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Looking great! Will hopefully check it out in person in a few months time.

After just over a month on the road our time in Alaska / Yukon / (a tiny slither of) BC is over - 1800km and more mountain views than I thought were possible.

The stretch across Yukon and back in to Yukon has been mind blowing, quieter roads (although still super wide) and an amazing spread of landscapes.

We finally came across some grizzly bears but fortunately no drama. The first was a pair of biggish cubs on a lake foreshore a few hundred metres away, perfect viewing. The second was a single bear feeding on plants at the side of the road - he was set on eating and after waiting a while we realised he wasn’t going to retreat back in to the woods. Fortune timing with a car heading our direction meant we could slowly convoy past him with no issues - still a bit spicy for 2 Londoners used to seeing nothing more than foxes and pigeons.

Tonight we board the ferry down to Bellingham, WA and will then head north to Vancouver for week to see friends before starting the ride south through Washington, Oregon and California. We’ll spend the ferry route planning and trying to work out how many sights we can see along the way while keeping to our rough schedule. I think we’re going to try and take in some of the islands West of Bellingham and Seattle and loop round the Olympic National Park - adds 400 or 500km to the more direct route but I think it will be worth spending more time in the area.

Pro Trek is doing it’s thing on tour

I’m struggling to upload photos at the moment but will try when I next have Wi-Fi.

We’re coming up to 3 weeks in Alaska and have pedalled 980km so far. Flying to Fairbanks with giant airport queues and the hassle of bike boxes was a fairly hellish affair but we arrived in one piece.

My partner had a nasty cold on arrival so we parked up at the hostel for a few extra days before hitting the road down to Denali National Park. The roads were pretty big but wide shoulders made for nice cycling, and the views straight out the gate have been amazing. Once we got to the park we headed up the park road. It’s mainly gravel and closed to private traffic (tour buses only) - the whole road is 90 miles long but due to a big landslide it’s closed at mile 42. We did a 3 day out and back, camping around mile 30. No bear sightings but we saw some fresh-looking footprints in our campsite which was close enough for me…

After the park we headed down to the Denali Highway, 217km of remote road with 115km of gravel. A pretty amazing place to ride through with such a range of scenery - camping on the high plateau surrounded by snow was special.

We then routed south to Glennallen and along the Tok Cutoff - we’re currently having a rest day in Tok with 140km to the Canadian border and 700km to Haines. On the 25th we’re getting a 3 day ferry to Bellingham, WA - we’ll be camping on the deck and hopefully will spot some whales.

If you want to see more photos I’m posting bits on instagram.com/ed_win

My partner is also writing a newsletter every few weeks http://tinyletter.com/suzieandedwin

That would be great, thanks

I’ll WhatsApp you to sort details, we’ll be in Seattle early / mid July .

We rode a tandem once, it was fun but on this trip I don’t think we’d make it out of Fairbanks city limits without killing each other.

Oh great, another thing that can kill us.

I’m reading Stephen Herrera’s book on bear attacks at the moment but wolves are a new one to me…

Any tips on Oregon would be great, we’ll be loosely following the Adventure Cycling Association routes but local knowledge is always appreciated.

If we were starting from scratch I think I’d have gone for 26” too but I already had my 700c frame.

Bigger wheels on a smaller frame have caused issues in the past with toe overlap so going smaller on Suzie’s bike made sense.

We’ve got spare spokes but no spare tyres, hopefully tyre boots and a needle and thread will get us out of dodge in the case of a catastrophic tyre failure.

My glittery Straggler has served me well commuting and touring over the last 7 years and will be my bike for this trip too. During the first lockdown I made some changes to make it more ‘world tour’ appropriate and inadvertently ended up changing almost everything but the frame.

Went from drops to loop bars with microshift thumbies and Avid speed dial levers and bb7’s.

New SON 28 dynamo wheel and a matching Hope rear. Got a great deal on old style Hope Tech Enduro rims and had everything built up by Arkane Wheelworks. 40mm Marathon Mondial tyres just about fit under my old mudguards and will hopefully provide enough cushioning.

Swapped the CX drivechain to GRX 2x10 to lower the gearing but annoyingly the cranks don’t use standard bcd spacing (which I didn’t realise at the time). I had hoped to have an option of installing a smaller inner ring if needed but that’s not going to be an option. Currently have 30/36 as the lowest gear but could maybe bump the cassette up to a 40 if I need lower gearing.

Luggage will be Ortlieb Sport Rollers (the smaller ones) front and back, a homemade Fabio’s Chest style saddle bag and basket bag.

My partner’s bike is a Soma Saga (basically Disc Trucker geometry but with a proper sized heat tube) built up with matching components to my Straggler. 26” wheels with 2” Mondial for her, I’m definitely a bit jealous of the extra tute width on her bike.

Her luggage will be Ortlieb Sport Rollers up front and Back Rollers on the rear with a smallBigXTop bar bag and Wizard Works stem pouch.

Photos are off our first longer tour (2 weeks) in Japan in 2016 with my Straggler in it’s drop bar config and then the Outer Hebrides last summer in both bikes’ final forms.

Thanks everyone, will definitely take a look at your blog @greeno and have added a google maps pin on the hostel @Will-37.

@Stoo61 - what route are you following? Glad to hear your plans also happened and you’re out on the road.

@Aroogah - your old Koga bars are being put to good use, they’ll see some sights over the coming months

@hippy - I watched his films down to when he reached the Darien Gap, he did some amazing stuff and got through sone pretty wild situations (I think we’ll be taking a more relaxed approach). I love how he had conversations with people in the middle of nowhere, I’ll be replicating “what is your horse’s name” in my broken Spanish when we’re on the backroads of Central and South America.

In early 2020 my partner and I started chatting about the idea of a long distance, multi month bike tour - our copy of the Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook was reread with a more critical eye than it had been in the past and we set about on deciding a route to follow. Within a few weeks the seed of an idea to take 6-12 months off to ride somewhere had developed into an 18 month tour from Alaska to Argentina along the Pan American Highway.

We wanted to time the start of the trip with the opening of Denali National Park in Alaska which meant a start date of late May/early June - this was only a few months away at the time so we decided to set a target start date of May 2021. Frustratingly long to wait but it would leave plenty of time to sort the planning and gather the new kit we’d need.

Roll on March 2020 and COVID-19 put a sharp stop on any plans we had. Planning (and buying new camping kit) continued but it was more due to lockdown boredom and wishful thinking than any real hope we’d actually get to go on the tour as planned.

Fast forward to the start of 2022 and the borders are back open, visa appointments were booked and plans to leave our jobs were in motion. 29 months since dreaming up the idea and 12 months delayed from the original planned start we’re flying to Fairbanks, Alaska this Friday.

Our route roughly follows the west coast and travels across USA, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina. We’re aiming for about 20 months start to finish but will see how things go, I think revisions and adjustments to the plan are inevitable.

I’ll add some more details of bike set ups and kit tomorrow as well as the itinerary for the first month in Alaska (as much detailed planning as we’ve done so far).

Any local tips / route advice / gardens to camp in or sofas to sleep on along the way would be appreciated!

I had the soft touch rubber on some headphones go all sticky and soft - managed to remove it using DIY cleaning wipes (which I think have a mild solvent in them).

Headphones are now stripped back to hard plastic and look fairly presentable.

Fairly basic but you should be able to get one of these from Surrey Quays if you don’t get a better offer from someone on here.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/fabric-handlebar-bottle-cage/_/R-p-168751

Sold - thanks @duncs

https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/shop/mens-explore-long-sleeve-pullover/product/EXW01LS

Brand new, navy, size medium

Tried on but found the fit around the arm holes/chest totally wrong for me, other people seem to get on with it fine though.

£40 collected from Deptford (you’re welcome to try for size first).

£45 posted

The mounting is generic but looking at photos of the Brother CS10 I don’t think it will work. It’s possible you can get a specific binding attachment or foot for it though - you’ll need one that does a single fold of the tape and not a double.

If you can’t find one that works well with your machine just keep practicing and you’ll improve. Your last attempt looks pretty good to me though, sewing technical fabrics on a domestic machine is never going to be easy. As long as your finished items function as you want a few wobbly stitch lines don’t matter too much.

A binding attachment will make this job easier (although it’s still possible to mess up if you aren’t careful on curves/corners).

Cheap option from AliExpress
https://m.aliexpress.com/item/4001131382362.html?

Nicer option with a hinge so it can pivot out the way when you aren’t using it
https://www.college-sewing.co.uk/folders-attachments/suisei-folders-attachments/suisei-binders/suisei-single-fold-bias-binders.html

Some of the early how to YouTube videos made by Mack Workshop show how to use the attachment.

I broke my tibia in a fairly serious way when I was 15, ended up with a plate and a bunch of screws in there for 18 months then had more surgery to remove them. My knee / foot ended up with a similar misalignment and it’s not caused me issues. I set my cleats up to allow for the foot angle and thankfully that seems to be enough.

Good luck during the healing process, try not to be too critical and over think things right now - chances are you’ll be back on the bike soon enough and parallel vs angled feet won’t make a difference to your enjoyment.

Looks great, the poles make it significantly more palatial than any of my tarp set ups using a front wheel or tree.

Are you going to use any kind of groundsheet / footprint with it?

Thanks

It was very satisfying and significantly more accurate than I could have managed with a hand file. Having the threaded holes to hold down the adapter during machining made it pretty straightforward for a living room machine shop job.

Problem solved - trim router to the rescue

I’m trying to fit two piece rotors but they are thicker than the old rotors and now there isn’t enough adjustment for the outboard pad to clear the rear rotor.

Do thinner post/IS adaptors exist? The existing one is 11mm, I think 10mm should give enough clearance.

I haven’t used it yet but I have a Click Stand ready to go for my next tour - the FAQs on the website are worth a read even if you aren’t interested in buying.

Have you seen the guide here? it’s made the job much more straightforward for me.
http://howtosetuptheavidbb7.weebly.com/how-to-set-up-the-avid-bb7.html