Don’t take this list too seriously - it was only a week. But it felt like a long week.
1 - Spurcycle mini bell (not an aliexpress copy) looks good also sounds nice when getting hit by branches and other foliage 2 - Aeroe bags pricey but tough 8l each. 3 - focus dry bag rack. Had to use p clips to fit to my seat stays. Was fine 4 - sea to summit straps. Better than voile for me - the 60cm straps fit round the Aerobags with plenty to spare 5 - race king tyres. Good tyres on mostly varying gravel sizes and some sand, and a little made road. 6 - wolf creek chain pliers. The little valve core cutout bit saved the day 7 - nemo tensor long wide - tiny quiet comfortable quiet and quiet. And comfortable. 8 - old timey triple chain ring. Used biggest and smallest. Grateful for the range. The winner - mont bell carry bag. See other post for updated pictures
Things to do better: The chain wax I was trying was fine for commuting but wore out too fast with day after day of mud and dust. Def using a dry lube next time and suffer the black gunk on everything. Sadly as the wax is great, clean and quiet.
Things I thought I’d love but were meh: SQLabs bar inner ends. Next time I may try the ones that sit on the outside more like riding on the hoods.
Black gunk on the chain drives me crazy, no matter how well I clean it.
But I did switch over to Silca Synergetic around 400km ago and even though black gunk is still there, i can get it quite clean by running the chain through a microfiber cloth, was never happened with the other lubes I’ve tried.
Synergetic also (allegedly) keeps friction and wear to an absolute minimum, nearly as good as wax.
Time will tell, but I’ve been quite happy with it.
Thanks. The Synergetic Dry Lube looks interesting. RoadCC has a very positive review. I’ll finish my wax over the coming weeks and may try the Synergetic.