Tabatinga, say that out loud a couple of times, Tabatinga.
somewhere up a tributary of the Amazon river, I got off the boat in a village with about 1 mile of pavement, from the dock to the market. The rest of the roads are dirt or mud as the weather might be.
There is no bicycle shop in this village. I looked for one. Even a person as stingy as me would buy these children a tire if there was a way to do so. After a few days of watching them take turns riding on the bike with no tire, I looked quite hard for a tire, there are no bike parts of any kind in this village.
This thread is about equipment that works.
This is to help people share information about gear that did its job, without fail.
The hardest part of the internet is to explain to 123,457 people what your thread is about.
In the window on the left you see dear old dad. If he wants to buy a tire for the bicycle his 6 children share, he needs to go on a 4 day and 4 night boat ride to Tabatinga. A day or two longer to get him back home up river.
In their village,
For 59 cents, dos soles Peruanos, Patricia sells, from a table in the street, rice and a fried egg. For cinco soles, $1.48 You get a bigger plate with a piece of chicken. The fat guy sitting next to me complained about the the price of the chicken. I think My Shimano m772 long cage rear derailleur, deserves a mention, it lasted through years of abuse, it worked without fail.
Here in Tabatinga, the dry season means 200 mm of rain per month. The dry season is over. As I wait for an airplain, I can see what the rainy season looks like. Some say an internal geared hub is the way to go in the mud. No right answer. Just a list of gear that people found reliable after a lot of use. You and only you can decide which gear fits your travel plans.
I like to camp in the sand. Sometimes the wind blows off the Pacific. Blows the tent stakes right out of the sand. The tent that works for the man in Colorado, might not work for me on the beach. I suppose my tent pole weighs a pound, and has no second use. No one right answer. A good tent in the mountains, where the ground is solid and can hold onto a tent stake, could be a different tent than the one we need on windy soft ground.
Note the tent tied down to some drift wood.
So, if you are going down the Canol Heritage Trail in the Yukon, or up the Amazon river, what gear do you need? If you know of some gear that works and can be relied upon, post about it here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RATG8uBE8mwThe final resting place of the Pearl, was a beach in northern Brazil.
Get off your bicycle and go into an old library,
you might learn something. Pick a point on the map
and go there.
When you get back let us know if one piece of equiptment served you well.
