Endurance test for travellers and equipment

In preparation for a long and self-sufficient journey into the wilderness, we travelled with our heavily laden bicycles to the western part of Mongolia, an area with vast, uninhabited landscapes, some rugged mountains and bumpy gravel roads. Knowing that we would need to carry a lot of food and equipment on our future self-sufficient journey into the wilderness, we decided to transport much more weight than necessary through Mongolia. This was excellent fitness preparation for us and an endurance test for our equipment and the new Grand Expedition Front front carrier.

We planned our route at home on our laptop using satellite images. Originally, we had hoped to find valleys without roads and tracks, but we soon realised that most of the valleys that looked passable had tracks. Nevertheless, we were confident that our planned route would allow us to avoid most of the traffic and find good roads.

We encountered many different road conditions. Sometimes the roads were steep, so we had to push our bikes uphill. Sometimes we could cycle quickly on flat, dried mud. On other occasions, the routes were very rocky, so we even had to push our bikes downhill. We had to cross several rivers along the way and once even had to push our bikes through a rocky riverbed. In addition to these challenging roads, we also cycled on paved main roads into the towns.

We had some wonderful experiences in Mongolia. One morning, we woke up when we heard a noise. We opened the tent and saw a man singing as he rode his horse in the distance. On his arm: an eagle! He must have been one of the few eagle hunters still living in Mongolia. It was a beautiful combination of his singing in the general silence of the area and the light morning breeze. This was a very authentic experience for us.

During our three weeks in Mongolia, we realised that we were strong enough for our upcoming trip into the wilderness. But our bikes suffered a bit in this rough terrain. One day, Marc noticed that his front wheel carrier was moving a little more than it should. When we checked his bike fork, we were shocked: the entire thread had been torn out of the fork. Fortunately, Marc had a mounting kit for forks without eyelets with him. Together, we put the mounting kit in the right position and created a new thread for attaching the carrier. With this repair, we were able to continue our journey. This emergency repair worked perfectly for several weeks until we found a place where a professional could weld the broken thread back in.

The front rack itself was able to withstand all the rigours of the journey. We can therefore highly recommend the Grand Expedition Front rack to anyone looking for a strong and durable rack. It can also be very helpful to have the mounting kit for forks without eyelets with you when travelling in remote and challenging environments.