Its all about the bike

This one comes from my book 'Once Upon A Bike: A Florida to Maryland Bicycling Adventure', which for those of you who have not been following my shameless plugs, can be purchased through my website http://cycloscribe.com But this excerpt is free, albiet paraphrased some.

Of course, its not really all about the bike, as Lance Armstrong has so articulated, but I would strongly suggest that the right bike is critical to minimizing the chances for problems of the mechanical variety. There are enough concerns on the long road without having to deal with a steed constantly in need.

Many great choices are out there. There are many good sources of information to help determine what might work best for you, although in the final analysis, nothing works better than good old-fashioned test riding. Here's what worked for me:

I chose a 2007 Cannondale T2000, a pure touring bike. Of the several bikes I tested, the T2000 was, by far, the most comfortable and had the best gearing. That said, I did not test ride some of the more expensive models (Burley, CoMotion and Rivendell, to name those I can remember). I am sure they could have been good choices, but all were out of my price range. The T2000 set me back about $1,800. Here is what I got for my money (this gets into some technical and potentially boring bike-speak):

My T2000 has an aluminum touring geometry frame and a Fatty-R all-condition front fork, making for a very sturdy and dynamically stable platform for performance under load. The wheels are DT TK 7.1 36-hole machined rims outifiited with DT Swiss Competion spokes, also deisinged for load. The wheels were dressed standard with Schwalbe Marathon Kevlar-belted 700 x 37c reflective tires, which I will swear by as long as they make 'em.

The tranny includes a Shimano FC M470 Hollowtech 26/36/48 crank with a Shimano Tiagra front derailleur (so-so in the front)., and in the rear a SRAM PG-970, 11-34 nine speed cog with a Shimano XT rear derailleur. Original equipment also included the Shimano Ultegra STI shifters to control the whole affair, but I replaced them with the Shimano Dura-Ace bar-end shifters with front shifting in the friction mode. This change made finding the sweet spot for each gear much cleaner. The STIs would not satisfactorily index through the wide range of chain travel under load.

Also standard on the T2000 was a rear rack, to which I outfitted Sunlite waterproof panniers that performed well in the rain. I found it necessary to trade out the stock Fizik seat for a Brooks saddle which I spent my training months breaking in with no regrets. I was and remain delighted with the Satori Poise SC suspension seat post - the innovation of a modest shock absorber in the seat post made all fo the difference in the world.

I added a spacious Jandd handlebar bag, complete with side pockets, a front pocket, and a waterproof cue sheet sleeve on the top. Due to its size and weight (with stuff), I devised a stabilizier to minimize bouncing and take the shear stress off of the mounting bolts.

I alos added the Garmin 705 GPS bicycle computer, which was new technology at the time. It proved extremely beneficial and interesting, but was a diappointment in several respects (a blog for another time; it would be interesting to hear from others on this). After my trip, Garmin sent me the link to upload the software patches that were needed to correct the problems.

After equipping the bicycle with all of the above and a full load, I discovered that a flashing taillight mounted directly to the rear rack was hopelessly obscured by the panniers and rack load. So, I fabricated a two light assembly that mounted to the rear rack and protruded beyond the rear panniers with one conspicuous Blackburn watereproof flashing LED taillight on each side of the bicycle.

Now you know my touring bike!

Larry