Matt helps launch Julie on her new Quest.

Thanks to my brother Matt, Julie is now riding a new Quest 559, compliments of Cruzbike. Many thanks to company presidents Jim and Maria Parker, inventor John Tolhurst and technical specialist Doug Burton, who outfitted the bike for Julie. The Cruzbike Quest has disc brakes, SRAM Dualdrive gears and is a folding bike that fits into a box half the size of a normal bike box, making it much easier to take on a plane, train or bus (or to ship UPS). For more info click on the Cruzbike Quest logo on the upper right side of our homepage.

My bike box (on the left) barely survived 3 transfers from Berlin to Denver.

We are both on Cruzbikes now.

Julie is getting comfortable on her new Quest after cycling into Denver to visit her old Peace Corps Liberia friends Mark and Monica Hughes. Thanks again to Matt and Karen Byrne for hosting us in Colorado.

The small panniers are mounted on aluminum rods behind the seat.

The large panniers are mounted under the seat (seat removed for photo). Aluminum rod attached to aluminum angle and wood spacer bolted to water bottle cage holes.

I got hit for the first time this trip by a piki-piki (motorcycle).  He knocked-off my right-side Bikebin, spilling the contents on the busy highway.  After picking myself up, I gathered up the gear and moved to the side of the road to clean and dress my wounds.  There’s a road rash on my right knee and some skin off my right thumb, too.  A spoke nipple broke off the front wheel and two chain links and one sprocket tooth bent on the large front sprocket.  I removed the damaged chain links and pedaled back to Arusha where bike mechanic Juma bent the tooth back into alignment, replaced the spoke nipple and trued the wheel.  I put an epoxy patch on the plastic Bikebin and wires to hold on the broken hinges.

The hit-and-run piki-piki driver may have assumed I was on a motorcycle, as many people do, speeding downhill; and he did not expect me to slow going uphill when he slammed into me.  We spent two more nights in Arusha enabling us to visit Alex at One Heart Source for a third time.

This is the spaceship I’ve chosen for my second low-altitude orbit of the planet Earth. I wondered if the Cruzbike Sofrider V2 would be good for long-distance touring?  Most bicycle companies offer few touring models, and many bike shops carry none. I am pleased with how well the V2 has held up for the first 22,000 km, halfway around the world. Being able to carry panniers below the seat, where the pedals would be on a normal bike, increases stability; as does keeping the weight centered, instead of out over the wheels. Keeping the panniers low and centered also reduces wind resistance.

The kickstand is not strong enough to support a loaded Cruzbike. I replaced the original with a solid aluminum kickstand. I find the seat uncomfortable and added ensolite padding (from a blue Wal-Mart camping pad) to the seat-pad and seat-back. Though I conquered the Andes with the original 16-speed gearing, climbing over 160,000m (equal to 16 Everests), I replaced the crankset in Cape Town with a triple chainring, (so I now have a granny gear). The new chainring also has a chainguard, which should help protect the teeth of the large front sprocket, as well as the legs of innocent bystanders.

The front-wheel drive does slip when going uphill . I do not consider this a serious problem. Main highways are rarely steeper than a 10% grade and I can usually pedal up to 15% (the front wheel can start slipping at less than 10% on wet pavement and 5% on loose gravel).  My wife (on a normal bike) has to get off and push almost as often as I do, which is rarely (but now I have a new granny gear).

This Axiom front rack is attached sideways to the left side of my Cruzbike with one fork clamp (upper left) & two U-clamps (see the rusty nuts).

On the right side, the rack hangs vertically with one fork clamp (upper left) & two U-clamps.

New Sun Race crankset w/triple chainring (28t-38t-48t) and Crank Bros. Candy pedals.

I re-mounted my racks with hose clamps on 31/Jul in Tanzania. Both racks are mounted vertically now.

The left side rack (top photo) has spent the whole trip in that position.  The right rack (lower photo) started out in the same position as the left (sideways) but broke off in Colombia after 9,000 km.  I repaired it by turning the rack vertically and attached it to the frame in only two places.  It lasted there for another 14,000 km until Cape Town.  The flat bar on the Axiom rack broke again.  I fixed it by adding another U-bolt (the one on the top right).  The right rack is now angled in more than the left.  It may be more aerodynamic like that.  I’ll see how well it holds up.