DAILY BLOG

One of the challenges I have had this spring is trying to determine, given a limited budget, the appropriate amount of spare parts and equipment that we will need on route when/if things go wrong or when equipment (e.g., tires, chains) naturally wears out. With four of us riding, there are just so many variables.

How many flat tires should we plan on? Will a puncture ruin just the tube or the tire as well? Consider the likely scenario of one of us hitting a pothole somewhere along the way. Will we just need to true the wheel? Or will we need to fix broken spokes as well? Or could the rim break and permanently ruin the wheel? Will we need to replace brake pads? What about a spare chain? You get the idea.

Just how many of these nasty things are
we going to have over 2,500 miles?

For bicycle tours that have an open or flexible schedule, these issues are a little easier to deal with—simply take a spare tire/ tube, a couple spokes, and a spare chain, and for anything more serious, simply find the nearest bicycle store on route and let them fix it. However, because we have a fixed 28-day schedule with several events already planned along the way, we have little or no margin for error. If we assume nothing is going to go wrong, then we could find ourselves off the the bike, looking desperately for a bike store in the middle of the Arizona desert or else spending a fortune on an overnight Fedex shipment of a new part. But at the same time, we can’t take along everything nor could we afford accounting for every eventuality.

Perhaps another apparent victim of Rt. 62 West
(did I mention it is the worst road in the history of western civilization?)

I am relying on my experience from my two cross-country bicycle tours earlier in my life, advice from other bicyclists, and long hours of research on the web. But in the end, deciding on equipment to bring along is proving to be an exercise of weighing pocketbook concerns along side scenario management—and praying for wisdom each step of the way.