Gear Reviews Entries Samson Zoom H4n: Review & Repair G 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 seve... Satellite Internet: BGAN Explorer 110 Review G 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 Octobe... MobilityPass: Global Internet & Cellular Service G 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 ... Navigation: Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx G 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 an... Therm-a-Rest ToughSkin Failure G 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 la... Velocity Rims: Part 3 G 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 packag... DSLR Camera Case: ThinkTank Digital Holster 10 G 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 con... Velocity Rims: Part 2 G 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 ... Cookware: GSI Outdoors Pinnacle vs Glacier G Monday, November 16th, 2009 There are a lot of options to choose from when considering what cook-set to bring on a world tour. Stainless steel for "expeditions", aluminum for pretty much everything, titanium for the weight wee... Merino Wool G 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 remembe... Camp Chair: Walkstool Comfort G 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 s... Exped DownMat vs Therm-a-Rest ToughSkin G 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 c... Snowpeak Titanium Single Cup I G 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 th... Power Grips G 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 pe... Terry Liberator X Gel vs. Brooks Champion Flyer S G 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 Libe...