3 Days to Departure

May 2015

Turtles perched on their mounts 

• The two new team members getting themselves acquainted with their respective rides. They are turtle puppets named 'GrandmaRoux' and 'Grambo' after the bike owners. Those are the names given to us by the grand kids. It will be interesting to see in August who or what made the biggest impression with the grand kids, ours or the turtles great cycling adventure. 

Drafting Savings

• During our training rides not only were we focused on improving our endurance and stamina but we also worked on how we would travel on the flat. We will ride closely(12 to 16 inches) one behind the other using the same technique used by bicycle racers, drafting. We were fairly comfortable riding this way on our light road bikes, but it took some effort to get as comfortable with 100 + lbs of loaded touring bikes. As the picture indicates, drafting offers an energy savings to the second cyclist of as much as 26%. To the lead cyclist having someone directly behind them slightly reduces the effects of drag and makes pedaling a tiny bit easier. The effect happens at all speeds but is more noticeable the faster you ride. We also determined how often we would change from 'lead' to getting a break in the rear with the beer. Every 2 km, when the GPS beep is heard: lead(cyclist) pulls out, slows down and tucks in behind the new lead. We found this distance to be best for us under all wind conditions. So every 2 km, we can take in the scenery before dropping back to attentively stare at someone's back wheel. See the video below explaining all this.  

• Yesterday we stopped in on Yasmin and Zuher Karimjee at the Ottawa Sewing Center to show them our quilt bags and 1/2 half of our Ray Way quilt. They seemed to be genuinely impressed with what we had accomplished. The four hours they gave us on December 31st gave us the confidence to tackle this, our first sewing project. The chat quickly moved from sewing to travel and now we might just include Tanzania on our list of places to cycle. 

Turtles resting after packing bikes. GrandmaRoux on the smaller box