Fully Loaded

Posted on 21 May 2012 by David Hawley

With one week left to the start of the trip and lots to do in between, I realized it was time to do a fully loaded quick trip. First, I assembled everything in one place to figure out how to distribute everything I will take on the trip. It looks like this.

Next I distribute it among the four panniers.

And then go get the fish scale to see how much each bag weighs. The two front panniers a bit over 2kg each and the two rear bags a bit over 3kg each. So, all the gear is about 11kg. I am relieved as I wanted to keep it under 25 pounds and it looks like I will be able to do it.

The test run of 25km from Pearson College to the Sooke Potholes on the Galloping Goose Trail goes well except for misjudging my new width when I jam the front pack on a big rock taking a tight turn. As I was climbing a hill the sudden stop was at low speed. The only equipment failure was my front light. It kept shutting itself off. It was well after sunset when I left so I could not continue without a light. Fortunately I had a backup headlamp.

My first ever set up of the Hilleberg Akto tent goes well even in the dark. It rained lightly all night but everything was dry and warm in the tent. It is one of the lightest all season tents made. A great place to sleep and it has a vestibule for gear but not enough headroom for me – at 193cm or 6’4″ to sit up without hitting the top of the tent.

Here it is at 6am.

Returning to the College, I am reminded of the beauty that surrounds this part of BC. I know i will long for this lush and moist ecosystem when crossing the prairies this summer.

And I will miss the trestle bridges too.

Calculating the number of bikes you need

Posted on 17 May 2012 by David Hawley

People who like bicycles seem to collect them the way cat lovers collect cats. I still own the first bicycle I bought in 1975, a Raleigh Competition. I peddled it across Canada in 1977 on sew up tires. The formula for how many bicycles one should own, x, is described by the equation x = n + 1 where n is equal to the number of bikes you already own. Members of my family, which include someone with a PhD in statistics and another with a degree in engineering, do not agree with me. When I saw this bike tonight in Vancouver I was puzzled. Would the formula need to change with this bike?

NYC bikes

Posted on 14 May 2012 by David Hawley

As I prepare for the trip, I am in NYC with meetings of all the UWC College heads. Like when you first learn about, say, identifying different species of trees and then all you see are trees, all I see in NYC when I walk around are bikes.

Here I thought I saw another bike with a double top tube but it turned out to be posing as one. The top tube is made if inner tubes.

And then another bike ready to carry gear across any continent.

And finally a bicycle for peace.

500 of these “Hours” to go

Posted on 5 May 2012 by David Hawley

The best bike touring advice I ever received was to never ride more than about one hour without a break. On my first cross country trip I followed this faithfully, pulling over onto the side of the road no matter where I was. We gave ourselves a flexible window of about 10-15 minutes if it meant reaching a town or place where we could get food and water. So today’s little training “hour” was from Pearson College to a Starbucks in Esquimalt. The Cateye computer gives the details of the “hour”:

Length of “Hour”:76 minutes
Distance Covered: 27km
Average Speed: 21 km/hour

The trip I have planned – from the southern tip of Vancouver Island to the northern tip then to Haida Gwaii then to Prince Rupert to St John’s Newfoundland…then from the top to the bottom of Great Britain – is about 10,000km. At an average speed of 20km/hour that’s about 500 hours of cycling to get ready for. I wonder how many calories that will require?