After much mulling the plan is to start an adventure in Santiago, Chile and begin a pan american explore. I have misgivings about Mr Trump and what may lie ahead for the USA and perhaps the world so am wary of committing to airline tickets just yet. The season to explore the south of south america is going to be late next year so I have some time to dwell and thunk 😉 Thinking that if the Area north of central america looks dodgy that I will circumnavigate South America. Obviously these thoughts are completely fluid. I learned today that a circumnavigation may not be without it’s challenges as some countries have no road connections with their neighbours.

The extrawheel trailer has arrived and it rides well and I am well pleased at this decision. A few mods of course need to be done. Using a 20″ wheel instead of the designed for 27.5″ wheel mean with a small rearrangement of the pannier mount I can have a flat surface on top of the wheel as a carrying surface doubling as a mudguard. Welding a couple of pins on the wheel arms should enable V-brakes to be added as well.

I discovered a 200w Rovin solar panel that is 1m x 1.1m which will fit on the extrawheel nicely, so mounts and deliberations on flat vs rotating this are in train. Brent (knowledgeable thought bouncer) asked why I had bought one large panel for the bike when I could have two smaller panels instead! In my defence I had been looking for 1m square panels for some time and had only recently found the Rovin option after already purchasing the larger one. It makes much more sense to have two smaller panels than one larger one for logistical reasons – the single panel HAS to be freighted separately where the two smaller ones MAY (yet to be determined) be able to be my 3rd sports bag which was my trailer on my last sojourn.
Unfortunately I seem to have bought the last Rovin panel that Jaycar had so have tried Tim at Burnsco to see if he can source a couple for me.

I found a perfect replacement for my previous trekking pole with the Macpac P3 Monopod Trekker which has lever locks rather than the twist system and is also a bit longer than the previous pole so gives me more options for pole placement when I stop.

Perhaps the perfect tent??? Durstongear X-Dome2 made with DCF… vapourware at this time but has potential.

It has been great working through the options for mounting the panel(s) on the bike with Brent. I began by prototyping with plastic electrical conduit and downpipe which has allowed us to picture the final design and visualise the various physical constraints. Carbon is looking like the preferred material for the bulk of the frame as it is light and strong. Brent is to make up a vertical support member that rises from the front boom and some fixings for the spar to join the ribs plus a couple of bearing members for the spar to rotate in with a sprung loaded pin system to allow me to fix the panel in various rotational positions.