20th Anniversary European Bike Adventure Part 3: The Bikes!
Oops, my last bike adventure update was in August. After that, Ironman training took over my life, then the Ironman, then Thanksgiving and then Christmas. And now here we are! I sat down intending to finally write about our training, but looking at my last post, I now realize that I claimed I was going to next write about the bikes themselves. I guess I never did that. So I'll write about the bikes now, and the NEXT post will be about "training".
Our choices were to rent bikes once we arrived, or to buy bikes here and travel there and back with them. Given the difficulty in finding a bike that fits me comfortably, and my intense desire to not be uncomfortable for 3 weeks on my bike, we decided to buy here and travel with our bikes. Plus that would mean we could train on the actual bikes we'd ride, and test out all our gear/bags for several months.
Matt has done a LOT of research for this trip, and he found a few promising touring bikes that we could try out. It turns out, The Peddler on Duval had both of those bikes, so we went there for the first time. Yay, new-to-us bike shop!
Matt's turned out to be super easy. Not only did they have the bike he wanted, they had the size he needed, and his bike came pre-stocked with a good rear rack (and we added a front rack).
Kona Sutra
Predictably, as with everything involving me and a bike, mine was not quite as smooth.
We decided to try out a Surly Disc Trucker for me. Again, predictably, they didn't have one small enough for me, so they had to order it. Once it came in, we picked it up and we took it for a test spin. Aaaaand it was too big. I mean, I probably could have made it work, but I had to stand on my tiptoes to stand over it, and trying to swing my leg over something too high over and over every day for 3 weeks would just be asking for misery. And I'm aiming for something less miserable than misery. So fortunately The Peddler was willing to work with us to send that bike back and get an even smaller one.
Surly Disc Trucker
And that one fit! I mean, as well as anything not custom built for me is going to fit.
Unlike Matt's bike, mine did not come with any racks, so once I rode it to determine that it would work, size-wise, we took it back to The Peddler and dropped it off to have front and rear racks (Tubus racks) installed. This is important, since we need plenty of places to hang bags, since those bags will contain all the stuff we'll be taking with us.
Even after I got my bike back again, with racks, I still didn't ride it. This was in the last weeks of Ironman training, and while I was doing plenty of riding, it was all on my tri bike. So instead of riding my new bike, we just spent more money on bike gear.
First we decided which bags/panniers to buy. After reading reviews, we decided to get all Ortlieb bags. Good quality, waterproof, spacious, easy to affix, easy to remove, removable straps for carrying the bags off the bike. Matt decided to get red bags, I got black, so we can tell whose is whose. Over several months, we bought bags from REI every time they had a sale. This was a surprisingly expensive part of our gear collection, since we each needed two rear bags, two front bags, and then a handlebar bag.
My handlebar bag. It might be my favorite piece of touring equipment so far.
Then we had to get basic tools for these bikes. We each got properly sized tubes, a frame pump, a lock.
Finally we had all the Stuff! Except, again, Ironman. So while I rode my tri bike, my touring bike sat and collected cobwebs, waiting for me to be done with Ironman so I could come play.
And that will be my next post. Because my touring bike has shaken off the cobwebs and we've started getting to know each other!
Our choices were to rent bikes once we arrived, or to buy bikes here and travel there and back with them. Given the difficulty in finding a bike that fits me comfortably, and my intense desire to not be uncomfortable for 3 weeks on my bike, we decided to buy here and travel with our bikes. Plus that would mean we could train on the actual bikes we'd ride, and test out all our gear/bags for several months.
Matt has done a LOT of research for this trip, and he found a few promising touring bikes that we could try out. It turns out, The Peddler on Duval had both of those bikes, so we went there for the first time. Yay, new-to-us bike shop!
Matt's turned out to be super easy. Not only did they have the bike he wanted, they had the size he needed, and his bike came pre-stocked with a good rear rack (and we added a front rack).
Kona Sutra
Predictably, as with everything involving me and a bike, mine was not quite as smooth.
We decided to try out a Surly Disc Trucker for me. Again, predictably, they didn't have one small enough for me, so they had to order it. Once it came in, we picked it up and we took it for a test spin. Aaaaand it was too big. I mean, I probably could have made it work, but I had to stand on my tiptoes to stand over it, and trying to swing my leg over something too high over and over every day for 3 weeks would just be asking for misery. And I'm aiming for something less miserable than misery. So fortunately The Peddler was willing to work with us to send that bike back and get an even smaller one.
Surly Disc Trucker
And that one fit! I mean, as well as anything not custom built for me is going to fit.
Unlike Matt's bike, mine did not come with any racks, so once I rode it to determine that it would work, size-wise, we took it back to The Peddler and dropped it off to have front and rear racks (Tubus racks) installed. This is important, since we need plenty of places to hang bags, since those bags will contain all the stuff we'll be taking with us.
Even after I got my bike back again, with racks, I still didn't ride it. This was in the last weeks of Ironman training, and while I was doing plenty of riding, it was all on my tri bike. So instead of riding my new bike, we just spent more money on bike gear.
First we decided which bags/panniers to buy. After reading reviews, we decided to get all Ortlieb bags. Good quality, waterproof, spacious, easy to affix, easy to remove, removable straps for carrying the bags off the bike. Matt decided to get red bags, I got black, so we can tell whose is whose. Over several months, we bought bags from REI every time they had a sale. This was a surprisingly expensive part of our gear collection, since we each needed two rear bags, two front bags, and then a handlebar bag.
My handlebar bag. It might be my favorite piece of touring equipment so far.
Then we had to get basic tools for these bikes. We each got properly sized tubes, a frame pump, a lock.
Finally we had all the Stuff! Except, again, Ironman. So while I rode my tri bike, my touring bike sat and collected cobwebs, waiting for me to be done with Ironman so I could come play.
And that will be my next post. Because my touring bike has shaken off the cobwebs and we've started getting to know each other!