Category: Preparations
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And the winner is …
Read more: And the winner is …After lots of analysis we’ve decided the HP Velotechnik Streetmachine Gte is the best bike for our needs. Peter worked hard to not influence our decision, but in the end he did tell us he agreed with us given our plans. The HP Velotechnik Streetmachine Gte won for us because: It fit Becky better (seat…
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What bicycle? Propulsion
Read more: What bicycle? PropulsionOur other major debate was Shimano XT groupo vs Rohloff Speedhub for the gear train. In one corner we had Keith (go with a derailleur!), Bryan in the other corner (the Rohloff is really nice, and virtually maintenance free!), and Peter somewhere in the middle. It wasn’t quite that black and white, with Keith enthusing…
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What bicycle? Analysis and more analysis
Read more: What bicycle? Analysis and more analysisFriday was dreary, wet and intermittently rainy, so we didn’t end up test driving any bikes. We did spend many hours at the BicycleMan shop though, looking at options and discussing. Since it was a grey, dreary day we pretty much had the shop to ourselves, and were able to take a lot of Peter’s…
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I want to buy a bicycle …
Read more: I want to buy a bicycle …I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride my bike I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride it where I like by Queen Change the word “ride” to “buy” and you’ll have the song that has been going through my head for the last day and a half. We have…
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Accepting the kindness of strangers
Read more: Accepting the kindness of strangersI woke up this morning and was trying to visualize how we would camp during our shakedown cruise around Lake Ontario in June, and I couldn’t quite see it. It will be difficult (not to mention expensive) to find campgrounds every time we want to stop, since we’re planning on riding about 80 km per…
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Shakedown Cruise around Lake Ontario
Read more: Shakedown Cruise around Lake OntarioFrom wikipedia: Shakedown cruise is a nautical term in which the performance of a ship is tested. Shakedown cruises are also used to familiarize the ship’s crew with operation of the craft. In our case, our shakedown cruise is an opportunity to test out all our gear and processes to ensure that it all works…
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Freighter Update
Read more: Freighter UpdateThis update is coming a little late. We have successfully reserved a spot on a freighter from Naples Italy to Port Kelang (Kuala Lumpur), Malaysia on or about February 1st, 2009. The itinerary currently takes us through La Spezia Italy and Barcelona Spain. We are hoping that we end up in Barcelona at a time…
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Learning the Language
Read more: Learning the LanguageFor me, one of the big challenges about this trip is the different languages in all the places we’re planning to go. Neither Becky nor I have great had much success learning foreign languages, so I suspect we’ll be getting by in English. I do want to learn at least a few words in the…