Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Meet Dolores

In one week, I'll be catching a flight to Vancouver where I'll start my ride down the Pacific Coast Highway, finishing off in Tijuana, Mexico.

Carrying me on this journey will be Dolores, my beautiful Surly Long Haul Trucker, pictured here.

This will be my second bike tour; the previous being a trek across Canada two years ago. Building on lessons learned the first time around, I've made some adjustments to my trip preparations for this journey.

1. Sleeping mat. I started my cross-Canada trip without a sleeping mat, naively thinking that my super warm sleeping bag would be comfortable enough to get me through cold nights and hard rocky ground. Never again.
2. Larger panniers. I upgraded to 20L panniers from the 17.5L used on my last trip. 17.5L is big enough, but only just. And it was difficult getting things in and out quickly. 20L gives me a bit more breathing room for storage.
3. Command Centre. Last trip I had my phone in my pocket, which made it difficult to take quick pictures while riding. I missed out on some incredible wildlife pics because I had to stop and fiddle with my phone. This time I'll have my GoPro and phone set up on my handlebars for one-touch access that won't require me to stop riding whenever I want to take a picture or video.
4. SPDs. I did my last tour with pedal baskets, opting for comfortable walking shoes over pedalling-efficiency. As my pace will need to be a bit quicker this time around, I'm going clipless.

For the next seven days I'll be mentally preparing. It will be a long month alone on the road, packing in ~3000km over ~23 riding days. Wish me luck!


Gear for the trip
From top left, across:
1. Camping pot, utensils
2. Camping stove.
3. Multi-tool
4.Phone
5. Bike pump
6. tire repair, allan keys, lubricant
7. Solar charger
8. Clothes
Second Row:
9. Camping towel
10. first aid kit
11. Bear spray
12. portable charger
13. GPS (frame bag for toiletries)
14. sketch pads
15. Watercolour set
16 clothes
Third Row
17. Cable lock
18. Art set
19. sole inserts for spd shoes.
20. Guide book
21. Go Pro
22. Helmet
23. Sunglasses
Fourth Row
24. Sleeping bag
25. Tent
26. Bungee cords
27. Panniers
28. Sleeping mat

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