells & whistles and hopefully durable. It was well rated. Given our desire to, at least some extent, focus on this blog with accompanying photography we want a quality camera this is practical, easily accessible yet discrete enough to not attract attention. We even bought one of those ‘narcissi-stix’ that is used for taking selfies – how nerdy!
Other Technology: We’ve spent a lot of time dwelling on how much and what type of ‘technology’ to bring with us. Our concerns were cost, durability, charging issues, being ripped off, weight, etc. I’m also a bit of a Luddite (Claire less so) and resistant to learning new technology. Nor do we want to be spending our time looking at gadgets. On the other hand technology can offer some incredible advantages, so we went for the following:
Kobo “Aura”: This is a small e-reader. We are both big readers and we expect reading will be our primary late evening activity. I’ve been using the Kobo for a few months now. I can download hundreds of books onto it (including Lonely Planet guides to every country we plan on visiting). They have excellent battery life and are super light and small. They are great to read at night with no additional lighting – perfect in the tent. I think this is a bit of a no-brainer – hope it doesn’t crash!
Smart phone: We decided we will purchase an un-locked large screen Samsung as soon as we land in Europe and purchase a sim card with plan. This will be much cheaper than purchasing a phone and plan in Canada. The most important use of the phone will be as our primary GPS. Excellent mapping apps exist and the GPS functions independent of cell reception. The larger screen is a big plus over conventional GPS screens.
Notebook computer: We purchased a small, inexpensive 10” HP notebook with full Windows. We’ve got rid of the extraneous programs and will limit ourselves to word processing for documenting our trip (blog), e-mail, web searches for wayfinding, campgrounds, hostels, Warm Showers communications, etc. and my design software. I intend on maintaining contacts with clients as needed – hopefully very little!
I-pad: Claire recently purchased an Ipad. We are questioning taking it but probably will. It will serve as Claire’s e-reader (though it is a battery hog). Claire also intends on focussing on photography and the Ipad will be the place to store, edit and enhance (did I just say that) our photos. We think it will also be a useful tool for interacting with people with whom we cannot communicate – using translation programs, showing photos of Canada, other countries, etc. It will also serve as our primary off-line mapping device for route planning.
So, there it is…all of the above was written 2 months prior to departure. We’ll re-visit this page in 8 months time…..should be educational.
Last summer, we became Warm Showers hosts (www.warmshowers.com). We received at least 8 groups of cycle tourers. This provided an opportunity to share info and learn from other bikers. The diversity of opinion and options was very interesting. Europeans tend to use wheels with hubs with integral dynamos (charging devices) for powering their gadgets. They also often use grip-shifts with internal-gear hubs. In general we found many riders opted for converted mountain bikes or hybrid bikes as opposed to the classic touring road bike. Some bikers opt to go super light while others are heavily laden, stating that one should not forgo the additional gear that makes the trip more comfortable. We will try to find a happy medium. We will touch on some of the differences in approach below. We will also do a thorough reassessment when this trip is over and update this page accordingly. So, here goes…….
Bikes: I (Jim) bought a second hand Trek 520 Touring Series for $700. It is apparently a well rated, classic style touring bike. I instantly felt comfortable on the bike and snapped it up without hesitation– the first bike I looked at! So far, it hasn’t let me down.
Claire bought a new Novara Randonee from REI in the US. It was on sale at approx. $900. Similarly, Claire felt good on the bike right away and though it is unfortunately a little heavier than my Trek, and given the lack of other affordable options, we still went for it. Both are durable steel frames that feel solid under load. In general we expect to be on decent roads throughout southern Europe. The efficiency of a road bike with thinner tires will far out-weigh the durability factor inherent in choosing a hybrid or mountain bike more suitable to tours in rougher environments.
Rims & tires: Claire has Mavic rims and I’m using Bontrager (both 36 spoke) We’re riding on Continental Touring Plus 700x32c tires – available locally and affordable. Breaking a rim is a concern not so readily resolved in the field so we have our fingers crossed. Our tires are both low mileage so I’m hoping (foolishly perhaps) they’ll last for the trip (approx. 10,000 Km). We’ll carry one spare.
Shifters & gears: Both bikes have tight radius drop bars with SRAM bar end shifters which are easily adapted to (we are used to STI shifters on our road bikes), durable and easy to fix. Both bikes have 3x9 gearing and though the crank and rear cog sets are different on either bike both offer a low range combination suitable for steep hills and heavily laden bikes, or at least we hope so! This is an essential feature of a good touring set-up.
Shoes & pedals: We will both use our tried and true Chimano M520 clipless pedals. Given we always ride our mountain bikes and road bikes clipped-in, the thought of riding without is not something we would entertain. We’ll use old pairs of mountain bike shoes that are comfortable (enough) to walk around in despite the cleats. Our back up shoes for fancy dress occasions, hiking and everything else will be Tevas (or similar).
Misc. add-ons: We’ve further outfitted the bikes with MEC brand front pannier racks, plastic fenders, bell ringers on the bars, front & rear lights, etc. High end pannier racks are expensive but super durable – we will see how the low-end ones hold out. We opted for inexpensive lights requiring run of the mill AA batteries – due to the limited time we expect to be riding at night we feel that this will be adequate. $30 gets you a 140 lumen, 3 mode Planet Bike front light with up to 64 hr burn time in flash mode. We opted against rechargeable batteries and USB cords to keep things simple/less costly plus all our other electronics will require regular charging. If a rechargeable battery dies when you need it, you’re hooped. Regular batteries can be easily changed. Finding a rear view mirror that fit drop bars was tricky – when we did, I had to permanently ‘weld’ one of the articulations as it would sag with any bouncing of the bike. We’ve never used helmet mounted mirrors (they look so dorky!), or any mirror in fact, plus we felt they would be easily broken. We went for the traditional, inexpensive Greenfield kickstand that mounts on the rear chain & seat stay. They’re light and durable though I think it won’t take much to knock the bike over. We believe the practicality of the kickstand will outweigh any drawbacks.
Panniers: Our panniers are a mixed bag. We’ve each got two, durable, waterproof roll-top panniers from MEC and two conventional MEC brand panniers with lots of pockets, straps, expandable tops, etc. We’ll use lightweight nylon pack covers to keep them waterproof. Having the two styles will provide us different packing/accessibility options. Both panniers are quite affordable compared to the more famous brands (i.e. Ortlieb) but we’ll see how they hold up. We also found some old, simple handle bar bags at a garage sale that will be our ‘off & on bags’ for valuables (money, camera, ipad, smart phone, etc.). These have simple Velcro mounts and have built in waist belts that double as shoulder straps.
Cooking & food prep: We will take our multi-fuel, MSR Whisper Lite International. Our hope is to use butane/propane cannisters (easy & fast) as much as possible but we will be prepared to use other fuels as necessary. We will take two smallish nesting pots with lids and a small backpacker Teflon frypan with folding handle. As long time cooks used to a high quality and varied diet it is going to be hard surviving on instant noodles so we will be taking assorted condiments, spices, oils, etc. and hope to
Tent: We decided to upgrade to a new lightweight tent. We went for the two person , 3 season, MSR Hubba Hubba. It is a beautiful design with many features (2 vestibules, good headroom, fly-only mounting, fast-pitch pole & hub system, etc. etc.) however to keep weight down all components are lightweight and we have some concerns about durability. A lifetime warranty will do little good if a zipper fails in Albania.
Sleeping: we are both using a summer weight down bag (we already had them) and for chilly nights we will add synthetic bag liners (Sea To Summit, Thermolite Liners) that will double as stand alone bags on hot summer nights. The bag liners are more easily washed than sleeping bags and dry quickly. We feel this will give us good flexibility and serviceability. We are both using the new generation Therm-o-Rest Prolite sleeping pads. They are super light and small but require more time and effort to inflate. I hope the lighter material is durable enough. We also opted for inflatable backpacking pillows. Neither of us sleep well so this was our one nod to luxury (as well as a good supply of Zopiclone!).
Camera: We recently purchased a Fuji x20 digital camera that is reasonably small, good quality with all the required bells & whistles and hopefully durable. It was well rated. Given our desire to, at least some extent, focus on this blog with accompanying photography we want a quality camera this is practical, easily accessible yet discrete enough to not attract attention. We even bought one of those ‘narcissi-stix’ that is used for taking selfies – how nerdy!
Other Technology: We’ve spent a lot of time dwelling on how much and what type of ‘technology’ to bring with us. Our concerns were cost, durability, charging issues, being ripped off, weight, etc. I’m also a bit of a Luddite (Claire less so) and resistant to learning new technology. Nor do we want to be spending our time looking at gadgets. On the other hand technology can offer some incredible advantages, so we went for the following:
Kobo “Aura”: This is a small e-reader. We are both big readers and we expect reading will be our primary late evening activity. I’ve been using the Kobo for a few months now. I can download hundreds of books onto it (including Lonely Planet guides to every country we plan on visiting). They have excellent battery life and are super light and small. They are great to read at night with no additional lighting – perfect in the tent. I think this is a bit of a no-brainer – hope it doesn’t crash!
Smart phone: We decided we will purchase an un-locked large screen Samsung as soon as we land in Europe and purchase a sim card with plan. This will be much cheaper than purchasing a phone and plan in Canada. The most important use of the phone will be as our primary GPS. Excellent mapping apps exist and the GPS functions independent of cell reception. The larger screen is a big plus over conventional GPS screens.
Notebook computer: We purchased a small, inexpensive 10” HP notebook with full Windows. We’ve got rid of the extraneous programs and will limit ourselves to word processing for documenting our trip (blog), e-mail, web searches for wayfinding, campgrounds, hostels, Warm Showers communications, etc. and my design software. I intend on maintaining contacts with clients as needed – hopefully very little!
I-pad: Claire recently purchased an Ipad. We are questioning taking it but probably will. It will serve as Claire’s e-reader (though it is a battery hog). Claire also intends on focussing on photography and the Ipad will be the place to store, edit and enhance (did I just say that) our photos. We think it will also be a useful tool for interacting with people with whom we cannot communicate – using translation programs, showing photos of Canada, other countries, etc. It will also serve as our primary off-line mapping device for route planning.
So, there it is…all of the above was written 2 months prior to departure. We’ll re-visit this page in 8 months time…..should be educational.