We both have Van Nicholas titanium framed road bikes with skinny tyres so not ideal for carrying luggage but we'll get around that minor inconvenience.
Here's mine as it was out of the box
Key issues for me are how to carry what I need for the 4 days and whether my wheels are up to the extra weight following a couple of spoke breakages that would be disastrous on such a long distance ride
We've both decided to use Carradice SQR Tour saddle bags and we're both going to use 25mm tyres rather than the standard 23mm that came on the bikes. More about all this in a future blog post.
Here's the Carradice on its test fitting to my Euros. It only just fits and I will have to raise the saddle slightly to get the bag on and off the fixing so it's not ideal but should be fine once fitted.
Note that I also swapped the carbon seat post for an aluminium one to be on the safe side.
Mine's a Van Nicholas too(Mike's recommendation), but a Mistral (the bike mags rated it, plus Fat Birds just happened to have one in my size on the day I went with money burning in my pocket).
ReplyDeleteAfter a couple of hundred miles I gave up on the original saddle, sat on the measuring gel-pad in Thomas', and bought a Specialised Toupe saddle which is a perfect fit.
After another 800 miles the original tyres were shot, so Vredestein Fortezza tricomps went on, and I've had zero punctures in the 1200 miles since.
No other changes needed. Though I do really appreciate my Sony Xperia Active phone. This is the right size, tough and water resistant. Running IPBIKE APP it gives all the ride data possible (supports ANT+) with off-line maps, GPS and a loaded route to follow. Battery just about does 6 hours if I switch the screen off for a bit.
Our kit was faultless. The Continental 25mm four seasons tyre was plush to ride and had zero punctures or even nicks in it, despite 350 miles of which many were punishing, potholey or fast. The Carradyce bags were the right size, waterproof (we proved that) and fast to take on/off - and when motoring along you completely forget they are there. The only handling difference is an inevitable bit of push from the 10kg slung out back. My Xperia Active phone logged and slogged with no issues. The on screen routemap was invaluable. The battery life was manageable - we did 7 hours once I think and I just flicked it on for 15s at each junction. It sat out on my bars in heavy rain for hours without any issue. Well when I got back I found the second, noise-cancelling, microphone on the back needed a bit of drying out (overnight sit in rice packet) - but that's all.
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