It has been a busy week or so of getting final preparations done.

Both bikes went into the shop for a tune and safety check.

We both had our bikes fitted to us - Avid randonneur Ken Bonner pointed us toward a very qualified bike fitter Barry Lycett who checked the position of our feet relative to the pedal and hence reduce any in-turning or out-turning of our knees during pedaling and made adjustments as needed to our shoes; seat height and back/forward position was adjusted; handle bar height, distance forward/back, rotation, and brake grip position was also checked and adjusted as needed - Y had special bar ends placed to give her an alternate position to rest her hands from her only other position. Our cadence was checked during this fitting - I know mine improved by a large percentage.

Our good friend Dave cycles a fair amount (he and his group did 620-some-odd km in three days last weekend). He showed us his routine for cleaning, checking and maintaining his bikes. We broke chains, placed a speed link, cleaned and lubed the chains, removed glass and wire from the tires and brake pads, reviewed placing a tire boot and patches, cleaned the gears, checked cables and derailleurs, replaced two rims, inner tubes and tires. We also went over our tool kit and parts kit and added some items.  Some of the review came in handy because I had to replace an inner tube the next day after a ride because of a valve failure.

This weekend also marked our passing the 2000km mark of riding since December. Part of the riding on the weekend had us going back to the airport and picking up the bags for the bikes.

Tonight we went to Fairfield Bicycle Shop to have an after-hours lesson on minor repairs. Francis was kind enough to be there to go over with both of us removing the rear wheel and removing the tire and inner tube, placing it all back together, we were both able to get the tire back on unassisted without a tire iron. We also broke chains and used quick links, broke spokes and trued rims, went over adjusting brakes and cables - some of this was review from the time Dave had spent with us and some was new- either way it was good to review - interestingly though is we had to again replace the same inner tube because the captive nut fell off.