The life of Trek

Based on the previous two posts by my team mates, you might be thinking that Blue Trek (aka. my one) is unsuitable for this epic journey across two countries; over mountains, through jungle and across a salt pan. While being the oldest, and possible most lovingly used bike in the group, I have no doubt that Trek will not let me, or the team down. 

Trek could not have been a much better birthday present to a 12 year boy living in Aberdeen -  a “proper” mountain bike. After a few years of splashing through muddy Scottish highland trails, Trek moved with me to Oman, where the desert dust compacted the joints, and the heat annealed the frame. During this spell Trek was stolen once (and chased after, and recovered), crashed several times, and picked up a pair of (admittedly crap) cheap tires - the kind that wear out faster than brake pads. Most recently Trek moved to Bath, where it has enjoyed an easy few years town riding, and a short holiday to Morocco. 

Now entering its 11th year, Trek is still going strong, and is raring to go for its next adventure. While some say Trek’s pannier rack is held together with string, and that it’s back wheel is about to fall off....and this is admittedly true....it will not be for long! A amazing touring upgrade will be revealed soon!

Planning, planning and more planning

As promised in my last post, planning for this trip has been providing plenty (probably too much) 'constructive' distraction from working on my final year project.

We've now got a rough outline route planned, internal transport booked and should be getting accommodation for the the first few days in Peru sorted soon. The rough plan at this point is to fly into Lima, spend a day there, ostensibly to look at the many and varied sights on offer (including several museums full of Inca pots and a water fountain display) but in probably in reality just to sleep off the jetlag of the flight over there. On the subject of our flight over to Peru, it has transpired that Iberia (who we have ended up flying with) have somehow still not fitted seat back TV screens on their planes despite it being the year 2013 which looks like it could make the 11 hour transatlantic flight even more of a feat of endurance that it already will be. I think I have at least partly solved this problem by acquiring a huge memory card for my phone to load up with films. I could even duct tape it to the seat in front to recreate the personal tv screen experience.

After our day sightseeing/sleeping in Lima, we fly on an internal flight from there to Cusco so we can go and see Machu Picchu. Although MP will obviously be very touristy and expensive, we though that we can't really fly half way around the world and bypass it. After a night in Cusco we are getting an early morning train into the mountains to a town called Aguas Calientes at the foot of the mountain that MP is on. After a night here we'll do the whole looking round MP/climbing a couple of the surrounding peaks thing before getting a train back to Cusco where after one more night in a hostel we'll start our cycling tour! I'll leave Sunny to explain the route of the bike ride because he's done more planning of it than I have.

Apart from all the planning, there has been a certain amount of kit purchasing which has caused me some cash flow issues recently (I had to ask the Bank of Mum & Dad for a loan the other day, wuh oh). Did a big online order this morning to kit out the bike with new pedals, cables, bar tape etc.

All getting very exciting.

Toby

Introducing Trek (the good one!)

To follow up on Toby's post, allow me to introduce the best bike in this trio. More importantly, I will be mocking Andy's bike.

Born as a mountain bike but used extensively for commuting, touring and off-roading duties, this Trek (not be confused with Andy's Trek) is an all round bad boy. It has been up the highest roads in the world, down some lovely Welsh trails and through Bristol's worst (admittedly tame) ghettos.

Andy's Trek on the other hand is old, frail and unloved.

The Trek wearing its full touring kit

The Other Trek in a typical state of disrepair

For the 2013 season, my Trek will be fitted with rigid forks and mechanical disc brakes to reduce weight and increase reliability. Everything else, I reckon, already does the job it needs to do in the Andes.

After some lessons learnt in the Atlas mountains, Andy's bike will now feature an all metal pannier rack (no string or duct tape to be seen here!) and pannier bags manufactured in this very century. There is even talk of replacing the quality suspension forks and Oman's finest bicycle tyres that this bike is currently adorning. Of course, a well known phrase acknowledging the difficulties in polishing a turd could be applicable here. 

That being said, as a consistent recipient of Sod's Law's worst, I would put my money on Andy's comically unsuitable bike coming out of this trip unscathed and mine and Toby's being utterly destroyed.

P.S. Andy, you are welcome to attack this somewhat unfair appraisal of your bike!      

Bikes & Flights

So we have collectively acquired three bikes and three return flights to South America. All that's left to do now is plan a route between Lima and La Paz that hopefully lets us avoid rabid dogs, altitude sickness, getting lost, running out of food/water and which satisfies Andy's stringent local election avoidance criteria (I'll leave him to explain his apparent fear of the democratic process). Needless to say, route planning for this trip will be used extensively as an excuse for 'constructive procrastination' whenever I get bored of doing my university final year project (the occurrences of which will be many and often).

Moving on to the bikes, I have managed to come by (via Ebay) this fine steed:

For the princely sum of £265 I have a dedicated touring bike with:

- Steel frame (strong and easy to get welded in some sketchy backstreet workshop if I have a frame failure related nightmare out there).
- Nice sturdy 26 inch touring wheels which are stronger than standard 700c road bike wheels, essential given the state of some of the roads I've had a look at on google earth.
- Mounting points all over the bike for things like panniers, disc brakes, bottle cages, pump holders etc.
- And most importantly, a nice low 'granny gear' because I'm a wimp when it comes to cycling up hills.

The bike looks like it's in fairly good nick, I might change the chain/cassette and possibly put new handlebars on it. I've got a (probably irrational) fear of the handlebars failing on old-ish second hand bikes after it happened to one of my other bikes. For the sake of 20 or 30 quid it might be worth putting a new handlebar on even if its just for the peace of mind. Other than that it looks like the only thing I'll have to do is put the seat and handlebars up a bit.

Needless to say this will blow Andy's Trek out of the water (his bike is currently held together with string, duct tape and prayers).

Toby