Finishing touches

I visited The Bike Station today and bought some second hand parts again. This time I came home with a bottle cage, a saddle and a plastic rock ring/chain guard. I was also looking for some extra fasteners for the front pannier but I did not find anything usable.

The bottle cage required some grinding with Dremel as the screws on Dora's current bike had too large caps. Simple job and now her bike has a bottle cage as well. The saddle was a little bit unplanned purchase but by accident I spotted softer and a tiny bit wider saddle for Dora. I guess it is women's model as it was uncomfortable for me but she preferred it. Unfortunately the chain guard did not fit but I paid three pounds for those three items so I wont complain.

Tonight we made 13km ride with fully laden panniers and this time I had the tent and front panniers. The bike starts to deserve its new name "the Mule". No more sudden turns. Otherwise it feels quite ok and actually the ride is more comfortable because of the extra weight.

Shopping spree

For the preparations we have a shared Google Documents file with list of items we want to have with us. It is much longer than the one on this page! I have ordered several items online and bought some from the local store for the bicycling trip. I think most of them are necessary but I hope I wont have to use some of them.