July 22, 2017
Pre-Trip Details: Gear, Research Project, and Other Tidbits
We did the training, we have the gear together, departure time is near, so it's getting real now. My fan club is rooting for me, so there's no changing my mind now - this is going to happen.
Gear Details.
Doc speaking (for Doc & Sis);
Our Specialized Sequoia Elite bikes are outfitted with Tubus Logo Evo rear racks, and even though they had to be spread a few mm beyond spec, they play well with our Ortlieb Bike Packer Plus rear panniers. We chose these steel-frame bikes in order to carry more water than we could with lighter bikes and bikepacking gear. Sis has a Specialized Stuffcage on each fork leg to carry liter water bottles, and I have a pizza rack made for the Specialized AWOL up front so that I can carry a couple of liter bottles and add camping gear in front panniers. Wayne at "The Touring Store" pointed out that all other available front racks would interfere with removal of the front wheels because Specialized chose to place the lower rack mount below the Thru Axle. We supplement our mounted water bottles as needed with MSR 2 liter DromLIte bags that carry plenty of extra water down low in panniers and waste little space when empty. Both bikes are outfitted with extended range 42 tooth cassettes which mated with stock 48/32 chain rings gives us sufficiently high gearing to climb well with the extra weight.
Bud speaking;
I have a detailed description of my bike in my Transam journal, so rather than repeat it I'll just link to it here --> Harvey (My Bike). The only significant equipment changes for this tour occur up front. Since we are planning/hoping to not camp, I'm not carrying camping gear and that means I don't need the front panniers. I took advantage of their absence to mount additional water bottles, 1 on each fork, so I now have 5 water bottles to get me across some of the "no-services" zones in the desert. The other significant change deals with a research project. I consult as a Forensic Engineer on vehicle collisions, including bicycle collisions, and I will be gathering data on this tour to measure the lateral distance that vehicles pass by me. To do so, I have mounted a Surly rack to hold my home-built sonar unit. This blocked my headlight, so I had to move it to the front of the Surly rack. I kept the Tubus low-rider rack mounted, because there is a possibility that we may have camping gear shipped to us for 1 particularly hard day wherein there appears to be no lodging options for greater than 100 miles. The following photos show the details of my front-end changes.
I communicate with the ultrasonic unit by the use of a momentary-contact switch that writes a "flag" to the ongoing data stream. That switch is mounted to my handlebars as shown below.
We shipped our bikes and panniers to San Francisco to a bike shop near the start, then we shipped ourselves. I used airline frequent traveler points to book my flight well in advance. Doc and Sis got flights that were 1 day ahead of me, so they will retrieve the bikes and have them at their hotel room when I arrive.
So that's it - it's real now. We planned it all well, how could anything possibly go wrong?
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