Outdoordacht

Outdoordacht/Technolyt:
Peter Wayper is the boss of Outdoordacht. The name is a Dutch play on words: “Outdoor” is clear, but “doordacht”  means: well thought through. And so it is. All the gear Peter imports and sells is smart and useful. From famous brands like Sea to Summit to newer products like Steripen and Dobermann.
Peter is an avid cyclist himself and couldn’t wait to leave his desk to take a spin on our Santos bikes. He has cycled in many countries and know what cyclists need and want.

One of the most interesting items he imports are Solar Supra solar panels: foldable solarpanels, that come with a smart battery. You can use the solarpanel directly (it comes with a range of adapters and plugs), or you can charge the battery first and then take power off it later, offering a voltage switcher, to use it with many appliances.
This is not only an excellent way to conserve solar energy, but offer many new possibilities: even with a relatively small solar panel, we can generate enough power to charge our laptop, batteries for the water purifier, headlamps, bike light, but also all cameras and mp3 player. It s a great feeling to be able to use the solar power and to be independent from any other power source for a long time.

One other interesting product Peter supplied us with is the Steripen. We used to drag large water filters and pumps with us or all kinds of bad-tasting drops to purify the water of viruses & bacteria. Now we just take water from any source (we tested tab water everywhere in Zanzibar and Tanzania), press a button, stick the pen in and stir for 2 minutes. Ready to drink immediately!

A great weight saver and as the batteries are rechargeable, we can use it for a long time. One charge will purify about 100 liters/26 gallons and the light will last for about 4000 liters/1000 gallons.

For this and much more useful travel and cycle gear, go to www.outdoordacht.nl

Thanks Peter and we will definitely report back in detail on all the great gear.

Some of the products Outdoordacht sells:

OUTDOORDACHT

MARSOOPS

STUUR-/ZADELPEN BIDONHOUDER

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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