Hello everyone,

now, after I've repaired an important part of my equipment, I want to give you a small overview on what will assist me on my journey. :0)

Lets start with the most important. :0)

My bicycle

Without a bicycle a bike tour would probably be very short. So I will jump on my 27 Zoll Panther City Bike, which already led me over hedge and ditch very nice once. Unfortunately I don't know which model from Panther it is, but it is great! :0)
With its 3 way hub gears and its feeled small weight it gets me over small hills, dirt tracks and rutted lanes… The only disadvanteges, I've found last year, were a to thin luggage rack, which I will probably use again this time, and the small amount of gears… Especially if the bike is fully loaded or if you have tailwind and driving downhill. :0)
Before starting the tour I will present my bike to the bike doctor who will put my bike through his paces and I will get enough repair stuff like inner tubes and tube repair kits, but about this I will write in a later post.

My Tent

Now I will tell you about todays brilliant achievement! \o/
I did it! I repaired the zipper on my tent! \o/ Last year I managed to missunderstand the function of that zipper on the first evening because I was very tired! Haha! That led to me using to much force in the wrong direction and pulling the zipper from the spiral band… The rest of the tour I had to sleep with a half open inner tent and a lot of nightly visitors. :0D
Because I want to be of to the asphalt earlier, I would have to get a new tent, because I would probably get eaten by a human sized insect at the night, otherwise!

But now more about the tent. :0)
It is a Grand Canyon Richmond 1 tent and the smallest and cheapest I was able to find and feel comfortable with. :0) The advantages are an easy assembly (I don't mean coding I swear) and disassembly, light weight and an unobtrusive color. :0)
But it has also two disadvantages… It is really small… Fortunately I'm just 1,71m therefore I always find a sleeping position were my feet don't touch the inner tent. But sitting in the tent is a no go. I just get my camping mat in the inner tent and my luggage in the outer tent but that is enough space. :0)
The second disadvantage is that the tent pegs are to heavy… I could buy lighter ones to reduce this weight… But I don't know, maybe it is just crying on a high level. Haha! :0)

Camping mat and sleeping bag

For having a restful night you need more than a dry and well closed tent. You need also a camping mat and a sleeping bag! :0)
My camping mat is near and dear to me! It protects me from pricking ground and protects my body from becoming hypothermic. Because I lay on the ground of my sleeping bag the stuffing gets compressed there and isn't able to build up a protecting layer of air, and that is one part were the camping mat helps too. :0) Also I don't have to wrap it in something because it is rolled and doesn't get wet. :0)

On that camping mat I put my cozy sleeping bag! Last year it served me well on cold nights. And was also good for bus stop camping in Sweden! :0)
For all who are interested now, there is a google street view image with the search keywords: 68 Grand Prix vägen.
I just don't know if the sleeping bag could be to warm this year… But maybe I can leave it opened. :0) But this could attract this human sized insects I spoke of earlier…

Bicycle bags

Now I will talk about the most important point. Where do I hide my food. :0P
For provisions, clothing, smart phone and money I had three bicycle bags last year. Two big at the bicycle rack and one smaller at the handlebars… This year I have to change that… But first! What went good. :0)
The two bicycle rack bags were waterproof, reliable, highly loadable and I don't want to have to miss them! Haha! I also use them for my daily way to work. \o/ It is a lot more comfortable without backpack on my back. I can pack a lot of stuff in it without having to fear back ache and sweating. And also they have reflectors, so that other drivers can see me better. :0)

But what will I change this year? The bag on the handlebars! It was big, spacious and transportable wit a carrying strap… The biiiiiig disadvantage was that I wasn't able to pack something in it, despite of the inner space, because its own weight was to heavy for the mounting… It got pulled down over time and already sat on my lamp… After trying to fix that, I had ripped of the part that was there to hold the bag in position… Maybe the bag would have held longer on mars or moon… But since I'm not able to live there I had to get rid of the bag… :0/
Therefore I will change my handlebars setting this year. :0) I mounted a smartphone mounting and think about a smaller handlebar bag with a better mounting. I've aready tested the smartphone mounting a bit on bumpy roads and what should I say… It is strong and holds my cell phone in place. I still have to get the handlebars bag… but maybe I will drive without and do the stuff from there into one of the big bicycle rack bags.

Bottle mounting

And last but not least a very important tool against head aches!
We all know that I'm relatively lazy… There is no denying in that point… Therefore I have to come to an accomodation with my weaker self and have to get my drinking bottles out of my rear bags and put them to somewhere I can reach them while driving. There is no other way in getting my fluid balance sorted… I've tried it… On my last 100km tour I set a timer on every half hour… But after a while I ignored the timer…
The way to the rea site of my bike was to long and also I don't want to think about which side my drink is and dig through all my luggage to reach my water. :0) Therefore I think bottle mountings are a great investion in my health and well being. :0)

That was all about my equipment for now. There will be more about the content of my bags and maybe a part about some small yet secret addition to my bike in the future. :0) And also I shrinked the launching window. But nothing more for now. :0)

Good drive on all your ways and have a lot of fun! See you at the next entry.
Robert. :0)