Scott has a Brooks. That's all that counts!!

Nice rig, and you've obviously put a lot of thought into it. The advice of everyone is well-meaning, but as usual, one always finds out what they do and don't need on shakedown rides. No doubt you are reassessing everything, and you will continue to do so as you go along on your major adventure.

You do need a bit of flexibility to pack away things like food. And documents of all sorts seem to accumulate like coat-hangers -- you don't realise how much is there until you sit down and sort through it, put it in a pile and suddenly find those pamphlets, maps, information sheets, receipts and souvenir stubs weigh a pound or two on their own!

Apart from all the Walmarts and other shops scattered along your route, there's also US Postal and they quite happily will take whatever you want to dispense with and post it home for you.

One more little thing... I would be a bit nervous with the ground clearance of your front panniers. They are quite low to the ground and that doesn't give you much room to lean into corners on those fast downhills you are anticipating. It's really a shock to find your panniers dragging on the ground, both because it wears them out, and they have the potential to pitch the bike off line. You'll see the difference between the height off the ground of the front panniers on your bike and Duke's.

I haven't ridden there (the panhandle), but it is hard to picture it as hilly when the highest point in the state is 345 feet. Is it rolling hills that go up and down 100 feet or so repeatedly or what? Just curious, it doesn't seem like really big climbs are possible given the range of elevations in the state. I guess a lot of short ones in sequence can be relentless though.

"... I would have probably gotten his badge number and maybe reported it to the AG. "

+1, only not probably

Nice looking set up but I have to agree with Rowan on how low your front panniers are set to the ground. With what you have before you, I can almost guarantee that at some point you will be dragging those and that's not good.

I agree with Rowan. Your shakedown rides will allow you to determine what you need and, additionally, how you perform with gear and bike weight.

I have taken late Autumn to early Spring tours with considerable weight - total bike weight (bike, gear, etc.) around 130lbs. I weigh about 160lbs and run a 24/34 low gear. I can't recall ever walking a climb though I've had some impressively slow ascents. I remember one approx. 9 mile 8% avg grade that took me 2 hours to summit. My speed gave me plenty of time to enjoy the spectacular view.

The stock Koga-Miyata World Traveler is well setup for climbing with weight with a 22/32 low gear. With proper gearing and building good rider power/endurance you'll be fine. And, if necessary, you walk. That's good too.

Hi,
Maybe he heard that a "loaded bicyclist" was riding through townand misunderstood. 113 pounds is loaded!

Yes. It's not horrible if you compare it to like Pennsylvania or West Virginia, but you'll be surprised at the number of 100 and 150 foot climbs up and down in that part of Florida. Using my Topo program, I climbed 3070 feet from Monticello FL to Chattahoochie FL.... And I would hate to do that climb from the Apalachicola River into Chattahoochee FL from the west on US 90.. it's a 7 percent grade of 200 feet climbing...

But that's the thing ... depending on which route Scott takes to Alaska, he could be encountering much greater percentages than that (7% isn't all that steep) ... and much longer climbs (like several kilometres).