Trip Equipment

I was vacillating before the trip whether to go with my dream, namely baskets on the front and back to carry all my gear, or knuckle under to stodgy tradition and use panniers. Stodge won, partly. I pulled off the front basket and installed the low-rider front rack and panniers, the quite large panniers which probably held more than the basket would have, anyway. I already owned the rack and bags, so it didn't require an extra purchase, which would have been unacceptable, considering all the other crap I bought for the trip.

First (for those who care about such things), the bike: I bought this Trek 620 in 1984. At the time, it was Trek's second-best touring bike, the best being the near-legendary 720, with its super-long wheel base. It has 531 double-butted tubing (lugged, of course) with quite-long chainstays, Huret derailers (which work fine, despite all the trash talk you read about them) . . . I can't remember what else was standard. Obviously, much of the bike is not original equipment. I retrofitted the wheels to 700C (Shimano 105 hubs, Velocity Synergy rims with asymmetrical rear rim), added Nitto Albatross bars (really nice for touring when set up with interrupter brake levers and taped forward curves), MKS touring pedals (no straps or clips), full fenders, Busch and Mueller light system, and a Brooks B.17 saddle. (Perhaps I'll discuss my saddle sores, perhaps not.) The gearing is particularly nice for touring. The small chainring is 24 teeth, and the large rear sprocket is 32 teeth--truly a LOW gear. I could ride up cliffs with this gear.

I added a front top rack fastened to the brake studs on the fork and the fork hole (for the "handlebar" bag), and also a low-rider pannier rack. The rear rack came with with the bike.

At first glance, the set-up seemed good. The front panniers held my sleeping bag and air mattress, miscellaneous personal items (towel, rain gear), cooking gear, and food (not much). The rear basket held my clothes in stuff sacks, my rack trunk turned sideways for loose items (tools, maps, toiletries) and things I wanted close to hand (plastic bags, spare parts), and my tent. Really, it all seemed quite wonderfully distributed.

But here's the problem: It wasn't stable. The front of the bike shimmied disconcertingly. I never thought I was going to crash as a result, and I didn't hesitate to go fast, but I held on tight. I think if I had carefully weighed and balanced the loads in the panniers I could have solved the shimmy, but it was easier just to keep going and hold on tight.

I think the front basket would have been better. For my next overnight trip, I'm going back to the front basket. I don't care that it looks dorky. I AM dorky, so my bike should be, too.

The back basket, with the heaviest load located right behind me but piled high, was great--it was so stable I didn't even know it was there. Much more stable than rear panniers.

In terms of gear, I had just about the right amount. I brought one pan too many, which I pitched at the Dreamland Motel, and I wished I had brought flip flops, a second cargo net, and padded biking shorts (although I don't think they would have helped my saddle sores--they never have in the past--but a change under my behind would have been nice).

The three-season down bag (with a supplemental sheet for warm weather--it was a fitted sheet because it's smaller and fits better inside a sleeping bag, and the elastic corners didn't bother me) was fine. Several nights I pulled the sleeping bag up around me and zipped it all the way up. Lovely.

The cat food can stove worked beautifully, as long as it wasn't windy. I made several dandy pots of cowboy coffee (recipe in a future post), and I even made good spaghetti sauce on it. Wind makes the stove unusable, I'm afraid. Still, for a trip like this that didn't depend on cooking every night, it was fine. And stoves don't get much smaller than a small can with holes punched in the sides. (More about it later, too.)

Jon brought a water bag, which was worth the extra bulk and weight. For future solo overnighters, I'll need to devise a way to store quantities of water. Perhaps a crushed gallon milk jug. They actually have multiple crushes and re-inflations in them before they crack, and they weigh almost nothing.

The spare tire was a life saver, as was the kevlar emergency spoke. The bike shop owner in Escanaba had never heard of such emergency spokes. I swear by them now. I need to get another one for my other bike. Because you don't even need to take the wheel off to install it, you can be back on the road in about 10 minutes after a broken spoke (once you learn how to use it. I actually had two emergency spokes and broke one as I was rigging it up the first time. More about emergency spokes in the future, too.)

The table cloth proved an unnecessary luxury. The coffee thermos was nice, but we probably could have lived without it, too. I brought an insulated bag (designed for soda cans), but I only used it to keep the cowboy coffee pot warm as the grounds settled. (This it did wonderfully, but it was more bulk than I needed. I'll look for a lighter alternative.)

My gear's total weight was between 35-40 pounds. I think I could get it down to 35 easily, maybe even a little less, and still have plenty of gear for a long trip.