The bike first. After much research all roads seemed to lead me to a Trek 520 touring bike and as luck would have it one the correct size for me was up for sale on Ebay in
A successful bid later and I was the proud owner of a near-new black Trek 520 ... but that was the easy part.
Days after collecting my new bike I set out on a casual 100km or so ride that ended up proving to be very enlightning in more ways than one.
Firstly, I very quickly worked out that the gearing of the bike was totally inadequate for a major tour carrying 25 or so kilos of additional weight. Secondly, the seat that comes with the Trek 520 was a total joke and was in fact possibly the worst bicycle seat I have ever had the mispleasure of introducing my backside to and thirdly, the stem of the bike, for me, was too low to be able to sit in a comfortable touring position.
Immediately on my return I set about rectifying all three problems and once again the result was much research on the internet.
All roads very quickly led me to ordering a Brooks leather saddle from the UK. If what I was reading was true more than 50% of long distance tourers use Brooks saddles, so that was good enough for me.
As things have worked out it was a good move, with the seat taking about 400 to 500km to break in. Now well into my preparation for the trip at least a sore backside isn't one of my problems.
If only the bike gearing issue could have been solved as easily. My research on the internet seemed to indicate that many others before me had run into the same problem and had been able to successfully fit new gear ratios.
No worries, I thought, head off to my local bike shop and get a price to do just that. But, as I soon worked out, there are bike shops and there are bike shops. It soon became apparent that the owner of my LBS - where I had been going for a number of years - had no idea about gear ratios, so he called his "gearing expert" mechanic over into the conversation. A couple of phone calls later and a lot of talk about nothing, the so-called expert said he was afraid to tell me some bad news. What I wanted to do wasn't possible and if I really planned to do a major cycling tour I had better "toughen up".
You could have knock me over with a feather. Toughen up, I thought, what a bloody cheek, time to get some advice from another bike shop.
Five shops later and with not much more success (although at least no one else told me to toughen up) and I finally hit gold with Liam Clarey at Bicycle World at Southport on the Gold Coast. A former pro cyclist in Europe, Liam not only said what I wanted to do WAS possible, but in no time had all the necessary parts ordered and on the bike.
The result is the original 52/42/30 front gearing and 11-32 back cassette being ditched in favour of a 46/36/22 and 12-36 set up. And what a difference it makes - and I didn't even need to toughen up!!!!! Now I can confidently tackle the worst hills Europe can throw at me and all going well I should be able to conquer them.
With the gearing issue solved, the final thing to resolve was the height of the handlebars. On my first few rides on the bike it seemed as though I could never get comfortable. I would ride about 40km or so before between my shoulders started to freeze, thus requiring me to stop and stretch every 15 or so km thereafter. But once again it was Liam to the rescue with a fork extension that finally put me in a comfortable position just right for touring.
Other changes to the bike include the addition of a Tubus front pannier rack, Topeak rear pannier rack in favour of the original Trek rack that didn't suit my pannier bags, the addition of a second set of brake levers (for safety reasons) and the addition of a second stem suitable to put my handlebar bag on.
It all sounds straight forward enough, but all in all it was quite a task to get everything "just right".
In conjunction with all the bike issues, there has also been the not insignificant task of purchasing all the necessary camping gear including tent, cooking utensils, mini stove, suitable clothing, spare parts etc etc etc.
Finally with about 6 weeks to go before my April 21 departure for Portugal just about everything is in place.
Can't wait to start pedalling!!!
