Reviews

Through a combination of necessity and flagrant extravagance we have purchased a lot of gear mainly or entirely for use on this trip. Obviously when buying anything you have expectations of what that purchase will achieve or let you do. This entry, which may be edited as time goes on explains how successful (or otherwise) various toys have been. Rather than give any contrived rating or percentage score, I've simply grouped items under a few competence categories.

Fantastic – can't imagine not having bought them

Kathmandu Goretex Paclite jacket: until about a week before leaving I had been planning on taking two rain coats with me – a very heavy goretex jacket for skiing only, to be sent home after, and a very lightweight jacket for cycling. A chance reading of a Kathmandu sales brochure got me thinking, and a quick play with some kitchen scales (yes, I'm a geek) later I was off to spend some money. I am so glad I did. The weight incentive was huge (1.25 kg for the two jackets, 0.35 kg for the Paclite replacement), and the performance has been all I hoped for – plenty sufficient for the (very much spring) skiing we did, and great now that we are biking. A couple of long wet days has made it obvious I would have been miserable and wet in the ultra light jacket I'd originally planned to use – Goretex Paclite on the other hand does not let a drop of water in. Love the little stuff sack the jacket roles into as well.

MSI Wind Notebook – what this is being typed on. Pretty standard netbook, 10 inch screen, decent sized keyboard, wifi, etc. Like the jacket above, an impulse buy. Had no intention of travelling with a computer until talking to a friend shortly before we left who recommended a netbook as an easy way of staying in touch. Completely correct due to the prevalence of wifi now, and small enough (<1.25>

Lightweight sleep stuff – more planned than the above. Bought a fantastic ultralight thermarest about two years ago. Perfect for cycle touring now, especially if you sleep warm (I do). About a year ago decided that the four season sleeping bag I had was overkill for most of the year. Got a Macpac three season bag and haven't looked back. Warm enough to tent in Europe in mid April, easily small enough to fit in panniers and leave room for other things.

Ortlieb panniers – everyone we spoke to who knew anything about cycle touring said the same thing – buy Ortlieb panniers and don't think about them again. Absolutely true. Totally waterproof (i.e. leave them in the rain overnight waterproof), and superbly well made.

Big book of Michelin road maps for France – obviously when cycling through a country you need maps. We had been planning on buying these as we went along in order to get the right scale and minimise weight carried. A trip to a bulk store with Bob and Carol led to us stumbling on a complete set of maps for not much more than the cost of a single fold out map. Frugality led to the purchase, but since leaving we have realised how nice it is to know that if we cycle off the edge of one map we already have the next one available.  Saw a single map from the book for sale today for more than half the price of the complete book.

Icebreaker clothing - not bought specifically for the trip (or even recently in most cases) but still the be all and end all of travel clothing.  Cool enough at mid day, warm enough at midnight, doesn't smell (much) after a couple of days, dries overnight when washed.

Going well so far...

Kona Dr Dew – as mentioned in a previous post, I thought about what bike to buy – a lot. After 450 km there are no regrets. Seems to handle the weight well, comfortable enough, hydraulic disc breaks are as good as expected in the rain. To early to really say whether it is fantastic or not – I guess that depends on durability. 

New Balance 965 shoes - having decided to take only one pair of shoes for six months travel (plus bike shoes now), they needed to be the right ones.  These seem to be so far.  Half price, comfortable all day walking in them, decently waterproof, and womens model (yes I have small feet).  Yes, they were half price too.  As with bike, durability will leave me either completely happy or merely satisfied with them.

Juries out

Blackburn front rack – working OK now, but tricky to achieve fit between bike, rack, and panniers being used – felt like I was forcing the rack into a position it didn't like in order to make it work. Sheared one of the supplied bolts using only moderate force – not confidence inspiring.

Trek front panniers – kindly loaned by Rowan's brother, and doing a good job. However, lost a bolt early on (since replaced and going well), and a bit of a pain having to pull out rain covers rather than just have an inherently waterproof bag.

Petzl Tika headlight – nice small headlight for finding things in dark tents, reading, etc. Fine, except for an annoying flicker in the beam of light. Not sure if this is an inherent problem, or if a change of batteries will cure. Time will tell.

Needs to do better

Kathmandu speedo – completely unimpressive. Initially didn't work at all – battery supplied was flat. Then provided 50 km sterling service before becoming waterlogged and packing a sad. Intermittent service since, meaning it has been useless for functions such as measuring distance covered, time riding, or average speed. Maybe OK for a cruise around town in fine weather only bike, but surely any speedo should be waterproof.

Conclusions

Reading back through this it seems that most of the things that have worked best were essentially impulse buys. Maybe there is something to be said for not overthinking things.