I checked with Vanessa from Bike Stories a while ago to see if there was any news about our bikes, because I was (a) curious and (b) anxious to finalize our last few weeks of prep.
At that moment the news was: “we expect them to arrive within 10 or 14 days” or somewhere between April 28th and May 2nd.
So, much to our surprise, we got a call from Vanessa on April 24th, that our bikes were ready!
Ready!!!
Since we could book an appointment for the next day, including the 1-hour workshop for basic bike maintenance, we didn’t hesitate and grabbed that time slot.
Okay, we’re a little nervous now 😱😱😱. Will it meet our expectations?
This morning at 8:30, we walked to the train station in Leuven and took the train to Mechelen. Luckily there were technical problems, and we had like 30 minutes delay. No panic, we had some margin in our schedule. Another short walk to Bike stories, and at 11:01 exactly we walked i the store, and there they were: our bikes.
Jurgen, the bike repairman and owner of Bike Stories, took us to his shop to kick off the workshop.
Those bikes are awesome! We learned how to change tires, swap brake pads, and take off the wheels without messing anything up. We learned by watching, but also by trying it ourselves. The technique of the Santos Travelmaster 3+ is really made maintenance-friendly.
We still needed some safety locks and choose for two Texlock Orbit chains, made from fibers and steel, to prevent (hopefully) our new bikes from being stolen along the way. Another 1,3 kg per bike to add to our total weight… I also added an ultra light spare inner tube to compensate.
We left the shop around 1 o’clock for our first 25 km bike ride home.
Time for a quick picnic to recharge our personal batteries and prevent Leen from getting hangry! 🧺🥪
We wanted to test as much as possible on the way, so we really pedaled like crazy and averaged 18 km per hour 😵. I have to admit that we normally average 15km per hour, so my Garmin watch stated very dryly at the end that my body battery was empty… But maybe the bikes were a bit responsible for this good performance? We will let you know.
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