Well, I've gotten a new bike. I felt like I needed a bike that I could take with me, perform well in adventure races, and would be able to withstand my disastrous track record with breaking bikes. After some poking around, I settled on the Dahon Flo, a steel hardtail with the Ritchey Coupling, a way to break it in half and ship it in a small box. I got it a few days ago, and I was immediately impressed with some of the terrific design elements. Here's what I noticed:

The Ritchey Coupling

This is what makes the bike folding. There's two parts: the top tube and the seat tube are held together by the seat post. This means that you undo two bolts, remove the seat post, and that joint comes apart. The second is a sleeve on the down tube, right above the bottom bracket. Both look solid, and neither wiggles or warps during even heavy riding. Clearly some thought went into this.

The Disc Brakes

To facilitate travel, the disc brake rotors spin straight off of the hub, allowing easy removal. This way when you travel, they don't get dinged up by the other wheel that's bouncing next to it. Also, it comes with cable disc brakes, so when you travel, you don't run the risk that the hydraulics get mal-adjusted.

The Cables

All cables that go to the rear half of the bike have twist-release mechanisms, so you don't have a bunch of cables dangling between the two halves of the bike. Another good reason they went with cable brakes (I don't even want to imagine a twist-apart hydraulic line!).

The Stem

The stem comes straight off of the steer tube, which never has to come out of the headset. They have a great system to keep all of your headset parts together when traveling, and also allows you to easily adjust the height of your stem with just one bolt. Again, this is one of the worst things that happens when transporting a normal bike: the plethora of small bits and pieces in the headset all come and go as they please when you remove the fork & stem. I've very nearly been screwed by this…

The Saddle

At first I was dubious about the saddle, it definitely didn't look very comfortable. I was also shocked by the mechanism by which it attaches to the seat post. There's no way to attach any other seat to the seat-post! The mechanism they have designed is far superior to the standard two-rail system, in ease of adjustment, and simplicity of construction. The seat is actually quite nice, but your mileage may vary.

My Epiphany broke again, right before the end of the last race, during the last 10 miles of the last bile leg. Unbelievable. Thank goodness for the kind folks of Cal Coast Cyclery who are warranteeing it for me. While I was in the bike shop, a sales rep from Ellsworth happened to be there, checked out the damage, and assured me that they would take care of it. Throughout owning this bike, Ellsworth has certainly taken care of me. The two times that I have broken this bike before the turnaround time has been less than a week! This one's a bit longer, but the part is also bigger.

When the bike broke on me, during the Moab Xstream race in Utah, Michael was going a little nutsy. He took off in a huffy, after trying to steal the SPOT device and call for help. I told Bob to chase after him, and Diana and I patched up the bike as best we could. We duct-taped a wooden splint to the break, and I rode it out just like I am in the photo on the right. Luckily, we made it back to the TA soon enough that nobody really got suspicious. Michael realized on the way down that if we had wanted to kill him, we would have done it in his sleep. The house of cards fell from there, and he was fine by the time I saw him in the T.A. This is the incident that forced my hand to getting a dedicated racing bike. I can't have bikes failing during races! It's bad enough for them to fail when I can just call my room-mate to come bail me out, but in a race you ride it, walk it, or you DNF. I'd rather walk a long, long ways than drop out of a race. That's what makes Adventure Racing interesting!

What you should have as part of an ulra-light endurance-centered medical kit:

Ibuprofen: for low-level inflammation control during long-term endurance bouts that are hard on joints (running, hiking, strenuous biking). We call it "Vitamin-I" because we take them like vitamins during races and long training days. It's really important to keep swelling down during long exercise, because inflammation changes the biomechanics of your knees, ankles and hips. Your body is trying to heal itself, but you're not done with it yet! This process makes injury far more likely. So, take plenty of ibuprofen for long high-intensity exercise.

Naproxen Sodium (Aleve): this stuff is ibuprofen's bigger brother. Take a few for when you do injure yourself, it'll help you make it home without further injury.

Hammer Endurolytes: these electrolyte tabs help to restore normal electrolyte balance. Take these for when you or a friend feel like cramping is coming on. They also help you stay hydrated in the heat (but you need water for that too!).

Duct Tape: Gotta have a few feet of this stuff. This helps put stuff back together and also prevents blisters. Most recently I used some of this to tape my busted bicycle frame back together.

Super Glue: Take a "single-use" tube of this stuff, I've used it to keep stuff from falling apart on my bike. You can also use it for drastic wound closure if you know what you're doing.

Putting it all together: get a tube of Nuun or U, use it up, and take the empty tube and fill it with the pills & super glue. Wrap the outside of the tube with your duct tape to mark it as a medical kit and store your tape. Bring it with you wherever you go!