Bikes and Gear
The bikes |
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We used our reliable touring bikes, however for the ice biking tour we made some modifications:
- Tires: Schwalbe Ice Spiker pro 2.5'' wit 361 aluminum-carbide studs each
- Rear brake (V-Brake): we demounted this brake as there was too little room between the tire and the brake cable and we were worried it would constantly clog with snow. At no time we missed the rear brake...
- Transmission: Rohloff-Speedhub, fillled with cleaing oil only to allow function also at very low temperatures.
- Trailer: Extrawheel Voyager. We used the trailer for transportation of lightweigt, but bulky gear such as sleeping bag or down jacket. Andy mounted an additional rack on the trailer and thus was able to mount four additional panniers on the trailer. Waltraud constructed a system allowing to mount two large bags with tension belts.
- Pull strap on the frame for pushing and pulling the bike, which had already proven useful when cycling in Tibet.
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Winter gear |
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Basically we already had our winter gear available from various other cycling and mountaineering tours involving cold temperatures and/or high altitude (see also Greenland, Tibet, Projekt 7000). Some important considerations were:
- Tent: we used a geodesic winter tent with snow flaps. They were quite useful to prevent snow accumulation in the vestibules during storms. We had exchanged all tent guide ropes with more sturdy kevlar ropes.
- Stove: A well running expedition stove is critical for success of the tour and survival. No stove, no liquid water for drinking! It is important that the stove can be handeld easily and ideally with gloves! Furthermore, it must be able to efficiently burn low quality fuel available in Russia (z.B. Primus Multifuel EX, MSR XGK II). Our self-made Cooking box allowed us to simultaneously cook and melt ice.
- Thermos flask: To keep melted water liquid and warm during the day we used large-volume thermos flasks (1.5L and 1.7L).
- Footwear: For us it proved best to not wear hardshell boots, but rather use soft boots made of felt or fur. The felt boots we used were similar to the traditional Russian felt boots (walenki). These boots have the advantage of a softer sole which allows the foot to move even when placed on the pedal. Importantly, we used high quality liner socks and warm wool socks to keep our feet dry and warm.
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What proved good, what not? |
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Please note, that most things simply worked as expected. Therefore, it is not really possible to carry out a ranking of particular pieces of equipment. However, there were a few, major and minor items we took along that made our life significantly easier due to their importantce in every-day life on tour:
- Small brush: A small brush to efficiently get rid of condensation snow in the tent and on our clothes.
- Self-made woolen gloves and socks which performed extraordinately well.
- Down socks for some comfort in the tent.
- Small hot-water bag to make us go asleep nicely and warm :-)
- Hardshell Jacket "Neutrino Jacket" from Rab: The best hard shell jacket I had used so far, great performance in transportation of moisture from sweating.
- Skiing glasses "Turbo GT" von Alpina: It superbly protected our eyes from wind and sun and it gave the landscape friendly colors.
- New batteries for Nikon D7000, they performed exceptionally well!
- Skin care "Wind- und Wetterbalsam" from Weleda. The only water-free skin care we could find. It thawed rather fast and was easy to use in cold weather.
There were, however, also a few items we would not again take along for cycling or mountaineering in cold weather:
- Thermos flask 1.5 L from Esbit: This particular thermos flask is nice with its wide opening, but it had lousy insulation properties and a leaky lid.
- Anything with AAA-batteries: The AAA-batteries were not performing well. We had to constantly replace batteries. In comparions, devices with AA-batteries performed much longer.
- Self-inflating mattresses: We had no particular problems with our self-inflating Thermarests. We even had constructed a system to be able to inflate the mattresses with our bike pumps. However, inflating these mattersses at temperatures way below freezing simply took too long and always resulted in cold fingers when handling the valves.
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More information
: A short summary of
our adventure on the Lake Baikal. Continue...
Short videos about cycling Lake Baikal. Continue...
Our winter gear and equipment:
