Cycling Equipment

Our family has tried about every form of child bicycle transport available on our tours: rear bicycle seats, trailers, third wheels, and tandems. By far the most efficient way to travel is with a tandem, which is the obvious choice for our world ride. We will be cycling around the world on two Burley Duet tandems. Burley Design Cooperative is sponsoring the world ride and has generously donated two tandems plus Burley rain jackets for the family. We chose Burley because of its reputation for high quality workmanship and emphasis on family cycling. The tandems are custom built with S and S couplings to allow the bike to be disassembled and reassembled at airports and fit into easily transportable suitcases. For detailed information on the Duet click here.

Japan lost

To make cycling more fun for the girls, we�ll be giving them a bunch of gadgets on the stoker handlebars such as bells, bicycling computers and small under-the-seat bike bags for snacks, toys and tapes.

For a 15,000 mile ride around the world we need panniers that are able to take the constant beating and wear and tear of travel and camping. Arkel Over Designs is sponsoring the ride by donating front and back bicycle panniers and handlebar bags. As their name implies their panniers are "over designed" for maximum strength and durability with incredible attention to detail in sewing and design and use of top quality fabrics and hardware. The tandem panniers have extra space to store sleeping pads, tent poles and even your sleeping bags, so that the amount of gear on top of the rack is reduced (an important theft concern). The panniers also can be locked to the bicycle frame.

While we don't intend to cycle at night, sometimes you don't have a choice. So we'll be packing 2 helmet lights that can attach to the bicycle helmet, and also be used in camp.

We are using 3 OLD MAN MOUNTAIN bike racks. Lorenz has a rear and a front rack while Paula uses only a rear rack. OMM donated these racks for the world ride. With the loads we carry these racks are under extreme stress and to our amazement, after 3000 kilometers, we have never tightened a bolt or even thought about the racks. That is exactly how good cycling equipment should be: do the job without ever worrying about it. OLD MAN MOUNTAIN racks are truly the best! Thanks OMM.

Our Equipment

• 2 touring tandems
• 4 sets of TIME cleated pedals
• Cross tires
• 4 helmets
• 2 rear view mirrors (useful for shaving in the morning as well as viewing traffic)
• 2 cycling computers (installed in the stoker seat so that Anya and Yvonne can watch and play with them)
• 2 bells (preferably ones with fun tunes for the girls to play)
• 4 blinking rear reflectors
• 6-8 wheel and pedal reflectors
• 2 large warning flags (we have found that cycling with flags makes riding significantly safer--most motorists can see us far away, and steer clear of us)
• 2 rear bike racks
• 1 front pannier rack
• 2 Cycurity bike alarms. The alarms sound when anyone touches our bikes. The alarms cost $50 but have proven to be very reliable and give us peace of mind in high theft areas
• 4 rear panniers
• 1 front pannier
• 2 front handlebar bags with map holders
• 2 under-the-seat bags
• 3 bike locks
• 2 PYGMY POCKET wheel bags when we transport our tandems on airplanes. The bags were donated to us by PP and have proven to be a very practical and safe way of transporting the four wheels of our tandems.

Updated: Aug 16, 2003

Thanks to our sponsors!