Finally-I Can Begin to Begin

I can now finally begin to start touring.

I have my bike, a trailer, most of my gear, and seem to have recovered enough to start training.

My steed:

My Ride

I haven't given her a name yet, but (to me) she sure is pretty.  She is a 2012 KHS Urban Xcel (supposedly short for accelerate).  I won't bore you with component details, but if you want you can get them here.  I picked this bike primarily because it had what I was looking for--steel frame, disc brakes, longish wheelbase, 9x3 drive train, and upright geometry all at a price I could afford.  I am already looking at potential upgrades in the components and wheels, but what I have now looks solid enough to get me going and keep me going through some initial trips.

Interim Cockpit

I have added some things to the basic bike to make her more trip worthy.  The first thing I did was change the handlebars from the mountain-bike style bars that came with her to a set of trekking bars.  (This picture is to show the bars;  The cockpit isn't complete and I plan on a seperate post on just the cockpit once it is.)




I love these bars for a couple of reasons the main one being multiple hand positions.  I have always had issues with hand numbness, and since my heart-attack this issue has gotten worse, so being able to move my hands around a lot while still maintaining control of my bike is a big deal to me.  The trekking bars accommodate this quite well while providing a lot of space for mounting all of the paraphernalia that I want close at hand--lights, computers, bar bag, GPS, etc.

The next addition was fenders.  I am not a big fan of road spray to the face, so fenders were almost mandatory unless I only ride on dry roads.  During drought season here this isn't an issue, but during the other 2/3 of the year it is, so I bought a set of Axiom Rainrunner Trekk Reflex fenders.  I will probably post a review of these later, but for now I will say that they were a real pain to install, but after installation they seem to be what I needed.

Then came the rear-rack.  This took me a while to decide upon.  I plan to use my Nomad for hauling gear, but I wanted a rack that could serve me for commuting/grocery duty as well as hold my solar charger and small things during a trip.  I settled on Topeak's Super Tourist because it seemed to fit the bill for everything I was looking for.  I also got the Trolley Tote for grocery runs.

I have mentioned commuting and grocery runs a couple of times now.  These are big in my overall plan, because they supply training miles.  I have decided to park my Jeep and use my bike for anything I possibly can, which is why I have tried to go for gear that fulfill multiple roles.  Since I am neither independently wealthy or retired I have to spend a good part of my life working to pay the bills and buy what I need for touring. So, in order to do the needed training for touring I use my bike to travel to job sites (when feasible) and to do my daily errands (grocery, recycling, post office, etc.) then on the weekends I ride farther and do practice runs with the trailer.

Some other things I have gotten for my new-found obsession include my Voltaic solar charger, a USB battery charger to use with the Voltaic, a new MP3 player, and a rain jacket.  There are still things I want/need, but they will have to come as I can afford them.