Gear
Bikes
Ali is going to ride a Thorn Sterling which is a multi-functional Rohloff equipped touring mountain bike with front suspension, made in the UK by Thorn Bicycles. This bike is designed to haul a Bob trailer over long distances and unsealed terrain while also providing an opportunity to play around on the mountains and singletrack that we find along the way.
THORN STERLING
Thorn themselves describe it as: ‘The most awesome trailer-pulling, adventure touring hard tail using V brakes and a suspension fork…drop the trailer and you have a very nice hard tail to explore/play on’
Almost all of the riding we do at home is off-road cross country style so I wanted a bike that would enable us to tour on back roads, firetrails and singletrack as well as be used as a cross country mountain bike. This bike was by far the best option I have seen and will provide strength and reliability while on the trail and the road.
Anna is riding the Thorn eXXp, steel bliss designed to cover long distances with heavy load on rough terrain.
THORN eXXp
The spec of the bikes that we will ride is: Magura Odor 100mm/85mm travel forks, shimano xtr v-brakes, Brooks saddle, Rigida Andra30 CSS rims, Schwalbe Marathon folding 2.0 tyres and a Rohloff equipped hub. There are many more options for a custom built bike from Thorn.
Trailers and panniers
BOB IBEX
I have used Bob trailers on a number of smaller off-road trips and I love the feel of them tracking nicely behind on single track, pushing the bike downhills, being able to carry larger loads when required and the ability to unhitch in a few seconds to scale fences, unpassable pieces of trail or just to explore some local trails minus the load. They do act as a huge handbrake on any significant climb sucking momentum you might have had to a standstill and the bike can feel light and a bit sketchy without the load holding it to the ground. Also it does mean more punctures (one extra wheel!). But overall I enjoy the freedom the Bob gives me and it allows me to ride a hardtail mtb while touring.
ORTLIEB
Anna is carrying 4 Ortlieb panniers and a handlebar bag.
Lights
NITEFLUX
To store electricity while we are on the road, we will be using ruggedised Li-Ion rechargeable batteries from NiteFlux. NiteFlux batteries offer idiot-proof charging direct from lightweight foldable solar panels with no other adapter required.
We will use NiteFlux lights to see in the night and we can also use a small and simple adapter with the NiteFlux batteries to charge our other electronic devices including camera, MP3 players, etc.
Tent
Macpac Minaret two-person alpine tent.
Kitchen wear
At this stage we have a mishmash of equipment collected over the past years of camping including MSR whisper-lite multi-fuel stove, MSR cooking pots, Optimus Nova Plus multi-fuel stove and a Katadyn Mini water filter.
