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Gear Entries

Samson Zoom H4n: Review & Repair

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

In January of 2010, I bought my first sound recorder: a Samson Zoom H4n. At the time, I knew essentially nothing about field recording—I selected the device based on the recommendation of several musician friends. I didn't think of it at the time...

Satellite Internet: BGAN Explorer 110 Review

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

Background Before we left on this adventure, I made a commitment to my clients that their level of support wouldn't change while I was abroad. I bought our BGAN Explorer 110 from Globalcom in October of 2009, just before we went to Tunisia, thin...

MobilityPass: Global Internet & Cellular Service

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

MobilityPass claims to offer cellular phone and internet access with a single SIM card in more than 100 countries– they also advertise free incoming calls for many of them. Wanting to provide the best possible support for my clients, they were one...

Navigation: Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx

Friday, April 30th, 2010

The Garmin 60 series has been on the market since 2004. My very first GPS was the now discontinued 60CS model. I used it with great success for many years on road trips in the USA, both in a car and mounted to the handlebars of a motorcycle. The...

Sleeping Mat Success

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

We picked up our replacement Therm-a-Rest ToughSkin sleeping mat today. As per usual, no shipments actually get delivered here in Europe. We had to fax a written letter (in Serbian), copies of our passports, our police registration and a bunch of...

Therm-a-Rest ToughSkin Failure

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

About a week ago, one of our Therm-a-Rest Toughskin sleeping mats started failing. The outer fabric began to delaminate, pulling away from the foam inside creating a bulbous air pocket. When you lay on the mat, the added pressure causes the fabri...

Maintenance

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

Today, I replaced the chains on our bikes. According to bicycling community legend Sheldon Brown, you can gauge their level of wear by using a ruler. You're supposed to measure from the center of one rivet, to the center of one twelve links away....

Velocity Rims: Part 3

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Our rims are finally here! Tara and I tore into the boxes at the post office this morning as soon as they opened at 8:30 AM. We could hardly believe what we saw when we removed the cardboard packaging. Velocity has replaced our failing rear rims...

DSLR Camera Case: ThinkTank Digital Holster 10

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

Bringing a digital SLR on our world tour was a last-minute decision. About a month before we left, my friend Ian Meyer convinced me that we'd be fools to leave without one. At the time, my main concern was how we'd carry yet another heavy and exp...

Velocity Rims: Part 2

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

UPDATE: It turns out our problems had nothing to do with the braking surface at all. The rim was splitting in two right down the middle. I didn't see this until I removed the rim tape. Click here for a continuation of the story. Roughly one...

Shipments Received

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

We've developed a pretty good system for getting things we need while on the road. First, we place orders online and have the items shipped to my parents house. Then, when we are planning to stay somewhere for awhile, they act as our support crew...

Merino Wool

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

It keeps you warm when it is cold. It keeps you cool when it is hot. It dries almost instantly. You can sweat in it all day for weeks at a time without washing and still it won't smell. I remember being horrified when Tara informed me that all ...

Camp Chair: Walkstool Comfort

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

My dad took our family camping every summer when I was growing up. While researching what gear to bring on our trip I thought about those outings a lot. Planning a nomadic life turned out to be a surprisingly daunting task, and camping with my fa...

Exped DownMat vs Therm-a-Rest ToughSkin

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

UPDATE: One of our ToughSkin sleeping mats de-laminated. Click here for more information. It was clear when we started preparing to cycle around the world that doing so would require giving up countless luxuries. During our research we quic...

Velocity Chukkers Arrive

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

We spent most of the morning tearing camp apart and re-assembling it into 'travel' mode. I was expecting our wheels to arrive the following day and I wanted to be packed and ready to go when they did. It took a surprisingly long time to clean and...

Snowpeak Titanium Single Cup I

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

The Titanium Single Cup I is just that—a cup and most certainly not a mug. For some reason this very important detail escaped us as we were doing research, and we decided to purchase two of them. We chose them because we were foolishly concerned ...

Power Grips

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

Power Grips are a very simple foot retention system originally designed for mountain biking in the 80s. They are nothing more than a pair of one inch wide straps that mount diagonally across your pedals. The straps themselves are made of a durabl...

Terry Liberator X Gel vs. Brooks Champion Flyer S

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Before riding a touring bicycle, the longest I'd ever spent in the saddle was riding back and forth to work on my beach cruiser. I didn't know what a saddle should feel like. I chose the Terry Liberator X Gel because Cindie from Down the Road had...

Velocity Rims

Monday, August 24th, 2009

UPDATE: One of our replacement rims failed too. Click here for a continuation of the story. I will be updating this post over the next few days as we sort out our wheel dilemma. My rear rim has failed and Tara's is on the way out in the exac...

Souped Up

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

I am now the proud owner of a brand new Brooks Champion Flyer S saddle! It's a leather seat specifically designed for women, complete with sturdy springs that provide extra cushion on bumpy roads. Supposedly it won't be comfortable until it break...

Well Received

Friday, July 24th, 2009

We arrived at the l'Hostis's house in Fontaines early this afternoon, fully ready to spend a few days doing nothing, or at the very least, nothing cycle related. We get to spend our first night and day here alone thanks to the generosity of Tara's...

Exped Downmat 9

Friday, June 12th, 2009

Update Here The Exped Downmat 9 (our sleeping mat) has a foam(?) insert that provides a barrier between the down inside and the air nozzles used to to inflate it. Over the course of the last week the insert for both mats broke loose. This mea...

Alcohol Stove Making: Part 2

Monday, December 15th, 2008

I've really enjoyed tinkering with our penny alcohol stove over the past few weeks so I've decided to try some other designs. Up for today was the "Cat" a super low tech unpressurized stove. It has a leg up on the penny stove in that it will burn...

Rain Gear (Showers Pass)

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

The rain gear we want for the trip is terribly expensive so we've been hunting for deals the last few weeks. Last night Tara discovered Team Estrogen (already the most affordable vendor for Showers Pass gear) was having a 20% off sale which wou...

Ultralight Alcohol Stove

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Tara and I spent all day Saturday working on what was supposed to be a fun learning experience making emergency backup stoves. To our surprise what we wound up with works better than our WhisperLite! It is smaller, lighter, quieter, more efficien...

REI Extravaganza!

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

What a wonderful, wonderful day! After sleeping in, waking up to beautiful sunny weather (the first sunny day in awhile…), and puttering around in the kitchen making hash browns and biscuits for breakfast, Tyler and I set off to pick up more cardbo...