My Bike Gave me Some Lemons – But We Know What to Do…

There’s nothing like making plans to help identify the weak spots in one’s personal infrastructure. Take last week’s planned long ride. As you likely remember, the bike I use for long rides, a lighter, more agile one than my daily commuter, was having some trouble and needed to go to the shop for fixes and upgrades.

Well the verdict came back early in the week. It’s got a lot of issues preventing it from being readily upgradeable and in fact needed lots of maintenance stuff to be done just to be roadworthy for a long bike ride like I’m planning. Add to that the more recent news that it looks like it wasn’t even put together that well by the guy who sold it to me (he made the custom build himself). So even using it for a trainer bike was a stretch. So today I just came back with a few parts, some decent wheels/tires, handlebars/aero bars and a seat. The rest was tossed.

So now I am back down to one bike. Now to be fair, it’s a really good bike for what it is: a 2012 Surly Long Haul Trucker. Car drivers might imagine this as the Toyota Land Cruiser of bikes. I’ve got fenders, racks and panniers and could literally fit everything on it that I needed to live on the road indefinitely. Clothes, spare parts, food, stove, tent, sleeping bag. It’s a steel frame too and I’ve outfitted it with “trekker bars” so that I can ride mostly upright and choose a few different positions to ride in. In the winter I even put studded tires on it and ride it in the snow and ice. I love it a lot but as you might imagine that makes it a little heavy. Even with no gear on it it’s over 30 lbs. I could ride it to Montreal, maybe even in 3 days like I want to but I’ve done 200 km on that bike before. It’s a long slow ride. Comfortable? Yes, but slow.

The old bike, a Kona Private Jake that I upgraded a bit is more like a sporty Subaru hatchback. Quick but not super quick, handles well, is comfortable (I had a fit done and it was done really well). I have a set of Apidura frame bags that would give me enough space to travel light – not too much less than Jenny Graham used to go around the world. It was reasonably quick and comfortable. A decent bike that carried me on 200-250 km rides comfortably and as easily as one can do that distance. I was so pleased with its fit that I was prepared to ride it even in an ultracycling race.

So now I need something to fill the gap. I struggled a bit with this as what I need is likely to be a bit pricier than any bike I’ve bought before. Part of me fell down the usual rabbit hole of “Oh forget it. You’re getting older, just scale back.” I went back and forth in my mind, and, it feels a little weird to admit, back and forth with an AI to help sort out what to do. In the end, pushing myself on my bike is what I love doing. Were I to be independently wealthy I’d likely do an enormous months-long tour (I’m thinking Mumbai to Kolkata along the coast then back across the Western Ghats and maybe further – or heck, at this point I’m almost old enough to aim for a “oldest man to circumnavigate the globe by bike” attempt. Though I hear now that it is likely that if I might have to wait another ten years or more now if this guy succeeds). With the economy and contracts being what they are, I’m not even sure if I can do any international travel for a while. So being able to ride 250-300 km/day crams tons more adventure into a day or a long weekend than I could do on a slower, heavier bike.

So while I haven’t given up the idea of another bike tour in India or even an ultracycling race there, the realist in me knows I also have to not put off the fun and adventure until December or January – if it even happens. (And the cost of this bike might well make it not happen). But I’m not easily deterred. I have already made some additional “world travel inspired” plans. To start, I’ve been meaning to ride from Delhi to Lucknow for a while.

And OK, they do pronounce Delhi “Dell-High” but if you’re not even on the same continent, who’s checking up?

And hey, Paris is not too far from Brantford on the map and you can see London there as well. So that’s an option. Heck, there’s a whole “tour of Europe” I could do. And that doesn’t even take into account some of the landmarks I could make it to like Pelee Island – Canada’s southernmost point or Tobermory with its flowerpot rocks that I’ve been meaning to check out for a while. And while we might be boycotting the US indefinitely, nothing is stopping me from visiting The Big Apple:

(Apple pie is excellent cycling fuel!)

And yes, these have always been options but for some reason that’s not fully clear to me I’ve been focused on trips outside of Ontario and maybe missing out on some of the local opportunities to increase my endurance and either prepare for those more exotic trips or at the very least keep myself in excellent shape.

So wish me luck shopping tomorrow and watch for some of these tours in the near future.