Fascinating
It sure is, Ian! I've followed iik's blog since the beginning, and my respect for him and what he's done has only grown. It has been wonderful to see his approach evolve over time and he is not held back from stretching the boundaries further with each tour.
Some thoughts on this fascinating approach...
Despite a number of advancements and refinements over the years, cycling -- particularly road cycling -- remains an amazingly conservative sport/pursuit. It takes real (social) courage to buck the tides of conventionality as iik has done, and he admits to having caught the harsh words of the cafe roadie crowd.
I also like how he has adapted much of the ultralight hiking ethos to cycling and then took it further, pioneering many innovations of his own.
Like John, I've often looked in wonder and gone back several times to match his accounts to the geography where he's cycling. It really is amazing to me he can get by with so few provisions and so little water in such seemingly vast/harsh regions, but I don't doubt it for a moment. He's really refined his entire outlook and takes a true systems approach to touring.
Experience has taught me it is wise to err on the side of caution with extra food and water in the remote regions where I tour solo and self-supported, but I am always open to learning new ways, admire what he's done, and I'll readily admit: I wish I had the nerve and -- yes! -- courage to employ some of his techniques where I go. Riding light and fast really
can make up for much of what you'd have to carry when going heavy and slow...unless something goes Really Wrong, and it is that which makes me more conservative in my approach.
There's some things he's done that I have as well, and they worked out fine. Others...not so much. I think it comes down to personal preference and individual physiognomy. For example, when I first started cycling "with intent" many years ago, I did so in Nike Elite waffle trainers, a very lightweight, foam-soled shoe that cleated nicely over the rear cage of the pedal and was nice for walking off the bike. I put a lot of miles in on those things and found my feet became more and more painful. A trip to the doctor revealed I'd damaged my feet on the sharp edges of the quill pedals and ended up with this:
http://www.smartfeetsavannah.com/smart-reference-library/where-does-it-hurt/forefoot/fat-pad-loss The only way to keep cycling was to switch to "proper" cycling shoes, so that's when I bought my first pair of Detto Pietro Article 74 cleated shoes with firm nylon soles, a steel stiffening plate, and some neoprene foam orthotics. 'S'much as I'd love to cycle in casual shoes, I still can't, some 34 years later. What I do now is ride in cycling shoes and take my Merrell clogs (
http://www.amazon.com/Merrell-Encore-Breeze-2-Slip-On/dp/B004UHVHJ2 ) for camp use and general walking...a sort of halfway measure in the direction iik has gone.
Do you need SPDs or similar for efficient pedalling?
Possibly not! All of this puts me in mind of Roger Durham, the Southern California machinist who founded Bullseye. He was one of the pioneers of the oversized aluminum diamond bicycle frame, his two-piece tubular cranks predated Shimano's nearly identical but much later HollowTech design, and his modular aluminum hubs with user-replaceable shielded cartridge bearings paralleled Phil Wood's. Near the end of his time with the company, he became a proponent of pedals with large wooden platforms, which predated the similar looking but much more recent Ergon Pc2:
http://www.ergon-bike.com/us/en/product/pc2Except for his alu derailleur pulleys with shielded cartridge bearings (I equipped every single one of my bikes with these back in the day and have never had to replace a single one even now) Roger's stuff was often deemed too radical for the roadie crowd, but went over big with the BMXers, where it still plays a role today.
A couple links might be of interest:
Interview with the current guiding force at Bullseye, with plenty of "Roger reminiscences":
http://www.bmxultra.com/prosection/inside/bullseye.htmA short essay by Rivendell's Grant Petersen on riding efficiency, with references to Roger Durham. A full interview with Roger appeared early in the second volume of the Rivendell Reader, as I recall. I inherited the full set of early paper copies as well as the original Bridgestone Owner's Bunch (BOB) newsletters many years ago from graphic artist Tim Mitoma, who had done some logo and art work for Riv.
Yes, iik is really doing well to push the envelope for himself and most of us could take at least one thing from his approach and use it to make our own cycling better. I'm glad there are people like him in the cycling world, trying things others daren't and making us all that little bit richer for his efforts.
Certainly worth looking over his list and asking oneself, "Do I really need this?" (Whatever "this" may be.)
Nicely put, John.
Best,
Dan.
