Thursday, July 21, 2011

The Bike





Here's my bike for the trip. Its a 2001 Bruce Gordon Basic Loaded Touring (BLT). I originally bought it in anticipation of our 2002 X-USA tour, so it went across North America, then we took it to Great Britian for a few weeks, and since then its been filling in on over-night tours, dirt road rides, commuting, etc. Since this year is its 10th birthday, I decided to "give it a gift" and had it repainted a nice pretty blue.

Eric Gertner also built me a new fork for it. This fork fits 29" sized tires, and Salsa Anything cages (as well as the low-rider rack that came with the bike or a couple water bottles), and I am taking advantage of both of these features on this trip.

Carol made the nice blue frame bag for me, I have a 100 oz camel bak bladder in the top and my tool kit in the bottom. My Arkel XM-28 panniers are on the rear rack, carrying food, toiletries, clothing, electronics and a couple misc. items. My hammock and sleeping bag are up on the Anything Cages on the fork. The handlebarsd are a bit cluttered with a cyclocomputer, GPS unit, iPhone, and camera bag (more about this in a future post).

Because a lot of the terrain on this trip will be rough and sandy, I have a WTB Vulpine 2.1 semi-slick tire up front and a 47c Continental Country Ride touring tire on the back. Other than that, its pretty standard fair for a touring bike... a touring bike that I've been honing into the perfect all-arounder bike over the past 10 years.

-- Posted from the trail

Location:County Highway Vv,Cassville,United States

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