Equipment
A final word about this trip. It again was a susbtitute for another 
and totaly different trip (I hope I'll get a chance of that one eventually). In a way it also was a test of my abbilities to cover large distances in short time and without rest days. The test was completed succesfully, I think, I made 4640 km in 33 days, which is 141 km in 7:06 hours of cycling per day on average. Except some pain in the shins in the first 3 days of the trip I didn't have any problems with keeping the high pace, it quickly became undisturbing routine. It is reasuring to know that I can make 4000 km in a month. For example I could make a trip from Europe to China, a standard tour of the Europeans, in 3 summer months, profiting in high temperatures and long days. At the risk of being boringly repetitious, I must add that this is possible also becouse of the minimalistic approach toward equipment. Only mistake that I made was that before the trip I was training on a different bike. I got used to a different saddle and the one I used on the trip felt uncomfortable for surprisinly long time - 15 days.
Other than that the bike was performing great. I had no punctures and even a cracked back tyre patched with duct tape held for the final 1700 km. The "crack" in the chainstay that I discovered early into the tour happened to be just a residue from the leaking of a water bottle. However, this bike has now covered 1
2831 km without modification and this is starting to show. The chain is understandingly worn, but so are the most used cogs in the cassette, as I happened to notice after the trip. This is a small price to pay for trouble free shifting during the amazing 2 years of use and three awesome tours. A more worrying fact is that I got a scratch on the carbon fork. The replacement of the fork is out of the question, since that would cost almost as much as a whole new bike. My assessment is that the scratch is not severe and that the bike is good for another 10000 km or so, but I will take it to the bike shop to get a professional opinion
.
My other equipment was standardly minimal. Weighing only 6200 grams it was the lightest tour with camping gear. In fact it would be less then 6 kg, if I didn't take a bathing slip, T-shirt and a second lock as the last minute inclusion - a sign of weakness even in the strictiest of light-weight practiciants .
and totaly different trip (I hope I'll get a chance of that one eventually). In a way it also was a test of my abbilities to cover large distances in short time and without rest days. The test was completed succesfully, I think, I made 4640 km in 33 days, which is 141 km in 7:06 hours of cycling per day on average. Except some pain in the shins in the first 3 days of the trip I didn't have any problems with keeping the high pace, it quickly became undisturbing routine. It is reasuring to know that I can make 4000 km in a month. For example I could make a trip from Europe to China, a standard tour of the Europeans, in 3 summer months, profiting in high temperatures and long days. At the risk of being boringly repetitious, I must add that this is possible also becouse of the minimalistic approach toward equipment. Only mistake that I made was that before the trip I was training on a different bike. I got used to a different saddle and the one I used on the trip felt uncomfortable for surprisinly long time - 15 days.Other than that the bike was performing great. I had no punctures and even a cracked back tyre patched with duct tape held for the final 1700 km. The "crack" in the chainstay that I discovered early into the tour happened to be just a residue from the leaking of a water bottle. However, this bike has now covered 1
2831 km without modification and this is starting to show. The chain is understandingly worn, but so are the most used cogs in the cassette, as I happened to notice after the trip. This is a small price to pay for trouble free shifting during the amazing 2 years of use and three awesome tours. A more worrying fact is that I got a scratch on the carbon fork. The replacement of the fork is out of the question, since that would cost almost as much as a whole new bike. My assessment is that the scratch is not severe and that the bike is good for another 10000 km or so, but I will take it to the bike shop to get a professional opinion
.My other equipment was standardly minimal. Weighing only 6200 grams it was the lightest tour with camping gear. In fact it would be less then 6 kg, if I didn't take a bathing slip, T-shirt and a second lock as the last minute inclusion - a sign of weakness even in the strictiest of light-weight practiciants .
posted by iik at
4:19 PM
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