The Bike

It soon became clear that the rusty old Ribble bike I stole from my dad wasn't up to the job. Needing a bike for the trip, and planning to do a fair bit of cycling anyway, I opted for a 2010 Specialized Sectuer Elite.

I went for a full on road bike rather than a tourer because I thought I would get more use out of road bike after the trip.


A couple of bits were swapped out before the trip. The toeclip pedals were chucked and replaced by a set of Shimano A530 SPD clipless pedals.

I also replaced the seatpost. I bought a KCNC SC Pro Lite post which features an ingenious clamping mechanism allowing independant fore/aft and tilt adjustment. Being Scandium alloy, it also saved a fair chuck of weight over the original post and has good vibration damping properties It was rated 10 out 10 by Cycling Plus magazine so I knew it would be good.