7 April
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Tea stop on the road from Gungahlin to the Sutton-Gundaroo Road. A perfect day for a 73km test ride, not too cold, not too warm, a brisk westerly but not enough to knock more than 5km/hr off the speed. The configuration on each bike has been more or less finalised so apart from tweaking and the changes that will need to be made once we're on the ride, the amount of stuff on this test ride is what we'll be leaving with on May 1st. |
This is probably the last post before the scheduled departure on May 1st. A breakfast has been organised for supporters at 7.30am, and we intend to ride out of Canberra's Lennox Gardens at 8.30am, across Commonwealth Avenue Bridge and up Northbourne Ave. By mid-afternoon we should be in Goulburn. It will certainly be different leaving Canberra in the morning and knowing we won't be back the same afternoon.
My kit has settled out at just on 30kg including the bags. The trailer weighs an additional 6kg, making a total of 36kg. The bike weighs 17kg. That makes a grand total of 53kgs. That sounds like a lot compared to the basic bike, but when you factor in my 80+kg, the percentage increase over me on a bare bike is just 30%. Included in the 30kg is about 5kg of electronics, 5kg of clothes, 5kg of food and cooking gear, and around 7-8kg of camping gear and tools. It might be possible to pare off 5kg off the total with a major effort but that would save maybe 10-15minutes over a whole day's ride, so it doesn't seem sensible to be brutal at this stage. That might change as the ride progresses!
Pete's kit seems to have settled out at about 28-30kg including bags, but he doesn't have the extra weight of the trailer. He is about 1km/hr faster up the steeper hills, but there is essentially no difference on any other terrain. It will be interesting to see if there's any difference that manifests itself after many kilometres.
During the last week of March and first week of April I have ramped up the riding to levels approaching those we will need to accomplish for the first month. During the week I have been putting 40-55km per day under the wheels for 4 days of the 5, and on the weekend an 80km ride on Saturday followed by more than 50km on the Sunday. No major tiredness or stiffness as a result, and with a conservative attitude for the first month or two on the ride proper I cannot see the scheduled 63km per day for the whole ride being a problem. Of course, the difference between a few days in a row isn't the same as several months of toil, but all the indications from other people's experiences are that it will only get easier as the ride progresses.
There have been a few changes to the equipment list as the testing has progressed.
The most recent purchase has been of two Pletscher double kickstands. They were difficult to find in Australia but after a Google search and contact with the parent company in Switzerland, the local distributor Joad Sportz Supplies got in contact and we were able to purchase this unique stand. Apparently they're very popular over in Europe, and I can imagine that with a better distribution and awareness strategy they could become standard fare for touring bikes in Australia.
Originally I was going to take an external hard drive card reader for digital image storage, as each media card filled up I would transfer the photos to the hard drive, which would have needed charging at various times, and as battery powered items are wont to do, be flat when needed. So instead, I bought an 8GB CF card for the Canon 20D, and a 2GB card for the Canon 720IS pocket camera. Even at maximum resolution and superfine settings, that translates to over 2250 photos I can take before I need to download onto something. There is a risk obviously with having all the images on one card, so I will probably endeavour to burn CDs as each GB is taken and post them back home for safe-keeping, but it should mean a lot less weight and resources devoted to image storage.
I have also managed to find a secure way to attach the large bike pump to the trailer so that it doesn't interfere with the load. Having a proper floor pump is almost mandatory for efficient touring, because at 80 psi the tyres roll so much better than the 40 psi that seems to be the comfortable limit of most hand pumps. It only takes 20 or so strokes to take the tyre from 30 psi up to 80 psi, a task that would take maybe 150 strokes with the hand pumps.
Well unless I get motivated to edit this page before the departure, this is it for the website for the time being. It's quite daunting realising that there are only three more weeks before departure, but at the same time I'm feeling confident it will be a good solid adventure that will be very do-able if we remain positive and strong. Time will tell.
Update:
Yesterday we loaded up with the final load configurations again (36kg all up for
me, 30kg all up for Pete) and rode out to Lake George, via the old Federal
Highway and to the first rest stop along the lake. The total distance was
81km for the day. This compares well with the first day's expectation of
getting to Goulburn, 98km from Canberra, because although the distance to Goulburn is
greater, the riding is a lot easier once we get to Lake George and can pedal
along the flatter country towards Collector and Goulburn. Just before we
got to Lake George we came across a loaded-up touring cyclist. First one
we've seen on any of our local rides and it was good to share experiences with
Lother (pictured), who was pedalling to Goulburn, camping overnight and
returning to Canberra today. We were also joined for lunch by Mike, who
turned up on of them fandangled lightweight machines, no panniers, no trailer
even!
On the way back from Lake George we were not surprised to see that the apple trees along the old Federal Highway had been stripped bare of all the ripe fruit, but the raiders had left some branches unmolested on one tree, so we picked what we could. I ended up with a pannier full of apples, confirmed at home to be 8kg. The additional weight brought my total load for most of the return trip to 44kg, and yet I really couldn't detect any difference in the behaviour or feel of the bike and trailer.
Both Pete and I have been slowly coming to the conclusion that although weight makes a difference to the speed and distance we expect to travel in a day, the difference is not as great as we first thought. By pedalling a bit slower, the load doesn't seem to punish us even up hills. I would estimate that each 10kg of extra weight results in a 1km/hr loss in average speed for a day's riding. Assuming an average day is 75km of undulating roads, and a rider with only a light bag of essentials might average 20-22km/hr and complete the rip in 31/2 hours, I would expect to average 17km/hr as I have been doing, and complete the same distance in 41/2 hours of pedalling. When you've got all day from sun up to sun down to complete the day's 'chore', it seems a bit pointless to sacrifice too much in the way of gear in order to maximise daily speed. I could get my gear down to 20kg if I tried, but that would mean not taking electronic gear, sufficient clothes, reasonable camping essentials such as sleeping mat and pillow, etc, and for a 1km/hr penalty I'm happy with the 30kg of baggage I'll be hauling up and down the hills around Australia.
