Preparation
Note: This is the only page of this journal written BEFORE the tour.
I originally planned to start this tour in mid-May in order to get down the coast before the peak tourist season, and to ride the eastern Sierra Nevada while snow is still on the mountains. But a work opportunity and various other commitments delayed the tour until mid-July. That gave me lots of time to obsess over my equipment. If you're not an equipment geek, skip to the next page!
Hopefully the bike will be very reliable because it has new tires, brake pads, chain, cassette, rear derailleur cable, and cyclocomputer battery. Shifting to the smallest chainring should be more reliable because I installed the Jump-Stop gizmo that I neglected to put on before last year's tour.
The underseat rack mounting hardware broke during last year's tour. This year I modified the underseat rack to be an inch higher and hopefully less prone to breaking. The metal straps that broke last year are now shorter and on both sides of the connection. That should make the strap area much stronger and stiffer. Raising the rack will make it easier to reach inside the underseat panniers while riding, and hopefully the panniers will no longer scrape the pavement when I make a sharp U-turn.
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This tour will include some long stretches of desert during mid-summer, so I got some new sun-protective clothing. First is a Railriders "Regulator Wind Shirt" which protects me from the sun but is extremely well ventilated. It has extensive under-arm mesh which makes it feel like I'm in the shade with an air conditioned breeze blowing through the shirt. I also bought a set of "leg coolers" from DeSoto sportswear. They're like leg warmers except the material is a fine white mesh with super-wicking properties (haven't tried them yet). In addition I'm carrying a sun hat for the first time, to use when off the bike. I'm tempted to carry an umbrella to provide shade. This year I have new Exustar sandals. I like them better than Shimano 3-strap sandals which cost much more. Now my Crank Brothers cleats are fully recessed. No more click-click-click when walking.
I also have some new electronic equipment for this tour. The main item is a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. It's an 8-ounce LINUX computer with a 480x800 pixel touch screen and a thumb keyboard. It has GPS/maps and Wi-Fi. It has enough memory to store an MP3 music collection and backup my camera images. It's much smaller and lighter than a Netbook, but it doesn't have a "real" keyboard. Wi-Fi is the only Internet connection. I suspect that it will be easy to find free Wi-Fi in California.
Another new electrical gizmo is a UniRoss folding AA/AAA battery charger. It's very small and weighs only 2 ounces. I'll use it to recharge the NiMH batteries in my tail light (2 AAA), camp headlight (3 AAA), AM/FM radio (2 AAA), and shaver (2 AA). I won't carry any spare cells. The objective will be to recharge batteries BEFORE they go dead.
An unfortunate trend has developed over the years. 10 years ago I carried no chargers. Last year I carried 2 chargers. This year I'm carrying 4 chargers! Last year the total weight of my electrical stuff was 2.2 pounds. This year the total weight of electrical equipment and protective cases is 3.5 pounds. Here's a complete list:
ON THE BIKE
VDO MC 1.0 cyclocomputer/altimeter
Planet Bike Superflash LED tail light
IN PANNIERS
cell phone (tiny Samsung SGS-a237) + charger
camera (tiny Canon SD800) + charger, spare battery, case
AM/FM/weather radio + case
Internet Tablet + charger, spare battery, case, headphones, SD reader, 3-inch USB cable
Braun travel shaver/trimmer
Petzl TikkaXP LED headlight
UniRoss folding AA/AAA charger
case to hold all the chargers, spare batteries, and small parts
Most of the other equipment I carry on tour is the same as last year. Same bike, panniers, tent, sleeping bag, pad, stove, etc. I replaced my worn 9-ounce camp pillow with a 2.6 ounce "Cocoon" inflatable pillow that has a bit of insulation inside, and (like the old pillow) has warm flannel on one side and cool nylon on the other side.
Weight of all the stuff before the tour:
Bike without panniers 40 pounds
Left underseat pannier 15.5 pounds
Right underseat pannier 13.5 pounds
Left rear pannier 14 pounds
Right rear pannier 9 pounds
The 40-pound bike includes racks, fenders, tools, spare tubes, pump, 4 bottle cages with empty bottles, tail light, and cyclocomputer. The total is 92 pounds with panniers, but it would be 100 pounds with full water bottles.
Of course the most important equipment is the engine. I didn't do much specific training for the tour. I bike quite a lot at home. Three weeks before the tour I put my bike in the touring configuration which has the seat more upright than its usual configuration. That causes certain muscles to work differently, and it puts more weight on the hard-working gluteus maximus muscles. I rode somewhat gently for a while to adapt my body to the new seat position. That should prevent me from getting "recumbent butt" at the beginning of the tour. I'm starting the tour at a pretty good weight, 177 pounds. We'll see how many pounds I lose during the tour...
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