1996 Kona Hahanna

[bikeworkshop]

View attachment 953749

This is the route I have planned. Tried to do a mix of all surfaces and scouted out some potential spots to pitch up for the night. I've given myself two days to complete this even though the most I've ever cycled at once was only 60km! This will be my icebreaker into the world of touring/bikepacking. Forecast looks somewhat miserable but I'm keen on firming the rain.

Two days do you mean one night, 120km/day?

Watch out on the kennet and Avon, my wife and I had 14 punctures riding to Bristol from Reading

Nesting season should keep the hedge trimmers away, you might be safe!

 

[originsoundd]

Two days do you mean one night, 120km/day?

Watch out on the kennet and Avon, my wife and I had 14 punctures riding to Bristol from Reading

Nesting season should keep the hedge trimmers away, you might be safe!

Yep, 120km a day.

14 punctures! From what?

 

[bikeworkshop]

Mostly blackthorn - because the thorns spiral down the twig, if you get a 100mm length, it's usually got a massive spike sticking right up in the middle.
Looks like a lot of the k&A hedges are thorn - on our ride, they'd just been cut

 

[originsoundd]

Shakedown ride went well! Bike is suprisingly comfortable and the flat bars are definetly better for handling than the super swept ones. An adequate confidence boost. Frustratingly, my saddle clamp began to slip about 3/4 of the way through my ride so I'm gonna have to stick on a slightly smaller 26.8mm post in place of the 27.0mm one as my other 27.0mm post is super short.

 

[originsoundd]

Yep, toast. Hard to see but the ridges in the middle where the saddle stays level are much flatter than the others.

​

 

[bikeworkshop]

Can I suggest you stick an old pair of bar ends in your luggage?
120km/day is quite a lot of riding with just one upper body position - it might be fine... in which case you won't need them, and the adjustable stem gives options.

A lower bar, becomes more comfortable with distance.

A high bar makes climbing out of the saddle feel awkward -
A lot of your riding is flat, which can lead you into never standing up, which in turn can lead to saddle soreness.

After inner tubes, the rider is the 2nd most delicate component.

Looks like a great tripgood luck with the weather

 

[originsoundd]

Can I suggest you stick an old pair of bar ends in your luggage?
120km/day is quite a lot of riding with just one upper body position - it might be fine... in which case you won't need them, and the adjustable stem gives options.

A lower bar, becomes more comfortable with distance.

A high bar makes climbing out of the saddle feel awkward -
A lot of your riding is flat, which can lead you into never standing up, which in turn can lead to saddle soreness.

After inner tubes, the rider is the 2nd most delicate component.

Looks like a great tripgood luck with the weather

Good shout. I do have some that I can use but the grips are an absolute nightmare to get off so I'd probably have to install them today. Maybe I'll do it in the evening. I have to push a ziptie in, spray a bunch of isopropyl alcohol and then use brute force to pull them off. Probably takes about 10-15 mins per grip!

 

[originsoundd]

Can I suggest you stick an old pair of bar ends in your luggage?
120km/day is quite a lot of riding with just one upper body position - it might be fine... in which case you won't need them, and the adjustable stem gives options.

A lower bar, becomes more comfortable with distance.

A high bar makes climbing out of the saddle feel awkward -
A lot of your riding is flat, which can lead you into never standing up, which in turn can lead to saddle soreness.

After inner tubes, the rider is the 2nd most delicate component.

Looks like a great tripgood luck with the weather

Where would you recommend to put the bar ends? On the ends or close to the stem for an "aero" position.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Best put them on the ends so you can lean forwards, and climb out of the saddle.

 

[originsoundd]

Well, that was extremely fun. My first time ever touring and I already am planning the next one. My setup felt like a pretty mixed bag overall and there's lots of things I want to change. I managed to complete 109km the first day and 129km the second day. Not sure how I didn't notice this before but my rear mech was setup totally wrong and I didn't have access to my smallest cog so I was basically using 3x6! Many situations arose where I needed that extra gearing so it's nice to know it's there for next time. I had no mechanical issues apart from a loose bottle cage but I did manage to crash twice.

On the second day there was about 25km of farm track that had been driven over by big 4x4s in the wet and as a result you got this stripey, alternating (parallel to direction of travel) grass and dry mud. The dry mud was about 20-30cm lower down than the grass verges so if you rode in those your pedals would strike the grass either side of it, but if you rode on the grass it was only about 30-50cm wide and sometimes narrowed to even less. My tires just being BMX tires repetitively slipped down the grass parts into the mud! Pretty minor most times but it happened once on a sweeping downhill left turn and I tumbled pretty hard. Second time was on my way back into London, a Lime bike rider was on his phone and pulled out without looking and hit me. ._.

My route was pretty bad and I put myself through a lot of pain and misery just to avoid roads with cars on them. I ended up ignoring my GPS for certain sections just to get the kms down. Definitely got a lot of planning to do for my bigger trip in summer.