Things we no longer need on tour (page 2) - CycleBlaze

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Things we no longer need on tour (page 2)

Gregory GarceauTo Mike Ayling

I agree with what others have said about shampoo not being needed anymore.  May I add that I no longer need to carry a comb either.  (Actually, I never carried those things even BEFORE I became bald.)

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2 years ago
Wayne EstesTo George Hall

Buddy, thanks for the tip about inspecting the tires at least twice a week to check for embedded rock, glass, wire, and thorns. I use reliable equipment and tend to neglect bike maintenance during tours. The bike may stay dirty, but from now on I plan to regularly inspect the tires for embedded objects.

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2 years ago
Jacquie GaudetTo Mike Ayling

I no longer need to line my panniers with garbage bags and carry extras in case of the original tearing.

Back in the 80s when I bought my set of Kangaroo Baggs, waterproof panniers weren't around.  Once they were, I got myself a set of Ortliebs as soon as I could justify new ones--when we took our boys for their first tour.  I'm afraid I gave my the Kangaroo Baggs to my then 10-year-old to use.  He's 26 now and the Ortliebs are still going strong and waterproof.

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2 years ago
John EganTo Mike Ayling

No more serendipity?
We know every turn in the road ahead.
We see every motel and cafe on Google Maps.
We hear only what we choose to hear, whether music or ideas.

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2 years ago
John PescatoreTo John Egan

Depends on what your style of touring is/was. I was and since my second tour have always been a detailed planner, planned every turn, motel stay, food stops.  Just have to carry less stuff now.

And despite all that planning, there is always a health dose of serendipity - healthy enough for me!

As far as music, in those long stretches where the only broadcast radio was AM radio with farm prices or idea-free blowhard commentators, I don't miss that at all! Actually a much wider choice of music and ideas available when not limited to line of sight.

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2 years ago
Jon AylingTo John Egan

Yeah, this is something that exercises me as well. I was particularly amused/alarmed at a thread on the cycling UK forum where a lot of riders concluded that it was "not impossible, but definitely more difficult" to tour without a smartphone and that if you ask locals "they'll just look at their phone anyway". As someone who's done all my tours but one without one - and I plan to get rid of it for the next tour - this came as a surprise to me!

I think there are a couple of point here. One is the actual need for particular bits of technology (rather than them being nice-to-have). A big part of touring for me is to slim down what I actually *need*, rather than think I do. One conclusion is that I really do need a good source of reading material (and e-books are great for this, since as noted paperbacks are heavy) but I really don't need constant internet access, to read the news every day, to shower every day (well, maybe the last one is the benefit of everyone else...).

The other is something I think is less explored. A lot of the information online just isn't very reliable. There's so much of it, we tend to assume that everything is documented online somewhere, but it can be very difficult to get accurate up-to-date information, particularly from automated sources. Google etc seems fairly happy that a certain proportion of their opening time, location, road closure information is just plain wrong - engagement is much more important to them than accuracy.

An example would be when I went to Austria last year (no, wait, year before last ). I searched obsessively for information on whether campsites were actually open following covid opening up that summer, and the internet was convinced they were not. Actually emailing campsites directly I got no reply. I was so uncertain I actually considered booking hotels the whole way through and not taking a tent. Then when I arrived on the ground, dozens were open and I could just walk in and pitch up!

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2 years ago
Mike AylingTo Mike Ayling

For those of you like me who don't carry cash any more this was posted on an Australian forum:

Been in Bright (a small town in the Victorian high country)for a week now, anddespite  the inconvenience ofcheckins, life is good. Storms the other night knocked out all themobile phone towers so the whole town has patchy or non-existentinternet (cash is king).

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2 years ago
Graham SmithTo Mike Ayling

Mike I might be able to make carrying spare tubes and patches redundant. My new bike, an off-seal tourer from Curve in Melbourne, has big, fat tubeless tyres. I’m yet to try it on a tour, but theoretically it will be almost puncture-proof.

In practice it’s probably a good idea to carry a tube ‘just in case’.

Also there’s no need to carry postcards and stamps nowadays. There are other, new-fangled ways to contact home base. 

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2 years ago
Mike AylingTo Graham Smith

It is always nice to get a new  bike Graham.

How wide are the  tyres a what pressure  do you  use?

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2 years ago
Graham SmithTo Mike Ayling

Mike they are 2.6” wide. 29ers. Run at about 35 psi. They need topping up with the sealant goo every three months which is a simple process. They also need topping up with air a bit more frequently than tubed tyres. 

So far I’ve ridden about a 800km on the new bike, but only on local trails. It’s fun to ride.

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2 years ago