Bikes and bits

Trystan has done a top job introducing the background to this epic adventure, the trip vision, and the team. Now it is my turn to introduce you to the stuff that really counts – gear and gear philosophy. After all this is the real reason we do this sort of stuff - it is the perfect excuse to go out and buy more gear!

Bear with me if this gets a little technical in places as I fill the top half of this blog page with great stuff about bikes and trailers.

The trail will be predominantly off the paved road and is often rough or badly corrugated, not to mention remote. For this reason bikes suitable for off road are a must. For most of us that means a good reliable and sturdy mountain bike. But for Ryan, adventurer extraordinaire, this means a cross bike (a bike that looks much like a road bike but with beefier wheels, tyres and brakes). We all mulled and researched and mulled some more over bikes. At first it seemed that a full suspension bike was the best way to go. Then we started to hook onto the idea of riding 29ers (the latest mtb fad with road bike size rims) which roll a bit better over the rougher stuff. I also seriously considered a carbon hardtail. In the end both Trystan and I settled on standard 26” hardtail (front suspension only) steel framed (retro-cool) mountain bikes. Ben and Simon will be riding 29” alloy hardtails. And Ryan has his Specialized Tri-cross.

Staying with the NZ bikes for just a moment. Many thanks must go to the Top Gear team www.topgearcycles.co.nz , especially Mark and Nigel, who run hands-down the best bike shop in Taupo. Always offering great advice and outstanding service, and hooking Trystan up with a killer deal on his Jamis Dragon Pro bike – a Reynolds 853 steel beauty looking resplendent in pearl white and ghost [fancy name for baby] blue. Also many thanks to Oli of RoadWorks fame www.oli.co.nz , for a killer set of wheels and his knowledgeable advice; and Paul of Essence Bicycles www.essencebicycle.co.nz , who distributes the Cotic brand in NZ – and I have found out for myself why these Cotic bikes have such a strong following!

Bike selection wasn’t quite as simple as described above – because so far I have neglected to mention another, very important element of this trip. This trip is not supported, and as such we will have to carry pretty much all our gear – clothes, tents, sleeping bag and other camping equipment, water, up to 3-4 days of food, bike spares and tools, and the odd heavily scrutinised luxury. So how to carry all this gear?

Racks and panniers are the most common means of carrying gear for bike touring. However, as far as the GDR goes, advice seems to lean towards towing a trailer for a whole host of reasons. The most common and best regarded is the BOB Yak trailer, and this is what we have ended up with. If the idea of towing a trailer sounds weird, have a look here to see what they are all about: http://www.bobgear.com/trailers .The Bob can carry up to 70 pounds of gear, and attaches at the rear dropout of just about any bike. On the other hand, panniers work best on bikes designed to take them – which excludes most modern mountain bikes. Test rides of the Bob over the local W2K (Whakaipo Bay to Kinloch) trail, loaded with firewood and rocks no less, proved to be a pleasant surprise with the trailer not overly detracting from the experience and feeling of freedom of riding a bike (though they are not gravity cheating devices by any stretch of the imagination!).

Taking into account we will be travelling quite light, and we can try and squeeze in longer days where necessary as to carry less supplies, we will be able to get away with one trailer between two. Trystan and I will be sharing one, Ben and Simon another. Ryan, Mr Ultralight, is going to show us that a trailer is actually unnecessary and carry everything he needs on his bike - I haven’t even met this guy yet but I sure admire his style. The trailer sharing will clearly result in some interesting day-to-day group dynamics. We hope that the burden of towing a trailer for two will be more than offset by the feeling of freedom the remainder of the time. Being able to swap trailers at (mutually agreed) will, will no doubt lead to some interesting and creative bartering on the trail. The trailer-less bike will never be totally burden-free though - to give us a bit more trailer space each bike will also have a rear rack which will be used to carry some of the bulkier/ lighter items.

I must mention one more thing which I think is pretty cool: The drift box (bounce box). This is a nifty device used by adventurers like ourselves to post items ahead on the trail. It involves posting stuff to ourselves at post offices along the trail. If we don’t open a box it is even free to forward onto the next post office of choice. The biggest downside of this technique is making sure we get to the post office when it is open – which is far from guaranteed in the small towns we will be passing through. We will be using the drift box to post the likes of critical spares, hard to come by food, new reading material – that sort of thing. I have already bought a weighty quantity of Whittakers chocolate for just this purpose.

So that is the brief (really, it is, believe me) summary of our bikes and load carrying gear. There is plenty of other stuff to talk about, like spares, camping equipment, food, and safety measures – but that can be left for another day.