Finisterre Gear Review

We have a few bits of clothing from Finisterre with us on our tour and we love them. We just wanted to write a quick review of their stuff. To begin with Finisterre are a cold water surfing company based in Cornwall, England. Although we aren't cold water surfing we think that clothes that can survive in those harsh environments can look after us on our trip.

We both have their woollen socks (Sophie has the "Last Long Original Socks" and I wear the "Last Long Ribbed Socks") - these little things are the best! When it's cold we wear them riding, they keep our toes warm in bed when we're camping and it's below zero, and they are our go to option when off the bikes and just walking around in our light weight Crocs. Despite the fact that mine must be over 2 years old they are near enough perfect (if a little grubby). Well done Finisterre, these socks are awesome!

Putting on the Last Long Original Woollen Socks

I have one of their cotton polo shirts, maybe it was called the Harlyn? This is now maybe 18 months to 2 years old and is one of my favourite T-shirts (hence being away with us) and is still in perfect nick. Again - awesome!

Wearing the Harlyn organic cotton polo shirt

We both have their merino wool Eddy base layers, these are our go to tops when we need something more than just a cycling jersey or T-shirt. Our only minor criticism here is that we'd prefer them to be slightly longer in the body, but again these are built for surfing and not cycling so we shouldn't complain. Still it's a great bit of kit and has helped save us from freezing on a couple of snowy mountain passes! Not sure how we would have coped in Utah or Washington without them.

Keeping the chill off in the desert with the Eddy Merino Base Layer

I also have the Nimbus synthetic down jacket that I asked for as a 30th birthday/leaving pressie from all my family. I love the jacket! It's brilliant, it looks great, it's warm, it is surprisingly water resistant, it packs up small and I wrap it around a stuff sack full of clothes to use it as a super-duper pillow. It is awesome after a long day in the saddle to throw on while putting up the tent and getting the camp set up. It seems to keep me the right temperature - when it's cold it seems really warm and toastie, but if its not so chilly I don't overheat and get uncomfortable.  A nice touch is the soft lining in the pockets and around the neck that is a welcome luxury at the end of the day. I went for the hooded version (there is the Cirrus that comes without the hood) and I'm really glad I did for those cold desert nights gazing at the stars or the biting, frosty mornings getting the porridge ready for breakfast.  Although it's not waterproof it's water resistance keeps rain beading off it to stop it getting damp.  This is my first insulated jacket so I can't really do a comparison but I can't seem to find any flaws with the jacket after 3 months of wearing.   

Keeping warm in the forest in the Nimbus Jacket

All of the above have survived being rolled up and stuffed into dry bags day after day after day.  Some times all (barring the Nimbus jacket) have been wet for days and just packed away and still, once washed and dried out, the clothes keep their shape and carry on keeping us warm (I keep the Nimbus from rain because even though it is water resistant to a point, I personally don't want to have my evening luxury clothing all wet, that would result in a massive disappointment after a long ride).  We've even had to resort to putting the wool socks and base layers into big tumble driers to get them dry on numerous occasions with no ill affect to the garments.  The durability of these items are fantastic and we are both so glad we decided to bring these items away.

Trapped in the Wind

We left Sugar City and called in at the supermarket in Rexburg for supplies.  The previous day we had called in at a Ranger Station to get an Idaho map and they had suggested a route up through Salmon, but warned that it was ‘the loneliest highway’ so to carry all the food and water we needed.  They’d said we’d have no bear issues out there, our only problem would be the wind.  So fully stocked up we aimed for a random spot we thought was about 70 miles away, in the middle of BLM land where we knew we could camp.

The morning’s ride was mostly through farmland and the roads flat and straight.  There was a few small towns along the way and we stopped for lunch in one and refilled all our water.  The farmland soon gave way to desert sagebrush and we turned north on to highway 28 to begin the lonely stretch up to Salmon 120 miles away.  Cycling in terrain like this is tough, you’re pedalling all the time as it’s mostly flat, but you don’t get a sense of getting anywhere as all the surroundings are the same.  Luckily it was a quiet road so we could ride next to each other and talk.  Looking ahead the road stretched away in a mind-bogglingly straight line up a slight incline and we could make out a junction way up ahead.   So we made bets on how far away we thought the junction was; I said 13 miles, Tom went for 19.  Time went by and it just didn’t seem to get any closer.  We tried to time cars making the journey, they took a long time.  I narrowly won the bet.

We were getting close to the distance we wanted to cover so we started keeping an eye out for possible camp spots.  There was nothing but sagebrush and hills off in the distance.  We pushed on.  We knew there was a creek which ran close to the road a little way on and thought this would be a good bet as we could then refill our waters using our water filter.  We spied some willow and other little trees up ahead and guessed this was where the creek ran.  There was some machinery parked on the far side of the creek and a track which led to the left which we chose to head down.  There was a bit of a parking-cum-horse corral type area, but the creek was behind a barbed wire fence.  We snuck through the fence to climb up the bank of the creek to see if we could spot anything better.  On the other side of the creek there appeared to be an open area with easy access to the water.  Bingo!  We’d found our campsite for the night.  We rode back down the track and back up past the machinery.  We liked our spot and decided to put the GoPro on time-lapse to capture us setting up camp.  We did our warm down stretches and started to get the tent set up.  It had been a cold night the night before and the tent was damp from condensation so we decided to just put up the inner for the time being to give it time to dry out while we made dinner.  We pegged it down, though the ground was very poor, but didn’t put our stuff in as the ground sheet was a little damp too.

I got on with making rice and rasam for our dinner and Tom got the bikes sorted and was checking the camera was working.  All of a sudden a huge gust of wind picked up the tent, ripping out and scattering the pegs, and tumbled the tent towards the barbed wire fence, somersaulted it over the fence and carried it along, like a tumbleweed, towards the trees lining the creek.  I screamed to get Tom’s attention and followed it as quickly as I could, negotiating my way under the barbed wire and chasing our beloved tent down.  Tom was quickly at my side and we managed to catch hold of the tent and with some effort wrestle it against the wind back to our spot.  The wind had not died down and we fought to get the fly sheet on and get all our stuff in the tent to weigh it down before retrieving our far-flung pegs.  We ate dinner by the creek and talked of ‘what ifs’ and how lucky we were that we’d not lost the tent and that the only damage it had incurred was a small rip near the door in the ground sheet.

We decided to lay the bikes down for the night and covered them with the tarp as usual before heading to bed.  I got woken up just after midnight as the wind seemed to be increasing, but soon fell back to sleep.  Then at 3:30am someone cranked the wind up to 11 and it hammered us hard.  Tom and I lay, arms outstretched, bracing the end of the tent against the attack for over an hour and a half.  At one point I sat up to get our shoes in from the porch as we worried about losing them and the wind got under the tent and made a good effort to lift us up.  I was scared.  I honestly worried that we may get picked up and thrown about.  I watched, fearfully, as the wind raged around us, battering the tent, sand blasting it, yanking it from side-to-side and the poles and material fought to keep their form.  I wondered if we’d missed warnings of tornados or hurricanes in the area.  We were miles from anywhere, no one knew where we were and I had no idea what we would do if we lost the tent.  The wind finally eased enough for us to feel we could safely stop holding the tent up and try to get some more sleep.

We snoozed later than usual and then ate a cold breakfast in the tent while deciding what to do.  The wind was still pretty blustery, but when we finally ventured out it wasn’t too awful and amazingly we hadn’t lost the tarp on the bikes.  We packed everything up, quite an ordeal in the wind, and got on the road around 11am.  After about an hour of tough riding in the wind we came across Lone Pine which consists of a café/shop and a motel.  We decided to treat ourselves to a drink, maybe a pastry and a break from the wind.  The Rangers had joked about Lone Pine, but it went over our heads at the time.  We get it now.  We walked into a dimly lit room, TV blaring in one corner and an elderly lady sat in a comfy chair in front of it reading the paper.  She informed us that they were in the process of ‘deep cleaning the place’ and were ‘low on stock’.  Oh that’s ok we said we’d just like a drink and a break from the wind really.  Tom inquired if she had any soda, ‘oh no, that machine is broken’ she replied.  I could see she had a pot of coffee on so I asked if we could have coffee.  ‘Sure,’ she said and got up to get us sorted out.  ‘Oh no I’ll have to see if I can find you some sugar’, I replied we didn’t take sugar, but did she have any milk?  ‘Oh no, we don’t got no milk’, she said.  OK, well black is good.  We took the coffees outside (it would have been weird to just sit in her living room with her!) and chuckled in hindsight at the Rangers joke.

Feeling somewhat revived, we got back on the bikes and continued north.  The wind had died down a little and we were getting over the drama of the previous night.  We’d decided that if we could just make it to Leadore that was enough for today and we’d push on to just past Salmon the following day.  We had a long, gentle climb up to Gilmore Pass and the wind had eased enough that the downhill wasn’t a fight.  The hills were closing in a little, but it was mostly just sage brush still and we were pretty nervous about camping anywhere too open in case we were subject to another windy battering.  We rolled into Leadore, past an RV park and found the library.  After a little while of looking at maps and researching possible campsites we decided to enquire at the RV park.  At $10 a night it was as cheap as any other fee charging campgrounds so we pitched the tent.  It was attached to a motel and the owner let us use the showers in one of the motel rooms.  The seven year old son of the lady looking after the RV park comes and introduces himself as Garrett and joins us doing our stretches.  He is a real livewire and reminds me of a character they may have had in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou.

We felt we deserved a treat after the ordeal we’d been through so we headed to the local bar for a beer and maybe a burger.  It was fairly dark inside and we got the full ‘you’re not from round here’ stare as we entered.  Undeterred we ordered two Bud and sat at the bar.  We asked if they were serving food but were told that no they were not.  Sat, feeling uncomfortable, at the bar we look around at the myriad of humorous stickers they have on the walls and talk quietly amongst ourselves.  That’s when I noticed the crucified, zombified, semi-corpse of the President they have hung above the bar with ‘FUCK YOU OBAMA’ written across his forehead.  I squeezed Tom’s hand, we finished our beers and left.  Not the treat we were after.

Optimus No. 5 - Part 2

So some of you may recall that one of my first posts was about trying to get the lovely Optimus No. 5 stove that was my Dad's to work so we could take it away.  You may also recall that we repeatedly set it on fire, not the controlled, pressurised blue flame we were aiming for but paraffin flowing all over the whole thing and engulfing the entire thing in orange fire.

Nevertheless we took it away on our 2 week trip to give it a go and after a somewhat faltering start did manage to cook our first night's dinner on it, albeit rather slowly and with the usual fire show.  After a second attempt the following day Tom pleaded with me to let us buy a gas stove which we did.  I must sadly admit that it was a lot more efficient and much easier.

But I was still determined that if we could only fix the seal that it would suddenly be a totally different beast, though Tom was far from convinced.  So I gave the stove to my very talented metal-working Uncle Bri and asked him to see if he could figure out what was wrong with it.  Here's his verdict, delivered via text from my Aunty Gin:

"Unky Brian experimented with your stove.  He really doesn't think you should take it away.  You will need to carry 2 lots of fuel and if they spill they will taint everything, plus they may not be easy to find in the US. He also thought it was a bit erratic and difficult to tame.  However he thought it was a beautifully made object and would love to frame it for you when you get back!"

So there we go.  Its being relegated to being just an object of beauty, not of use.  But there are worse fates.  And it really was much easier cooking on gas.  Not entirely sure what we'll do once we leave North America as getting gas canisters in darkest Peru for example will be nigh on impossible, but that's months away yet so we can cross that bridge at some point in Canada.

What is a Rohloff hub and why do you keep banging on about them?

LONG TECHY POST ALERT!  We got asked to do a post about what a Rohloff Hub is so this is it.  I am in no way a bike expert or bike geek so this will be in very simple terms.  Basically there are 2 types of gear system for push bikes - external derailleur gears which is the type found on most bikes and internal hub gears which is what we've opted for on our touring bikes.

This is your average external derailleur gear system.  You probably recognise it.  There are a series of different sized cassettes at the back and often a number of of different sized chain rings at the front with a chain running between the two and derailleurs to move the chain up and down the cassette and chain rings.

                   

An internal hub means that all your gears are packaged neatly away inside the bit in the middle of your rear wheel (the hub).  This has a sprocket attached to it and at the front, where your pedals are there is one chain ring.  These are connected by a chain, which continually runs in a straight line, unlike with a derailleur where it moves up and down the cassette and chain rings.  How does all the internal stuff work?  No bloody idea.  You can read about it on Wikipedia if you like or watch this video on the Rohloff website.

All I know is our Rohloff hub (Rohloff is the make) is a masterpiece of German engineering and we are already very fond of them.  So what is so good about it I hear you ask?  Well these are the reasons we chose them instead of the 'normal' external gears:
1)  Reliability.  There are stories galore of people riding thousands and thousands of miles on these guys with pretty much zero maintenance apart from the oil changes.
2)  Sturdiness and durability.  Because it is all enclosed it doesn't rust or get clogged up with mud/dust/sand.  There aren't any fragile bits sticking out from the frame to get bent or broken.  And because your chain is continually running in a straight line it doesn't wear out so quickly.  You change gears by means of a gripshift on the handlebars, which again means nothing sticking out to break.
3)  You can change gear when not pedalling, i.e. when stationary or coasting.  This might not sound like that big of a deal, but how hard is it getting a bike going if you've accidentally left it in the hardest gear?  Now multiply that by 20 because the bike weighs a ton.  I absolutely LOVE this feature.
4)  It has 14 gears, which doesn't sound like a lot when you get bikes these days with 27 or more, but unlike with external gears each gear is different.  With external gears because it is to do with the ratio between your cassette and chain ring there are a number of combinations you could be in with virtually the same feel.
5)  Amazing customer service.  On the relatively few times I have read about something going wrong with Rohloffs they are renowned for their excellent customer service.  The same goes for Thorn bikes so we're in good hands.

So if they're so amazing why don't all bikes have these instead of external gears?  Well I'm guessing the main reason is probably price, they are very expensive bits of kit.  They added around £1000 on to the cost of each of our bikes, but we personally felt like it was worth it for not having to spend time repeatedly fixing and fiddling with external gears.  Something we have to do on our commuter bikes a lot and don't really enjoy.

There are also these things which people have said against them:
*  They are relatively unusual and so in many parts of the world your average bike mechanic wouldn't know what to do with them, meaning if you do have an issue you do have to rely on customer service 'back home' and waiting around for couriers to deliver a new wheel rather than external gears which are ubiquitous around the globe and fixable by almost anyone.  True, but we trust in their reliability.
*  They can be a bit noisy, especially the seventh gear which is a bit gratey.  This is sort of true, but for us is of utter insignificance.
*  They're heavy.  Well maybe if you're an ultralight touring type this makes a difference, but for us, honestly, we're the heaviest component on our touring bikes and we'd probably eat the equivalent weight in day so...
*  They are really expensive, better to just spend the money on the adventure.  Again we'd agree with this, and if the choice was own this bit of kit and not go away or have external gears and go away then the choice would obviously be the latter.  But we are lucky enough to have saved enough to do both and we are generally of the philosophy of 'Buy Cheap, Buy Twice, or Thrice or...'  So if you have the money to buy the best quality do it as it'll save you in the long run.  We don't expect to ever need to buy new touring bikes, ever again, for the rest of our lives.  So this seems like a good investment to us.