Christmas decoration in Argentina

We’ve spent Christmas and New Year Eve of 2016 in Argentina. Compared to Europe there is almost none Christmas decoration present in the streets and in front of the houses. Also, because it is summer and the day runs until late, there are no use of lights for the decorations.

Here are three photos taken in the Neuquén region:

xmas1

xmas2

xmas3

Replacement part details for Azub and HP Velotechnik

This post serves to keep some technical information about our recumbent bicycles that we could not find on the manufacturers’ websites nor in the bikes’ manuals.

We asked both Azub and HP Velotechnik which chain they use. We got a satisfying reply from HPV: they use KMC Z8 RB. Azub seems to have a similar chain.
We’ve counted the number of links on our recumbent chains (although this is different depending on the person’s height):
- Azub Six: 268 links (134 full links) + quick link
- HP Velotechnik Street Machine: 258 links (129 full links) + quick link.
- So, when replacing the two chains, we had to order 5 KMC Z8 RB chains.
The Rohloff cable length on Azub is about 200 cm, so the replacement needs to be the tandem size
The longest brake cable on Azub is 180 cm, so standard cable set works
The lenght of the replacement spokes we took are (but never needed):
1. Azub Six
  1. Front wheel 20′ with SON dynamo: 178 mm
  2. Rear wheel 26′ with Rohloff: 231 mm
2. HP Velotechnik StreetMachine
  1. Front wheel 20′ with SRAM D7 dynamo: 170 mm
  2. Rear wheen 26′ with Rohloff: 236 mm

Comment perdre du poids après le vélo

En Amérique du Sud j’ai décidé me lancer le défi de ne pas me raser jusqu’au retour à Lisbonne. Du coup j’ai réussi à avoir la barbe de 2 mois et 3 semaines avec une chevelure de 5 mois. Ce matin finalement j’ai perdu du poids. Et ça se voit!

10’000 km cycling!

We can say that a difficult journey starts when you are still 30 km from the planned arrival point and you really need to make a break in the middle of the long climb because you are already tired. The legs are still sore from previous days long journeys. Twenty minutes and some food later we keep going. We decide to keep on the main road so that for sure we arrive before it gets dark. Now there are only 10 km left. Uphill. Long, steep uphill next to cars and trucks (that fortunately are not the main problem). It starts to rain and it is a strong rain. There was no time to find a spot to put our rain gear and we are completely wet. We keep going. With the rain it is difficult to check the GPS but to avoid the trafic we go into small roads. Wrong turn, couple hundred meters return, take the right turn and… gravel road. Due to the heavy traffic and although having rain we decide to continue on it. Almost there. Sometime later we join back the main road. The fog also joins the main road. Tired, wet and in the middle of the fog here we are:

Reveil difficile

On a du vrai plaisir à faire du vélo en Espagne. Les routes larges, calmes, paysages intéressants. On trouve par tout le petit bar avec du café au lait et une tostada ou une tapa.

Les seuls problèmes rencontrés sont les horaires. D’abord l’horaire du soleil (ok, pas la faute au pays), que se lève tard et, par conséquence, nous oblige (principalement à un de nous…) à un effort sur humaine pour se lever. En deuxième c’est l’heure du dîner que commence qu’a 20h30. On arrive à prendre quelques tapas avant mais on termine pour se coucher tard.

Ces derniers jours on a visité les très jolies villes de Avila et Salamanca, hautement recommandés.

Désolé pour ne pas poster des photos, elles viendront dans un prochain post, avec l’histoire du premier ennui technique sur un des vélos.

A bientôt!