i chose this bike instead of getting a new touring bike (which probably would be the ideal choice) simply because i already own this bike. i also chose it over my mountain bike because i'm expecting to stay on the highways quite a bit. should i ever plan another trip like this, i might ride a hybrid mountain bike and take parts of the extensive transcanada bike trail. all this being said, this bike has been a tremendous bike. for the money, it's a great buy... shimano 105 equipped, light aluminum frame with carbon where it counts.
bike seat (www.spongywonder.com):
nothing but good things to say about this seat... no pain... no long term effects to worry about... just an awesome bike seat.
aerobars:
standard aerobars for road bikes. these are also nice because the arm rests spring up when you're not on them so you can have the more upright portion of your handlebars free.
aerodrink:
this is a handly little attachment. the one thing i will say about this though is that you should probably get a piece of cloth or something to cover the open top of the bottle. too often without it, you'll be splashed in the face when you hit a bump.
bento box:
great little aerodynamic storage addition for holding everything from keys to powerbars. very cool...
trailer:
this purchase is one of the cornerstones of the trip. being able to offload a lot of the weight onto a third wheel and not have my bike overly top heavy is a huge plus. the yellow pack you see there is completely waterproof, can hold some 90 litres of storage space and actually does come with that crazy flag in the back. what more could you possibly want?
other modifications:
- a small headlight for the front of the bike and a rear light that i attach to my back. i don't ever expect to be biking during any dark portions of the day, but even when it's a little overcast or something, it's nice to have the extra lights.
- bike computer that also measures cadence. i figure if i'm going across canada, it'll be pretty important to know how many kilometers i'm clocking per day (and more importantly, how many kilometers till the next town). woot!
- an attachment on the back of my seat (actually mounts onto the seat rails) that can mount two water bottles. normally, you can get a rear attachment that hooks onto your seatpost to mount the bottle cages, but my seatpost is aerodynamic and so they don't fit.
- i've put on larger tires to help cusion some of the bumps along the way. the largest i could manage to sqeeze onto the bike were 700x30's and i can tell already that they definitely help.
- another bottlecage attached in the typical water bottle position. in total, i'll have 4 water bottle positions: (which, if unused, will also act as my water reservoirs for camping) this one, the two located behind my seat, and the one between the aerobars.