Bike
The bike I intend to use is a 2007 Trek 1200 road bike. I bought it on the Ride to Work scheme and use it almost every day to get to the station. It has a brushed aluminium frame with carbon forks. As this bike is used in all weather, I’ve added some mudguards. I’ve also added a lightweight rear rack.
2007 Trek 1200
Wheels
Until 10 days to go, I was going to use a pair of handmade wheels which Parker International made for me in 2003. The hubs are Shimano Ultegra with Mavic CXP30 rims, straight laced with DT Swiss Stainless Steel spokes. These were beautifully put together and after thousands of miles, were still as true as the day they were made. However, being my winter wheels and not having been serviced recently, I found that the rear hub bearing surfaces were so badly corroded that I really couldn’t use them. At short notice, I ended up buying a pair of Miche Reflex Road wheels from Evans Cycles for £121.
MICHE Reflex Wheelset
Tyres
Continental GP4000s. Click here for full details.
Continental GP4000S
Panniers
Altura Dryline 56ltr Panniers – I bought these in 2007 when I went on a week long camping/cycle trip with my son, on the Avenue Verte, just outside Dieppe in France. They are quite big but still manageable and totally waterproof. Highly recommended.
Altura Dryline 56ltr Panniers
Garmin Edge 800 GPS
Originally I had the Edge 305 which I found really good but the screen broke and bought the top of the range Edge 800 with full European maps. The idea is that for riding the stages themselves, I’ll load the GPX files into the 800 and getting abut, such as to hotels, I’ll use it as a conventional GPS by entering the addresses.
Garmin Edge 800 Cycle GPS
ContourHD 1080p Helmet Cam
This is a very recent purchase. I thought that this, being a once in a lifetime trip, I should record it for future reference.
ContourHD 1080p
HTC Desire HD Mobile Phone
Click here to find out why it’s coming with me.
I’m actually taking my old HTC Hero as well. When I get to France, I’ll use the Hero with my UK Sim and in the Desire HD, I will have a French Orange Sim with unlimited data.
HTC Desire HD
Aspire 1410 laptop
This is a great little laptop. 11.6″ screen and very thin. Great battery life including WiFi. Ideal for blogging back at the hotel each evening.
Aspire 1410 laptop
Odds’n’sods
- Passport
- TDF Map
- Chargers for Garmin, ContourHD Helmet Cam, HTC Desire HD and Laptop
- Europlug adapter
- Short quad extension lead
- Reading Glasses
- Pump
- Multitool
- Inner Tubes
- Chain Oil
- First Aid Kit
- Chamois Cream
- Shower Gel
- Sun Tan Cream
- Deodorant
- Washing Gel for Clothes
Hi Jean
When are you planning to do ride?
Are you enjoying MTBing?
Good luck with T de F
All the best
Steve
Hi Steve. I’m planning on doing this in September 2011 but nothing is planned yet. It all depends on what happens with work etc.
MTBing is going well. It’s good to have a bit of variety in your training. It’s also good for hill training.
All the best J-F
Good luck with your recovery and your planned bike ride!
Thanks. Fully recovered now and training underway.
Jean-Fancois,
My 2 stages this weekend were also on a Trek 1200 – bog standard and it didn’t miss a beat. You will be fine on such a trusty beast.
Andrew
That’s good. The only thing I’m going to change is the chainset. At the moment, it’s the standard 53/38 but I’m going to change it to a compact chainset shortly. Having a 34/50 will help in the mountains, especially as I will have added weight with the panniers.