Pretour - Back to the Beginning
The original online journal entry:
Actual Date: 2005-08-04
Uploaded: 2005-08-04
Distance: 0.00 km
This weekend I will be returning the location of my first formal tour. The primary reason is to meet up with two fellow bicycle tourists who are currently rounding Lake Erie. It turns out that they will be in the area on Friday so I took advantage of the opportunity to link up.
I also have a few other reasons for getting back out there. The most important one is that I love touring and I am looking forward to riding some more.
When I started touring I wasn't interested in taking pictures so I have absolutely no pictures from that first tour. Assuming that I end up visiting some of the same places then I hope to obtain a few pictures of the places I originally visited.
Recently I obtained some Ortlieb front saddlebags and as a result I've changed my current touring setup to allow me to use the new bags and to allow me to test some ideas from my Round Lake Michigan tour. It will be interesting to compare the Arkel saddlebags I've used in the past to the Ortlieb's I will use during this tour.
One idea was to go with a single rear saddlebag on the right and place my bear keg on the left side of the rack where a saddlebag would normally go. Doing so should result in a relatively even load, get rid of excess cargo capacity and hopefully reduce unnecessary drag.
The funny thing is that I still haven't finished my journal from my Round Lake Michigan tour so when I return I will have another journal to finish as well. This is the reason why you will still find journal entries from that tour here. Generally I place the rough notes from a tour in this section and then publish a final version including pictures elsewhere on the site removing the rough notes in the process.
This is unlikely to be a tour with lots of distance to cover but hopefully it will be another adventure that gives me some more fun times to enjoy. For me touring isn't just about covering long distances by bike.There are many more exciting things to experience then simply watch the odometer crank over.
I am really looking forward to meeting my friends who are traveling around Lake Erie. It will be very interesting to hear their stories.
~Jamie N
(Press Next to read about Day One of the tour).
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