The Story So Far

Sunday, April 27th, 2014

After cycling from Pisa to Sicily with Bike Adventures in May last year, I dropped in on my new grand-daughter, Alexandra, in Singapore on the way home. Now known as AJ, Alexandra was born on May 7th, 2013, while both grandfathers were cycling in Italy (see Pisa to Sicily by Bike).

Now almost one year old, AJ celebrated her faux "first" birthday on April 13th, ostensibly because her parents were in Canberra, and her grandfathers are going to be away (again) for her real birthday. Here she is with her proud parents - Tony's daughter Carla, and my son Robert.

And here are some of the men currently in her life - father Robert, grandfather Rob, and grandfather Tony. I'm sure there'll be a few more men in her life one day!

And just in case anyone thought that Team Tony had disbanded, or gone into hibernation, it's been in training almost from the day the Pisa to Sicily ride finished almost a year ago. Here's some of the Canberra "peloton" on its recent biannual ride from Canberra to the coast (by MTB).

Packing

But before you can go cycling in Europe, you first have to pack your bike! I usually start with a $20 Qantas bike box, some bubble wrap, and as much polystyrene as will fit into the gaps. For this bike, the pedals are removed, the front wheel comes off, the seat and post are also removed, the handle bars are disconnected from the stem and then everything bubble wrapped and gently "squeezed" into the box. 

Actually, there's plenty of volume in these boxes, especially for a road bike. It's more the length, height and width of the bike that need to be reduced to fit.

For more details of the packing, I have photos! You'll just have to believe me for now that the box below now contains the bike and all its bits and pieces.

And hopefully this will be enough luggage to last a month...

Once packed and ready to go there was still time for one final ride, and the obligatory peloton farewell lunch at one of its regular coffee stops (the Istanbul restaurant in beautiful downtown Tuggeranong):