Got up relatively early at 08:30 and hit the road around 11:00. I still must improve my morning procedure. Although my tent neighbours, two French girls on a backpacking trip through Sweden, were only slightly faster.
I didn’t take many photos today, since I tried to avoid all the small breaks that disrupt the riding flow, and usually accumulate to some hours of non-moving time until the end of the day.
The stage’s highlight was crossing the Höga Kusten Bridge, the world’s 14th largest suspension bridge.
It is part of the E4 route, which at this area is closed for cycling. Only the bridge segment itself is open and has a side stripe usable as bike lane.
However, it is hard to enjoy the view when large trucks pass by with merely a meter of distance. Since the bridge is so high above the water, looking into the landscape and keeping balance is hardly possible. However, the bridge construction with its huge pillars and cables is equally impressive.
The E-Routes, like the E4, puzzle me. They are the best available routes between the large towns, but you never know if they’re open for bikes or not. Some segments are motorways, some are not. Sometimes, the official bike routes are on them, like the bridge or the last part of today, sometimes bikes aren’t allowed. In general that’s not deducible from the map. So I avoid using them at all.
Tomorrow I have to decide whether to do a major detour following the Eurovelo route, or to continue for ~20 km on the E4 until both routes join again. There are a lot of such decisions along the way north which could add up to a few 100 km in the end.
Equipment time: When I changed my chain yesterday, I made a photo of all bike repair and maintenance stuff I packed.
There are:
– a selection of zip ties
– replacement spokes
– the new chain I bought
– the removed segments from shortening the chain
– chain pins
– a lightweight chain tool that works with an Allen key
– 3 Allen keys, which I have in my handlebar bag for easy access (e.g. to adjust things)
– T-grip bit holder and a selection of bits
– a bike wrench for all kinds of sizes
– a fully grown 15 mm wrench for sufficient torque at the pedals and the back wheel
– a selection of replacement screws
– a tool to find holes in tire tubes
– 2 tire levers
– two small sets of self adhesive tube and tire patches
– 2 replacement tubes
– a shifting cable with end caps
– small multi-purpose pliers
– a set of brake pads (probably won’t need them, but wasn’t sure because of the bike weight and the height profile)
– 2 pairs of nitrile gloves
– 2 rags, one for oily and greasy jobs (e.g. chaintenance), the other one for dirt
– chain oil
– bike grease
– bio-degradable bike cleaner concentrate
Neatly packed into three 1 litre zipper-bags:
Additionally I have these multi-purpose items in my bags:
– some meters of string
– some duct tape (1-2 m rolled on an IKEA pencil)
– a minimalistic travel sewing kit
– a Swiss army knife
Bonus fact: compared with Berlin, you can see a lot of stars here.
