Surly Disc Trucker set up for desert touring 

Yeah, my Brooks won't tension for some reason. It's still good for all-day comfort though. Have a look around the channel, but know it's not really a focused project, just a catch-all for some of my interests.

I try to leave with enough water to drink 1 liter per hour, plus reserve. Extra is especially important if I'm not confident about availability at my destination. When I rode down the Badwater Basin from Furnace Creek, for example, I knew the gas station in Shoshone closed at 8pm and if I missed it, I'd need enough water til morning. I started that ride with 16 liters. Electrolytes are also essential when pedaling through the hot dessert. You can buy supplements at GNC or wherever, but i would also take salt packets from condiment counters and pop one especially if i started feeling a bit spacey. In certain parts of the dessert you can ride for days or weeks and not find any natural shade. Nothing grows taller than 3 feet. You learn to stop for adjustments in the shadow of road signs. The tour in this video was almost all remote, not a lot of food options. I just had to get calories as best i could. Mostly gas station food; pop tarts, trail mix and cans of dinty moore beef stew. Full sized grocery stores, or stores with produce, could be a week or more apart. And being 100+ degrees on the tarmac, you can't really carry cheese or eggs for very long. At grocery stores, i always would stock up on instant oatmeal packets, Cliff bars, natural peanut butter, honey (primarily because it's in plastic. I don't want to carry glass jars of jam), a loaf of bread, ground coffee, powdered hot cocoa which I used instead of dairy in my coffee. I've made a lot of peanut butter and honey sandwiches roadside. I always keep those items accessible. Good fuel. Riding through the desert when its over 100 degrees is dangerous. Having plenty of water is a basic essential IMO. It equals life out there, and there are no natural sources (I carried water filtration but never saw water to use it with). As I said in this video, the road and the kindness of strangers was my safety net. So one could carry less. RV'ers and off-roaders are usually a reliable source for water from strangers. But I prefer to be self-reliant, so i carry a lot of water. I'm not too weight conscious. I'm 200 pounds myself, so by the time the bike is loaded up, I'm at least 300 pounds total vehicle weight. Adding a few more pounds of extra water or food isn't going to make a perceptible difference; as least not to me.

@@KamaTanha Getting back to you a little late, but thank you very much for your water, food, and overall weight info. I really do appreciate it, soooooooo many bicycle tourist never really get into this specific information. Which I find is on the top of the list of important factors. Food: Is very hard to nail down in regards to keeping it simple, fresh and economical, but nutritional as well to the body. Oatmeal in the morning is good for long slow burn of calories, especially mixed with some peanut butter or raisins as a added calorie supplement. And both keep well in panniers in warm weather. A loaf of bread is also good for peanut butter and honey sandwiches and, I like white albacore tuna/in water with some packets of mayo and mustard from convenient stores by the hotdog area. Canned food is heavy, but if you can plan ahead and know that you will be just one night out in the middle of nowhere, and the next day arrive in a town with resupplies. Then hauling some chili or other canned food for dinner wouldn't be too bad. I too don't mind carrying extra weight IF I know that I can use it up fairly quickly and the terrain landscape isn't hilly. Every day is different, based on temps, terrain and distance to next grocery store/town. Thanks again for your info. I really appreciate it, you'd be surprised how difficult it is to find this basic information on bicycle touring videos. It's rarely talked about or simplified.

P.S. what is that center stand you have? Where can I get one?

I have a set of SKS. I don't remember the model offhand, but they were hard to find for 26" wheels. I bent the stainless struts on the left side to allow me to bolt it onto the brake caliper bolt using a longer bolt. Mount the fender at all other points, then get down there with pliers and your eyeballs and bend the struts to connect points A & B and A & C. without tension. I did have to cut the excess off. The right side just shares the mounting bolt with the front Tubus Tara rack.

I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for mentioning it.

​@@KamaTanha Yes, plastic water bottles breakdown quickly in the sun. Therefore one has to continually toss the old ones out and replace them with new ones. This can get costly overtime. I instead use water bladders, 3L and 4L. My current setup is... #2 3L Camelbak bladders that are stuffed inside a insulated pouch for each one. I fill them up at gas stations/convenience stores. The insulated pouches that the Camelbaks fit inside of can be added with ice, to add to keeping the water cold for longer periods (I hate drinking warm/hot water). Those two bladders equal 1 1/2 gallons combined. I also carry (empty, unless I need A LOT of water between stretches of resupply) #2 1 gallon MSR dromedary bladders. These are rugged and tough material, and have a 3 way opening: fill cap/pour cap/ tiny spout flip tip. The 3IN1 cap allows you to fill/drink from/even use the tiny spout for hanging the bag upside down for washing your hands or yourself. Here's a link. images.app.goo.gl/PNAKtRxLnYJGbcrR8 These two 1 gallon MSR dromedary bladders plus my two 3L Camelbak bladders give me a total of 3 1/2 gallons combined. The Camelbaks have sucking tubes to drink from. So you can drink off them throughout your ride. In the case of needing the extra MSR dromedary bladders, for long distant milage between water resupply stops. I keep those filled up and inside my Ortlieb panniers. I just use those to refill my Camelbaks bladders. Never any need to buy continually new water bottles. Can fill them up with cold ice water at the convenience store soda area with ice. Can fill up the insulated pouches with more ice to keep the Camelbaks bladders even colder inside the pouches. It's the way to go. images.app.goo.gl/RzZ3AcTJEUwhbqyD8

Even better, there is a company which makes friction shifters which are integrated into the brake levers - the only thing I don't like about them is that I didn't know about them 10,000 miles ago.

@sampix interesting idea for ergo, but I fear that would just complicate my brake hoods and make them more fragile. Part of the reason I use downtube friction is because after that conversion I had less that 2 feet of cable housing that can, and has failed and caused horrible days and weeks. Also I can change a cable after dragging my bike up a mountain in under two minutes with one allen key. Cables are easy to pack. Two pairs brakes. Two pairs shifters. Done. Keep em in a cd case in the inner pocket of ortliebs. Along with a few gift cards or hotel keys that you can use to open bathrooms that aren't open. Seriously though, you got a link to these bad boys? I'm pretty dead set on the ease of use and durability of downtube....but ill take a look.

It's a 54 cm with 26 inch wheels and 2 inch tires.

@@KamaTanha it looks great, enjoy

@@KamaTanhahow tall are u? your inseam?

It's a carbon FSA, 170 mm crank arms with a 22t granny and a square taper. There's a bit of a story to it. Since my first tour was over the Sierra Nevadas, I wanted the smallest granny possible which meant swapping cranks to something with a bolt pattern that would take a 22t granny gear. I also wanted a shorter 170mm crank arm (no need for the torque at those easy RPMs). I also wanted to keep the square taper bottom bracket. That combination is a very tall order, and one impossible to fill with a quality part looking at current offerings. I was lucky to find this carbon crank, new-old-stock, still in its original box on eBay for well under $100.

@@KamaTanha Thanks. I want a touring bike, but I'm torn on what to get. I am kind of wanting to pull the trigger on the Disc Trucker in 56 700c (I'm about 180cm). I have a Tarmac SL6 in 56cm as my current road bike, and a Midnight Special in 54cm for my gravel bike. I'm just not sure how much I like the 3x that the disc trucker comes with. I'm kind of eyeing the Fuji Touring Disc as well (bit cheaper)