Adventure Inspiration, 2018 December

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Another month of Adventure Inspiration. Things I've read or watched in the past month that makes me want to go on an adventure right now. Here in Sweden it is currently -11°C, longing for warm cycling days.

GCN Goes Bikepacking In The Atlas Mountains, Morocco

If I didn't already long for June and my own Stelvio 2019 trip... This video just makes me want to go already!


Bikepacking 101 - Lessons Learned in the Mountains
Liz Blair writes down lessons learned during her first bikepacking in the Alpine Loop


Backpacker: Pass/Fail: Go Bikepacking
First verdict of bikepacking from a seasoned backpacker.


Bikepacking.com: A Guide To Traveling Tubeless

One of my biggest headaches. Should I go tubeless for the Stelvio 2019 trip or wait until after. I think that in the end it will be up to budget. But this was a really good guide, no reason not to go tubeless other then cash at the moment (i.e. my bike will already have tyres, and buying new ones before they wear out is a bit wasteful)

Bike und Bier: How to Setup Tubeless Tires for Air Travel
Good article trying to cover all there is to know about air travel with a bike with tubeless setup.

Unboxing Marmot Micron 40 Long

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My new sleeping bag arrived! Read how I ended up buying this one in Finding the best sleeping bag for my requirements.
I'm 190 long and the Marmot Micron 40 Long version fit perfectly. When minimizing the hood, just my nose poked outside. I'll let the photos talk the rest.

Marmot Micron 40 Long arrived in its storage bag. Bottle of home made cider for scale (33cl bottle)

Marmot Micron 40 Long rolled out, with its storage bag and compression bag on top.

Marmot Micron 40 Long in its compression bag, bottle of home made cider for scale (33cl bottle)

My Marmot Micron 40 Long hanging in its winter storage in the storage bag that it came in waiting for the next adventure!

Disclaimer
I bought this product myself and this is my opinion on them. I am in no way affiliated with the manufacturer of this product. Neither did I get paid to link to any site that is mentioned in this post. 

Finding the best sleeping bag for my requirements

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Finding the right sleeping bag can be a total nightmare. I thought that I'd done my research but when my bag arrived today, I sent it back to the store.
Why? Too large packed volume. Need something smaller to fit on my bike.

This  post is tagged Stelvio 2019 as that is the trip that needs a sleeping bag. And there are some requirements that the bag needs to fulfil. Mainly

• Light, preferably less than a kilo
• Cheap, or at least cheap-ish. Originally budgeted 1000 SEK (around $100) for a bag but I think that I'll end up doubling that after the fiasco with the one I had to return.
• Comfort temperature as close to zero degrees Celsius as possible. 
• Suitable for a 190 cm person.

Why zero temperature, the trip is in June, European summer! 

True, but we will be crossing the Alps.. Temperature in Bormio is 6-13 C in June and I don't want to freeze and catch a cold if the weather is worse.

My current sleeping bag case extreme temperature set to 12C so it's not making the cut, it is pretty much OK during the warm summer months but not even close to spring or fall usage.

Now that we know the requirements, let's start looking at technical stuff related to sleeping bags.

Temperature ratings

So, I know that sleeping bags have comfort and extreme ratings. But how do that actually work? What should be read into the temperatures?

Let's look at the European sleeping bag ratings explained on Wikipedia, the EN 13537:

The standard measures four temperature ratings:

• Upper Limit — the temperature at which a standard male can sleep without excessive perspiration. It is established with the hood and zippers open and with the arms outside of the bag.
• Comfort — the temperature at which a standard female can expect to sleep comfortably in a relaxed position.
• Lower Limit — the temperature at which a standard male can sleep for eight hours in a curled position without waking.
• Extreme — the minimum temperature at which a standard female can remain for six hours without risk of death from hypothermia (though frostbite is still possible).

Don't know if I care that much about the Upper Limit, if it really gets that warm then I think that I can sleep with the bag used as a blanket.
So: To fulfill the requirement the lower limit should be close to zero and comfort around 5. Let's start with that.

Filling material, down or synthetic

	Down	Synthetic
Insulating power	Very high compared to the same amount of synthetic material.	More material needed to get the same insulation as down
Compression	Very good	Not as good as down
Durability	10+ years	Breaks down faster then down
Insulates when wet	Not really	Yes, and dries faster
Made from	Animal, a byproduct from the food industry. Make sure to use certified products to minimize unnecessary harm.	-
Cost	High	Cheaper than down

It rains in Europe in the summer... A bit unsure about the down, but hey.. low weight and high compression ratio sound really nice. So maybe I will go for down.

More reading on sleeping bag fill:

• One Planet: Sleeping bag fill
• Outside Online: What Is the Best Fill for a Sleeping Bag?
• Gear junkie: Down Vs. Synthetic: Understanding Sleeping Bag Insulation

What are the options?

A lot. But seems to be hardest to find a bag that fits the length requirement. A lot of bags are 185 cm, so lets see what sleeping bags I'm choosing between that are suitable for us longer people.
I ended up compiling the following table of the best things that I found. The Cumulus is there for reference as my travel mate is looking at that one.

Sleeping bag	Filling	Comfort	Lower Limit	Extreme	Max length	Weight	Pack volume	Pack size	Price
Cumulus LITE LINE 300	Down 850	4˚C	0˚C	-14˚C	185	600 g	5.7 l	17 x 25 cm	2290 SEK
Fjällräven ABISKO TWO SEASONS LONG Unisex	Synthetic	6˚C	-1˚C	-14˚C	195	1050 g	-	19 x 32 cm	1599 SEK
Marmot MICRON 40 LONG Unisex	Down 650	8˚C	3˚C	-11˚C	198	723 g	3.9 l	-	1999 SEK

Conclusions

Damn. OK the Cumulus did not really fit as it is too short for me.
The Fjällräven and Marmot did not have comparable pack volume/size so unsure. 3.9 liters sound small though, the one I ordered by mistake was 7.8.. So this is about half the volume so smallish.
The Fjällräven pack size being larger then the Cumulus makes me believe that the pack volume is larger as well.. So moving towards the Marmot Micron 40 long unisex. About double my original budget..

I think that I will continue looking for a while and see what I end up buying. Luckily I have some months to decide. I'll keep you posted.

As always if you like this, be sure to leave a comment and share on social media! Not needed but appreciated!

Budgeting for my first transcontinental bike trip

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Budgeting, something that needs to be done when planning a larger project like the Stelvio 2019 Adventure for me. Why? Because I don't want to be halfway through and not being able to afford food. Basically I want to know how much money I need to save up until hitting the road.
Oh yeah, the transcontinental word in the heading just affects me, I think that the budgeting steps are similar independent of the scale of your trip.
But where to start?

First note

After reading A LOT of sites about budgeting and cost calculations for bike adventures, I found myself not being the average 'lets do this the cheapest way possible' type. So don't expect the numbers to be the lowest you can find. And also, I will write an update after the trip on how the actual numbers differ from the budget. But anyhow, this should only be read as inspiration. Do your own research and find numbers that fit your trip! : )

Before the trip

The before trip expenses will be the biggest part of my budget basically for one reason... The bike Much of the 'before' costs will be high because this will be my first bike adventure and I need to buy pretty much everything. I have a tent, sleeping bag/mat and stove. But everything else like bags I will need to buy. But hey, I can reuse all that gear on other adventures so a one time cost (+ maintenance and replacements)

Turns out a need a new sleeping bag as well.

Bike

This is the largest single item in my budget, other stuff will not even come close. If you already have a bike that you are happy with for your trip. Then this can be skipped.
My friend that will join me already has a cyclocross so he will use that. I only have a racer today so going to need something a little more sturdy and capable of handling a better variety of roads and packing.

Additional gear

Here goes all extra stuff that you need to buy or upgrade for your trip. Be it pannier bags, power-banks or pretty much whatever you need.
For me this post included: Power-bank, Action Camera, Pannier Bags and a new sleeping bag.

Plane or train tickets to start and/or end of the bike trip

If you don't plan on both start and stop to pedal at your own door you will probably need some kind of tickets. Be sure to check that the carriers that you chose are OK with you bringing a bike with you. And also look out for potential extra charges for bikes.

For my trip I will need plane tickets home from Italy as we will be leaving on bike from our home town. I think that it could be easier to do it the other way around, travel to a location and then cycle home.. but this is the way that I chose to do this.

Language classes

You might want to try learn at least some basic phrases in the native tongue of the countries that you will pass through. Either as evening classes and thus included in your budget or like me, using a free app on my phone.
I use Duolingo to learn basic Italian and I also prepared a list of phrases that I anticipate could come in handy in both German and Italian.

During the trip

A lot of the 'during the trip' budget will be dependent on how many days or weeks you plan on being on the road. If you don't know that yet, then you could look at my post on Using Strava to plot a bike route through Europe.

Food

Tricky one here. Our plan will be to buy food as we go and probably enjoy a restaurant or two. So this will be the biggest item in the budget during the trip. 350 SEK per day.

Campsites

Our plan is to wild-camp through Sweden where it is allowed and then try to hit campsites through Germany, Austria and Italy. In case we don't make it to a campsite for a night or if we arrive early then our backup will be B&B, motels etc. Worst case is to try our luck in the wild.

Average campsite fee per night in seems to be $13-16 according to Rick Steve. So we will budget for 160 SEK per night, that is roughly the higher amount given an exchange rate of ~10SEK per dollar.

Hotels

Bonus nights, to give us some recovery. I've budgeted for 3 hotel nights. The only definitive one is the one in Bormio to explore the area and maybe visit Livigno after completing the Stelvio climb and before taking on the Gavia pass. And 1 extra emergency night at a hotel if needed. Total of 3 nights.

Ferries

Check your planned route and see if there are any ferries that you might want to take. Check their website and put down a note on person+bicycle fare. For us this will be Sweden to Germany, and perhaps the water-bus in Venice.

Calculations

So. At this point lets look at some example tables. Damn. 

So. First off, I decided to split my budget into 2 separate columns.

• Before the trip
• During the trip

Before the trip column consists of all the stuff that I need to buy before we take off in end of May. This is pretty deterministic. One row per item that needs to be bought and its cost. As I said previously, the biggest item is the bike. I already have a tent.

During the trip column is a bit more dynamic, it depends heavily on the number of days and nights that the trip will take. I.e. food budget for X days, campsite fees for the amount of nights in continental Europe.

Item	Pre-cost	During-cost	Temp	Paid
Kona Sutra 2018	15679
Shimano - A530 SPD	439
Shimano RT4 SPD Touring Cykelskor			727
Surly Front Rack 2.0				903
VAUDE Aqua Front (or Ortlieb front roller plus)	1168
Framebag	395
Sleeping bag	1000
ORTLIEB Back Roller Plus set of two pannier bags 2x35L			1400
Action Camera				56
VINSIC Dual USB 30000mAh Powerbank Mobil Plattor Laptop	900
Lezyne CNC Micro Floor Drive	749
Trelleborg-Rostock (ferry)		600
Food (21 * 350 SEK)		7350
Camp sites (8 + 7 ) * 160 SEK		2400
Bonus-hotels (3)		2400
Venice-Göteborg (flight)		3000

As you can see, some items have names put in, others have just placeholders and an estimated price. The Temporary column is for stuff that I had on the buy list but for various reasons decided to omit from my first trip. I.e. I will not need pannier bags for the back rack of the bike, the front rack bags and a framebag should be enough.

The paid column is stuff that I've already paid for and don't need to think about anymore.

Not the cheapest budget, but hey this will be our vacation and some luxury is needed.

Total left	36080
Pre-total	20330
During-total	15750
Already paid	959

So, how much will I need to save to get there and how much should I raid my savings account for?

	Saving Per Month	Total	Bike deducted	Total pre deducted	pre and during deducted
August	3133	3133	-12546	-17197	-32947
September	3259	6392	-9287	-13938	-29688
October	1456,3	7848,3	-7830,7	-12481,7	-28231,7
November	2000	9848,3	-5830,7	-10481,7	-26231,7
December	2000	11848,3	-3830,7	-8481,7	-24231,7
January	2000	13848,3	-1830,7	-6481,7	-22231,7
February	2000	15848,3	169,3	-4481,7	-20231,7
Mars	2000	17848,3	2169,3	-2481,7	-18231,7
April	2000	19848,3	4169,3	-481,7	-16231,7
May	2000	21848,3	6169,3	1518,3	-14231,7
June	Hit the road

So, estimate is to save 2000 SEK per month specifically for the trip. As you can see, I've updated with actuals for the months that have passed and left in the estimated numbers for coming months.
Bike will be paid off in February and all other gear just in time for the trip. The during costs will be taken from savings (and .. big and here. It costs money to live normally as well, so it is probably not 14000 SEK that needs to be raided from savings, but maybe a part of it)

Conclusions

This is my trip budget, yours may differ and I am sure that you could do the same trip with a lot less expenses.
Things to note is that 20 KSEK of the budget is stuff that I need to be able to do it. For the next trip, that part is already covered give or take some maintenance or upgrades.
I could have opted for a cheaper bike, but hey I really want a Kona Sutra and hope to use it for commuting and gravel grinding as well as travelling.

Also, the 350 SEK per day on food is hopefully calculated as a worst case. In reality we might just burn a part of that and save. But as I wrote above, I rather over-budget and not use the money as the other option is not as nice. Being stuck in Germany and not having food.

Ok, enough trying to rationalize my budget. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.. Right?

Other resources:

• Travelling Two: How Much Does Bike Touring Cost? We do the math
• Bicycle Hobo: How Much Does It Cost to Bicycle Tour
• Me, My Bike And A Camera: How Much Does a Cross-Country Bike Tour Cost?

As always if you like this, be sure to leave a comment and share on social media! Not needed but appreciated!

Planning an Epic bike ride with Strava and Google Earth/Maps

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In a previous post I went through some basics on how to use Strava to plan a touring trip to get good estimates on length and time needed.
This time we will look at how to use Strava, together with Google Earth and Google Maps to plan an epic bike gravel fun bike ride in the Alps.

So my plan is to get over Stelvio and then have a 'rest' day in Bormio with hotel nights perhaps and just take an unloaded bike out for a stroll.
So what are there to see in the Bormio region? I've heard that Livigno is nice and that a lot of cyclists use it as their home base so why not go there? And then find another way back to Bormio.

Or, just go nuts and create your very own dream ride wherever in the world (besides Germany, they don't seem to have street-view).

Tools used in the video are all free to use:

• Strava, for creating the map. There are other tools to do the same. From time to time I also use Garmin Connect. Download the map as GPX
• Go to gpx2kml.com, just as the address says this tool is used to convert the GPX file from Strava to KML used by Google.
• Open Google Earth, do a fly by of the route once imported and check for details. Use street-view to check what type of road it is. In the video about 50% is paved and the other 50% is gravel.
  Also use Earth to check views and find the most epic ride.
• Do changes in Strava if you find stuff that you do not like and repeat the steps.
• Once you like the route. Open Google Maps and import it there to get it available on you Google Maps app in you phone and you are set for navigation help

So there, now we have our epic gravel fun-time ride on our phone, ready for us when we get there!

Might have jumped some details in the text above, but be sure to check the video if something is unclear or leave a comment! And as always if you like this, be sure to share on social media! Not needed but appreciated!

Unboxing: Surly Cromoly Front Rack 2.0 Silver

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This rack seems to go under many names but as I understand it. They are all the same as on Surly homepage there is only one front rack that fits the description.

• Surly Cromoly Front Rack 2.0 Silver
• Surly Front Rack 2.0
• Surly Nice Rack 2.0

Some weeks ago I posted an article 'Starting to think about Adventure Bike Front Racks'
After a lot of thought I decided to go the Surly way. The reason behind the decision was purely that I found it at a really nice discount that I couldn't skip.$80, can't get much cheaper then that.
Placed the order last weekend and received this beauty today.

Unboxing video

What's in the box?

So what's in the box?

• The Surly Front Rack
• A heavy duty rubber bag
• Bolts, nuts and washers
• Three different metallic mounts
• Distances

Next step

Next step is to mount it on the bike, but the bike doesn't arrive until January 2019, so it will be another story.



Disclaimer
I bought this product myself and this is my opinion on them. I am in no way affiliated with the manufacturer of this product. Neither did I get paid to link to any site that is mentioned in this post. 

Preparing for an adventure, learning useful phrases in foreign languages

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Planning an adventure outside the borders of your country of origin?
Eventually you will end up in situations that force you to communicate with locals and they may not always know English, or chose to not know English if you don't open up in their native tongue. (Happened to me in France)
I speak Swedish, Finnish and English fluently but my plan to travel through Germany, Austria and Italy makes me feel like I need to learn at least some phrases in German and Italian to get me by as my previous dealings with Germans and Italians have left me in peculiar situations where for example hand gestures were needed to communicate easy things like how to open a gas-station pump at a gas station at 4 AM on the autobahn.

Of course you can always use Google translate on your phone, but some of the simple conversation starter phrases should probably be learned, and only use Google Translate as a backup.

So what phrases could we need for our trip? Let's dream up some examples and translate them to both Italian and German.

English	German	Italian
Excuse me	Entschuldigung	Scusami
Thank you	Danke	Grazie
Do you speak english?	Sprechen sie Englisch?	Lei parla inglese?
Closest bike shop	Nächster Fahrradladen	Il negozio di biciclette più vicino
Any good and cheap restaurant you could recommend	Jedes gute und günstige Restaurant kann empfohlen werden	Qualsiasi ristorante buono ed economico che potresti raccomandare
Could we buy an used cardboard box for bike transport	Könnten wir einen gebrauchten Karton für den Fahrradtransport kaufen?	Potremmo comprare una scatola di cartone usata per il trasporto di biciclette
Could we camp on your land for one night?	Könnten wir für eine Nacht auf Ihrem Land zelten?	Potremmo accamparci sulla tua terra per una notte?
Are there any campsites close by	Gibt es Campingplätze in der Nähe?	Ci sono dei campeggi nelle vicinanze
Do you know anyone that can weld my bike frame	Kennst du jemanden, der meinen Fahrradrahmen schweißen kann?	Conosci qualcuno che può saldare il telaio della mia bici

Any other phrases that you think are useful when on the road touring or back-packing that should be included? Or did you spot any misstake? Please leave a comment!


Another thing that I'm going to do this time is to prepare a card describing what we are doing and why in both Italian and German so that we can let people read it instead of us trying to explain in broken tongue.


Find all posts regarding Stelvio 2019

If you find this article interesting, please feel free to leave a comment or share it on social media!

A mushroom hunt in the woods

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Last weekend my wife and I took a stroll in the woods just to clear our minds and with the hope of finding some mushrooms as we were on our last few bags in the freezer.
Not that we really thought that we would find anything, it is November after all. But it didn't take too long to find a batch of Funnel Changerelles.

Craterellus tubaeformis, Yellowfoot, winter mushroom, or Funnel Chanterelle

Craterellus tubaeformis, Yellowfoot, winter mushroom, or Funnel Chanterelle

Campanula rotundifolia, or Blue bell in November

After spending some time harvesting them we started to hear noises in the woods in front of us. Something large was moving around and at first our thoughts went to wild boars as we had seen quite a lot of signs from them already.

After walking some hundred meters again, we spotted some Fallow Deer on the nearby field and I decided to try to stalk them a bit to get a photo with my phone (sadly I did not bring my good camera). I think I got within 40 meters of them with no way closer without exposing myself or making a lot of noise due to sticks and old leaves on the ground.

Fallow deer photographed with phone camera 10x zoom (Huawei Mate 10 Pro) Crappy quality at this zoom level

Had to use 10x zoom on my phone camera to get a picture.
Once I was done with that I started to move back towards my wife who was sitting 30 meters behind me but as soon as I moved I stared a doe right in the eye. I had not noticed them coming up on me on a path from my right without seeing me. But as soon as she saw me, she bolted and the buck that was right behind her did the same. Had I just sat still for 30 seconds longer, I would have had the perfect photo opportunity. But that picture will be in my minds eye for a long time.

We also found some golden chanterelles after this but I was too mind blown so I forgot to photograph!

Cleaning up the days findings

I classified this post as a 'micro adventure' as it is a break from our normal life and let us get outside. And this time it really felt like an adventure!

Adventure Inspiration 2018 November

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Another month of Adventure Inspiration compiled to a list of links:

An Everyman's Guide to Planning Epic Adventure

Found this little gem. Never too late to try something new. Really interesting reading.

Microadventures
Add more adventure to your life! Doesn't have to be large scale every time. It can be small as well!

DownTheRoad.org Bicycle Touring Around the World

Just a ton of inspiration from around the world by this guy Tim Travis. 

5 Elements of Adventure: Authenticity, Purpose, Inspiration
A look at what defines adventure.

reddit Bicycle Touring
If you haven't found this reddit yet, you should go check it out. Especially like their Weekly Report threads.

5 Stunning Hiking Trails In Sweden
Just as it says, information about 5 beautiful hiking trails in Sweden. Makes me want to grab my hiking boots and go!

Training cycle climbing when all you have is flat roads

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Continued from Training for the Stelvio 2019 Adventure while on Chemo.

So 7 months to go, out of which 3 will be on chemotherapy. Trying to think of ways to train cycle climbing with what I have at the moment as the trip will contain a couple of long climbs.

• Stelvio Pass (from Prato) – HC / 24km / 8%
• Gavia Pass (from Bormio) – HC / 25km / 5%

Where I live, the highest hill-climb is 4 km long and 240 meter elevation gain at Kinnekulle. And that is 50 km from where I live and that is a little too long way for me at the moment (need to get the distance in my legs as well but that is probably another post)

The key difference between my goals and the normal cycling sites covering the topic is that I will have 1400 km in my legs when I reach the Alps and I am also currently undergoing a chemotherapy treatment for liver-cancer, so yeah that will be interesting! : )

So this is a detailed post on how I am currently training to reach my goal of biking to and over the Alps.

On the bike

So what can be done on the bike to get better at hill-climbing when there are no hills around you?

High-power, low-cadence sessions

One way to build up cycling specific leg strength is to actually do strength training on the bike. How to do it? Put your trainer on highest resistance and pedal away at very low cadence, i.e. around 50 rpm. This will give you a strength training session on your bike that will allow you to become more powerful in climbing. Just be mindful to warm-up before going all in as this could easily be hard on you knees.

Low-intensity training

This one builds up your muscles with new infrastructure needed for power and endurance, specifically capillary density. I.e. more small blood vessels that help supply your muscle cells with blood. Another boost will be that this builds up mitochondrial volume, that are used by the body to generate energy. So a combination of more mitochondria volume and capillary density will yield you greater resources to draw from.

• How to Boost Performance and Recovery by Increasing Capillary Density

Strength training

I don't really feel comfortable on the bike during my chemo cycles so I decided to pick up strength training at the office gym again.

Not all training needs to be done on the bike to be effective. Lets mix up some traditional strength training that will help building up the body for the mountains.

Deadlifts

In my opinion, if you want just one exercise, chose the deadlifts. This activates all major muscle groups in your body

• Grip strength
• Lower back stability
• Gluteus maximus
• Hamstrings
• Quadriceps
• Adductor magnus
• Core musculature
• And more.. for a full list look over at wikipedia.

Just be sure if you are just starting out, have someone more experienced with you who can spot common errors. Don't get hurt, start with low weight and just get the correct form before moving to higher loads.

Suspension Training

For full body exercising, I ended up buying one of these straps to use at home. Started out by using a apple tree branch in the garden as anchor but it felt a little unstable so I moved over to the pergola instead.

Really nice core training, a lot of exercises that can be done. How does this work towards the climbing you might ask? Core strength is key on the bike as well, if you have good core stability then you will be able to sit in the saddle for longer periods of time with correct posture and use the leg power in a more effective way. Core is key.

Lunges and squats are also nice, the idea is to get good overall strength in your body. Don't focus specifically on your legs as you will not have any use of that strength if you don't have core stability to use that power on the bike. The idea is not to build bulky muscles either so lets not focus on that bit either, it will just be more weight to carry up the hills : )

Running

Running is something that I am able to do even when on chemo, not for long periods of time but more sweet sessions 10-20 minutes.
Give your hearth a workout session, you won't regret it.

Conclusions

My plan is to continue with these sessions even after the chemo is over in January. Hopefully a combination of these will get me prepared for the Alps in June. Only planned change is to add more cycling sessions outdoor when spring comes around and my Kona Sutra arrives. Now I just have to execute the plan, even when my body wants other things!


Find all posts regarding Stelvio 2019

If you find this article interesting, please feel free to leave a comment or share it on social media!

6 sites on preparing for cycling in the Alps

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A collection of good to know things when preparing for a ride in the Alps in general, and the Stelvio pass like I plan to do next summer.
These articles seem to focus mainly on road-bike climbing, starting fresh etc. My goal is to do the climb after 1400 km on the bike from Sweden so not exactly the same conditions. However, managed to pick up good information for what to prepare for and how to prepare from the following six articles:

sportive.com: 10 Top Tips For Cycling In The Alps
Worth the read, had some things that I hadn't thought of before.

The Col Collective: A Beginners Guide To Cycling In The Mountains
Same here, a wise man learns from others mistakes.

British Cycling: Tackling long climbs
Liked this one, maybe because the landscape where I live is pretty much what they describe it is in the UK.

PEZ Cycling News: Passo Stelvio: Climbing for Dummies
Another learn from more experienced post. A good read

road.cc: 13 Things I learned about the Stelvio while riding up (and down) it
Knowledge is preparation as well, good things to know before starting the climb to prevent some nasty surprises.

Alpine Cols: Common mistakes when preparing for the Haute Route
Picked up some ideas for training from here. Time well spent reading.

Training for a Cycling Adventure while on Chemo

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2 major liver surgeries and currently on chemo. How to train and prepare for a cycling adventure like Stelvio 2019?

It will be ~2000km in 15 days, some days an imperial century (160km) and other days climbing the alps. I need to get back into shape, get stronger muscles to prevent injury and make the ride more enjoyable.

Current fitness state

When looking at the statistics I'm down to climb times lower then 2013. The few group rides that I've been on I'm slower then the beginners up the climbs. I still have some endurance left though so I can roll distances (or my brain is used to the pain), even though the speeds are much lower.
Nothing strange here, I have cancer and undergoing treatments that impact my body, the surgeries alone can be seen as major trauma, the body reacts the same.. Twice in 4 months.

When the surgery wound on my chest was healed in end of July and I was able to start training again and even with the improvements I've made since then I'm in a really bad shape at the moment.

During the 14 day chemo cycles

During these I'm pretty much just happy when I do something, anything each day. Can be 10-20 minutes. Just move. Anything counts. So far I've done some short runs, intervals, strength training, or just watch YouTube on the trainer. As I said, there is no real goal during the chemo cycle. The doctors want me to train as recent studies seem to point out that training helps with the side effects. So that is what I do.

For example, during cycle 3 I did:

• Day 1: Rest day
• Day 2: 30 minutes threshold (Zone 4) on the trainer. 
• Day 3: Run 1.3 km. 
• Day 4: Run 1.3 km
• Day 5: Rest day
• Day 6: Rest day
• Day 7: 13 minutes moderate (Zone 2) on the trainer
• Day 8: Rest day
• Day 9: 14 minutes moderate (Zone 2) on the trainer
• Day 10: Run intervals. 650 m warmup, 3x200m max
• Day 11: Run 1.3 km
• Day 12: 15 minutes threshold (Zone 4) on the trainer
• Day 13: Rest day
• Day 14: Rest day

Quite happy with that, a workout on 8 of 14 days.

During the rest weeks from chemo

The plan is to put in the efforts here, when the body doesn't process the medication it has more energy that can be put into training

Low intensity workouts

Minimum of 1.5 hours on the trainer at low intensity (Zone 1 or 2). These are the workouts that build endurance, we will be on our bikes for around 8 hours per day on the trip. 1.5 to 2 hours in training at this point (over 6 months to go) will help break in your body. Also, low intensity training uses fat as fuel and you need to build up that ability to burn fat at low intensities. If you only do high intensity workouts, a longer trip will burn you out if you aren't used to switching over to fat. That switch happens after around 2 hours independently of what type of activity you do. So better prepare your body for it.

Low intensity is when you are able to breath through your nose without any effort, if your breathing starts to deepen put on a lower gear and go a bit easier. For a longer workout, what starts out as easy the first 10 minutes may change over time and become high-intensive after one hour mark so be sure to adapt to that change.

More reading on low intensity training

• breakingmuscle.com: Low Intensity Training For High Intensity Sports
• livestrong.com: The Effects of Low-Intensity Cardio
• bicycling.com: Why Cyclists Should Be Base Training

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

Short, sweet sessions that make a lot of impact. With hearth rate through the roof, these are sessions are the total opposite of the low intensity sessions, they do not take that long time but you feel them for the rest of the day.


More sites on HIIT sessions:

• Daily Burn: The Do-It-Anywhere HIIT Workout You Need to Try
• Ace Fitness: 8 Reasons HIIT Workouts are So Effective
• Bicycling.com: The Best HIIT Workouts for Cyclists

As an example my last rest week from chemo looked like this:

• Day 1: HIIT, 20 minutes on trainer
• Day 2: 1 hour 30 minutes low intensity (Zone 1-2) on trainer
• Day 3: Rest day
• Day 4: 1 hour 40 minutes low intensity (Zone 2) on trainer
• Day 5: HIIT, 20 minutes on trainer
• Day 6: Rest day
• Day 7: 60 minute YouTube party mix intervals on trainer

Day 7 happens to be a Friday. And party mix intervals on YouTube is pretty much me watching music videos and just going for it. This is the fun day before the next cycle starts and Saturdays are rest days.. At least some days.

After Chemo

So the plan is that the Chemo treatment should be done sometime in January 2019, just in time when my Kona Sutra will arrive. That will give me 4 months to train in other ways, but that is probably another post.

Continued in Training cycle climbing when all you have is flat roads

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Adventure Inspiration 2018 October

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Some stuff that I've been reading lately. Not that much this time, but well worth the time all three of them!

blameitonthebike Cykla till Italien
Two Swedish girls take their bikes to Italy. In Swedish, but your browser can probably translate it for you. Well worth the read! At least for me, as this is pretty much the trip that I'm planning for next summer with Stelvio 2019

Six tips on long-distance cycling in Japan, learned the hard way: 1,200km from Tokyo to Sapporo
I think that the title says it all!


Across Australia from Sydney to Perth, including Tasmania
By that crazy guy on a bike, Art Brown

Starting to think about Adventure Bike Front Racks

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As I described in a previous post I finally made a choice on what bike to buy for my Stelvio 2019 adventure. Next step in the process is to find a good front pannier rack as I do not want to have all my gear in rear panniers for various reasons.

Reasons to use front racks

Gives you a more balanced bike for climbing. Ever noticed how the front wheel gets off the ground while climbing steeper gradients? Add some rear panniers and you get a really back-heavy bike setup and I am unsure how well a back-racks only bike would handle the alps. Putting some of the load on the front wheel will help keeping it on the road while climbing up to the Stelvio and Gavia passes. My plan is pretty much to just have the tent on the rear rack and all other gear in front panniers

Options of front racks

There seems to be a lot of different front rack models out there and I was pretty much lost on what to buy until I did some reading.

So, I will go for a low-rider front rack on my Kona Sutra 2019, so now that we have that narrowed down lets look at different models available that have caught my eye for various reasons. I.e. my short-list of low-rider front racks that I am interested in.

Model	Weight	Max-carry	Material	Platform	Price
Tubus Tara	530 g	15 kg	CroMo 10mm	No	54 €
Specialized Pizza Rack	-	15 kg	Aluminium 13mm	Yes	65 €
Blackburn Outpost	726 g	20.5 kg	Aluminium -	Yes	70 €
Bontrager Carry Forward	-	15 kg	-	Yes	60 €
Surly Nice Front Rack 2.0	1382 g	32 kg	CroMo 10 mm	Yes	120 €

Damn hard to find information about weight and material on these things. One would think that the information should be readily available as cycling people tend to count the grams but I guess touring and bikepacking people are not like the racer/mtb crowd. But as it turns out at least I have to count the grams as I am over 100 kg myself and don't want to carry too much extra weight with me.
So the Specialized Pizza Rack and Bontrage Carry Forward just don't make the cut as I don't know their weight.

So, question: is 196 grams something to care about?

Lets look at what that is in other stuff to get perspective on the otherwise very abstract numbers:

Canister for a canister stove: 230 g
or Pair of socks: 60 g , so 3 pair of socks
or Apple: 100 g, so 2 apples
or Pasta Bolognese expedition ration: 550 g, so half a ration
or Snickers bar: 50 g, so 4 bars
or Bike cap: 50 g

So in the end, maybe 200 grams are not critical for my first trip.

Way forward

So now that I have some numbers I have some months to decide on the Tubus Tara or Blackburn Outpost rack to get. Question might be if I can load the tent above the front panniers on the platform and get rid of the back rack setup. And if I get rid of the back-rack, maybe it is better to go all in with the Surly Nice Rack? Oh, budget..
Luckily I don't have to decide today : )

Six weeks later

So I ordered the Surly Nice Rack 2.0 silver version 2 days ago and it is being shipped to me as I write this. Why the Surly Nice Rack? Seems to be the sturdiest of the once in the list, I don't want it to break. And I got a nice deal for it due to Swedish Fathers Day sale. Looking forward to it. Will post pictures of the unpacking when it arrives.

6 best sites for finding the perfect front rack

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If you, like me, are in the middle of planning your next big adventure in the bike saddle, you might also try to figure out what front rack you should buy. There are so many options, from light weight to extreme duty..
Hence I compiled a list of sites that try to cover the most popular ones and try to help you and me both answer the question: what touring front rack should I buy?


Uncle John's Bike Shed: Low rider comparison
A comparison of 12 low rider front racks for your adventure bike build

Cycling about: All About Front Racks For Bicycle Touring
While Uncle John focused on low rider, cycling about goes through what other styles are available. Meaning that there are even more choices to make

Bicycle Touring Guide: Bicycle Racks for Touring
Not specifically front racks, but gives great information on how to think about load balancing between front and rear racks

the VeloOrange blog: Front Rack Basics
Old post but still relevant regarding all you need to know about front racks

Pedalshift: Hacking a rear bike rack as your front rack
Why not? There are probably a ton of reasons not to, but its a possibility that might be worth exploring if you already have a rear bike rack lying around.

reddit: Pros and cons of bikepacking rear bags compared to racks and panniers? 
Not strictly about front racks but gives a little perspective that might help out. I.e. is racks and panniers the way to go for you or are there better options available.

So for me, after reading all this I think that I would go with either the Tubus Tara or Blackburn Outpost rack, having that extra platform in front could prove useful. A lot to think about. And we also have the Bontager Front Rack and Specialized Pizza Rack to think about that were not included in the above posts. Evidently according to some forum posts I've come across the pizza rack might not fit all bags? Have to read more on that as well.
Then as always there is the budget, The Tubus Tara might just be the rack for Stelvio 2019 as they are cheap, sturdy and can carry a load.

In the end, I think I have to have a real re-think about how I will load my bike for the Stelvio 2019 tour.

Why the Kona Sutra is the best choice for me and maybe you

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What bike to ride on an adventure like like Stelvio 2019? A good question that you already know the answer to based on the heading of this post. But how and why did I come to the conclusion to go the Kona Sutra way... Lets find out!

• Jump directly to unboxing and assembling of my Kona Sutra
• or directly to my review of the bike

A little bit of my bike history

It all started with a BMX in the late 80's. The hours spent on that bike and the dirt-holes visited and jumped... Brings back memories...
In 1997 I bought a Cycle Pro Zyclone MTB that I used for pretty much everything, daily commute to school and training on the single-tracks in the woods. Over the years I upgraded it a little with Shimano LX V-Brakes and such.. This bike followed me for 10 years until I finished my university studies and got a job.

With the job came less time to do stuff. 3-4 hour commute per day and working 16 hour days and extra at the pub in the weekends...
The dark ages of my cycling life continued for 6 years, with work work work, alcohol and cigarettes.

Until 2013... On new years day I stopped smoking and 3 months later I bought a Scott Speedster S30
The thousands of kilometers spent on that bike during the years has changed my life, I enjoy training again and have a lot of friends thanks to cycling.. After 7000 km I upgraded it from Shimano Tiagra to 105 and I still ride it every week.

In 2015 I bought a Focus Black Forest MTB. Revisited my love for singletrack, modified the bike to a single chainring and rode some more until I got blood-clots in my lungs in 2017. I decided to sell my mountain bike when the doctors said that I should not hit my head because of the blood thinner medication.. A quick glance backwards in time and the only reason I hit my head into anything during the past years has been the MTB. Hence it had to go.

So I have ridden some different bikes over the years for an OK total distance, the longest ride being 180 km with the Scott Speedster and around 100 km with the Black Forest on single-tracks.

I've never done a multi-day event, and always had the chance to quit. Deciding on what bike to select for a tour through Europe I had some ideas in my head.

Key feature choices

26 or 28 inch wheels

Knowing myself, I will be riding in the developed parts of the world... So 28 inch wheels is the way to go here mainly because a larger wheel will roll easier over small holes etc and thus give us a little more speed. And I am 190 cm, hence I need a bigger bike and big bikes with 26 inch wheels just look silly. And for me that is a good enough reason to make a choice.

Drop, straight or butterfly handlebars

Definitely not a straight handlebar as I like to move my hands to different positions to get numbness away. Butterfly gives a lot of options, but I think that I like drop-bars most. So drop-bars.

Caliper or Disc brakes

One word.... Alps...
I weigh in on around 100 kg, a steel bike is around 13 kg and 10-30 kg extra stuff depending on future planning.. But say that max weigh is 143 kg, including water and food.... Down switchbacks in the Alps..... I will go for the disc option as I'm not suicidal...

Mechanical or hydraulic disc brakes

Mechanical. I don't have any experience with maintenance work on hydraulic ones and I think that the key here is to buy something that I can be comfortable with on the road. 

Carbon, Aluminium or Steel

Definitely not carbon... damn, not got that kind of budget for this trip...
Aluminium is what my road bike is made of, I can feel every grain of sand in the road...
I've read that steel is the way to go for a touring bike as it should be able to absorb the roughness of the road. So steel it is...

Saddle

Brooks B17... Not even going to look at other stuff.. want to try this legendary saddle. I will still be riding in padded bibs but damn, I really want to try the Brooks B17

1, 2 or 3 chain rings

Preferably just 1... Loved that on my mountain bike, never having to think about the front derailleur and thus one less mechanical part that can malfunction.
But then again, the Alps... Going to need really small gearing for that to be able to climb with the extra weight on the bike. Also, need something to pedal the flats through Sweden and Germany to get to the Alps. Hmm, I guess there are the 12 speed cassettes, but do they actually hold that kind of punishment? And looking at the prices they seem to be out of my budget range at the moment.
Traditional touring bikes seem to go with 3 chain rings and 9 speed cassette, should be able to have a really small granny wheel for the climbs and bigger gears for the flats.

Geometry

So what frame geometry should I choose?
I decided to put up a table with my Scott S30 and Focus Black Forest and compare to some of the alternatives that I had on my shortlist. If you have a bike you like, I recommend you to do the same. Just visit the manufacturers website to find the geometry of you bike and put in your numbers, that way you can relate to the numbers while browsing and ordering a bike online. Best is of course to get to a dealer and try the bike but reality is that touring bikes are not really sold everywhere..

	Scott Speedster S30	Focus Black Forest Ltd 1.0	Kona Sutra 58	Specialized Awol XL	Trek 520 63cm
C: ST C-T	580	520	580	550	605
D: TT Length	575	624	603	625	603
F: BB Drop	67	69	72	70	70
G: Chainstays	415	440	445	455	450
B: Seat Angle	73	73.5	72	72	72.8
A: Head Angle	73.3	70	71	72	72.3
H: Wheelbase	1008	1124	1083	1104	1086
E: HT Length	205	125	191	235	230

H Wheelbase

We can see here that the Focus Black Forest has the largest wheelbase of them all and it pretty much sums up my feel of it as well, it felt large and a bit non-responsive... In other words a bit clumsy. So a bit shorter should give a bit more agile bike. Of the three bike on the shortlist, the Kona Sutra has the shortest wheelbase.

G Chainstays

As I understand it the chainstays on a touring bike should be a bit longer so that you have room for panniers without your heels hitting them each time. Longer seems to be a bit relative when looking at the numbers, at least they are all longer then my road bike.

D Top-tube length

Basically this defines how long you have to reach for the handlebar while seated (plus headset length). I like the length on my Scott Speedster and the shortest one of the touring bikes is the Kona Sutra.

The Specialized Awol

This is the bike that made me interested in touring/bikepacking. After watching the We are going AWOL documentary I put it on my Stelvio on my bucket list and here we are!
So why not the Awol? Pretty much comes to cost, Specialized is a lot of design and feeling but for a price that gives a lot better components on any other brand. Also, seems to be impossible to get hold of in Sweden..

This leaves me with 2 options

Trek 520 2019 components vs Kona Sutra 2019 components

Comparison of the Trek 520 (Diablo Red, semi transparent) and the Kona Sutra (Gloss Seaform), here we can see the geometry differences visually. The top tube is a little bit higher up on the Trek, the chainstays are pretty much the same length and the reach seems to be a bit longer on the Trek. Also the front rack that is inlcuded on the Trek is shown.

Component	Kona Sutra 2019	Trek 520 2019
Color	Gloss Seafoam w/ Cream & Charcoal Decals	Anthracite (Grey) or Diablo Red (Red)
Frame	Kona Cromoly Butted	Trek butted chromoly disc touring, rack & fender mounts
Fork	Kona Project Two Cromoly Disc Touring	Alloy disc touring fork w/lowrider mounts and Thru-skew captured skewer system
Front hub	Formula 100x12mm	Shimano M475
Rear hub	Formula 142x12mm	Shimano M475
Rims	WTB ST i19 TCS	Bontrager Affinity, TLR, 36H
Tyres	Schwalbe Marathon Mondial 700x40c	Bontrager H1 Hard-Case Ultimate, 700x38c, reflective sides
Shifters	Shimano BarCon	Shimano Sora, 9-speed, STI
Breaklevers	Tektro RRL-A	Shimano Sora, 9-speed, STI
Front derailleur	Shimano Alivio	Shimano Sora, 34,9 mm
Rear derailleur	Shimano Deore SGS	Shimano Alivio 9-speed Shadow Design
Crankset	Shimano Deore 48/36/26	Shimano Alivio 48/36/26T, w/chain guard
Cassette	Shimano Alivio 11-34t 9 speed	Shimano HG200 11 - 36, 9-speed
Chain	KMC X9	KMC X9
Pedals	n/a	Wellgo nylon body w/alloy cage, toe-clip/strap
Saddle	Brooks B17 Leather	Bontrager Evoke 1.5
Seatpost	Kona Deluxe Thumb w/Offset 27.2mm	Bontrager SSR, 2-bolt head, 27.2mm, 12mm offset
Handlebar	Kona Road	Bontrager Comp VR-C, 31.8mm
Grips	Kona Cork Tape	Bontrager tape
Stem	Kona Road	Bontrager Elite, 31.8mm, 7 degree, w/computer & light mounts
Headset	FSA TH848 1-1/8"	1-1/8" threadless, sealed cartridge bearings
Breakset	TRP Spyre C	TRP Spyre C 2.0 mechanical disc
Weight	13-13.5 kg according to my local bike shop	13.2 kg
Weight limit	unable to find	This bike has a maximum total weight limit (combined weight of bicycle, rider, and cargo) of 125 kg
Extras	Fenders w/ Mudflaps, Pannier Rack	front and rear racks

So a slightly better component list on the Kona Sutra 2019 compared to the Trek 520 2019, and the price tag hint the same as the Kona is around 200€ more in price.

The Trek 520 2019

The old school tourer, introduced in 1983. Liked the 2019 specs.. Would have bought but the 125 kg weight limit is a no go for me. I weigh in at 103 kg, the bike is 13 kg... So 116, giving 9 kg of cargo.... Tent 2 - 3 kg, some bottles of water and we are at the limit.. If I would like to go for a even longer trip in the future with 30 kg of gear, well I would need another bike as I will not loose 25 kg of weight.
After a little bit of research I found that its the Bontrager wheels that have the 125kg limit, but as Trek put the limit on the whole bike and not just the wheels I guess that warranty would be void if I pack it over that limit. Not something I want to explore if the bike breaks down on the road during a longer tour.
Triple chain-ring seems to be standard on the real touring cycles that I've been looking at so no surprise there.

The Kona Sutra 2019

Yep. This is the one.
Brooks saddle out of the box, steel frame and fork, disc brakes, fenders included and rear rack.
With the 26 granny wheel in front this will get me over the alps, still not overly comfortable with the 3 chain-rings in front option but I guess a man has to adapt.
The reach being shorter on the Kona is also something that I like, would give me a little more comfortable sitting position.
Would have liked STI shifters, but oh well I can always upgrade in the future and probably will. But for the Stelvio 2019 trip, this is the bike to go with. pretty much out of the box as the budget is limited. No weight limit will give me options on future trips as well. I understand that there probably is a limit, but as it is not specified like in the Trek case.

Build my own with Kona frameset
Just as an experiment I decided to plot how much it would cost to build my own bike starting from a Kona Sutra frame, with similar components to the factory build (but with STI levers). I came to the retail price and still missed wheels.. So more expensive then I'd like to pay for at the moment, not to mention the job of putting it all together. I've upgraded my Scott Speedster to a 105 groupset and the part that got me was when I ordered wrong type of gear that did not fit the frame and had to buy doubles to get a working bike in the end. I don't want to go that path this winter, I want to buy a bike that I can start using directly as commuter out of the box.

Conclusions

I placed the order on a Kona Sutra 2019 today, expected to arrive around January 2019. I will be posting more about it when it arrives including the actual weight etc..

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