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Summer ends tomorrow, and I only managed to get out on two bikepacking trips. There are a lot of reasons for that, most of them pretty weak. Fires on the Olympic Peninsula nixed my plans to re-ride the Olympic Bridges route. Lack of pre-planning tanked the Olympic Adventure Route. I couldn’t find a campsite when
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Learning lessons can be expensive. Hobbes is the first bike I’ve owned with any carbon fiber (CF) parts. CF parts must be installed with appropriate care, always paying attention to the appropriate torque values to avoid damaging anything. I have a set of torque wrenches I use to ensure I am not over tightening anything
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Sub-24 Hour Overnight First Ride of the Season After a winter of too much travel, not enough exercise, and too many unhealthy food choices, I finally got a chance to escape into the woods and remember what it feels like to move under my own power. No difficult routes or grand adventures, just a chance
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After a crazy first half of the year with work taking me to Madrid, Brisbane, Osaka, the Bay Area, and Las Vegas, I haven’t had as much time on the bike as I would like. But I’m itching for an adventure and some alone time on the bike. So I’ve planned a three day adventure
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Today I started getting the bikes ready for spring. Both bikes had winter tune ups when I returned from Baja. A new set of Vittoria Mezcal 29X2.6″ tires was waiting for Hobbes, so I took off WTB Ranger 29X3″ tires that came stock.b. The Vittoria tires sealed up easily with no real mess once I
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The last item to debug is eating and drinking. Normally, I don’t have any issues eating and drinking enough when bikepacking. That did not carry over to Baja, and I don’t know why. First, keeping up with hydration was really hard. Even though I covered up with a long sleeve sun shirt to keep the direct sun
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I’ve been home a few weeks. Hobbes went to the shop – no major issues, just needed a cleaning and some regular maintenance. The dragging brakes just needed to be adjusted. A replacement bike computer mount has been ordered. My other bike, The Pink ‘Rona, also went to the shop for a tune up. Both are ready to ride
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I woke up early today, still dehydrated. A liter of water and an unheatlhy breakfast – the Snickers bar was the healthiest thing I ate this morning – and I was ready to head out the door. I took a shuttle back to the Cactus Hotel where my adventure began a week earlier. After a ~2 hour
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I had another restless night with super strange, surreal dreams. Since I was meeting Lupe for a tour at 7:30 AM, I had an early alarm to allow me to have breakfast and get my stuff packed before he showed up. As promised Lupe showed up in the morning and gave me a very personal, in
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Today, I was up and out of the door early, riding by around 7:30 AM. As soon as I left my AirBNB, I noticed just how windy it was. The next few hours were spent fighting a steady 15+ MPH headwind riding along the highway toward La Paz. The noise from cars and trucks, combined with the constant
Bikepacking for Nerds 