Preparations

The preparations started with a choice: panniers or Bobyak trailer. I bought the trailer in 2017 so I could take one or two of our very small dogs on a road trip. Besides that I noted the similarities between bicycle and motorbike road trips: At first comes some prep-work and maintenance :D
 

Panniers or trailer?

Here are a few thoughts and what I found in internet:

	Trailer (BobYak)	Panniers (front and back)
Pros	Can put stuff on top. Can carry 32kg of load.	Easy to handle. Shorter.
Cons	More difficult when riding in train. Less safe when riding downhill. More weight to pull in total (trailer own weight without any benefits).	All weight on bike

It sounds to me that the disadvantages of a trailer are obvious. Then I did a little math about the weight.

Clothes	4,7kg
Handlebar bag	1,3kg
Cooker	2,0kg
Camping stuff	8,0kg
Tools, spare parts, lock chain	1,9kg
Bob Yak bag, silverware, glasses, rest	3,4kg
Total weight	21,3kg
My weight (with clothes and shoes)	111kg
Food	7,2kg
Water	4kg
Total starting weight	143,5kg

The Patria Terra can handle up to 160kg and with that calculated weight, I would be about 10% below the maximum. If the behavior with weight on a bicycle is similiar to a motorbike, then certainly I should go with less weight on the bike itself.So, trailer it is.

Where does all that weight come from? Here a picture of all that stuff I take with me.

Bike work

So my chain was totally worn out and it needed replacement. I also changed the cassette and then I noted that the middle front chain ring also was worn out. Of course I had not anticipated that and so I needed to wait for the ordered sparepart to come. Furthermore I wanted to change the tire of the trailer to a Schwalbe Marathon Plus and - stupid me or excited me or tired me - I ordered the wrong size. So now it’s the original one from CTS which needs to last. Due to the long distances in Lapland especially when doing wild camping, I either need to take a water purification filter with me or plenty of water. So I got some more water bottle holders and bottles. I also took off the low rider because they would only add weight and I have no use for them on this trip (abt. 500gr less).

I did a 25km testride with 20kg load in the trailer. Everything went fine and I learned to take it easy when riding fast on a downhill on gravelroads - I almost landed in the ditch because the bicycle started to wobble :-o

Now I was good to go :)