Diary
29.03.2011
The bikes are here
Germany
Good news everyone. :) We got the most important gear for our tour, the bicycles. And we spent a lot of time tuning them.
Quantec sponsors us with two bikes, the Trekking SLR Racing Series. We could handpick the most parts: Magura HS-33 Brakes, Shimano XT gears, dynamo hub, Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres...
We didn't change a lot on the bikes after that, but we added a lot. Two Tubus luggage carriers for the panierbags, one USB-recharger connected the the dynamo hub. We run the GPS 24/7, or charge batteries, ipod, kindle, you name it.
The handlebarbag carries cameras, documents, quick food, stuff we use often. In addition we fixed the sleeping pad at the outside. Each one of us has a bike computer, so we know how much distance we do each day.
A big bottleholder is fastened to the frame, it can manage up to 2 liter bottles. Martin carries a framebag with the spareparts and tools.
The bulk of our gear is at the back, in two 20l Ortlieb panierbags. We added a drybag on top of that for the tent and sleepingbags.
All in all the bikes weight about 13kg, the luggage is about the same. To be precise: the baseweight is about the same, we'll carry a lot of water and food, depending on the circumstances. There are still some things to do till we start in a week :) We'll keep you posted.
