The Bicycle

The Bicycle of Awesomeness after about 5000 km of dust, sand, corrugations, mud and some bitumen - new back wheel, worn through gear cables on handlebars but mostly survived well
The Bicycle of Awesomeness after about 5000 km of dust, sand, corrugations, mud and some bitumen – new back wheel, worn through gear cables on handlebars but mostly survived well

The Wayward ‘Cape York’ was chosen as the steed for the deed.

This is 13 kgs (28 lb 10 oz – citizens from the USA can join the modern metric world at any time) of chrome-molybdenum alloy goodness. It is micro-flake copper in colour which breaks one of the main rules of bike beauty.  ‘All serious bikes should be black’.

Fitout;

  • Tyres – Schwalbe Marathon green-guard 700×35
  • Racks and panniers – front and rear racks carrying Deuter panniers and Deuter handlebar bag
  • Bidons – three water bottles (2×0.76L,1×0.5L)
  • Pedals – Shimano reversible flat/SPD touring pedals
  • Saddle – Specialized comfort

The Deuter front panniers slide on the racks but a couple of hose clamps serve as both stops and as a stash of emergency brackets should they be needed.

Handling:

Stable in a straight line and over corrugations  (steers like a truck, accelerates like a bulldozer, doesn’t jump or slide on gravel). The flexible steel frame cushions corrugations and potholes nicely.

Horribly flexy on winding descents. I never felt confident that it would track where I wanted to go and it was very difficult to hold in curves. This may have been due to the flexibility of the steel frame  but could also have been affected by the front panniers being mounted relatively high on the forks to avoid the disc brake caliper mechanisms.

The Wayward was greatly inferior to my previous Cannondale T500 aluminium touring bike in cornering and descending. The Cannondale was very stable and predictable and always felt sure-footed even on the highest speed curving descents such as the BustMeGutUp Hill in Tasmania.

The disc brakes are strong and moderate well from a slight drag to a front wheel skidding panic stop. The disc pads needed replacing after several hundred kms of highly abrasive red sand mud in the Central Desert. However, being discs and not rim brakes, the rims were not damaged.

The ‘old’ (two to three years old model) of mechanical discs on this bike were out-of-date enough to make getting replacement pads difficult. Get spares before setting out.

Bar-end shifters take some getting used to after STIs. A few painful bumps of the knees into the shifters when dismounting soon gets the idea across.

The seating position is fairly upright which eases strain on the neck on long days. Using the handlebar drops to get of the wind can help but if it gets too bad roll out the swag and sleep until the wind drops.

A 400km shakedown cruise with the Cycle Touring Association of WA (CTAWA) shook loose a couple of pannier bolts, broke a spoke and exploded a 12 year old tyre (even Schawlbe XR’s have a storage life). After a change of underwear, retensioning the spokes, a new tyre and some Lok-tite its ready to go.