New supplies

We investigated getting our new supplies from bike stores in Istanbul where most things are available if you have the time to search them out. However the cost was so much more we think we have saved upwards of £200 by buying our new gear in the UK. So what did we buy and why?

• One pair of Smartwool micro-weight base layer bottoms for Emma. Her old leggings had a few holes.
• A cable each for our Ortlieb handlebar bags. I don’t know if we carry extra heavy loads in our bags but the cables seem to wear through kind of fast and are pretty much impossible to find in Turkish bike stores.
• Two 16GB SD cards for backing up our precious photos and data
• A pair of Endura Humvee shorts for Justin. I love my shorts for all the reasons mentioned on our cycling gear page but they had faded to grey and somehow I’ve grown or the shorts have shrunk around the waist.
• Two Deore M590 chain sets 22-33-44
• Two XT 9 speed Cassettes  11-32
• Three XT HG93 chains. We like rotating our chains every 1500km to reduce wear on the other drive train components.
• A full set of brake and gear cables for each bike
• Five Schwalbe MTB 26” Schrader inner tubes for our recently drilled rims
• One four litre Ortlieb water bag. This gives us one bag each which will give us extra flexibility for some of the drier cycling ahead.
• A replacement Ortlieb map case. Our previous case lasted about three years but the plastic had perished and our repairs to it were also failing.
• Four spanking new Schwalbe Marathon XR Travelguard MTB tyres. Our Panaracer tyres served us well with 12,000km cycled on them but they finally started giving up on the puncture filled road to Cappadocia.
• One alloy bottle cage for Emma’s bike
• Two packets of Park Tool Super Patches. We used up a lot when our tyres began to fail along the road to Cappadocia.

Logistics

We actually had our new gear delivered in two different ways. The tyres were vitally important as without them our bikes were unusable so we ordered these as soon as we returned from Cappadocia to Istanbul. They were shipped out to us in Turkey where we had expected to have to pay some kind of import duty but luckily avoided any extra charges.

The remaining gear we ordered from various UK websites and had delivered to Cat and Graham in London. They were planning to visit us in November and we offered to pay for the cost of checking a suitcase into the hold of their Easy jet flight. The suitcase cost us £18 return and fitted all our various bits and pieces inside. An unexpected benefit was that on the return journey they were able to take our tent back to the UK where it is being repaired for us. Thanks Cat and Graham!

New supplies

Leaving London we also left well-stocked outdoors shops and bicycle shops behind so we needed to get things shipped to us overseas. These are the bits that we decided we needed 10 weeks on:

• New set of Orikasi fold-flat dinnerware: we had burnt the plastic in most of our last set using the plates as lids for pots
• Books: Bird identification book for Emma, weather book for Justin, Eastern Europe phrasebook and three second-hand novels
• Kool Stop brake pads: these don’t need replacing yet but we haven’t found a bike shop which stocks them yet on our travels.
• SDHC memory card so a copy of photos can be taken back to New Zealand
• Therm-a-rest Z-Lite sleeping mats: closed cell mats to replace our leak-prone self-inflating mats, delivered to a campsite in Florence.
• Silicon seam-sealer: to fix holes in tent fly
• From NZ: some kiwi stickers for our bikes, peanut slabs, emergency foil blankets, fridge magnets, electronic bug zapper and insect repellent to replace our jungle strength bottle which is almost empty.

Logistics

We were planning to meet up with my parents in Tuscany and had arranged to stay in rental accommodation with them for two weeks which made getting deliveries a little easier.

We ordered items online and sent a number of small packages to our good friend Cat in London who re-packed it into one parcel, then sent it to an address where we were staying at for the first week with my parents. Thanks Cat!

It was trickier with our new sleeping mats. After an hour of online searching we found an Italian retailer who had them in stock, then with the help of the receptionist at our campsite in Alba we called ahead to a Florence campsite to ask if they would accept the delivery, also calling the Italian stockists to check that they had them and determine shipping dates. Thankfully the mats were waiting for us when we checked in at Camping Michelangelo.

From France, Yves and Ingrid forwarded the Silicon Sealer that Hilleberg had sent them to fix our tent directly to our Reggello villa where it was waiting on arrival.

On request Bruce and Judy brought a few things from New Zealand for us and added to their luggage a few other bits and pieces that they thought might be useful.  two tubs of kiwi marmite didn’t make it through customs as apparently it’s smear-able!