After having assembled my bike this week together with my friend Phil, the time has come to put the material and also myself to the test. Because I had a meeting later in the evening in my hometown Basel, it was convenient to cycle from Zurich to Basel. This route had everything to offer that you can expect on a multi-day tour:

• Beautiful sunshine and tail wind for the first 20 km
• Fascinating cloud formations combined with strong head winds for the next 30 km
• A very steep 400m climb up to the top of the Jura chain
• A good descent down towards Basel
• Strong rain for the last 15 km

Detailed Route

 

Conclusions

The bike was all fine with one exception: the cables for the mechanical disc brakes were not tightened enough and the breaks got weaker km after km. And since I did not bring the tools, I was lucky that right before the steep ascent I met someone along the road with the necesseary tools to tighten the breaks, otherwise the well-deserved descent on the other side would have been not that enjoyable.

Some fine-tuning is however still necessary: The angle of the saddle is not perfect yet and the handle bar needs to be adjusted a bit.

My rain pants and shoes did not pass the test. I was soaking wet from my legs downwards. Luckily I already ordered some replacement pants last week.

I am not in best shape yet. While the first 70 km including the ascent and descent went fine, the last 40 km were getting tougher and tougher and my average speed was constantly going down. I was glad when I finally arrived in Basel. Some more practice until the start of my big tour in 2.5 weeks is absolutely necessary.