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

Flying with recumbent bicycles

In this rather technical post, we describe our experience packing and preparing our two recumbent bicycles for air-travel.

The flights

We flew from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro with Royal Air Maroc, with a stopover in Casablanca, in October 2016, and on to Porto Alegre with LATAM. We flew back to Europe with LATAM in February 2017, from Puerto Montt (Chile) to Madrid, with a stopover in Santiago de Chile.

Packing the recumbent bicycles

For us there were two main issues when it came to the choice of packing: the maximum size, and adequate protection of the bikes. On the internet, we had read about people air travelling with recumbent trikes without dismounting or packing them at all. We feared that this might not be possible with recumbent bicycles: our seats are higher than trikes and thus increase the height of the recumbent, and a trike might more easily be assimilated to a mobility device rather than a bicycle. Continue reading “Flying with recumbent bicycles” →

Long Live the Duct Tape

Or How Duct Tape got us back to Lisbon (without buying a new tyre)

“How many punctures?”

This is one of the most frequent questions we get on our trip. Until very recently, the answer was: “None”. Almost 10’000 kilometres without a flat tyre. People would stare at us in disbelief. Continue reading “Long Live the Duct Tape” →

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: