Our bikes and our gear

For those interested, here´s some info about the bikes we chose for this adventure and some of the gear we packed along to make it possible.  Keep in mind that we're total newbs at this so we did a lot of guessing (though a lot of reseach too!) to make this happen.

The bike:

We went for Novara Safari´s from REI in the States.  For just $850, their a really good deal.  They're essentially stock with four main exceptions.  We swapped out the Deore (26-36-48) crankset and replaced it with a better quality LX (22-32-44) crankset to give us much lower gearing for the hills.  We also swapped out the Continental tires for a set of bigger and more puncture resistant Schwalbe Marathons (700x42).  The aluminum rack that came with the bike wasn´t strong enough for our needs, so we swapped in an Axiom Journey stainless steel rack which has a carrying capacity of 80kg.  On the front we went with a Tubus Ergo rack.  The final swap was the saddle.  We swapped in, for me, a Brooks B-17 leather saddle and for Elaine a Brooks B-68 Imperial.  Brooks saddles are renouned for being the best long distance touring saddle available.  At 3000km we've regreased the headsets and rebuilt my rear hub (it kept loosening itself but seems to be fixed now).

The Novara Safari... note the 5 bottle cages and the cool trekking handlebars.  Sorry i had the white balance  on the camera set on 'incandecent bulb' for these photos so they're a bit blue..

For Panniers we went for cheap.  We´re not sure if we´ll regret this, but we went with MEC Expedition panniers.  They appear durable, but aren´t water proof.  Also, were not sure if the lidded design is the way to go, a roller top would be mor convenient, particularly on the front.  Time will tell.  As of 3000kms, they're holding up well.

Other than the bikes and panniers, the next most important thing aith us is our repair kit.  We stocked it as follows:

Multitool, Mini Ratchet, 2 cone wrenches, letherman skeletool, 30 patches, 2 tubes of glue, tire levers, sandpaper (for deglazing brakepads), sidewall patches, spare brake and shifter cables, spare bolts for various parts (the novaras use the same bolt on 80 percent of the parts... very covenient), 2 full sets of brake pads, oil, grease, brooks saddle tool, locktite (for rack bolts in particular), presta/shreadder valve adapter, spare skewer bolts (we had them so we brought em), pump, 6 spare tubes (our tube size is unavailable in africa), 2 spare tires, extra pannier clips and screws, a pile of zip ties, emergency spoke repair, stein tool (see photo), 10 spare spokes, a spare chain, duct tape, electrical tape, hockey tape, seam grip, crazy glue, scissors, needle w/ thread (for clothes and heavy hemp thread for panniers), safety pins, tent fabric and buttons.

Kevlar emergency spoke repair.  You can quickly repair a broken spoke without taking off your wheel.  Good for fixes in awkward places like sketchy town centers where you attract a lot of curiosity..

Stein Tool for cassette (rear gears) removal.  Install it between the  frame and the cassette, pedal forward and using the  bike dropout as resistance, it unlocks the cassette.  Much lighter and easier than the conventional way..

The whole lot in a tupperware that doubles as a parts washer

Other gear:

Ipod, usb chargable mini speaker (for long hills, low motivation days and thousands of miles of desert), solar pannel, AA battery charger, USB camera charger (indispensable), cell phone, SD to USB adapter, portable hard drive.

AA battery solar charger.  Ties onto my sleeping pad.  It keeps everything i have powered when i go a while without a computer or wall plug.  

The Camera battery USB clip.  I looked everywhere for this thing and found it only exists at MEC bundle with the AA charger on the left.   The clip allows me to charge my camera battery with AA batteries charged by the solar panel.  I can also charge the battery pack and the clip with a compter USB port