Braking Boundaries

A while back our friend Craig from South Korea made a comment on a post asking us to write a post about 3 things we wished we didn’t bring and 3 things did you wish we had with us.

Immediately after I mentioned this, Katie turned around, looked at us lads and said “I know what 3 things I wished I hadn’t brought.”

It’s taken a while to get around to writing this for you Craig, but here you are. Due to our excellent planning skills, these lists are very small.

Things I wish I didn’t bring

Jared – A few too many clothes, a bike computer that chews through batteries
Katie – Temper
David – A big-ass camera
Tom – Maybe, maybe my Nikon, though I love the pics it takes.

(Since being on this trip David, Katie and myself have sent a least one box of things home each)

Things I wish I had taken

Jared – More sunscreen, more butt cream, and someone to cook me a leg of roast lamb
Katie – iPod headphones and an iTouch,
David – Better bike rims, better pump, Crazy Creek seat
Tom – Thermos flask for cold drinks, more-detailed Chinese maps for the GPS

Things I’m glad I took with me

Jared – Crazy Creek seat, mini rear-view mirror, laptop
Katie – Crazy Creek seat, Thermorest pillow, neck buff, sense of humor
David –
Tom – Handlebar bag, iPod touch, solar charger

This is a Crazy Creek

Tom and I have this solar charger

Bike rear-view mirrors have also proved themselves invaluable

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Bee trucks are one of my least favorite sights on the roads here in Gansu. I thought the itinerant bee farmers in Shanxi were bad enough, but at least they and their hives were stationary. The trucks are a mobile menace to navigation, leaving a steady stream of disorientated and disgruntled bees in their wake. While not a swarm, there are more than enough to cause us some trouble.

Each truck generally carries several dozen hives, uncovered and evidently unsealed. Bees get out. Bees get lost. And a homeless, soon-to-be-dead bee is an angry bee.

They fly right into our faces, bounce off helmets and goggles, and occasionally stick to clothes or bags lurking for later attack.

Jared, Katie, and I have all fallen victim to kamikaze stingers in the last two days: Jared on the nose and ear, Katie on the head, and me right on the throat. I hadn’t been stung by anything since I was about 6, and that may have been a wasp, so I spent a few seconds wondering whether it might have been prudent to pack an EpiPen in the first aid kit. My continued breathing, at least, answered the question of whether or not I’m allergic. Deadly or not, I still hate the little stripy buggers.

As you know when you travel where you put your valuables, credit cards and money is important and as we are (for the most part) each carrying cash to last us around a month at a time we each have chosen different ways to hide our money.

When it comes to cycle touring there is also the option of hiding cash on/in your bike. So David a great idea to hide a bunch of cash inside his front bike wheel between the tube and the tire.

In theory a fantastic idea. No one would ever think of looking for cash there but……

Well the picture says it all. Ten days of riding, two days of rain and the pressure of his fully laden recumbent literally tore his nice new 100 Yuan notes into pieces.

Thankfully we were in Beijing and after a slightly embarrassing wait while a kind Chinese teller painstakingly pieced the notes back together David received nice new notes which he then proceeded to put back in his front tire.

Just kidding, lesson learned.

It’s been less than a month on the road and stuff is already breaking and . Spose that goes with the territory of over 100km a day through any kind of weather and any kind of road, but as long as the bodies aren’t broken riding must go on so on the road solutions are needed.

Which brings us to the question “What would Mcgyver do??

Problem : Seat collar screw literally snaps in half
Solution : Find a Chinese man to drill it out and buy a bolt, in my case a quick release bolt to hold it on

Problem : Mud guards are slightly too short for my 700CC tires causing two days of mud and water to be flung all of me and my gear
Solution : Duct tape and part of a plastic bottle to extend the mudguard. David’s idea and works like a charm.

Problem : Rear pannier top plastic bar breaks ?this is potentially going t be a bigger problem down the track
Solution (for now) : Zip tie it up and hope it can hold the weight of the gear.

I wish I could say that’s all that will be needed but I have a feeling our Mcgyver skills are going to be called upon many more times this trip.

Panniers are they are bags that attach to the bike racks with the intent of holding enough equipment for self-sustained tours over days, weeks, or in our case months. The two main brands of panniers are Arkel and Ortlieb.

Finally after months of waiting our panniers arrived helping us get one big step closer to having all the necessary gear for our trip next year.

For our rear panniers we decided to go with a lesser known brand name from Poland called Crosso which had been recommended by Jakub who also set-up and shipped our custom built Surly bikes. We chose this option based on price, quality and importantly waterproofing. Our Crosso panniers were also made to order so we were able to ask for a specific design changes, one being a zip in the top and a small pocket on the inside of the back panniers for stashing cash or valuable documentation. But the biggest design change was the addition of the Ortlieb QL1 hooking system.

The QL1 hooking system allows the bags to be easily taken on and off the bike racks using a quick release system. In theory this should save time and hassle when loading and unloading the bikes. Arkel has a similar system which we have been using throughout the year with our front panniers and have found it very useful.

The only downside to using the QL1 mounting system was that it had to come from New Zealand meaning we had to assemble to the panniers ourselves. This made for an interesting Sunday night. After a few hours of frustration and fiddling around with small screws and parts Tom and I were able to figure out how to put it all together.

Pannier setup and specifations for each bike:

Tom’s Surly
Front : Crosso Expert (capacity 2 x 40 liters)
Rear : Crosso Expert (capacity 2 x 60 liters)

Top Rear : Crosso Expert (capacity 1 x 50 liters)

Jared’s Surly
Front : Arkel XM-28 (capacity 2 x 28 liters)
Rear : Crosso Expert (capacity 2 x 60 liters)
Top Rear : Crosso Expert (capacity 1 x 50 liters)

Katie’s Surly
Front : Arkel XM-28 (capacity 2 x 28 liters)
Rear : Crosso Expert (capacity 2 x 60 liters)
Top Rear : Crosso Expert (capacity 1 x 50 liters)

Dave’s Grasshopper (recumbent)
Front : To be decided
Rear : Arkel RT-60 (capacity 2 x 60 liters)

Storm Trooper
Berglar

Tom and I have been doing a couple of day rides these past few weekends giving me a chance to try out some of the Ground Effect gear. I have to say I’m very impressed with it so far. One of the challenges we will face on the trip is keeping warm on those cold days while carrying as little clothing as possible, so layering will become very important and with the weather dipping to the cooler side here in South Korea it has become ideal for testing options out.

Last weekend it was a chilly 5 degrees (C) so I went with the Bergler as my under layer and used the Stormtrooper over the top. Perfect. Not cold, but not hot.

The Bergler did it’s job wicking the sweat away while keeping me warm, however when we finally took a break later in the day to take off some gear (now 15 degrees C) I found that the Bergler was quite damp making it a chilly next 5km till it dried. Having the under arm zips down on the Stormtrooper seemed to provide ample airflow under the jacket to keep me at a nice temperature but didn’t do much for drying the Bergler. To be expected I guess.

I will give it to the Stormtrooper jacket though. Just the previous weekend I wore just the Bergler and while going up hill on a semi-chilly day was fine, I was frozen by the bottom. Doing the same hill a week later with the jacket on and nothing. As a light weight windbreaker it is awesome. Only time will tell how it handles torrential rain. (still to be tested)

All in all I’d give them a combined rating of 9/10 as a lightweight option for layering up on those cool fall/spring mornings.

The biggest problem I had during the ride was keeping the feeling in my toes. I just received the zig-zag winter socks in the mail from Ground Effect so I’ll give them a try out this weekend when Dave, Tom, Kath and I head for the mountains of Seoraksan where it should be nice and cold. It will also give me a chance to try out the other gear that arrived yesterday – Half Pipes and a Baked Beanie.

As a final note I bought a White Bergler, at the time not really thinking about how dirty it would get. I’ve worn it for six 100+ km rides washing it every second ride which I will be a luxury if I can do that next year. The smellabilty factor is great (go merino) but it has definitely lost its white shine for a yellow/brownish tinge and in the future I would only go for dark colors.

Jared and I undertook the task of assembling the 3 Surlys last night; a fun, if time-consuming, job.

Our first surprise was learning that the third bike (which we’d neglected to remove from its box on Sunday) was not olive like its siblings but cherry red. A quick size comparison confirmed that this was indeed the smallest frame and therefore Katie’s by default. [Cue envious thoughts from yours truly.]

There’s something to be said for taking pride in your work, and we were certainly proud enough when we finished the first one. Here’s Jared giving it a final check:

Jared was kind enough to photograph the spare parts that were supplied with the bikes for easier recollection and cataloguing at a later time.

Nothing quite says “I enjoy my work” like a half-crazed grin.

Jared’s machine, the largest, sports a 21″ frame and humongous 700mm tires. He may get vertigo up there.

I’m sure the various adjustable parts – seat height, handlebar angle etc -will be tinkered with more than few times before the trip, but for now, we have three fully-functioning bikes. All that’s needed now is panniers and we’re pretty much ready to rock and roll. Scary biscuits, indeed.

The thought of a slow, frostbitten death on the Kazakh Steppes may be the only thing stopping us from going earlier than planned.

Footnote: I took my Surly out for a quick run this afternoon to see if everything was properly affixed. It took about 10 minutes before deciding that on the pedestrian-filled bike paths of Bundang, without a bell or lights, and with darkness approaching, I might as well just run the bike into a wall. A quick visit to the bike store has now made the bike street-legal (if Korea even has legal requirements for bike safety), but methinks I need to be less scared of a few little scratches…tomorrow…or maybe Thursday…

Here is a list of the parts that make up my Grasshopper HP Velotechnik Recumbent that I will be riding next year for the trip :

HP Velotechnik Specific Parts:
Grasshopper Frameset with bodyLink seat
Underseat Steering with Wide bars for Ergomesh
DT Swiss XM180 Rear Shock
Saso Carbon AC Suspension fork

Front Wheel
SON20 Disk Hub, silver, 32h
Velocity Aeroheat Rim, 32h
DT Swiss Champion spokes, laced 1x, brass nipples

Rear Wheel
Rohloff Speedhub, Silver, External Gear Box, OEM2 plate, grip shifter
Rohloff Speedbone (for use with disk brakes and OEM2 mounting plate)
Rohloff Chain Tensioner
Velocity Aeroheat Rim, 32h
DT Swiss Champion spokes, laced 1x, brass nipples

Drivetrain
Rotor Cranks, Steel version, length TBD, 39/53t chainrings
Shimano 105 5600 Front Derailleur, clamp on
SRAM PC850 Chain x3

Brakes
Avid BB7 mechanical disk brakes, front and rear
Avid SD7 Brake levers
Rohloff Specific Disk Brake Rotor
Lights – B&M D Lumotec Topal Oval Senso Plus
B&M DToplight XS Plus mounted on rack

Accessories
ErgoMesh Seat
Airflow Cushion
Grasshopper Kickstand
Fastback Double Century Pack
Arkel Rt-60 Pannier

Finally after more than a years talk and the last months preparations our (Katie, Tom & Jared) Surly long-haul trucker touring bikes and Crosso panniers are on their way.

The bikes left New Zealand today bound for us here in South Korea and should arrive in about a weeks time.

Stay tuned…….

Our Surly touring bikes haven’t arrived here yet and I’m planning on spending a week cycling around South Korea in a couple of days and wanted to carry the majority of the gear that will be carried on our trip next year as a practice run. However this posed a problem a my current bike (Scott Sub 20) doesn’t have the eyelets for attaching my Tubus Tara front rack to the bike. So I got online and managed to track the distributor of Tubus bike racks here in Seoul (http://www.citybike.co.kr) to see what my options were to find out that there is a option that allows the Tara to be attached without eyelets.

Here are some pics of the Tara front rack attached.