Bicycle Touring Pro » Electronics

How Much Does It Cost To Gear Up For A Bicycle Tour?

Darren Alff — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 09:53:04 +0000

Bicycle touring can be an extremely inexpensive means of transportation, holiday, fun and more! But purchasing all the gear you need in order to conduct a long-distance bicycle tour can be a major drain on your bank account.

The question is: How much does all this bicycle touring gear really cost?

Well, I never really knew the answer… until I sat down a couple days ago and figured it all out (and the answer might surprise you)!

What I’ve done with this article is written out the basic equipment you might need to purchase for a long-distance bicycle tour. Next to each item listed I’ve recorded an estimated price (in US Dollars) for that particular item and displayed a sample photo of that piece of gear underneath its price.

For example: The first item you are going to need to purchase for your bike trip is a touring bicycle. There are hundreds of touring bicycles to choose from, but for the purpose of this article, I chose one of the most popular and least expensive touring bikes available (the Surly Long Haul Trucker) and displayed it for you below with it’s average estimated price of $1,095 USD.

Now, as you continue down the list, you will see a number of additional bicycle touring items you will likely need for your travels – everything from racks and panniers, to tents and sleeping bags, to camp stoves and sporks, and everything in between. Each item is displayed with its average estimated price and a photo of one such piece of gear.

While you could certainly go on a bicycle tour without every single one of the items listed on this page, the items displayed here are what your average long-distance bicycle tourist (who plans to camp and cook his or her own food) might be carrying. Additional items, like a camera, underwear, off-the-bike clothing, food, toiletries, and pretty much everything else, has not been included. Only the basics/essentials have been covered.

Finally, at the bottom of this article, the cost of all these items has been totaled up for you. The purpose of which is to give you a good estimate as to how much all of this gear would cost you if you were to purchase it all at its full retail price (minus additional taxes, shipping costs, etc).

GRAND TOTAL: $3,083 USD

If you were to purchase every single one of the items on this page, your grand total would be right around the $3,000 mark (plus any additional taxes and shipping charges, etc).

For many people reading this now, the cost of all these items might be a bit shocking. For others, you might be thinking “That’s not too bad”. Whatever the case, at least you now have a general idea of how much it might cost to fully-equip yourself for a long-distance bicycle touring adventure.

And remember: You can certainly equip yourself for a whole lot less than this. Finding these items used, on sale, or eliminating them all together will save you a lot of money. Plus, if you so choose, you can select other gear that costs a whole lot more than this! The choice (and the price of your bicycle touring gear) is ultimately up to you!

For those of you who have traveled by bike in the past, how much did it cost you to equip yourself for your bicycle touring adventures? Leave a comment below and let me know!

Pentax Optio W90 – Waterproof Digital Camera Review

Darren Alff — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 08:57:31 +0000

The Pentax Optio W90 is a 12.1 megapixel camera with a 5x Wide Angle Zoom and a 2.7-Inch LCD screen. The W90 is a waterproof, dust-proof, cold-proof, bump-proof digital camera designed for people who want a compact camera capable of handling just about anything you can throw at it.

This camera was first introduced to me by Ted Schredd (the author of my favorite bicycle touring book of all time: “The Cycling Adventures Of Coconut Head“) who is currently using the camera on his bike tour down the length of the United States.

Ted produced the video review you see above for the Pentax Optio W90 while on his bike ride from Summerland, British Columbia (Canada) to Los Angeles, California (USA). As you can see by watching the video above, there are some definite advantages to having a camera such as then when traveling by bike (or traveling in general).

<— Click this button to get yourself a Pentax Optio W90 waterproof digital camera.

To learn more about Ted Schredd and his bicycle touring adventures (and to see more wacky videos like the one you see here), be sure to visit Ted’s website at www.funresearcher.com.

Do Not Buy The Nikon Coolpix S4000 Digital Camera

Darren Alff — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 09:05:20 +0000

A couple weeks ago I wrote an article about the new digital camera (a Nikon Coolpix S4000) and video editing software (Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD) I purchased for my upcoming trip to South America. At the time, I was super excited about my new camera and its HD video capabilities. Unfortunately, my excitement for the Nikon Coolpix was very short lived.

During my first week with the camera, I took a drive out to Dinosaur National Monument on my motorcycle. While there, I snapped a couple dozen photos… and that’s where the trouble began.

After taking about 20 photos with my brand new camera, every once and a while I would get a “lens error” whenever I tried to zoom in. I didn’t think much of this at the time, as I figured it was just a rare incident. However, when I got home from my trip and went to watch some of the videos I had shot while I was in the Park, I realized that the microphone on my new camera was totally not working! The sound on all of the videos I had shot was completely not there. All I could hear was a loud buzzing sound coming from the camera.

“Oh no!” I thought to myself. “I just bought the worst camera ever.”

After discovering that the microphone on my new camera was totally not working, I ran to my pile of recent paperwork and pulled out the Best Buy receipt I had obtained when I purchased the camera. Unfortunately, I was three days out of the two-week warranty period. Nevertheless, I rode my bike over to the Best Buy electronics store where I had purchased the camera and told them about my problems.

After about an hour, the good people at Best Buy gave me another camera (even though I was technically out of the warranty period). (At this point, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the Nikon Coolpix as a whole. I just thought that I had received a dud the first time around.) So, Best Buy gave me another Nikon Coolpix and I happily took it home.

But then, exactly two weeks later, I opened the camera and heard a loud popping sound come from the lens – not a good sound to be coming from a brand new digital camera.

“This is not good,” I thought to myself again. “I need this camera to work for 6 months or more while I travel through South America… and I can’t even get it to work for more than two weeks.”

I wasn’t sure what the loud popping sound was that I had heard when I turned on the camera, but I didn’t care. I instantly grabbed the camera and returned to Best Buy, this time asking for a complete refund – no exchanges, no store credit, nothing.

Obviously, the people at Best Buy tried to get me to buy something else, but I wasn’t going to do it. I did have to pay a $24 re-stocking fee to return the camera, but I was happy to have gotten rid of the camera and gotten back most of the money I spent on this glorious piece of $%#*.

So, now I’m back to square one. I had wanted to find a digital point and shoot camera that not only took great still photos, but also shot excellent HD video. I thought the Nikon Coolpix S4000 was going to work for me, but it certainly did not.

When you travel with a camera, you need something that is not only functional, but that can handle the demands of being on the road. The Nikon Coolpix S4000 is certainly not that kind of camera. In less than 4 weeks with 2 different cameras in my possession, I managed to take less than 100 photos before both items were eventually returned.

If you are thinking about purchasing the Nikon Coolpix S4000, I urge you to reconsider. The camera looks nice and has some features that sounds pretty cool, but ultimately, the S4000 is a total waste of money.

Video Cameras And Editing Software

Darren Alff — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 09:03:29 +0000

I’m getting ready to travel to South America in the next few weeks and in preparation for my trip I’ve just recently purchased a new digital video camera and some new editing software for my computer, which will (hopefully) enable me to produce some great little videos about my South American adventures while I am down there.

The camera that I bought is a Nikon Coolpix S4000 and the editing software I will be using is called Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD.

Last year, when I traveled with my bicycle through Europe for 9 months, I had two different cameras with me. I had a Cannon SD1100 IS, which I used to shoot my still photos. And I also had a Flip Mino HD video camera, which I used to produce my video content.

The Cannon point and shoot camera I used last year worked great and the quality of the photos it took was absolutely superb. A highly recommended camera! However, the Flip Mino video camera that I used was not nearly as impressive. I wrote a long review about my experiences with the Flip cam, but the main problems I had with the camera were that 1) the screen was so small I could rarely see what I was shooting and 2) the camera was not compatible with the video editing software that I was using at the time, which made the editing process a total nightmare. In fact, I had so many bad experiences with that little Flip cam that, even though I shot a ton of video while I was in Europe last year, I’ve shared almost none of it. The process of getting it all edited and uploaded was just too much of an annoyance for me to deal with.

But now that I have a new camera and editing software, hopefully all of that is going to change and my videos here at BicycleTouringPro.com will drastically improve.

This new camera that I got, the Nikon Coolpix S4000 not only takes still photos, but it also shoots high-definition video (1280×720). While the resolution is not like that of super high-end video cameras, it is about on-par with the video that I was creating with my old HD Flip cam. Plus, instead of carrying two different camera (1 to shoot video and another to shoot stills), I now have a camera that does both (less stuff to carry on my travels. Whoo hoo!) And best of all, the MP4 files that are created when I record video on the Coolpix camera are 100% compatible with my new Sony video editing software.

Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD is an entry-level video and audio editing software package that I highly-recommend. I used the professional version of Sony Vegas to edit videos and audio when I was a film student in college, but that version of the software costs about $600 USD (which is outside the reach of most amateur video editors – myself included). Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD, however, is a rather inexpensive piece of video editing software that costs anywhere from $50 – $125 depending on which version of the software you order, and has almost all of the same features as the Pro version of Vegas.

Thus far I am pretty pleased with both my new digital camera and my new editing software. I’ll do a full review of each as I get more experience with them, but in the meantime I thought it would be both fun and interesting for you to learn about the technology I am using to shoot and edit the videos here at Bicycle Touring Pro.

Now here’s my question for you: What video camera do you use to record your travel moments? If you edit your videos, what software do you use and would you recommend it? Let me know by leaving a comment below. I’m interested to hear what you have to say!

Camera Equipment For Photographing Your Travels

Darren Alff — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:08:17 +0000

For years I’ve been using a simple point and shoot camera to photograph my travels. But after numerous recent requests to write and produce articles for magazines, newspapers and other online publications, I’ve decided to put more effort into the photographs I take while on my travels.

In order to help me achieve a new level of photography expertise, I decided to purchase a Canon 50D SLR digital camera. In the process, I ordered some additional camera equipment as well, included the LowePro Slingshot 200 backpack (shown below).

Not everyone is going to want to carry this much camera gear, but in the event that you too are an aspiring travel photographer, I thought I’d share with you the list of equipment I am currently using.

Here’s a breakdown of the camera gear shown above:

1. Canon EOS 50D 15.1MP Digital SLR Camera with EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens

2. Canon Lithium Ion Batteries (I have 2 of these. 1 for the camera and 1 as a backup)

3. Sandisk 16GB Extreme Compact Flash memory card

4. Canon CG-580 Battery Charger

5. Canon 72mm UV Haze Filter

6. Lowepro Slingshot 200 All Weather Backpack

7. Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP Digital Camera

8. Sandisk 4GB SD Card (I have 2 of these)

9. Canon NB-4L Batteries (I have 2 of these. 1 for the camera and 1 as a backup)

10. Canon CB-2LV Battery Charger

11. Lowepro Ridge 10 Camera Case

12. Flip Mino HD Video Camera

13. Digipower Mini Tripod

14. Pedco UltraClamp Camera Mount

15. USB Mini-Cable

I’ll be sure to review each of these products in further detail at a later point in time. In the meantime, however, I’d be curious to hear what kind of gear are you currently using to photograph your travels?

Bicycle Touring Pro » Electronics

How Much Does It Cost To Gear Up For A Bicycle Tour?

Touring Bicycle – $1,095 USD

Rear Rack – $40 USD

Front Rack – $85 USD

2 Rear Panniers – $165 USD

2 Front Panniers – $143 USD

2 Water Bottle Cages – $12 USD

2 Insulated Water Bottles – $22 USD

Front & Rear Fenders – $32 USD

Handlebar Bag (+ Map Case) – $40 USD

2 Bungee Cords – $12 USD

Tent & Tent Footprint – $ 261 USD

Sleeping Bag – $189 USD

Sleeping Pad – $80 USD

Bicycle Computer – $50 USD

Rear Bicycle Light – $15 USD

Headlamp – $38 USD

Helmet – $89 USD

Mirror – $15 USD

Bike Lock – $20 USD

Camp Stove & Fuel Bottle – $110 USD

Cook Pot – $70 USD

Knife -$50 USD

Spork – $9 USD

Jersey – $40 USD

Bicycle Shorts – $70 USD

2 Pairs of Cycling Socks – $18 USD

SPD Cycling Shoes – $75 USD

Rain Jacket – $150 USD

Camp Towel – $13 USD

Bicycle Pump – $22 USD

Patch Kit – $3 USD

2 Tire Levers -$6 USD

Spare Tube – $6 USD

Chain Lube – $12 USD