New acquisitions

Me and Nat just added a few more things on our bike recently to make tour biking more comfortable. One was the Brooks B-67 saddle. For those who know about Brooks, I need not say anything more and for the uninitiated, Brooks is SIMPLY THE BEST.

I didn't even have to wait for my saddle to break-in and it was way more comfortable than my stock saddle made of synthetic material with gel filling, right from the first trip. The leather is still very tough but the guy from whom I bought it said that the saddle breaks-in way more quicker in Singapore than in Europe due to the hot and humid weather.

By the way, Nat and me live in Singapore and Aish lives in the west coast of the USA.

Another purchase was the Ortlieb Back Roller Classic in red color. Again for the uninitiated, Ortlieb is THE BEST money can buy for bicycle panniers. Me and Nat have been trying to find at least one comment on the Internet complaining about the quality of the panniers and have not been able to do so. Of course there are people who would prefer a slight change in the design to suit their needs but overall quality is simply impeccable. Precision German engineering.

The back roller classic model comes with QL1 mounting system which is one generation behind QL2. But the comfort of QL2 did not justify the cost for us. A friend of ours was kind enough to pick it up from Germany since they do not ship it outside due to tax complications. Fall Factor in Singapore imports it, but it is way to expensive and it is available at a much better deal on Globetrotter.de site.

The third buy was the Ortlieb Ultimate4 Plus bag that sits on the handle bar in the front. Don't have a picture at the moment and will try to upload it later. This is a really cool bag where you can put your wallet, mobile phones and any other light weight stuff that you might access frequently. This is amazing when it rains. Totally waterproof and dependable.

And finally we bought a Tubus rear rack. I will add the details later. But unfortunately it did not fit either of our bikes. Mine is Trek 1200SL and Nat's bike is Trek XO1. The mounting hole in the frame does not match the rack and it needs a special attachment to fit it. We need to take it to the bike shops to see if that is possible. More on it by the latter part of the week.

All in all, the purchases was really good and we had a good deal on the price and the kind friend of ours was nice enough to lug the whole stuff from Germany to Singapore. We need to put it to use now :-)

Adi, SG, 070205, 1825