@enigmaT120, that is a Fuji Finest 1.1:
http://www.fujibikes.com/bike/details/finest-11-disc
I am hopefully road touring, but I had an exciting dirt adventure the other day when I attempted to go babysit for a friend of mine. He had to come rescue me from the middle of nowhere dirt/rock road I was on after I got multiple punctures and wasn't equipped to fix it (because apparently something that says "patch kit" in German only contains the glue and not the patches).
I'm probably going to grab some wipes/use water and baking soda for a light scrub down.
Onward!
Gear preparation:
Shoes and new pedals. Shoes I bought on E-Bay for $34 plus $15 shipping, apparently they are over $100 retail but these came in the original box, with tags, and appear to be brand new, so I'm pretty happy with them (they fit just fine). Pedals I picked up at the bike shop today after taking my bike in for a new tube/getting Mr. Tuffy tire liners put in.
After I got the bike + strawberries from the farmers market home, I practiced clipping in and out of the pedals about 100 times just leaning up against the wall before I rode around in circles in my driveway. So far, I've not fallen due to a failure to clip out. I'll practice more tomorrow--I have no experience with clipping pedals. I didn't ride home with the shoes on because the bike shop advised that I might smoosh the strawberries.
My bike tour adventuring friend (who just climbed Mt. Fuji last week) had his girlfriend send me a bunch of his used gear. It arrived this afternoon, so I spent a couple of hours fiddling with getting it set up. What you see here are two Ortlieb Panniers, a handlebar bag, a small frame bag (bought that myself), and a black webbing net on the back rack. The webbing I've had for a long time; I use it on my motorcycle and it's pretty awesome.
I had to cannibalize some black foam padding from the light fixtures on my other bike in order to get the handlebar attachments to stay put--they were just a little too big for my bars. But once I'd done that it seemed pretty solid. The handlebar bag is also missing one snap for the closure, but I'm not sure this is going to matter much because of the bungi cord below. I do have some snaps and a snap attach tool (a craft project I ended up not needing), so I may try to fix it.
My friend told me that he modified the handlebar bag to be able to carry a mattress on the front with some cordage. He warned me not to do that with an inflatable thermarest because I'd risk puncturing it if the bike fell over and because of the potential UV damage. No problem, because I have a foam egg shell pad! I bungi corded it to the front, which has the additional benefit of pulling tight the side of the bag lid that doesn't have a snap on it.
Close up of the front bag. It may look like it's rubbing on my front wheel; it's not. There's several inches of clearance and nothing seems inclined to move around much.
Below the seat is a serious bike lock.
You can also see in this image my solar lantern in the drink holster thing. I packed it full of all the stuff I would need to repair a tire/bike--tube, patches, glue, more patches, multi-tool, tire levers. The idea is that I may be able to put a camelbak bag of water either in the frame bag or on the back of the bike, rather than a bottle of water in the holster. I'm not sure how well this will work, but I do have a small camelbak bag that fits in the frame bag. I haven't tried to fill it up and smoosh it in there yet, though, or ride with the straw zip tied/wrapped around the frame with velcro/however it is I'm going to end up rigging it. I'm also definitely going to need to bring an additional bottle for water, because things like cooking and bathing really don't work well when done entirely from a camelbak. It's just not a practical water carrying device.
The nice thing about this set up is that the solar lantern does appear to be getting enough light to charge, even though the frame bag is partially blocking the solar panel.
Most of the clothes I'm bringing. From the top: Long sleeve UV-resistant/sweat-resistant white shirt, partially covered very light-weight/mesh tank-top white shirt, ball cap, zip-off cargo pants/short (tan), 2 sports bras, 1 pair loose Asics shorts, 1 pair spandex underamor shorts, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of underwear, rain pants and jacket, white mesh cap that you put water on and it cools you down, sunglasses. I think I left a fleece at work but I plan on also bringing that, and possibly other warmer clothing. I'm not sure whether I will need warmer clothing or not--it's getting quite warm here, but I'm uncertain about the variability of the temperature in the summer. Folks who have lived here, am I going to need warmer clothing at night in June in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, and Amsterdam?
Sundry items. Camping knife, head phones, sunglasses, camelbak, wallet, zip ties, mosquito head net, lighter, gloves, helmet.
Better shot of the helmet with my two LED lights on it.
Incomplete collection of toiletries: Sunscreen, teeny tiny first aid kit, manual tooth brush, deodorant crystal (I may try to cut a chunk off this to save a couple ounces), couple empty bottles I plan on putting some face wash and probably some kind of baking soda/water mix into. I do actually shower with normal people shampoo, believe it or not, but this trip is long enough and the showering may be primitive enough that I'll be happier with baking soda residue on my hair/body than actual soap.
Also pictured is the case for the GPS and a compass. The actual GPS was in the kitchen and did not make it into these photos.
Fleece sleeping bag I picked up. This may be too light weight for this trip, but again it's getting warmer every night here and I may just try to get by with this (and maybe a space blanket?) If I decide before I leave that it's not going to be warm enough I'll bring my real sleeping bag. Also pictures is my camp stove set up, courtesy of my bike-tour buddy from reddit. Very nice, expensive Titanium pot, windscreen, and the stove and all the repair equipment is in the little black bag. I took the stove out and set it up earlier today; I'm not sure if it works because he shipped me the gas tank empty and I need to go fill it up, but it all seems to set up just fine. And the compression sack is in this image too, but you've seen that before. In the middle of the picture you can see my solar panel all folded up and my extra battery.
The solar panel does work and it seems theoretically possible that it's going to be able to keep things at some level of charge (but maybe not actually increase their charge level), but I'm going to need to find some way of strapping it onto the back of the bike and simultaneously connecting it to whatever I need to charge and I haven't tried to do that yet.
Not pictured:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005BN ... UTF8&psc=1
After much internal debate, I told my reddit buddy not to send his tent. I was also considering buying a hammock set up and tarp and I may eventually regret my decision not to go with that option as it may be more comfortable for sleeping, but I'm going to try out the bivvy sack first. There are a few reasons the bivvy is superior to a tent:
-Much more compatible than a tent or a hammock with "stealth camping". As a result, I'm far more likely to try using this near work on those occasional nights when it is just stupid to go home. Much cheaper than buying a van to sleep in (see my journal if this is confusing to you).
-I'm small enough that it's actually pretty easy for me to change in a sleeping bag. I've done it before on co-ed camping trips, so I'm not all that worried about needing a tent for privacy. And if I'm stealth camping well enough...it shouldn't be that big a deal to get out and put on pants, unless it's raining.
-I'm also small enough that I actually store a significant amount of my gear inside my sleeping bag when I'm camping, so I imagine I'll be able to do the same thing with a bivvy sack. Again, don't need a whole separate tent/fly system just to keep my gear dry.
-Having the bivvy sack may allow me to go light with the sleeping bag as it'll keep heat closer to my body. I'll test this out by sleeping in the backyard a couple of times before I go, probably. My landlord will just LOVE that, I'm sure (he thinks I'm pretty weird, I think, but it's hard to tell sometimes).
-I like the idea of a complete sleeping system that I don't have to mess around with too much. As long as it's not windy I may not even need to stake this down, and I think I'll be able to put my mattress pad inside of it as well. I tend to roll off my mattress pad at night and this will help keep things all together.
-The weight between a tent/poles/fly and a hammock/straps/fly and a bivvy/sleeping bag is pretty much comparable, unless I'm willing to spend several hundred dollars more than I'm interested in spending. So weight really wasn't much of a factor here.
-I can use a bivvy where there aren't trees. Can't do that with a hammock.
Other stuff not pictured:
Spoon
Notebook/pen
Warm clothes
Some kind of shoe to wear around camp (flip flops? Aren't ideal in the woods. Or castles. I may bring my sneakers).
Route:
I'm thinking I may just go West until I hit the ocean, then follow the coast up north until I hit Rotterdam or Amsterdam, and THEN pull out the GPS/maps/phone what have you to find the particular village where @Quadalupe lives.
That may be slightly insane.
ERE supported bike adventure:
Much thanks to @Jacob, who sent me a whole box full of stuff, including a really kick ass multi-tool that's more complicated than most car engines, a variety of repair equipment (some of which will be going with me), a patch kit that I epic-failed at using properly on Friday (he's since provided substantial additional instruction that should make my next application considerably easier), some new water bottle holster things, and some other stuff that I'm somewhat unclear on the uses for (but it's shiny!).
Physical preparation:
I'm continuing to do the density training that I made a post on awhile back. I can now do 10 rounds for 10-12 minutes with the 20 lb kettlebell. I don't always manage to do it every other day, but I'm reasonably consistent and I'm clearly making progress (I'm in fact now offering to sell my 15 lb kettlebell on bookoo because it is too light).
And I bike to work and back and all over the place to all my errands and side jobs and stuff. It's not a lot, on a daily basis, but I'd say up to 20 km isn't really difficult for me on an un-loaded bike, and I'm sure I could go farther if I had a need to. I'm going to try to take a longish ride tomorrow at least partially packed up just to get a feel for the gear and the bike and the clip pedals.
Mental preparation:
I'm not sure about this one, honestly. I think a big reason I'm doing this is because I *know* it's going to be challenging for me. Hopefully challenging in the "this is a growth opportunity and an opportunity to develop mental resilience" and not challenging in the "somebody just stole my brand new bike outside of a gas station bathroom 50 miles from the nearest train station" challenging. Or the "somebody just mugged me, raped me, and left me for dead in the middle of a forest because I didn't hide well enough/got unlucky/didn't manage to stab them first" level of challenging.
We just had a really unfortunate incident somewhat close to our base recently where a car accident left a young soldier dead. He and his wife just got here a few months ago; she's pregnant with their first child and due in the fall. This has really shaken up the entire military community (the accident was pretty brutal and I believe the young man burned alive, trapped in his car). The other driver walked away with bruises. If anything, this accident has underscored how fragile all our lives are, and how random and sudden the end can be. He was just driving to work--it could have been me, it could have been anyone. There's no reason to wait to experience life and there's no reason to hold back from trying hard and maybe somewhat dangerous things--you could die in your car tomorrow.
Companion preparation:
The head of the road bike club on base made a facebook post, but so far no takers. I do have someone from Australia who I'm reasonably sure is going to bike south with me from the Netherlands after the meet-up. I don't have anyone who is going north with me, as of yet, and I've basically stopped actively looking.
Husband preparation:
I'm going to send him a pic of the bike with all the bags on it shortly in conjunction with a lot of exclamation points expressing my excitement. I'll get one of two responses: "Cool" or "Wait, when is this happening again? 2 weeks?! I had no idea that you were actually doing this NOW. Who are you going with?"
Aaaand then we'll go from there.
Husband, if you're actually reading this, you're on notice!
