T MINUS 29 AND COUNTING
Today is the proverbial start of the countdown that takes all my years of touring experience mixes that with the ‘but I want to take this and this and this and don’t forget this “ toss with a generous sprinkle of reality and hopefully come up with a bike bag and gear combo that weighs less than a house.
A couple of wrinkles have now been exposed with my original touring plan. First is the city commuter bike. The concept was could a medium priced commuter/city bike be ridden all winter then with the addition of a few panniers become a solid touring beast. And the Answer is ??? Sort of yes and no.
How is that you might ask and a good question if I must say so myself. This bike to stay within the price point has some parts that the manufacture cut corners to stay within this price range. I have in roughly five hundred miles replaced my brake pads twice and am due for another set. Rim wear is starting to show as this brake problem and rim problem are related. Tires are ready to be replaced. Now all in all this isn’t the fault of the bike as a five hundred dollar bike was not expected to be bomb proof. But I look at the possible failure of other parts as a sure bet. Replacement costs would not/will not be high that was and still is the beauty of this bike. The ease of wheeling it into the Local Bike Shop and having them take care of these issues or new failures not a problem. Having a failure on a back road in Greece, finding a shop, hoping they have the right parts, not my picture of a great day spent on tour.
So I am back to using my touring beast. Loaded photos will be posted soon.
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