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Our next big adventure! |
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The next evolution in our cycling hobby is touring.
An "unsupported tour" is one where you pack all
of your gear on your bike and head off on a
trip. That is just what we have started
doing! We began with shorter trips to make
sure that we had gotten this new thing all
figured out. We'll then gradually
plan longer and and more adventuresome trips!
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| In order to get ready for
touring, we needed to
really expand our cargo carrying capabilities.
When we got it all decked out, it looked like we needed
a caution sign on the back! In fact on
some of our test rides we have had people
(kiddingly) ask us if we need a special license
to ride it. Surprisingly adding all this
gear really hasn't changed the handling of the
bike that much. It's always handled like a
truck at low speeds!
:)
What can I say, it's really big and long but we love this bike!!
The items that follow are what we have added to
our rig... |
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Map Bag |
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We added this bag with a map holder on the
top for the
"navigator." The first time we
tried it out was on a 80
mile organized ride. It was very nice
having the map and directions handy since we
were on unfamiliar roads. |
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We have also discovered that this bag works great for
around town as well. We carry all of our personal
items in it (wallets, phones, sunglasses, etc.).
When we stop for lunch or shopping, we just pop it off
the bike and
carry it with us using it's shoulder strap. I couldn't
find a bag like this that was designed
to fit on a recumbent. This is actually a
handlebar bag for an upright bike, the "Cruiser" made by Detours.
Most such bags were way too big for our needs. This one is
just perfect. I did have to fabricate a way to
mount it on our bike. |
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Panniers |
| Our next addition was
a set of small panniers under the stoker's seat.
For short trips when we are not camping, these may be all we
need. We purchased both the rack and
panniers from
TerraCycle.
They
make underseat racks to fit most brands of recumbents.
The size of the
Axiom
"Monsoon" panniers are perfect.
The hooks that attach them to
the rack are located near the top of the bag so
they fit
nicely under the seat and you can still get into the bags
while they're mounted on the bike. These bags will
also help us keep our center of gravity low. |
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(pannier rack - shown with seat removed) |
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Cargo Trailer |
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We spent
a lot of time debating: "trailers vs.
panniers" and "single vs. double wheel
trailers." On the pannier debate we
reached the conclusion that it would be very
difficult to physically locate enough panniers
on a tandem recumbent bike to haul the necessary
gear for two people on a long trip. Even
if we could, we didn't want to add that much
weight to the bike. That led us to
trailers. The major advantage of two
wheeled trailers are their stability.
However we ended up choosing a single wheel
trailer, primarily because I didn't like the width of
the two wheeled cargo trailers. When riding
along many roads, in order to keep the right
wheel out of the gravel, you would have to stay
farther left out toward the traffic than I am comfortable. In the end, we chose
a
BOB
trailer that we purchased online from the
Bike
Trailer Shop. We like the low center
of gravity and the way it tracks perfectly
behind the bike's rear tire.
Other than being a bit slower up the hills, we don't hardly know it's
back there! Also, we do feel very "green"
when we take our bike to the grocery store!
We did make a few modification to the standard
BOB trailer. We added a pannier rack over the
tire. It's one designed to fit the 16
inch tire of a Greenspeed trike. It just
takes a little bit of fabricating to make it
work. It is recommended that you only put bulky light
weight items in those panniers so as not to
alter the proper weight balance of the trailer.
We use them as the "stuff sacks" for our
sleeping bags. These panniers are the
Axiom
"Typhoon," they're a little larger than
the ones we use under the seat. The
heavier gear goes on the bottom of the
trailer toward the front. I also added the rear
fender from a Greenspeed trike. The stock
fender didn't have the full coverage of the tire
that I wanted. In the lower picture to the
left I removed one of the panniers so you can
better see what this setup looks like. |
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Reflectors |
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noticed in the pictures above that we
went crazy with reflectors! I know
that you can never be 100 percent
protected and safe on the roads no
matter what you do. I just want to
make sure that I have done absolutely
everything in MY power to be as visible
to motorists as I possibly can.
Actually my inspiration was the number of reflectors on commercial
trucks. I discovered that all
those red and white reflector strips all
over the trucks are required by the
Department of Transportation. I
went out and purchased those same DOT
approved reflectors, cut them down to
size a bit and placed them in several
locations on our rig. After all,
our bike does look like the semi-truck
of the cycling world. The picture
to the right was taken at night with
only the flash on the camera to
illuminate the reflectors. I talk
about our choice of lights on our
accessories page. I added a
rear light on the trailer as well.
It is the older version of the one I
have on the back of the bike. It
works out well since it flashes at a
different rate than the bike light so it
stands out even more. |
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Flag |
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One other detail we added was a new flag. You can
see it in the picture on top of this page. We
wanted something more interesting than the standard one
that came with the trailer. We found some really
cool flags from
South Winds /
Air Arts. We purchased ours from
Coventry, our
local recumbent bike shop. It looks
cool and adds one more little piece to our visibility. |
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Camping Gear |
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We have chosen our equipment from the "backpacking"
category of several different outdoor equipment
companies (REI,
Moosejaw &
Campmor). Our
goal is the same as a backpacker, gear that weighs as
little as possible and takes up as little space as
possible. After a whole lot of research and talking to
a bunch of people, the items below are some of what we
picked. |
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Obviously a tent is one of the major
components of camping! Our choice here was
the "REI Quarter Dome T3 Plus." It is
listed as a three person tent, with the plus
refering to longer than standard. (Keep in
mind that the same people that rate the size of
tents are the ones that say that a sub-compact
car seats 4 adults!) In order to have
sufficient room for both of us and some of our
gear, this size has ended up being perfect!
It is relatively light for it's size and is easy
to set up. |
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| We debated long and
hard as to our choice of sleeping bags. We
settled on synthetic rather than down even
though it is slightly heaver. We liked the
idea that even if wet, it maintains some
insulation value. The brand we picked is
"Big Agnes." They have a pocket in the
underside to hold the pad, that way you can't
move off of it during the night. The pad
is also one of theirs. To the right is an
"Exped Air Pillow" that is quite comfortable and
packs very small. |
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Here are a couple cool items worth
mentioning. Once we set up camp, we knew
we would want something to sit on. Most
camp chairs weigh 8 pounds or more... out of the
question! This one is called the "Alite
Monarch Butterfly Chair." It weighs only 18oz.
and is very comfortable! The second item
is the "Tek-Towel" by "Sea to Summit."
It's like a "Sham-Wow" for your body. It's
a full size bath towel that takes up very little
room, suck up water quite well, and dries fast. |
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