Day-minus 3 - The bike.

When I decided to do this trip a year ago, I also knew I needed a different bike to tackle this. Of course, that is the standard excuse for a bike enthusiast to get another bike. 😛 Well, if I was going to pretend to be a bikepacker, I needed to have such a steed, right? So, again I ask the Google what I should get? That didn’t turn out to be such a straight answer of course. Steel, aluminum, titanium, or carbon fiber? Rigid, hardtail, or full suspension? Those were the choices for the frame alone. The components were even more confusing. 1X or 2X, manual shifting vs electronic, Shimano vs SRAM, drop vs straight handle bars, Carbon rims vs alloy, hydraulic vs manual brakes, and it goes on and on.. Tire choice seems to be a religious discussion as well. Everyone seems to know better than the other on the YouTube.

I somewhat gave up when I did see a used bicycle frame for sale on FB Marketplace. A guy in Kansas was selling it, saying he had not ridden it much. It was one of the many good choices mentioned for bikepacking on the Google, from a brand called OTSO. Titanium as well, which I thought would be good since my oldest bike is also made from this magical metal. Anyway, I sent him an inquiry asking him if it had fallen out the back of some truck passing by. After a lot of back and forth, he asked me if I knew Eric and Colleen who also lived in Fort Collins. They lived just a few houses down the street from us and are good friends. It turns out Eric built this guy’s house in Kansas 35 years ago. After a quick text to Eric to make sure this was legit (which it was, and the house he built is still standing), I went ahead and clicked the “buy” button. Eric was by chance in that town in Kansas visiting family, and brought the frame back to Fort Collins for me. It all must have been fate..

I initially didn’t plan to build up the fame into a real bicycle since this trip was at least a year away. Of course I had to do research on the components I would eventually need, and magically all these “sales” popped up on the Google, which to me at the time seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity 🤑. So long story short, I ended up building this bike within a month, and it has been sitting in our garage since then, largely unused. I do feel good about building it myself, so I know how it is put together again, just in case parts rattle off down the trail.

I know that some of you must be rolling your eyes reading all of this, not fully having swallowed the “bikepacking” or biking pill. Yes, it is a disease with no cure. I am sure you enthusiasts of other material disciplines (golf, photography, boats, off-road vehicles, vinyl records, magic tricks, fly fishing,...) can understand. 😆

Anyway, you probably read the last post on all the “stuff” I plan to take, that I now need to figure out how to strap to my OTSO bike. Well, I left it all on the garage floor overnight, and magically some kabouters (Dutch bicycle gnomes) must have worked hard to do that for me!. Witness the results:

They even put on a Canadian flag emblem on the back so I would be safe north of the border. How nice! I know those Canadian grizzly bears like the taste of US citizens. Ok, I consider myself Dutch, but you never know.. Don’t worry, I have flags for all the US states I plan to go through once I cross the border further south. Just no Trump ones.. 😁

I did ride the bike around the block, and immediately knew I must have taken too much “stuff”. Glad I at least installed some very low gears on the bike!

So, now I plan to leave this fully loaded down bike in the garage and hope those kind kabouters return to magically put it in the bike box, so I can take it on the airplane with me. 🤞

And if you are wondering if the kabouters delivered my bike box? No, I had to pick it up at a local bike shop, showing off the versatility of my other bike, the bakfiets!