No more Chinese knock-offs and endless improvisations. This task has to be approached with utmost seriousness and financial (ir)responsibility, because if I don’t take care of myself and my own gear, who will? In my case, that old saying has definitely come true: “All the sponsors turned out to be nobodies.”
I’m logically starting my selection of essential high-quality gear for long-distance cycling with the most important item: a proper bicycle.
My friend Aleksandar Erski is taking care of that. As soon as I find out which bike – and a free one at that! – he has chosen for me, I’ll post photos and all the details.
As for the rest, I’ve been thinking according to our old priority list: “in me, on me, and under me”. I’ll think about the “in me” part “tomorrow on Mount Tara” – meaning while pedalling every day. But what do I absolutely need for “on me” and “under me”?
First of all – staying close to my daily bread, the bicycle – a good saddle. There’s not much to think about here: there is only one true saddle, just like there is only one Gluteus Maximus that needs to be saved from rashes, sores and all sorts of other pains. So, through a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend who lives in London – right at the home of these famous saddles – I ordered the B17 Special from Brooks. What can I say about the price of 120 € except – a comfortable bum above all!
Still sticking with the bicycle and its essential gear, I bought absolutely and ultimately waterproof panniers. No, not Ortlieb (I simply don’t have that kind of money), but Crosso – almost identical products from our Slavic brothers, the Poles. Through my friend Igor Ralić I ordered the front and rear Dry panniers, which together came to about 140 €. I was torn about the colour – my heart much prefers red because, let’s all sing together: “Red is the colour of love.”
But then I remembered an old comment from Father Cyclonaut (my friend Jone), spoken aloud: “You should be as inconspicuous as possible” – because of wild camping and all the other things that might happen to me. I asked the aforementioned Igor and a few other world-cycling wanderers, and they all agreed. So, black panniers it is. Well, black definitely suits my Scorpio personality, and it’s not unimportant that the panniers will match any colour of bicycle – a woman remains a woman, even when she wants to cycle around the world.
The exception will be the middle bag. Again on Jone’s advice, instead of the Crosso middle bag I chose the Ferrino Aquastop XL. The price difference is negligible in Ferrino’s favour, but what decided it was the length – it’s a full 15 cm longer! And at Gora shop they gave me a 10 % member discount from the Mountaineering Association (they didn’t notice that my membership card hadn’t been renewed this year).
That’s all for now on the “on him” gear.
Now let’s see what I’ll sleep “under” while I’m resting. Most of the time I’ll be sleeping on Mother Earth, under a tent. That’s why I need a good sleeping mat – not just good, the best: as thick as possible when inflated and as light as possible when packed.
With the new Mammut mat, the old saying “Two good things never come together” has been forever disproved. It’s 7.5 cm thick and weighs only 570 g when packed. I didn’t think twice about it – I’ll give anything for a good night’s sleep.
I went to Iglušport, bought it, and tested it the very first night (on the floor of my flat, of course). And now, under full criminal and financial responsibility, I declare that it’s worth every cent of the 150 € I paid. Here’s a video of “what it does and how well it does it”:
Although I hope I won’t be pedalling alone (I’m not that crazy), I still have to think about my own roof over my head, or rather: “I carry everything I own with me.” Even if I happily fall in love with some fellow cyclist and ride with him, I still need my own four walls – double-layered, with a solid groundsheet (5,000 mm water column), lightweight self-supporting construction (the whole thing weighs just 2.58 kg), and – just in case – two entrances/exits. There’ll be plenty of room for one more person after the happy falling-in-love or making-up phase. My home is called Sande / TO1005 (made by our other Slavic brothers, the Czechs this time), and it cost me about 55 € including the 10 % discount. Where? At Gora, but they’re out of stock now, and nobody knows when more will arrive.
Somewhere in the middle of all these purchases, I remembered that I’m supposedly some kind of writer – with two slim little books published in two decades – which is optional, but I’ve made a firm promise to myself that from now on I’ll diligently record my priceless thoughts and all those Indiana-Jones-like adventures I will (or won’t) experience in the future, I hope. Because of that (or thanks to that), I need a laptop. After all, I also have to store the thousands of photos I’ll be taking on the journey – and there will definitely be photos (I’m not nearly as certain about the writing).
So, a laptop – but as small and as cheap as possible. Anyone who knows anything about electronics understands that those two things don’t go together: the smaller the device, the more expensive it is. But Serbs can outsmart anything, including the size-to-price ratio. Thanks to the auction site Limundo, I managed to win an Asus Aspire One from 2008 for a full 110 €. It’s really cute (damn it!), but a bit naughty – it’s always looking for a Wi-Fi signal to steal.
About the rest of the absolutely essential little things – clothing, shoes and everything else – after I win the lottery jackpot next time.
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