Our Bikes

As we finish our travel, a short credit is due to the bicycles.

Alain and I treated ourselves to some new bikes more suited for rough travel in anticipation of this and other trips. Alain has an Aarios discovery and Alice a Stanforth Kibo. The bikes are stronger especially the wheels and chunkier tyres. We also opted for a 14 speed Rohloff gear hubs which gives us a wide range of gears but with an internal mechanism that is away from the grime and wet. All this has added weight compared to our older bikes and taken a bit of getting used to. However we have been especially grateful for the bigger tyres on the rough roads and overall the gears have been working well.

Mechanically we have done pretty ok with no disasters or need for a bike shop. Alains adjustable seatpost decided to be more adjustable than intended which was a bit disconcerting until we finally managed to get into the “inside” and tighten up some parts that should not have come undone. Alains rear rack has also taken a hammering and pretty much disintegrated on the ripio (he does so thunder down through the bumps). We had a major session trying to get it back together. Good thing Alice carries a lot of spare nuts and bolts…Read more