The first cycle tour I ever went on I bought a dodgy mountain bike (Mabel) in Bangkok and had a rack added by a teeny old Thai lady on the border of Thailand and Laos. However, even though she was nothing fancy Mabel was a champ and took me all through south-east Asia and then back home to Perth from Darwin.
When we ordered our bikes and our panniers we asked for different coloured bikes and different coloured panniers. However, when the bikes turned up they were both black and all the panniers were bright yellow! So now we are embarrassingly matching and kind of resemble giant, uncoordinated bumble-bees. Oh well at least we are highly visible!
Betty is a little highly strung, busting a tube on our first day out of Anchorage and getting numerous flats along the journey. We stopped once to fix Norma's first flat of the trip and as we started off again we realised that Betty had just blown a tube too, obviously a little jealous of all the attention Norma was getting.
Norma is more even-tempered but a little absent-minded, with a tendency to drop small parts along the way, a nut here, a bolt there.
So there you are.. consider yourself formerly introduced to Betty and Norma in fluoro yellow and proud!
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| Norma loaded up and waiting patiently.. |
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Giving Betty an overhaul on a rest day in Oregon |
