Gear and Company

The Cannondale T2000 has been retired! So this trip will be on a new Surly Long Haul Trucker. The Cannondale served me well for over 20 years before succumbing to fatigue. More precisely, a fatigue crack, then two, on the rear dropout, discovered after landing in Jacksonville, Florida for my Gulf Coast tour. I made it to New Orleans but knew a new bike was in my future. And one that was long overdue!

Fatigue cracks in my rear dropout. The lower right one at the chain stay was discovered on landing. The upper one, at the seat stay, was discovered the next day after biking the 30-some miles to my hotel.

When we took the rear rack connection off, the dropout literally dropped to the floor! However, I was in good hands at *Kenneth Daughtry Welding*, and Ken welded it back together in relatively short order, keeping me on schedule. I rode this all the way to New Orleans, 800 miles or so.

So on returning home in early April, I had to make some decisions. I was leaning pretty heavily towards a Surly. Three friends had them already, and one was sized large enough for me to test ride. And then, while perusing Surly's website to get as much size information as I could, I discovered that Bikenetics in Falls Church actually had one "on the floor" that I could test ride . . . which I did on May 6th. That day I left a deposit and returned on May 8th to ride it home.

The new Surly, in Grandpa's Thermos green.

So that is my primary gear. The rest will be pretty much my standard kit, consisting of two panniers and a cargo trunk, all weighing in at about 25 lbs. I've now done enough tours that I have a fairly standard list that I only tweak a bit depending on the time of year I go. Because we'll be further up north, even in July and August you can experience some cooler temperatures, so I'll be sure to take at least one heavier long-sleeve jersey AND my leg warmers!

Joining me on this trip for bits and pieces will be two long-time friends who have toured with me before: Jerry Cowden and Lee Mitchell. Lee still works, so will only ride with us for the first two weeks, as far as Montréal. Jerry will stay with me at least as far as Niagara and then decide if he wants to head on to Albany along the Erie Canal and down the Hudson River Valley to New York City.

Jerry, on the left, rode part of the East Coast Tour and the whole Monty last summer from France to Berlin. This is us leaving Paris.

Lee and I have done more local riding than touring, but back in 2014 we did ride the Natchez Trace Parkway from Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS and then followed the Mississippi River Trail to New Orleans. After all, once you get to Natchez, there's no way out! So traveling on to NOLA made a lot of sense. Plus, I had not been there yet, so Tally Ho!

Jerry and Lee both own Bike Fridays, but both have decided to ride their Surlys on this tour. Jerry has an older model he bought to do a TransAmerica Tour in 2009. Lee recently purchased a Surly Long Haul "Disc Trucker" in a nice shade of blue . . . my favorite color!

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