We're Chris and Hillary, and we're bike travelers. Welcome!
Whether you call it bikepacking, bike touring, all-terrain biking, or something else, it doesn't matter to us. We just like exploring the world by bike. We don't care about racing, so you won't find that here. If you're into cycling but not really into going as fast as possible, you've found your place!
In 2022, we spent two months biking across Turkey. Since then, we've learned that we really love creating videos to remember our adventures. We feel so lucky to get to share them with the world, and we hope you join us in celebrating the cultures, people, and places we visit.
You guys a cute and cool. Love your vids. Loved those painted hills from this vid! We don't have anything like that kind of geology in SE Australia. And snow is fun riding. When I used to live in Hobart Tasmania (in 1993!) I got to ride to work in snow, on a 6km (4 mile?) commute that was almost entirely single track. The most fun you can have with your clothes on.
Yeah but you have some ridiculous birds! (We spent like a month on a farm north of Sydney years ago and still talk about all the weird birds and their weird sounds.) Anyway, I’m glad you found our videos. From your comments, you’re the kinda person we want around!
@@slow_spokes .. Your video was very helpful and I appreciate it. Today I'm driving down to Naples Florida to probably or maybe order a Riese & Muller Homage 4 GT Rohloff HS. I have a full suspension eBike now (Mokwheel Obsidian, my "gateway eBike) and I couldn't go to a hard tail. Thanks for the update have a wonderful day and best to you! 😎👍
Great job interpreting the bolt diagram for the alternator dropouts. I just had something similar for a tubus rear-rack and I needed my doctorate-wielding girlfriend to help me interpret the thing lol
Rode the Transam a couple of years ago and Eastern KY included an ave. of 3 full fledged chase a day. I never got used to being chased and just got lucky out running them. I had a rape alarm gizmo that had horric sound but that just allowed the blind dogs to participate.
Beautiful color on that Fargo. And I like the bar and tire choice. Geared hubs are cool. But if you really want to minimize fuss, a friction shifter will ensure perfection and be much cheaper. Rhollhoffs last forever, but once forever is up, and it will be one day, I really like being able to repair, service, replace every part on my bike through even the most basic inventory of the smallest and most scantily clad bike shop in the middle of central mexico. So a 1x10 (or 2x10) and friction shifters just can’t be beat. Carry a small rear mech alignment tool and you’re unstoppable. Learn how to index your gears. When you can confidently take your entire bike apart and then put it back together yourself, any anxiety about mechanical issues while on tour go away completely. Anything else is just delaying the inevitable. It’s like the feeling of freedom of riding a bike added to the freedom of knowing how to fix any problem with your bike all at once.
I have indexed my gears so many times, taken it apart to clean it and fixed it on the road. I got tired of it. Chris’s bike had a friction shifter when it seized up and he couldn’t use more than one gear for the rest of our ride. If the Rohloff ever breaks down, I’ll come back here and let you know. :)
@@slow_spokes bikes are very simple. A rear mech is just a spring. A shifter is just a rotating barrel taking up cable slack. Or with a ratchet if it’s indexed. A lubed part will never seize. But a neglected part will. But if the geared hub works for you I think that’s great. I was only providing an alternative perspective to any passerby who might be looking for a low tech / economical way to have an equally reliable bike for international travel on a tighter budget. I think an internal geared hub has a lot of pros also. And it’s great that it’s working for you. Really adds to the look of your bike which I think is a stunning build. 😍 Happy trails!
I love your style of traveling, much attention to nature and so positive to each other. So beautiful nature, so calm people. I'm always aware of bears in such places though...
Thank you! There are only black bears here, no grizzlies, and black bears aren’t very aggressive unless they are used to getting into people’s trash. We have spent a lot of time in places with bears and know that they won’t hurt us as long as we give them space and don’t get near any cubs.
Its a good exercise to prepare for any fixing that you may need on tour. Would you try slick 29'er for fast and comfortable rolling? Are there trigger shifters for Rohloff? Twist Shifters aren't as smooth and crisp. Can they cause fatigue in hands? The bike geometry seems nice and upright.
When my tires wear out, I will most likely get new, slicker tires. They’re kind of old and patched right now but I’m thinking I’ll get another year out of them. There are trigger shifters for Rohloff, but I didn’t have that in the budget. I also knew this was going to be a big project didn’t want to get overwhelmed, so I decided to save that for a later stage.
Whatever works for you! That's actually our favorite piece of gear, because it's solved a couple problems for us. Was worth the investment for us, but doesn't work for everyone.
Hi! It's kind of a funny word, isn't it? Here's an article about it: bikepacking.com/stories/a-history-of-bikepacking/ At this point, people have used it to mean all kinds of things, kind of like how people use "backpacking" to mean traveling in the wilderness with only a backpack and sleeping under the stars, or traveling across Europe with everything you own on your back and staying in hostels. Lots of people like to gatekeep what bikepacking means. They say you have to go fast, or carry only certain kinds of bags (no racks), or only travel on dirt roads and never touch pavement. But lots of other people just mean going wherever they want to on a bike, with a bike that can handle any kind of trail. Because you can't always avoid pavement, and smaller bikes (like the ones women often use) can't carry much gear without a rack, and sometimes it's nice to slow down. Probably what we do is more like all-terrain biking (bikepacking.com/plog/atb-manifesto/) but most people don't know what that means at this point, so we don't use that in our titles.
3:58 it happened me early of last sunday. Normally I never got problem any dog so far but that day I picked "catch me if you can" option:-D I was riding at tempo on the road there were bunch of stray dogs and playing themselves around and one is decided to catch me which I was nearly at 32KpH. Then i said catch me if you can ;-) I went to anearobic for a while and my speed was 48KpH but still I could hear barking behind me. Moreover rest of the dogs also has joint him! Didn't pass long I realized and convinced that I can not get rid of them with going fast! I slowed down and stopped and turn to back and looked them, all of them immediately stopped and were looking different sides like nothing happened :-D Anyway standing for a while and starring at them worked and they left back to their territory and I said: "I thought so!..." short of long: don't try to get rid of dogs by going fast
We really are grateful that we have the same adventure tolerance most of the time. We did meet while doing some pretty adventurous stuff, so that set the tone for our relationship. Wishing you the same!
Love the build and that you learned something in the process. As for the derailleur debacle, SRAM has made some huge advancements in that field lately. Maybe read up on it, if for nothing else out of curiosity. Never found the Salsa Fargo appealing. Threw my 17 year old Rohloff on an old no-name (no decals or hints as to what the make was) steel frame, where i brazed on some disc mounts, during the winter and am out and about again.
Nice video. I happened across it and was surprised to see a route I did! It was a group ride last year called ochoco overlander. Only difference was after that pass we camped at Walton lake, I'm not sure where you came out. And we were deep into summer, no snow, one water crossing, but we paid for that in heat!
Glad you found us! We passed by Walton Lake, but didn’t stop. Looked pretty but busier than we typically like. Lots of big trucks and amplified music, not our jam in the woods. Maybe it was just that weekend, though. Mid-late May seems like the best time to go!
I love your stile of storytelling and producing your videos so much!! I really enjoy watching it and am happy, that I found your channel! It’s very enjoyable and just a gift for me as a Consument 🥰🦦.
