Surly ECR

Need extra water capacity for a big bikepacking trip? Here’s a hack to add two additional bottle cages using Surly’s do-all, horizontal slot dropouts—tested on rough tracks in East Africa.

Why the quiver is not dead: one for dirt-road touring and one for bikepacking.

Part 1 of 2 of a ramble pondering nomenclature (dirt touring vs bikepacking), the state of the 29+ platform, and the Surly Krampus vs the ECR…

This post isn’t really about a beer, it’s about the occasion that called for a very strong beer.

A three day cycling route, cut to two, through the Sahara, includes sand, camels, a dust storm and eight flat tires.

On December 12th 2013, the ECR became my mobile bush camp as we travelled from Cape Town, South Africa to Tanzania, then through Morocco and southern Spain. The ECR left a slew of oglers and inquisitors in its in its wake throughout Africa. Granted, it is a sight to behold. Here is the build…

Our Malawi guidebook (published 2012) states that cycling is permitted in Nyika. It also mentions that the Malawi National Park Service is planning to reintroduce lions within the 3,000 square kilometer park in 2013…

The final days of our Lesotho dirt road odyssey concluded with a magic carpet ride across the highlands and a descent down the legendary Sani Pass.

“I think they [Knards] will be too slow.” “You won’t find 29er tires or tubes in Africa.” “That thing is going to be heavy.” I pretty much ignored the aforementioned comments, among a couple other worries that were floating around in my skull, and rolled into Africa with the ECR, complete with Knards. Here are my thoughts after 1,000 KMs.

Does the Tubus Vega fit the ECR, with 29+ Knards? Well, the answer is… kind of. A few people have asked and commented about the compatibility of the Vega with the ECR. Here are my thoughts.

The sun is the master here. It seems far more powerful than anywhere I’ve experienced. The darkness quickly fades at 5AM and the star of frenzied flame explodes into the sky at about 5:30.

Six months ago we were torn between several locations in which we could take our next cycling tour. The general requisites were that the place(s) have a warm climate (Gin hates the cold), posses unique and interesting cultures, and send us off through beautiful places…