Mine doesn’t look quite like this anymore!
Why did I choose an Orbit Romany Expedition? A bike that cost me 4 times more than I’d ever spent on a car! Well, when I was ill with ME I began to spend time looking into the trip and what sort of bike and gear was needed. I was clueless, I hadn’t even ridden a bike since I was 18. I mean, where do you begin with something like that? I read several books and rang people who knew people who’d cycled around the world and most of them told me they had an Orbit Romany Expedition. I guessed the masses couldn’t be wrong and sent off for a brochure.
I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it, complete with Ortlieb panniers. I HAD to have one and never even really considered another make. Bare in mind that this was when I couldn’t even walk across a room and was out of work and in £5,000 of debt! Still, it didn’t stop me, daydreaming is free and I tell everyone, “where would we be without our dreams.” I’d probably still be ill!
I’m digressing again! Anyway, I cut out a picture of the bike and stuck it on my fridge door. Most people would have a chocolate cake, a “you are too fat sticker” or a photo of some gorgeous hunk, but me? I had my bike and everytime I passed that fridge I would look at it and tell myself, one day, one day.
Several years passed and I was healthier and working and trying to save for the trip but I was still nervous of buying the bike. I mean, once I had it I would HAVE to go, and cycling the world is a pretty big thing, especially coming from an Island only 14km long by about 9km, and that’s when the tide is out!
A friend of mine, Gary, died of cancer and it was the shove I needed to order my bike. I hyperventilated for a month after paying for it, but was it worth it?….
Every penny! My bike has butterfly handlebars and a suspension seatpost for my back, I also changed the saddle for a much more comfortable cut out one and tapped it up so it wouldn’t get scratched and look so attractive. Once I was away I got no trouble from the bike at all. Considering the abuse it got, it is very forgiving. It has been flung on bus roofs and tied to tuctuc’s when I was too sick to cycle, lost by Greyhound for 5 weeks and traveled further than I have! Clobbered with hammers by impatient mechanics when I wasn’t looking. It seems to be the answer to everything in Asia, if you first don’t succeed, whack it with a mallet!
I guess only another cyclists might understand this, the rest of you will just think I am mad, but I had a love hate relationship with my bike. I used to say it was rather like being married to the thing. I used to talk to it, sometimes hate it, most of the time loved it and I would have been totally devastated if it had left me! I never, ever, left it outside, it always came in the room and even then I would lock it to the bars to the window or the headboard.
How did it perform? Well, a lot better than I did! It started to get a bit rusty but not until my last country, Canada. I think the roads there are covered with some gunk to get rid of the snow. I never had any trouble from it, really. I only had the spokes trued a couple of times, they were ok. I rode it with anything up to 300lbs in weight on it, depending on how much water I was carrying, which is a hell of a lot. I had to change the rear rim in Canada, not because the old one had worn out but a mechanic in Thailand hadn’t re-packed the bearings properly. They had eaten into the rim so it was cheaper for me to get a new one at cost price, thanks to a generous mechanic. I only went through one chain, not putting a new one on until Canada, after about 14,000km. I changed the rear cassette too before Canada as it was having trouble changing gear properly when the old one it was getting worn.
The only thing I didn’t like about the bike were the tires it came with. They have a reflective rim and I didn’t like that idea when I was camping rough and didn’t want to be seen. Also, I found I got much better wear out of Michelin Rock Gripper tires.
I am not going to bother telling you all the technical hoo-ha of the bike here. Take a look at their website. All I can say I am was very, very happy with my bike and get the DT’s when I am off it for too long.
Most Orbit models are available to try for a week, through their hire scheme. This allows you to ride in varying conditions, loaded and unloaded. They refund half of this if you go on to buy a new Orbit bicycle. Contact them for full details.
Orbit Cycles Ltd
Admin Office, Unit 2
59 Breck Lane
Sheffield
S25 2LJ