Epilog (1 of 2): Equipment Reviews

These longhorns were outside Oklahoma City. 
Sort of makes you wonder about evolution.

This is my first post about why I'm riding, and here's where to donate to Water Life Hope.  The ride is complete, but it's still possible (and wonderful) to donate. 

Matt suggested that some folks would be interested in the stuff that we did use that improved our quality of life on the trip.  We were doing a supported tour, so some gear just never came into play.  We didn't use our tent, for example.  So here's a reasonable list of stuff, starting with the little stuff, cheaper and more often purchased, to the big stuff -- bikes, things for the bus, etc.  I'm not reviewing everything, just the stuff that really made the ride work.

Most bicycle touring gear it is available at steep discounts if you have patience.  I've gotten stuff on Craigslist, on closeout, etc.  We have purchased Camelbaks, arm and leg warmers, cycling jerseys, cycling shorts and panniers at yard sales for pennies on the dollar.  And our luck with used bicycles has been excellent.  Bicycle touring stuff is very available to those of limited budget or those who just want to limit their outlay while trying it out.  We tend to go high end because we keep our stuff forever and it really has to work.  Our camping sheet, for example, was bought for a trip 15 years ago.  But there's always an alternative, a way to make things work with fewer or no dollars.

This is the church in Cuervo, NM.  The town is abandoned
but it looks as though the church is still in use.

The links to web sites give you better pictures of the stuff than I could ever do, so I'm using pictures I liked that never made it to the blog during the trip.

Eating and Drinking

Hydration Pack

I use an a NatureBird, an ephemeral brand from an Amazon flash sale, alternately with an old Camelbak that I got at a yard sale.  The most important part is the 100-oz capacity.  My bike has two bottle cages, and I use those too.  Can you do the same thing with just the water bottles?  Some folks do.  A hydration pack makes it easier to drink often and keep rolling.  I wouldn't be without it,
especially in the desert.

The rest of Cuervo looks a lot like this.

Nuun or Gu Brew,

Hydration tabs are a light-weight and easy way to have a Gatorade equivalent on the road.  I developed quite the habit during the trip.  It's a reasonably cheap and easy way to keep going through a distance ride.

Routes and Planning

Maps. 

The Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) publishes both paper and digital maps that give turn-by-turn directions, along with information about climate, history of the area and riding conditions.  They're terrific.  We had both versions with us, and both were useful at different times.  The digital map shows the route drawn on a basemap, and your location on it as you ride.  If you make a wrong turn it shows up right away.  It also shows facilities along the route -- hotels, campgrounds, etc. -- and allows you to check mileages between user-specified points along the routes. 

This was a bridge that people really wanted saved. A whole lot of
stuff around Route 66 is in the same state of disrepair.  The last time
the country looked this bad we did something about it.

Paper maps give a better overview of the route.  We found it easier to plan places to rendezvous with the bus with the paper maps.  We also found that the basemap could be hard to see under the digital map.  Going into Oklahoma City it looked as though we would continue on a traffic-clogged nightmare of a road, close to rush hour.  The paper maps steered us to a closely parallel road, quiet and lightly traveled.  What a relief.

The ACA maps were accurate, told us what we needed to know, and we couldn't have been without them.  I'd recommend having both paper and digital with you.

Map Holder

Maps don't mean a lot if you can't see them.   The ACA map case keeps the paper stuff right in front of you and fits their maps perfectly.   Order it directly from the ACA.

Being Seen

There are a bunch of amazingly beautiful houses like this
in Webb City, Mo.

You are much less likely to get hit with daytime running lights.  Don't go out without them.  Anywhere.  We use the kind that are rechargeable with a USB cable.  If you use batteries, keep an eye on them.  As the batteries decay your lights shine less brightly.

Bike Light, Front.

Brightness is measured in lumens.  For a front light 500 lumens is a good minimum to shoot for.  My current light sports 1000.  We use Niteriders that flash during the day and stay steady when it's dark. 

Bike Lights, Rear.  

I like to have a flashing red rear light on my helmet, and another somewhere else -- Camelbak, bicycle rack, you name it.  According to Steve I can be seen for miles and miles and miles.  These stay on all day as well.  When you go under an overpass, through a tunnel or just under some trees they help you stay visible and safe.  Their secondary use was as red light flashlights at the Cosmic Campground. We use Cygolite Hot Shot Pro 150's.  They work great and are rechargeable.   Niterider makes nice ones too, but these were on sale when I needed them.

This is outside Oatman, AZ.  It was a 15-year
superbloom this year in the desert.  We got lucky.

Being Found

Spot Tracker. 

It's really important that someone know where you are all the time, and that you can call for help if you need it.   It's really best if you use something that depends on satellites rather than cell phone signals.  There were plenty of places where our cell phones were paperweights, sometimes for days on end.  The Spot Tracker captures your location at user-specified intervals and displays the locations on a web page.  Steve and Matt could see where I was in real near time.  If you're in really really bad trouble there's an SOS button to push.  They will find you.  Spot trackers have saved people from underneath avalanches.

Allison Gibbs tells me that Garmin sells an alternative, and I'm sure there's new stuff all the time.  This is what was available when we started planning the trip and it worked great.  Steve knew where I was all the time and it was really useful.

This is a sign in San Fidel, New Mexico.  It's
a valentine to Steve's riding buddies, collectively
known as the Geezers.

Sleeping

Most backpacking gear is engineered for single people, a bit perplexing for us.  We wanted to have sleeping gear for married people that would work for this trip, as well as for fully loaded trips later.  Here it is.

Sleeping pad

The newer inflatable pads are just terrific.  There are a number to choose from.  We used a Big Agnes Q-Core SLX double-wide.  This pad was like sleeping on a hotel bed.  A number of times we slept in the bus rather than in a Warm Showers host home or hotel because it was so comfortable.  The pad is only 40" wide, so take that into account.  Neither of us is very wide and we sleep close together so it worked for us.   A double wide means that nobody gets caught in the crack between single pads that were supposed to join together but didn't really.  We really like it.

Sleeping quilt

This is the church in San Fidel.  There's very
little else there, but they've kept their church going.

Lightweight, warm and adjustable the quilt did the job.  Quilts save weight by leaving out the part of the sleeping bag underneath you.  If you have an insulated sleeping pad, like the Q-Core, that bit of the sleeping bag doesn't any good anyway.  We found the quilt lived up to the hype and kept us cozy.  We used an Enlightened Equipment Accomplice.  This is an area where there's starting to be more competition, so cheaper alternatives are showing up all the time.

Sheet

We used a 15-year old Double Dreamsack Silk Sleeping Bag Liner.  It's been everywhere, and we finally put a rip in one side.  We'll sew it up and keep trucking.  It's still wonderful.

Bicycles

I rode a Lynskey Backroad with a 2x11 drivetrain, the latter being another Matt creation.  It was comfortable all day every day.  I rode all the miles reported in the blog and felt fine.  I got it on sale, and for what it is I got a deal.  Definitely worth saving up for.  Thanks to Brian at Bicycle South I rode Kenda tires that just never quit.   

Steve and Carol both rode Trek Powerfly Police edition bicycles.  These are no longer available to the public, but the Powerfly line seems to work well for people.  Just be aware that the batteries are an Issue, as they take up to 4 hours to charge completely.  The range varies by terrain, wind conditions, road conditions and how you ride.  

About the bus

A brief paragraph about the bus is in order, as it's the biggest piece of equipment.  School bus conversion is beyond our scope here, but a few things stand out and are more broadly applicable.  The solar setup was unbelievably useful.  It just worked.   If you're interested in specifics, get in touch with me and I'll hook you up with Matt.  He did the whole thing.  Within the bus the Thetford Porta Potti and the Mr. Heater Buddy really stand out.  The toilet worked, didn't smell and was oh so convenient in the middle of the night at altitude when you really didn't want to wander out from the bus.  And the heater made getting up in the morning easier, thanks to Steve who would get up early to turn it on.  We didn't use the Eccotemp L5 Tankless Water Heater Shower much, but it was promising.