The bike and gear I chose for the June 6th bicycle tour of the Catskills was limited to the minimum amount of funds I have so I used a bike I already had in my collection, a steel Fuji Ace from the late 90's. Perfect for a touring application, the Fuji has a long wheelbase to accommodate larger tires that will be suitable to carry the extra weight, I am using Michelin Dynamic 700x25, maybe should have gone up to 700x28 but it will only be a trip of a few days so they should be ok. I have a 9 speed set up with a 53-30 triple and a 12-25 cassette. I went with waterproof Ortlieb rear bags new from REI on sale for $119, Jandd front panniers from ebay for $30, a Cannondale handlebar bag with map pocket I picked up new from this year's veloswap for $5. I also picked up a Solio solar charger from the REI garage sale for $5 to charge my iphone and Garmin Nuvi I plan to bring along to post photos to this blog and for directions.
