[SvN] My gear choice

We are going to travel light. Very light, with only 40L of storage capacity at the rear and a small handle bag and nothing else. Why? Because we'll move faster and there will be less things to get stolen. This entails limited changes of clothes (3 boxers, 3 pairs of socks, 3 Tshirts).

• bike carrier: tubus (logo expedition) on bike-components.de
• Ortlieb bike bags (Bike Back Roller plus, 20L): outdoorworks.de

Those German websites are reliable, have been used by hundreds of cyclists and hard to beat pricewise...

• clothes: Décathlon Quechua (very good and cheap brand but don't be surprised if those are made by kids in China or Pakistan).
  

Le Vieux Campeur (V.C) are quite expensive compared to online shops, but you can have a 20% discount if you know someone from l'Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées, or if the company agrees to help you with your expedition (you then have to submit your project).

• sleeping bag: for -15°C, the Alta from Helsport is one of the best synthetic sleeping bags for quality-price (125 euros). OK, it is a bit heavy and large, but it is still worth it (V.C).

• tent: Tadpole 23 from The North Face, good 2.5kg three seasons tent that has proven worthy in Norway, photo (V.C)
  
  

Airline tickets [SvN]

With Paul and Thomas, we tried to book cheap tickets to South America, via websites such as Kayak.com, cheaptickets.com.

However, trying to buy tickets from TAM airlines, allegedly a good company, proved very tricky as their website did not work, nor their phone number. We somehow managed to buy tickets, but those were cancelled the following day because TAM did not confirm to the provider that there was room on the flight...

We finally chose the really cheap option: flight with Air Comet from Paris to Madrid, and from Madrid to BA with Aerolinas Argentinas (which belongs to Air Comet). However, those companies have the bad reputation of being always late (3 to 4 hours on short flights to one full day on longer ones), loosing luggages for 6 weeks(with no excuses and a relunctancy to refund anything) and bad service (Spanish only). This is why the price is so low. We'll see!

Flight Paris-Madrid-Buenos Aires, saturday 3 november 2007.

A safe solution to bring bikes on the plane:
Vélo-avion, 1912. Photo by Jacques Henri Lartigue.

Après des heures de galères sur le net, avec le site et le téléphone de TAM Airlines qui ne marchait pas, nous avons finalement opté pour des billets low-cost Air Comet pour Paris-Madrid et Aerolinas Argentinas pour Madrid-Buenos Aires. Réputation d'être toujours en retard, de perdre les bagages, le tout sans jamais s'excuser. Nous verrons bien!

Welcome to Cyclotrek_the blog! [SvN]

Well, the blog needs to start somewhere...this should enable us to stay in touch during our trip in South America, with you all, dear friends, next of kin and strangers. This blog is temporary in the sense that a proper website will probably be created once we are back, a bit like this one, but in better.