Tourist in MSN

Yeah, the kids are transitioning to young adults. I wonder how that trip changed their lives?

I recall occasional posts from S America with the latest adventures. I had forgotten about their problems with equipment, but I do recall Nancy was very opposed to waterproof panniers, they apparently often had damp clothing and that did not fare well in an air tight pannier in summer sunny heat.

Sorry about adding one more topic to an out of date thread, but the aversion to Ortliebs was atypical, so I remember that.

mrv 

I'll never get to go ride Siberia or Cambodia or the Silk Road. . . but I'm still a proponent of the 26in wheel size.
So far I remain touring on my old RockHopper. Once I cannot find free or Craig's List replacements, I would try to get one of these built: https://tomsbiketrip.com/how-to-buil...-touring-bike/ (or an American made copy, by GUNNAR perhaps)
- so I'm stuck on 26in, probably for no better reason than people keep giving me wheelsets that they aren't going to use. Or I find them cheap with tires and 8-speed cassettes barely used.

I'm working on building up a 2-speed hub for a Miyata touring bike, so maybe I'll find out I prefer the 700c wheel size later this spring...

As far as getting 26in tires, probably Jan Heine will revive that wheel size..... https://www.renehersecycles.com/prod...tires/26-inch/
- TREK and SPECIALIZED gotta keep people buying new bikes some how! HA!

Chris Pringle

Sorry if I got that particular detail wrong. It’s been so long. Those rims were splitting along the brake surface so often. But I believe that was on the tandem. So, the heat being produced on
steep descents (along with the grit, sudden cold streams, salt, etc.) should not be discarded, although they specifically did not mention some of these factors. They were often exploring places way off-the-beaten path.

Nevertheless, what a great family experience I am sure that was for them.

mev

I followed their trip pretty closely and then did my own 18-month journey with the same endpoints (Prudhoe Bay to Ushuaia).

From their accounts as well as my own experiences with some expedition touring, here is my perspective on some of those critical failure issues as well as it relates to 26" as well:

1. There are different classes of failures. Some more severe can be a critical failure in frame, rim for a tandem/heavy single or some hubs if you've done something special with the rims. Most often those failures you aren't going to solve in some random small town along the way. Instead, you will end up in some larger metro (perhaps with combination of hitchhiking or public transport). The question then becomes whether you can solve those things in the large metro in the same country or whether you potentially go back to your own country or somewhere else. I've done a mixture, e.g.
- 48 spoke hub failed in rural NZ. Hitchhiked ~100km to next town. Small bike shop couldn't help but they had connections in Wellington to build a wheel and send it.
- Frame cracked in outback Australia. Duct tape held it together for another 280km to Geraldton. For variety of reasons I flew back to US, picked up a replacement bicycle I had and flew back to Western Australia.
- Heavy duty rim cracked near Lake Baikal, Russia. Brother was coming to visit so he couriered a rim.
- Aluminum frame cracked in South America. Fortunately was in Bariloche before I noticed. Local connections welded the frame so I could continue.
- Continued tire troubles in South America. Ended up using an excuse to fly from Mendoza back to US, pick up high quality Schwalbe (and other errands)
For those critical components I think it makes sense to (a) start with good stuff so likelihood of failure goes way down (b) see what is likely available in the largest metros in countries you visit and (c) potentially include in your trip budget a "flexible" trip back. Not certain on timing but just assume you might do that once.

2. When I went through South America in 2017, I saw more 29ers available. I didn't go on extended look but suspect the situation might be better in Bogota, Quito, La Paz, Salta, Mendoza, Santiago than it was previously.

3. For smaller classes of failures, e.g. a tire or tubes, I've generally been able to keep enough spares. I also found a reasonable supply in the largest metros in South America to keep going as necessary. I did run into situation where some extended thorns I had worked my way through two spare Schwalbe's I started with in Cartagena but as described above, my expedition budget actually planned in one trip that I hadn't quite pinned to specific date. Made sense to take it in Mendoza. If they hadn't been able to weld my frame in Bariloche, I might have considered a second.

djb

I recall reading of their reasoning of getting the bikes they did, a big part was budget--they were buying stuff for four people, two bikes, and all the stuff and figuring out a budget for a rather extended trip and time off from their teaching jobs, so I get the budgeting aspect. Sure, there were those CSS rims back then, but the costs would have been a big factor to consider them along with hand built high end stuff.
As a family experience, as a parent of similar aged kids at the time, I couldnt imagine doing something like that, but they did it.

Tourist in MSN

Thanks for posting. Your equipment failures were clearly not the norm, but any one of your big trips probably would exceed the lifetime distance for a lot other touring folks on this forum. Your 18 month trip was longer than all of my touring put together by a wide margin.

The bikes I tour on were built up from the frame by me. And I have swapped a lot of parts that I initially installed but later decided they were not good enough. Some of my parts were clearly low budget, but still robust enough to last a very long time.

And some upgrades became available after I built. Example, there are rare reports of Rohloff hub flanges cracking at a spoke hole. After I built up my Rohloff wheel, Rohloff developed some reinforcing rings, they do not make the flanges stronger but if one cracked the wheel is still ridable. So, I bought and added the rings several years after I initially built that wheel.

Nonetheless, with enough distance, if something can fail, you probably will experience it.


Yeah, my CSS rims cost twice as much as plain rims. In my case since I was building the wheels, I did not need to pay for a second set of wheels. But most people would be looking at replacing wheels they already own to get the CSS rims, as they were not stock on any bikes that I knew of.

But they no longer make CSS rims. With widespread demand for disc brakes, the demand for rim brake rims that last a lifetime has dried up.

mev

I am heavier than average and also pretty cautious. So I probably overstress some of my equipment - with a heavier load. In the case of brakes, being more cautious meant that I wore down caliper rims more quickly - though been able to shift to disc brakes.

However, also agree that if one is going somewhere for a few weeks, risks of failure overall are pretty small. Most issues you can further minimize by starting with good equipment. If necessary, one can also alter the trip.

I had that situation at end of a 10 month trip that first went Russia and China. I was going to decompress the trip at the end by bicycling from Bangkok to Singapore. I was in southern Thailand and my hub failed. If it had happened at different point in the trip, I would have gone back to Bangkok and sorted things out. However, since I was in my last two weeks of a 10 month trip, I instead spent a week in small town in Thailand before taking the train to Kuala Lampur and another week there and flying out from KL.

pakeboi

What's the most common size in Japan today ?