Papa Moore, a close family friend and avid photographer, has been our inspiration for the Surly Long Haul Trucker (our bicycle of choice) from the beginning. He has created a friendship with McLain Cycles of Cadillac and offered to extend his discounts to us. Considering we were planning to buy a $1,400.00 touring bike, we thought this was pretty exciting! Although enticed by incentives, our desire to spend our dollars locally sent us to our hometown cycling shop, Latitude 45 Bicycle and Fitness. That exact decision right there, my friends, is what kept us on our toes for about a week. Cons and I have spent most of our afternoons in Latitude 45 picking the brains of their employees about anything and everything, and luckily for us, they had all of the answers! From bikes to mirrors, camping to cook stoves, those lads, and Margaret, have helped influence the direction of products that would be conducive to our travels. McLain Cycles has been incredibly generous, but our friendly neighborhood Cycling store has gone above and beyond to ensure that our adventure is approached from a safe and fun direction!! Gosh, we're lucky. After a fun week of learning and researching, we contacted the owner of Latitude 45, a great friend, father and hubby, Christian Janssens, for a quote on our cycling needs. Awaiting an email of price confirmation, we distracted ourselves with a fun jaunt South.
Thanks to a kick-start from Latitude 45 on suggested products, Cons and I borrowed Kitty's car (the insane nick/love name I have given my mother) and headed to Traverse City, a lovely place about an hour and a half south from home situated beautifully on Grand Traverse Bay. Its larger than our home town, Petoskey, and offers a healthier selection of stores and merchandise alike. Our first stop was to a small brick and mortar store called Back Country North. We were warmly greeted by the friendliest chap, and although I have forgotten his name now, my best guess rests on Brian. He is an incredibly knowledgeable and experienced backpacker with the enthusiasm to talk rapidly about camping products, which thankfully, is just what we were looking for. Prior to this relatively long date with Brian, we were only able to view equipment via the inter-web. Luckily for our hands-on experience, we were able to realize that our tent of choice, the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL3, was desperately needing to be a three person rather than a two, and that Connor was far too large to sleep on a regular sized sleeping pad, and due to my curled sleeping position, so was I! Not only was the tent information helpful, but we were able to lay on multiple sleeping pads. Originally, we looked into buying a NeoAir XLite which weighs in at just over a pound and impressively packs down to the size of a Nalgene bottle. Brian was able to veer us away from that pad pretty promptly considering it's severe crunch factor. While testing it out, I couldn't help but feel as though I was rolling around on urine soaked newspaper and answering to the name Julian. For any Big Daddy fans out there, I believe you'll appreciate my reference. Needless to say, the NeoAir XLite wasn't for us, but instead, after a relaxing visit on the 40th anniversary addition of the Therm.A.Rest, a fancier, discontinued model of the Therm.A.Rest Prolite Plus, we were absolutely sold. After drooling over sleeping bags, cooking equipment and other miscellaneous accessories, we poked around gander mountain, grabbed a bite at our favorite semi fast food joint, Qdoba, and then headed home to the soothing jams of Dave Matthews Band. Great, great day.
Peruse their inventory and meet the staff at www.backcountrytc.com
Sunday, June 9th, 11:02 am, we received an awesome email from Christian Janssens himself. Little did we know, the contents of that email would quickly turn our fantasy for touring into a beautiful reality. With a great quote and a scrap paper full of questions, we visited the shop yet again to inquire further before placing our order. Within three and a half hours, Christian was able to answer all of our questions and fit us professionally for our bicycle frames. I am happy to say that Connor and I have officially placed our order. We will purchase the following from Latitude 45:
1 Surly Disc Trucker 26"
1 Surly Disc Trucker 700c
2 Surly Front Rack - Black
2 Surly Back Rack - Black
1 Planet Bike Hardcore Fenders Set - Black 26"
1 Planet Bike Hardcore Fenders Set - Black 700c
1 Brooks B17 Saddle - Antique Brown
1 Brooks B17 S Saddle - Antique Brown
2 Ortlieb Back-Roller Classics - Black
Check them out at www.latitude45.com
Christian taking us through a frame-fitting process while utilizing in-store bikes with similar geometry
Anything that Latitude 45 was unable to order for us, we will search for online such as front panniers, tent, sleeping pad/bags, cooking equipment, etc. We will absolutely keep you posted on fun finds.
Until next time,
Bea
So exciting to watch your journey unfold.
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