PowerCycle

This is a long post that has nothing to do with anything but me trying to justify to myself why I’m spending a bunch of money. I leave Cajamarca on Sunday morning.

It wasn’t too long ago that I was last in Florida (12/2010) but I have a growing list of things that need to be addressed and it’ll be much cheaper to head back from Peru instead of waiting until I get to southern Argentina or I’m somewhere in the Eastern Hemisphere. The trip won’t happen for another 4 -6 weeks but this is notice to my loving Aunt to dust off the couch (jk, I warned her already). Here’s my list of touring woes that a trip home will fix:

Tent – my Big Agnes Seedhouse SL1 isn’t the best wet weather tent and the lack of vestibule space is a problem when I want to store my gear next to me at night. I was just going to deal with it but the folks over at Big Agnes recommended one of their other tents and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Finding a good tent is no easy task. I’ve spent many hours researching tents and while none of them meet all my needs, some are much better than others. Here’s what I look for in no particular order:

• Lightweight. 4 lbs is my max. I’m riding alone which means I already have to lug around a lot of gear. This rules out a lot of the European brand tents that are much stronger but weigh 6 lbs and up.
• Price. OK it’s true you get what you pay for with tents but I’m not paying $700 even if it’s perfect (Hilleberg AKTO).
• Blends into the environment. Bright colors are out (aka the top of the line mountaineering tents). I don’t want to be spotted when I’m camping. Natural colors are best.
• Freestanding. A deal breaker for me. There are too many times where having to pound a tent peg into the ground is impractical.
• Fly first set up. If it’s cold and raining having to put the tent up first and then cover it with the rain fly is no fun. Being able to set the poles into the footprint, slap on the fly and then clip the inner tent to the poles from underneath is a huge plus.
• No dripping. I hate getting wet unless I’m actually on my bike riding in the rain. If water drips into my open mouth in the middle of the night due to condensation or I can’t get into the tent without flooding the place I’m not going to be a fan.
• Customer service. I don’t like to “maintain” things, I take risks and I expect non-cheap things to last even if I subject them to hellish conditions. If I email a company because I messed something up I expect a quick answer even if I don’t like it. Big Agnes customer service has always gone above and beyond when I’ve had a problem/question.

The Copper Spur UL2 is the 2 man version of the UL1 they recommended and it meets all my needs with the exception of the color. The grey(?) isn’t horrible but a green version of this tent would have made it ideal. I went with the 2 man version because I get double the vestibule space (19 sq ft), there are two doors instead of one, there’s more head room (for my big head) and it doesn’t weigh much more than the UL1. I’m very excited to try it out.

Camera – It was sure tempting to get either the Canon 60D, the Canon Rebel T3i, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 or the Lumix DMC-GF2. Alas, I didn’t get any of them and I’m going to keep my Canon PowerShot SX20 IS and like it.

Laptop – Time for an upgrade. I haven’t been able to install a Windows update in 2 years because my EEE PC 901 only has a 12 GB drive in it. Actually I can’t install much of anything because of the space issue. I’ll soon be hacking away on a new ASUS Eee PC 1015 with a 250 GB drive, 2 GB RAM and a 10.1″ screen. I’m worried about going from an SSD drive to a SATA drive but I know other riders with non-SSD drives and they had no problems. The power connector where the AC cord plugs in is also near death. I’ll miss the 901; it held up through a lot of abuse in the last 3 years.

Bike seat – I don’t know why I’m going to subject to my ass to this again but I’m going to give Brooks another try. I ordered the B17 Standard. The $3 cheapos I’ve been buying every couple months have been working out OK but it’s getting harder to find the type that I prefer.

Grooming – I have no hair and I intend to keep it that way. When I hit Peru and the land of 240v power grids I found out that my tried and true Remington Short Cut Clipper wasn’t 110-240v compatible like everything I have that plugs in. After much searching I found the Philips Norelco QC5170. Seems like it’ll do the trick. The non-replaceable battery on the Remington is also not going to last much longer.

Clothes – It’ll be getting cold soon. I’ll be riding over a pass in southern Peru that breaks 16,000 feet. In Bolivia I might be at or above 14,000 feet for a couple weeks. I sent some cold weather clothes to my Dad before I left the States but they’ll be needed before too long.

Money – one of the ATMs here ate my BB&T card. That was my back up ATM card in case the one from my other bank gets stolen. One of my credit cards also expired so I’ll need a new one of those too (even though I never use it).

A cat – I considered buying a cat and having it follow along in a small trailer behind my bike. My thinking was that the stupid dogs would try to bite the cat instead of me and/or my panniers. The cat would be protected by a plastic cage, not unlike what’s used for the Popemobile. I’m still on the fence about this one.

A few other small things are on the list like a new plastic map case, a small (and very cool) external speaker for listening to my iTouch and a new batch of rechargeable batteries (the ones here are poor quality and expensive).