Sponsors

A trip like ours needs a few basic things: first of all determination, but close second is good gear. It is no use trying to make do, for a good trip, you need good material.

Without the help of the following people and companies the trip would not have been possible. They have not only supplied us with the best gear available, but also have kept us focused on our first goal: to get started! Most if not all of the people are cyclists or sportsmen and -women and they have not just donated their products but also their time and enthusiasm, which is priceless .

• First of all our bicycles. No compromise here, we wanted the best as we will test them to the max. The only suitable solution is Santos Bikes. Our machines are the best and totally custombuilt. Please read more about Santos and its owner Robbert and their custom configuration tool here.
• A great new laptop, almost designed for our wishes was supplied by Lenovo laptops
• Outdoordacht has sponsored all types of gear, with the solarpanel being the ultimate green-travel tool
• There really is only one brand of panniers: Ortlieb. Their importer Jacobsons has worked hard to help us with all gear needed
• Gecko climbing is the importer of Carinthia, together they have supplied us with great sleeping bags and down jackets, to fight the harshweather of Alaska and Canada
• Mario Wolff is the importer of Vertical and has set us up with great and very usable clothing
• WorldNomads has sponsored a year of health insurance, get yours here as well, it really is cheaper and better, we also use it for our Everest expeditions!
• Elephant Drive has sponsored a year of free use of the Elephantdrive solutions, really a weight off our shoulders to know our back-ups are safe.
• AdventureFood has supplied us with great tasty meals to survive the first two weeks in the wild of Alaska
• De VakantieFietser has helped us with advice, gear and a sense of humour to get us started in the right direction

We are still looking for financial support as our trip is very costly, not just our daily cost of living, but also internet access, server hosting etc. any donations are welcome, or if you want us to give special attention to our products (of course only if they are useful for cyclists!) contact us using the form above.

If you are interested in related products and links, check out the Google advertisements that appear on every page as you will help us at the same time

Santos Travelmaster

Santos Bikes:

When we first contacted Robbert Rutgrink from Santos (www.santosbikes.com), we had not much idea about his background. We only knew that Santos bikes were loved and praised by many Dutch and international biketravellers. He is a simply a bike lover and his passion is to design and build the best bikes available. He supplies mountainbikes to the police, builds all kinds of racing, road and city bikes, tandembikes and most importantly: travel bikes.
Though his sponsor budget was exhausted and he had no plans for supplying any new bikes, he became enthusiastic and in the end supplied us with the best bike a traveler can wish for: the Santos Travelmaster.

The Santos Travelmaster series has won several European contests for best travel bike. They are strong, functional and beautiful, a practical work of art. They come in two materials (Aluminium and CroMo /steel) and in two basic versions: with 26” weels (mountainbike size) and 28” wheels (citybike size).

But those are only the basic configurations, using the online configuration tool on www.santosbikes.com, you can create your own perfect bike, including important aspects like gears and frame size, but also smaller details like handlebars, pump and stand. You can even choose from 24 different frame colours, to personalize your bike completely. While using, you can see the results in price and weight for every component and total.

We used the tool and together with the expert advice of Robbert we designed our dreambikes. The bikes are all build in the Netherlands, by a team of very skillful people. A sSantos bike demands to be ridden, the only dust they will gather is on desert roads…

So here they are: Kowalski & Greeny!

Thank you Robert and all the team at Santos bikes. We are going to test the bikes properly, but we already love them like family

Update: today we noticed this review of the Santos Travelmaster on Bikeradar.com, of course I added my user comments:

I am currently testing it on our ride from Alaska to Argentina. The bike is great, no problems whatsoever. My girlfriend, riding the same bike, and me were in a big Vancouver bikeshop after finishing the first 5000km, including about 800-1000km unpaved (Dalton Highway, Denali Highway and Cassiar Highway).

‘What do we need for our bikes?’ we asked eachother, looking hungry at all the nice gear and tools.

‘Ehhhh?’

In the end we realized we have to change the oil (recommended after 5000km) and as we already had the spare Rohloff oil with us, we bought nothing.

And once you have tried the Rohloff, you will never want to go back

(tripreports can be found on http://WorldOnABike.com).”

Update:

Right now James Bowthorpe will try to beat the record on his round-the-world bicycle trip. He is using a Santo Travelmaster with Beltdrive.

See the article on BikeTravellers.com for more background.

Vries, Drenthe: Getting our act together

Amsterdam & Vries, Drenthe

We have rented out our house for the next few years and are effectively homeless. A great feeling

Now we are talking with our gear sponsors to see what they can arrange. It is great to see the faith they have in us and our trip and the wonderful support they are giving. Soon we will talk about them some more and we will set up the special sponsor pages.

For now we are enjoying testing out our new Santos bikes. Wonderful machines. Mine will be called Kowalski, but Ivana’s green yak still needs a name, any suggestions?

More later, now we are packing for a short Istanbul trip, when we are coming back in a few days, we are supposed to either see a lot better or see nothing at all. Laser surgery, here we come!

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