I took this pic today morning on my way to work (by bike of course). Snow and ice and the weather forecast tells of -11° C to come tonight. Well, I guess I should try and find my GORE facemask for tomorrow’s ride to work then.

I am still looking for a replacement of my bike’s back rim. As you know, I am currently using a 26” Rigida Explorer rim, which replaced my Mavic Extreme 721. At the moment the new one seems to be ok, but every time I use my back V-brakes they make a real loud creaking noise. Loud enough to wake up the people down under. I tried adjusting the brakes but to no avail.

Well, in the mean time my bike shop inquired about a new ceramic rim from Mavic. And sadly, they only can get one with holes for 32 spokes from Mavic, and not with holes for 36 spokes anymore. I trust the 36 spoke version more for long loaded touring (heavy loaded duty = bike with lots of luggage and myself).

So I checked out the 2009 version of the Koga Miyata Worldtraveller, to see what kind of brakes and rims they now use. And voilà: obviously no ceramic rims anymore. But they don’t use Mavic ones, instead they look like a “homebrew”: Koga KM21-559 XStrong alloy - double wall and double eyeletted 36 holes rims, durable finished and in black colour. I will ask my bike shop to get a quote for a set and if my wallet allows, I might try that one as a replacement for my Mavic rims.

My bike is at the shop again and I getting repaired. The rim of the rear wheel cracked, obviously from braking. I was quite astonished to see the crack because the rim is a 26” Mavic Extreme (EX 721), one year old and had only 4000 km on it’s back. The third Mavic rim in a row, nearly one per year. The “old” Mavic ceramic rim on my front wheel is already doing its service for nearly ten years. It’s a shame it’s hard to get ceramic rim or other durable rims today.

I now decided to get a complete cheap wheel with a Rigida Explorer rim and a Shimano Deore hub for city and light cycling. And I told my bike shop to get quotes for a new ceramic rim or similar durable rims from DT Swiss.

Yesterday afternoon, after leaving the office and cycling roughly 1000 metres, my seat post broke. I was astonished to see the complete upper part of the tube was torn off. Ok, I cycled in a standing position the few kilometres to my bike shop and they exchanged the seat post with a new one. Obviously it was a material defect. I am glad this happened in Münster and not while on tour out in the wilderness.

I got a new saddle and a new Shimano XTR chainring for my bike.

The price of the latter (incl. fitting) was one third of that what they wanted to have in Norway. Go figure! I am really glad I got my gear complete again. It’s more fun cycling.

So, the new saddle is a Selle Royal (SR) Lookin Athletic. Obviously it’s a successor to my trusty old and comfortable SR Lookin saddle. Only this time I decided to get the athletic version instead of the moderate one. After testdriving it, the new one seems to be as good as the old one, if not better.

So, now I like to tell Scotty to beam me back to Norway to continue my tour…