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Upgraded to a BarYak Bikepack Carrying System

Like most of us, COVID-19 has me locked down from doing any serious long-distance riding. So I’ve begun fiddling with my bike to get it set up for future adventures when better days arrive. If I can’t pedal long-distance, I might as well tweak the bike and ponder journeys to come.

Enter the BarYak Expedition

Always looking to improve the comfort of my ride, I installed a BakYak bike pack carrying system on the Co-Motion Divide. Before, I’d been resting my forearms directly on top of the Jones Loop H-Bar and gripped the Gnarwal. Of the various configurations, I settled on the BarYak Expedition SL 2020 – 35 that includes Peregrine arm rests, and a carbon crossbar & bar ends.

To accommodate the extension rails for the mounting system and keep the sweepy 45° handlebars, I replaced the Jones Loop H-Bar with a Jones Bend H-Bar. I also kept the Jones Gnarwal but shortened it due to the forward mounting position. I found one center grip more comfortable than two bar-ends a then ends of the crossbar.

In addition to a pretty sweet aero riding position and comfy forearm rests, the loop carrying setup for the handlebar bag improved the ability to carry gear under and forward of the handlebar in a “hammock” fashion. For added stability, I kept the pair of ROK straps to secure the load.

New cockpit setup with the BarYak and the Jones Bend handlebar.

Solid Components

Everything about the BarYak Expedition SL is a quality build. The rails are anodized CNC machined aluminum. The Peregrine Arm rests are thick and comfortable and attach to the mounts via super secure velcro patches. The ample padding is much easier on my forearms than the bare aluminum bars I previously used. Note: If you’re running 31.8mm handlebars, you’ll need to purchase a set of shims as the BarYak is set up for 35mm handlebars.

Real Estate for Gadgets

The bracket and armrest mounting plates have plenty of room to mount digital accouterments. A Gino Light Mount bolted to an extension rail made a secure location to mount the Quad-Lock for the iPhone, which, save for the Garmin inReach GPS tracker, is the only electronic gadget I use nowadays.

Hows It Ride?

In short, the BarYak is a pretty comfortable addition to the Divide. On local rides, I find myself spending more and more time on the armrests grasping the Gnarwal and spinning away the miles. Spending long hours in the saddle day after day, a comfortable aero position is just a more relaxed way to ride.

If you’re in the market for an aero bike packing handlebar gear set up, the BarYak Expedition is worth a look. Joe Stiller and his team at BarYak have come up with a winning setup I highly recommend. See you out there. Cheers.

Travelogue: Magic Moments

by Johnny Isaak ·

Casting my eyes out to pastel skies hanging low over the Andaman Sea. Standing on the crest of a hill overlooking the shore of the Promthep Cape at the northwestern reaches of the Malacca Strait while waiting patiently with camera in hand. Sunsets are magical things.

The setting sun burns a hole in the muted sky, the last moments of a molten ball of fire smoldering in the mist never quite touching the horizon line. It’s an instant when one’s senses are alive and fully present moment. The first whispers of a cool offshore breeze tickle the hair on the nap of my neck. Yes, it’s the perfect place to be.

Steadily, the shutter fires away. The camera buffers and writes the images to the memory card. Moments are captured. Making decent photos has a lot to do with figuring out the “perfect place to be,” and getting there and set in time for the decisive moment. For me, it’s a little deeper than that. Photography is not so much about capturing the beauty, but experiencing it first, and then recording the moment before it’s gone. And over time, it’s a collection of these little slices that make up a life well-lived.

One last glance to the horizon as the sky fades to dull gray. It’s an excellent moment to consider the gravity of things. Yes, dreams do come true to those willing to give fair chase. I bag my camera and begin ambling down the hill into the dusk. Thus ends a day spent well. Making out the shadow of my driver’s tuk-tuk, it’s time to lean forward to a new day. Life is good. Get some.

Schwalbe Almotion Tire Fail

by Johnny Isaak ·

Into the Taklamakan Desert, I pressed on with a rapidly wearing front tire and no spare to replace it if the tire failed. Doubt filled my mind as I waded deeper and deeper into the endless sea of sand. There were no services until we reached the southern fringe of the desert, some 500 kilometers away.

I had little choice: continue the journey or find a willing driver and vehicle to ferry me to the other side of the Taklamakan. With each passing day on the desolate Tirum Desert Highway, my anxiety rose higher and higher. I pressed on.

The Taklamakan, meaning “Those who go in, don’t come out.”

Go for Broke

Two-thirds of the way across the Taklamakan, my riding partner Wei Lei and I decided to make one long push into Minfeng, 175 kilometers south of us. We woke the following morning to howling wind and blowing sand.

We’d spent the previous day cycling under the scorching sun that sent the mercury to 42℃ that heated the cracked and rough pavement to a point where it ground away at the softening rubber on the tire at an alarming pace. With sections of tread worn smooth, green patches of the tire’s puncture guard grew and grew with each passing kilometer. The scant rubber remaining between the asphalt and the inner tube became thinner and thinner.

I could’ve kicked myself for not bringing a spare, as I always do. Once again, I had violated one of my own rules: Always have a backup. Had I brought a spare, this wouldn’t have been an issue. I would have swapped it with a fresh tire and road on. I would have changed the tire at the first signs of abnormal wear, so the tire could still function as a spare in the event of another failure. No big deal.

Time to Improvise

Reducing the rate of wear and protecting the inner tube became my major focus. To protect the inner tube, I placed a tire boot inside the tire under the first green spot and backed it up with a section cut from an old inner tube to increase the rubber thickness at the point of wear.

Additionally, I carried a section of rubber tire liner from a truck tire I’d picked up off the road. Plus, I still had two more tire boots. My plan was to hold off placing anymore on the tire and save them to deal with any weak spots that threatened to cause the tire to fail.

As long as the tire kept its integrity and didn’t disintegrate or a spot became so thin as to pop the inner tube, it should hold. I checked the tire every five or ten kilometers for any troubled spots. If a section of the tire threatened to fail, I would back it up with a boot and section of inner tube and or rubber tire liner then. As I pedaled on, I continually scanned the road ahead for other scraps of rubber that had been thrown free from truck tires that I could use to shore up my failing front tire.

Tirum Highway, Taklamakan Desert, Xinjiang.

First Signs of Trouble

I’d first noticed the oddly wearing tire a couple of weeks before while climbing into the Altai Mountains in the northern reaches of Xinjiang Province. Several sections of center tread had faded away becoming smooth flat spots. The tread wear didn’t look too serious. I felt I had enough tread to cover the remaining thousand or so kilometers of the journey back through the Tian Shan and across the Taklamakan Desert to Kashir on the eastern Chinese border near Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. I pressed on, checking the defective tire throughout each day.

The first day in the Taklamakan, the bright green puncture protection strip in the core of the tire began to appear on the flat spots. The green strip first appeared as a single spot and then grew into to several long strips.

As shown in the above video, the tire became more and more crooked with each day the bike was ridden, which caused a side to side grating motion on the tread wearing away the tread, especially when making highspeed descents in the Altai and Tian Shan mountains. Over time, the side to side oscillating action created several smooth flat spots at several points around the tire exposing the puncture guard within the tire’s core.

Locating a 29-inch replacement in Xinjiang would be practically impossible. Tires on mountain bikes in China are virtually all 27.5” or 650B, with an occasional 26” wheeled bike. It’s quite rare to see any 29” tires in China. Finding a replacement would be out of the question. My only options were to limp the bike on into Kashir or terminate the ride and seek alternate transport. I’d come too far to quit now. I was going for broke. I was going to cross the Taklamakan or “Desert of Death” on the ailing front tire.

A Defective Tire from the Start

The tire looked a little weird when I installed it prior to going to New Zealand. There was a slight slide to side oscillation in the tread when turning. I wrote it off as a slight manufacturing defect and rode on.

I kept an eye on it, and after riding over 4,000 kilometers of riding in New Zealand, the tire showed no abnormal signs of wear, other than a slight side to side oscillation that didn’t affect the bikes ride at all.

Prior to beginning the ride through Xinjiang, the tire still had plenty of tread remaining. The wear didn’t look any more than the rear tire which seemed fine. In fact, I thought the tire had enough tread, I decided to save a little extra weight and go on the journey without a spare, which would prove to be a bonehead move. It was the first time I had traveled without one, something I won’t repeat on any future long rides.

The Tire Holds

In the end, not only did the tire hold up to Kashir, I still rode the bike around town for several days before we flew back to Shanghai.

Though I’ve since switched back to my proven Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tires because I had a new set, plus a spare, I’m convinced I’d just gotten a hold of a defective tire. The Almotion tires are good tires and won’t rule out rolling on them again someday. But for now, it’s the Mondial’s for me. Cheers.

Travelogue: East Coast of Taiwan

by Johnny Isaak ·

The island of Taiwan is a hidden cycling gem of the Pacific. It seems relatively few traveling cyclists enjoy semi-tropical paradise. The quiet east coast of the island is reminiscent of California’s Pacific Coast Highway.

The morning I made this image, a break in the rain yielded to a silvery light that glittered across the Pacific’s turquoise waters. I can still recall the fresh offshore breeze that pushed cool salt air into my face. The air was crystal clear.

Looking far to the east out along the horizon line, I could see the curvature of the earth running north to south.

The ebb and flow of the tide touched conjured thoughts about the cycles of life. I pondered the changing of the seasons, summer to fall, fall to winter, and now winter to spring.