Mass and Gravity

I put it as follows: Peter was in a Ferrari; Wendy, a Porsche; DW, a delivery van; and me, I was handling a tractor-trailer.

When we had secured our accommodation for the Petit Train du Nord, it was also important that we find a way to get from Saint-Jérôme to Mont Laurier, more than 180 kilometres to the northwest, along the Trans-Canada Highway. We would then weave our way back over four days and more than 200 kms, on our bikes.

Our good friends, Peter and Wendy, decided that they wanted to travel light, and so they packed one large suitcase and had the shuttle company deliver it to each inn along the way. In retrospect, that was probably the smartest decision—DW and I carried everything with us.

Because I was planning to record the journey, I brought lots of gear with me. Of course. I always do.

DW wanted to pack as light as possible, so she only packed two sets of cycling jerseys and shorts. When we reached our destination, she hand-washed her clothes and hung them to dry overnight.

I, on the other hand, didn't want to be bothered with washing my clothes, worried that they might not be dry by the time we had to pack up, the next morning, and head to our next destination. So I packed four sets of cycling clothing, which I would hang up to air out after our ride, and stuff them at the bottom of my pannier the next morning, when they were dry, keeping them separate from the clean clothes that were in dry bags.

They all went straight into our washing machine when we got home.

In addition to our other clothes, which we both kept to a minimum (though, I packed one extra pair of underwear), I had camera gear, chargers, and my drone. Everything was stuffed into two panniers, a rear pack, and a basket-like carrier that I attached to my handlebars.

Throughout the ride, I had an Insta360 camera on a selfie stick clamped to my handlebars.

My four packs came to 13.6 kilograms, and that doesn't count the 360 camera, stick, clamp, or the rack that I attached to the back of the bike to carry the panniers. To say the least, my bike was weighted down.

Peter had a carbon-fibre bike that weighed very little. It was a fast performance bike. Even though he had a small bag that he attached to the back of his seat, in which he carried snacks and raincoats for himself and Wendy, his bike weighed less than any of ours.

And it was a beautiful bright red, so I said it was like a Ferrari.

Wendy had an aluminium bike with carbon-fibre forks, so hers was also light. It was nimble, so I equated it to a Porsche.

DW had just her two panniers. Though she did bring her camera, she packed light. Her bike is made of the same material as Wendy's, so I equated it to a delivery van: light frame but with some weight added.

My cycling clothes were stuffed in a dry bag and placed in one pannier, with my rain gear and toiletry bag, which was stuffed with first-aid supplies as well as personal items. In the other pannier, I kept my regular clothes in another dry bag, plus walking shoes, and a case that was filled with spare batteries, chargers, cables, and more electronic accessories.

I recently bought a case that holds all of my Sony camera gear, and it fit perfectly in the pack that I attached between the two panniers, on the back. And my drone, with its controller and spare batteries, fit in the front basket, where I could easily reach it when I spotted something worth capturing from the air.

This basket also held my wallet, car keys, spare sunglasses, reading glasses, lav mic for the 360 camera, filters for the drone (though, I sort of forgot about them and never used them), note pad and pen, an emergency dry bag, and a dickie, in case my neck got cold.

Everything was packed to the gills. I couldn't carry more if I wanted, unless it could fit in one of the pockets on the back of my jerseys.

We decided that, for the most part, I would lead the ride. Being the most encumbered, I would set the pace.

For climbs, I would definitely be moving the slowest. Even in the lowest gear, I would have a tough slog getting up a hill. Because we were riding on an old railway line, the inclines were thankfully gentle, so I could just keep my pace going.

Going downhill, I would build momentum and fly, often pulling ahead of everyone else. After one descent, when everyone caught up to me, Wendy asked me how I could go so fast with so much weight on my bike.

"Mass and gravity," I'd say. "Mass and gravity."

I imagined the four of us, in our imagined vehicles, driving along a highway. How the cars could zip along, while the transport trucks slowed on ascents and found their stride on the way down. That was us, I said.

There was so much weight on the back of my bike that it put strain on the chain, affecting the derailleur, making the gears change on their own or skipping a gear whilst shifting. The chain would also jump from the large chainring to the smaller one.

It could be a real PITA when I was trying to get into the right gear but I managed.

There were a couple of detours along the trail, where it was closed for construction and improvements. In the end, we completed 205 kms over nearly 11 hours. Just imagine how quickly we could have done it, had I not had so much mass working against gravity.

I'll share more about our trek in the coming days. Stay tuned.