BIKE:
Orange 2009 P7 Pro (modified) 21″ with Tange steel frame in matt black – chose steel due to ease of repair (weld) & the ‘give’ of the ride for a heavy ‘passenger’ when compared to that of aluminium; had a very difficult job to find a steel mountain bike frame frame with panier eyelets but this fitted the bill; had my heart set on owning an Orange bike for years; one of few bikes to have replaceable drop-outs which mean this bike is potentially more easily repaired following damage to drop-outs in a crash than those with fixed drop-outs; this frame has over a decade of history as a long-haul off-road tourer
Fork (mod) – Surly Karate Monkey 29″ steel; oversize in order to preserve the geometry after swapping out the stock Fox suspension fork; the drop in height from swapping is 6mm & the fork has the longest axle-crown length of any I could find; didn’t go with suspension fork due to having one extra thing to service / go wrong
Headset – FSA TH 857
Bottom Bracket – Shimano XT Hollowtech II; really easy to remove cranks with just an Allen key & a wide-bladed screwdriver; faultless even when full of water!
Crank – Shimano XT 175mm
Chainrings – Shimano XT 44-32-22
Cassette – XT 11-34 9sp; later Deore due to extra strength
Front Derailleur – Shimano XT
Rear Derailleur – Shimano XT Shadow 9sp
Shifters – Shimano XT Rapidfire+ 9sp
Chain – Shimano HG / SRAM; basically as strong & therefore heavy as I could get & lasted for almost 3,000 miles which is pretty amazing considering its use
Brakes (mod) – Avid BB7 Mechanical Disc 185mm front & 160mm rear; Avid FR-5 levers; later 160mm at front with new wheels; swapped-out standard hydraulic disc brakes as hydraulics are one more thing to service / go wrong; renowned as being some of the strongest brakes available & lived up to their reputation; utterly amazing, especially with 185mm rotors at the front on fast dirt descents carrying 400 lbs!!!!
Seat Post (mod) – Thomson Elite, extra length
Saddle – SDG Bel Air RL
Stem – Orange Stalk+
Handlebars – Orange Supercross+
Pedals (mod) – Time ATAC
Hubs – Shimano disc XT 32 hole; 36 hole with new wheels for extra strength after cracked rim around 1,000 miles
Spokes – Silver Champion; DT Swiss with new wheels
Rims (mod) – Mavic XC717 26″; Sun Rims Rhyno Lite with new wheels; see above
Skewers – Shimano XT QR
Tyres – Schwalbe Marathon Cross 1.75″; later Schwalbe Marathon Plus 1.75″ with Kevlar reinforced sidewalls & a latex layer under tread to resist punctures
Tubes – initially standard Presta; later extra-thick with ‘Slime’ within & Shrader
Racks – Tubus steel front & rear; chose steel due to ease of repair (weld)
Front Panniers – Ortlieb Bike Roller Plus at 25 litres capacity for the pair
Rear Panniers – Ortlieb Bike Roller Plus at 40 litres capacity for the pair
Bar-bag – Ortlieb Ultimate5 Plus at 7 litres with attached map-case
Holdall – Ortlieb Rack Pack Medium at 30 litres
(these paniers never ever leaked even when accidentally left in a puddle for the night! the front / rear paniers were also used with a rucksack-adapter which was carried)
Weight – Approx. 26 lbs empty, approx. 30-35 lbs with racks, & upwards of 150 lbs fully-laden, max 190 lbs on Dalton; I weighed about 210 lbs i.e. max total of 400 lbs …
CLOTHING:
Gore Gore-Tex ProShell Waterproof Jacket with roll-up hood (XXL, black, cycling-cut) – great jacket but sometimes too warm; with matching trousers and SIDI shoes I was often mistaken for a motor biker by other motor bikers as the kit seems to have that kind of ‘look’
Gore Gore-Tex ProShell Waterproof Trousers (XXL, black, cycling-cut) – again, great and often worn at the end of day with jacket to stop heat-loss or simply to foil mosquitoes! Felt quite smart and could wear out of an eve most times. XXL but only a 34″ waist! My 44″ hips (cycling develops the gluteus, or that’s my excuse at least!) meant they were a snug fit though!
Gore SoftShell Windstopper Fleece (XXL, black, cycling-cut) – wore in light snow and sometimes on bike and in evenings but only combined with ProShell jacket when well below freezing (northern Alaska, parts of southern Wyoming, central Colorado and central New Mexico); great ‘pit-zips’
Gore Microfleece (XXL, black, cycling-cut) – wore absolutely loads, an old favourite that’s been to all sorts of places previously, on and off the bike; ‘sheen’ finish; rolling up and down sleeves allows great temperature control since I seem to lose a lot of heat through my forearms!
Other Thermal Layers & Underwear – Cycling jersey with ‘Malt Loaf’ styling, used almost every day, great, zip pocket often held MP3; Nike Microfleece, a back-up if all else was wet or in addition to the above if extremely cold, hardly used; Long-sleeve thermal vest, polyester, made and bought in Nepal for $2 in 2002, best constructed thermal vest ever and used on this trip loads; Lowe Alpine thermal t-shirts x2, usually used on top of the above long-sleeve if cool but where no shell required, in future maybe just one but in Merino (and same for the long-sleeve) to avoid the smell after used would have been ok; Cotton t-shirts x2 then x3, probably too many but good for cycling in hot humid weather; Lowe Alpine thermal long-johns, started with 2 pairs but discarded 1 pair, with Thermal long-sleeve vest, wore in sleeping bag if cold; North Face Elastaine tights, never used, kept as a back-up if all else wet or if vvv cold! Underpants, 3 pairs, trunks, not worn on bike
Socks, Hats & Gloves – Sealskinz waterproof socks, x2 thin pairs & x1 thick pair; great but don’t ring dry as waterproofing is damaged! Socks of wool / artificial fibre combo, 2 pairs, both needed replacing at 4,000 miles; Salomon fleece hat, grey, just thick enough to wear in cold when stationary & just thin enough to fit under helmet when loosened if riding when absolutely bitterly cold; ‘Buff’ with Polartec fleece, dark green, great in northern Alaska and the odd blizzard to pull up over face; Gore ear-warmer head-band, great, used quite a bit; Short-finger cycling gloves, lent by ‘Downhill Dave’, leather palm, used every day although first 2 weeks had bare hands or long-finger gloves; Sealskinz long-finger winter gloves (XXL, black) great, warm, but either not totally waterproof or maybe not totally breathable, although it could be that I damaged the gloves by ringing them dry; Gore polyester glove liners(XXL, black) never used but good to know I had them, very light; Silk balaclava, silk gloves, silk socks, never used but pack absolutely tiny & good to know I had these if it had ever been below -10c when out in the open, at rest; Tour de France golf cap, worn off bike when very hot
Shorts & other Trousers – Pearl Izumi cycling shorts (XXL, black) got a lot of use!; Endura 3/4 length cycling shorts (XXL, black) used at first in Alaska & Yukon but my calves got bigger so these became too small and I got matching ‘incisions’ behind both knees! Endura full-length thermal salopettes (XXL, black) an old favourite for v cold weather, combines with cycling shorts & if vv cold (-5c and lower) with thermal leggings too and very occasionally with Waterproof trousers on top when very cold and windy; Lowe Alpine trekking trousers, off-bike wear; ‘Full Circle’ poly / nylon ‘desert trousers’ – as above; pack small, wash easily, dry quickly; Tenson cargo shorts, usually wore over cycle shorts most days
Giro Athlon helmet – great although would ideally have taken replacement liner as it would later ‘ride-up’ leaving a nice dent in my forehead after a long day! High-DEET bug spray melted some of the lining!
Western Mountaineering 900-fill down jacket (black, XL) – Packs into a pocket, weighs 200g, astonishing bit of gear, used all over before this trip; I’ve never been cold wearing this even at close to -20c & I cannot believe the speed with which it warms me up; wore in sleeping bag when below -10c in Alaska and Colorado Rockies in late October
Overshoes – wore out 2 pairs walking through the brush when camping; great for walking through snow; v difficult to gt a pair to fit over the mountain bike tread on my cycling shoes; maybe the current Enduro MTB Kevlar reinforced ones will work…?
SIDI Dominator 5 Pro MTB cycling shoes (Euro 50, wide) – amazing, amazing; had tested a pair for years previously although these were the wide fitting in order to accommodate extra socks which took my ordering 3 different sizes before I got the fit right since shops don’t tend to stock ‘clown shoes’ of this length! Even with the rigid sole I was able to walk a few miles in them, negating the need to swap shoes at the end of the day if knackered although I wonder at the state of my knees in order for me to be able to do this! Lorica material is astonishing and dries better than leather and is so incredibly tough
Terroc 330 Fell-running shoe (Euro 48) – aggressive sole and toe guard but very light and quick-drying; used when off bike for a day or so and to go trekking
(also took Reflective vests – v lightweight x2, wore 1 every day and other strapped to back of bike)
CAMPING & SLEEPING GEAR:
Macpac Minaret 2-man mountain tent – Generally amazing although could do with thicker groundsheet for rocky patches (think I may have made a few holes in it as a result); at 6’5″ this was just about the right size for me on my own; after a couple of months of day-in-day-out use some of the stitching around the pegs failed and repairs every few weeks with my sewing kit were required! Seam sealant for silicon-ed fabrics plus fabric patches (make sure you use the one for siliconised fabrics otherwise it will just peel off when dry, something which I found out to my immense frustration!)
Spare ground sheet – not used at first; had eyelets and cord at corners to act as an extra shelter if needed; one side was reflective to act as a survival blanket and to reflect heat back into tent (later it was used every night under the tent)
Thermarest Prolite Plus (extra long) – with compression sack & integral ‘stuff pillow’ (utilising clothes) plus external compressible foam large pillow; started with more comfortable Exped Synmat 7 but valve broke (a known glitch) so swapped in Whitehorse, Yukon
Northface Superlight down sleeping bag (extra long) – used with Lifesystems silk liner & stuff sack, rated to -20c, big, luxurious fairly heavy bag but a great friend in sad kind of way! Getting good sleep along with eating properly, regulating my temperature and looking after the bike were key to be able to keep going
(all of the above after much practice to perfect the technique would, astonishingly fit into the 30 litre Ortlieb Rackpack which sat on top of the 2 rear paniers)
COOKING GEAR:
Primus Omnifuel stove with x3 fuel bottles – included maintenance kit to service; lost ‘flame spreader’ on day 1 so next time would take spare (after a few weeks of eating cold food / using a donated stove / eating out) a replacement was fashioned from a bottle-top and some wire found by the roadside which would usually last for a couple of weeks before a new bottle-top was needed!
Kathmandu 3 piece aluminium pot-set – married to baby fork & spoon (really!); bought in Tasmania; fantastic, incredibly light & tough, all packs into one pot & even survived being used with a welding torch on the Dalton!
Bottles, cups, bowls – x2 large (750 ml each) cycle water bottles; x2 mineral water bottles at 1.5 litres each; 3 litre bladder for very long / hot days & cooking when wild camping; Collapsible rubber cup & bowl – fantastic invention; Thermos, ditched once into lower latitudes but a godsend when stove broke as every couple of days I was able to get some hot water
Food – depending on resupply options carried between 2 weeks & a few days worth of food (see FAQ for info on food)
(the above generally fitted in a 20 litre panier with occasional need to overspill to dry-bags)
Attachment – x4 bungee cords – held on dry-bags when needing to carrying more food & also held on maps & clothes for quick-access e.g. rain gear; x3 30 litre dry-bags; 15m thin Paracord, mostly used to hoist food into trees when available, in bear areas
(bear precautions when there were no trees or trees were insufficiently strong meant walking a few hundred feet away from the tent and leaving each bag at a separate location to minimise the risk of everything being raided – food, stove, pans, utensils, toiletries & first-aid kit were kept in dry-bags with each item zip locked inside those)
MEDICAL & HYGIENE:
Medical Kit – Bandages, suture-kit, strapping, plasters, blister-kit, dressings, needles & syringes (including doctor’s letter), iodine fluid (hardcore antiseptic), Germolene cream (mild antiseptic), Daktacort (anti-fungal), gloves, CPR instructions, paracetamol (analgesic), aspirin (analgesic), ibuprofen (anti-inflammatory), loperamide (anti-diarrhoea), clarityn (anti-allergy), Sudafed (decongestant), rehydration salts, water purification tablets (chlorine for low risk & iodine for high risk), Vics inhaler stick, malaria tablets (Malarone & Proguanil), Ciproflaxin antibiotic (for stomach infections), amoxicillin (for chest, sinus, organ, wound & blood infections), buchal maleate (anti-vomiting), garlic capsules, vitamin tablets, Vaseline tub, small oral thermometer
Wash kit – Toothbrush, toothpaste, floss (used daily), tiny stick deodorant (rarely used due to bear-risk!), bug spray, SPF 50 sun lotion, aftersun moisturiser, antibacterial hand gel
COMMS, SAFETY & LEISURE:
Navigation – Silva Compass with Mirror & whistle, Bear Spray, Bear Bell (yes, I know, the jury is still out on their effectiveness!), SPOT GPS tracking / emergency response device with tracking & airlift subscription
Maps – pages from a Rand McNally Road Atlas bought in 2000 turned-out to be the best maps I could find for much of the lower 48 states; otherwise I bought local maps or used free ones; I’d send home maps once I’d moved through that area; along with the Times Atlas of the World (not carried!) the Rand McNally Atlas was used for provisional route planning before the trip commenced
Light & Power – Cateye LED head torch, Cateye LED red backlight, Sunglasses (Oakley, prescription lenses), glasses with band on back, plastic glasses case, ‘Solar Technology’ Li-battery pack with leads, plugs & solar panel (the latter broke!) to charge mobile phone from AA batteries / USB / external Li-battery / solar panel (AA battery pack overheated & melted!), USB adaptor wall-plug, Americas wall-plug adaptor, spare AA, AAA & CR batteries, including Li AA batteries for SPOT (x2)
Nokia N96 Mobile phone on Orange UK – a key bit of kit for me; battery needs replacement after almost 6 months of use; took a long time choosing as wanted to avoid carrying extra MP3 player & GPS, plus, wanted to have GPS that could operate in absence of cellphone network (unlike iPhone); had standalone GPS including street maps used in Mexican cities; 32 GB of memory (16 GB from microSD) with 6,000+ songs (took hours & hours to get them onto the phone but it was worth it!) so used as MP3 with in-ear headphones & often rode with one ‘bud’ in place on road; has Wi-Fi so used to update Twitter & website sidebar when it was too much of a faff to get out laptop; downloaded podcasts as well; next time might get phone unlocked in order use locally purchased SIMs (cheaper calls)
Canon Powershot SX1 IS still & video camera – amazing if quite heavy, bought on journey out; 500 mm optical zoom! CMOS full-HD video; camcorder-style swivelling screen great for self portraits / monologues; 4x AA batteries meant no extra charger required; took 20 GB in SD cards
HP Pavilion dv2 12″ laptop with external DVD-writer – 4.6 lbs; sometimes watched DVDs in tent (sad!); touchpad mouse broke in damp / cold weather so bought USB travel mouse with retractable cord; 320 GB storage; great for doing larger blog entries; bought in Fairbanks, Alaska
Suunto T6 wrist computer– with Roadbike ‘pod’ skewer on front-wheel which gave speed & distance but broke after 1,000 miles in SE Alaska so reverted to using road signs / mile markers to judge distance; used cheap ‘wired’ Cateye Odometer in Mexico; Suunto T6 gave altitude reading too
Lock – Combination (code) 1m long bike lock (not really hugely secure as could be snipped with wire cutters so more of a deterrent); padlock
BIKE TOOLS & SPARES:
Air – Axiom Enforce Air DLX Gauge Pump (great, can be used like a ‘track pump’ & gauge is fantastic for getting pressures right & thus prolonging life of tyre sidewalls when they’re under so much weight); Crank Bros mini-pump (spare, bought in Fairbanks, AK); 2-3 spare tubes (later ones extra-thick & filled with ‘resealing’ liqueous polymer); 1 spare folding tyre; puncture kit (glue, few dozen patches); tyre levers (although the rim & tyre combo I used meant I could pretty much swap tyres with just my fingers even though they have a wired bead – that said, if I was forced to buy a different tyre for some reason then the levers might be essential)
Lubes etc – Ceramic grease for bearings (60g tube); ‘Finish Line’ winter wet lube (from Montana onwards I cleaned the chain every day & used lube only when the chain started squeaking – this worked well & the cassette & chain wore noticeably less); tiny tube of blue loctite for crucial bolts
Spares – Spare Brake Pads x4 (I generally got 1,000 miles from a set but would take more next time as they’re often tricky to find); spare bearings (for cones or headset); spare spokes (maybe 20 – be sure to get the right sizes for the wheel-build & also to label inner and outer somehow); spare cables & housings (would work for both brakes & gears – replaced rear gear cable after 2,800 miles, otherwise ran same ones for the whole trip); selection of spare nuts, bolts, washers, eyelets; zip ties; elastic bands; jubilee clip; wire; nylon cord; tape; spare webbing for panier-closures (used once to rebuild a broken panier); spare panier plastic attachment-clips; panier patching material (used once when I wore a hole in a front panier from taking a bend too tightly and scraping the panier along the road; also used on the dry-bags after I wore holes in them with the back of my shoes when the bike was so heavily loaded on the Dalton!); replacement ‘drop-outs’ for the Orange P7 (one of the reasons I chose the P7 is that you can annihilate the drop-outs in a crash & unlike most other bikes, rebuild the bike on the road rather than, at best, rebuild in a workshop or, at worst, discard the frame)
Tools – x2 multitools (1 spare in case of loss / breakage); Leatherman with wood & metal saws & files, scissors & pliers / wire strippers & knife; Chain-whip & cassette extractor (next time could use just the extractor tool in addition to wide-jaw pliers perhaps); spoke key