May 18, 2017
Let's talk gear. If you're like me,
you probably carry too much, "just in case." On this episode, I
talk about my recent attempts to whittle the weight down. Plus,
strategies for keeping things charged on bike tour!
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Pedalshift Project 080: Paring down your gear and keeping things
charged on bike tour (mp3)
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Gear Talk: paring down and keeping things charged
Paring down your bike tour gear
Experiment: What's the bare minimum for me balancing comfort
and gear I own? Can I get into fewer bags?
Answer: yes!
tent
sleeping bag
pad
pump
spare tube
multitool
spork
spare shirt
spare underwear
spare socks
toiletry bag (incl. ibuprofin, caffeine and electrolyte
pills)
hat
helmet
batteries and cable
iPhone
water bottles or bladder
wallet
Fits in 1 pannier, 1 compression bag (Brompton - NO BACKPACK
NECESSARY!)
Fits in 1 compression bag and one rack bag (Safari) - adding a
frame bag to try it out
No stove, no kit - all food is grab and go (a stove and kit
*does* fit though)
Includes the rack bag so it can be easily broken down and
carried/checked
Helmet. Would likely just clip on outside of the rack
bag.
Keeping things charged on bike tour
Keeping things charged - beyond batteries and dynohubs, where
to plug in?
- Coffee shops
- Restaurants
- Gas stations
- Grocery store eating areas
- Outside - look for plugged in things and check behind. Often
there's a free outlet (soda and vending machines, lights, signs,
etc.)
Connections
Hey Tim,
Just wanted to share that the
weather and my schedule finally aligned so that I was able to get
my first bike overnight under my belt. Not anything super exciting,
but did a good 46 mile ride from my house to John Bryan State Park
near Yellow Springs Ohio, and then back the next morning. I didn't
really explore the park at all, I was pretty beat by the time I got
there, so just cooked some dinner and got a fire going and relaxed
at the campground.
Lessons learned:
1. My legs aren't as strong as I thought they were! I'm
used to fairly flat roads here in central Ohio, but the last 10
miles to the park had some rolling hills coupled with a pretty good
headwind, and I ended up having to hop off and push my bike up the
last steep climb into the park.
2. Make sure your bike fit is really dialed in before a
loaded bike trip. This was my first real long ride on this bike
with it loaded with all my gear, and I started getting some pretty
bad knee pain on my way home the second day. After checking some
adjustments I ended up tweaking the saddle position a bit, so
hopefully that will solve it.
I have some more pictures up on my instagram
@goingforabikeride.
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Music
You've been hearing about Jason Kent and his music for 79 fine
episodes. I got news for ya. New. Sunfields. Album. This
August.