This photo above was made in a cypress grove north of Jackson, MS.
Some people may be interested in the rig. The bicycle is a Jamis Aurora Elite (I believe it is the 2011 model) with significant modifications. including low-ride Tubus racks up front and Tubus super-light rear. All bags and panniers are Ortlieb and I have nothing but praise for the capability and capacity of the equipment. Much of my equipment (tent, stove, dromedary bag, etc) is MSR.
One addition I didn’t expect to work so well was the Voltaic solar panel that I used to keep my cell phone charged. I expected to use it to charge my Garmin GPSmap 62sc rechargeable NiMH batteries but I don’t think the Voltaic system has enough juice to push both while riding all day in intermittent shade. So, the phone was more important in this case since the road was pretty much a straight line. One of the most useful parts of my setup was the cargo net you can see holding everything in place there. I probably would not have had such a solid rig in the rear without it.
And, as a disclaimer, I have no sponsorship for any of this equipment. I just did the research myself and this was my conclusion. After a week, all still going strong. Considering it isn’t unusual for people to ride years with this equipment, I had no doubts.
I prefer to live knowing that if there is failure it is in myself, not my equipment.
Stay tuned…
-Noah D.
