Product Review — Getting Out There

Setting up the bike for cargo

Thu, 23 May 2019 12:15:57 +1000

When sitting down to plan out the Ride in September, one of the first requirements to come to mind was carriage space on the bike — how would I allow enough storage for food, water, shelter, changes of clothes, etc?

Being a newcomer to the world of bike touring, I quickly found a number of different options and styles of travel, that when compared to the gear I already had, left me with three main choices to make:

I have already decided on my sleeping arrangements, and the other considerations I needed to make were:

To be honest this was a pretty close call, but in the end I decided not to just overload the bike with frame bags and panniers. I must admit it was tempting: being a leatherworker, I could do it fairly cheap; there are heaps of options available; it is the popularly recommended mode of bike touring for solo riders; and I already have a pretty good Topeak MTX rack and pannier setup.

However, being +100kgs, I wanted to reduce the load on the bike, and as said above I’ll be wearing a rather tight-fitting dress, and therefore I don’t want to be packing out the bike with too many items that I could get caught on, and rub my mostly-bare legs against.

Verdict: Close call, and normally the way I’d go, but this time is not the best option for me.

When I first set out to ride to Adelaide, my lovely partner Danielle contemplated coming along with me for support and company. The issue for us came down to the length of time I expected to do the trip, not wanting to slam the kilometres but actually enjoy the ride, and the resultant uncertainty around the schedule. As Danielle is a criminal barrister, 9–10 days off work amounts to a rather large financial burden, and we eventually made the decision that if we were going to sacrifice many thousands in wages, we’d be better off just donating that much and staying at home.

Another factor in the decision is my mental health, and the resultant anxiety from having to rely too heavily on a support vehicle, and be too regimented in daily schedules and achieving riding checkpoints that may not be ideal when I’m out on the bike. Of course, if a support crew eventuates — or even just other riders to accompany me — that would be awesome, but being able to plan for the least outcome ensures the ride will go ahead without too many issues.

Verdict: Again possible, but would involve a lot more organisation and planning to pull off.

A cargo trailer, attached to the rear axle or seat post, allows the bulk of the load to be towed behind the bike. Considering also that I weigh +100kgs myself, this puts a lot less stress on the rear axle of my bike.

As detailed above, I will be carrying a lot of water, and although I will try to buy most of my food each day at each town/stop, I will need a small amount of rations for emergencies. A trailer enables me to carry a lot more gear.

The other benefit for my particular use case was in having sides to the trailer that I could easily make up signage for, better advertising my cause/explaining to passersby why the f— that bloke’s wearing a dress, and maybe even picking up some donations along the way.

Verdict: I went with the trailer option, as providing the greatest versatility and enabling me to more easily plan the ride itself.

With the decision made, I settled on a Burley Coho XC trailer, which I will review in more detail after its first 200 kilometres of use, and am so far pretty happy with.

Saturday morning Creswick run

Sat, 04 May 2019 18:10:10 +1000

I made another run out to Creswick today, taking a slightly different route to avoid a long gravel section of roadwork, and taking in a bit more of Pootilla — what a great name eh? — and Wattle Flat.

It was also the first chance I’ve had to field-test the Jakroo cycling bib that arrived on Friday! They look fantastic, and importantly, are heaps better in the comfort department, and I hope to be able to get a good shot of them whilst I’m wearing them on my next ride to show you guys. They really made a difference to the ride and I’m sold.

I met my partner and daughter in Creswick for a coffee and then headed back. When I first rode this distance just a month ago, it was the farthest I’d ever ridden. I’ve since pushed that milestone out to 60km with the Ballarat–Skipton Rail Trail ride, then to my first 100km on 24 April when I rode to Beaufort and back.

It was nice to reflect during my ride how far I’ve come in just a month, and I decided to try and augment my training with some off-bike physical activity. I’m going to try and hit the gym a little, though I’ve always hated gyms, and might even try some pilates and/or running (if my doc approves!) to try and strengthen my core and ensure I don’t hurt my back again.

Sleeping arrangements

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 15:54:26 +1000

With my primary focus lately on fundraising, training and basically getting the word out there about my ride from Melbourne to Adelaide for charity, it’s actually been a nice diversion to contemplate something far simpler: where am I going to sleep each night?

Not wanting to ‘waste’ money on proper accommodation that could be far better spent on the cause, and being an enthusiast of the outdoors anyway, the obvious answer for me has always been to camp rough in, or near, each town/stop on the journey. So the next consideration quickly became weight and size to enable my camping gear to be stowed on the bike or trailer.

I also didn’t want to be sleeping on the ground each night, in the springtime rain, only to then ride 100+ kilometres during the day and sleep again on the ground. It’s with this in mind that I first started contemplating a simple hammock and tarp setup. After a little bit of research, I happened across a great little gem whilst shopping in Melbourne at a store near Hardware Lane called Platatac. Platatac specialise in ‘tactical’ products for law enforcement and military, but they also have some great light camping products — which makes sense as no Army soldier ever wanted a heavier pack.

The Snugpak Jungle Hammock fitted almost every requirement that I had, so I took the plunge and parted with $80, then sprung another $100 for the Snugpak All Weather Shelter light ground tarp to go with it.

I intend to properly ‘field test‘ the setup soon, so I can be sure it will be sufficient to my needs.