I am also trying to find out the weight of components and the price I paid for them, but I don't remember exact numbers in few cases. Nevertheless my bike cost me $1800 USD. The column PRICE contains the name of the country where I purchased this certain part. As you can see my bike comes from 4 countries: Philippines, Poland, Indonesia and China. Right now weight of my bike varies from 11.2 kg (lite version with only neccesary parts for comfortable, short distance ride) to 14.8 kg (expedition version with lamps and batteries, mirror, rack, bag, empty bottle with cage, fenders and cyclocomputer).

I covered about 10 thousand kilometers on this bike without any problems. Usually I am riding it on asphalt roads, but it doesn't mean that those roads are of good quality. Often they are really neglected and full of holes. Sometimes I am getting off roads, biking on narrow forest paths or through the fields along dirt roads. As you can see it is not extreme biking, but still it's better to do it on a good bike than a cheap one. I am very pleased with that set, but still planning to replace some parts to make my bicycle lighter and better. At some point I will get hydraulic disc brakes for example. When I read opinions about the frame, most people liked it too, but some complained that during steep ascents, the front wheel gets air borne. I have to agree with this opinion. It happens to me too, but doesn't bother me much. I am not sure what to think about my fork. I know there are tons of lighter ones and more expensive, they perform better, I am sure but frankly, I probably would not feel the difference. What an ignorant I am! I think it works ok, as it is not too soft and allows me to climb really steep and long slopes and I guess it behaves well when my bike goes fast down on the bumpy roads. Perhaps I am not really challenging it enough to learn about its pros and cons. Everything else works fine and only problem is that my bike is a bit heavy, especially when I am preparing it for the trip, which means that my bottle is full of water and there are lamps with batteries on the bike, not to mentions bags with cargo. Without those accesories bike itself is about 12.5 kg.

Trips

I already mentioned few short trips I made in Lublin Voivodship, Suwalski and Pogorze Przemyskie Landscape Parks. First really long trip was one that I have taken in summer (August) 2006.

1st Long Trip - Eastern Europe
Train took my bike and me from Lublin to Krakow, which is a 5 hour trip. I started peddalling from Krakow Main Train Station and went south through the so called "Zakopianka" road. Just after 40 km or so, I stopped in Myslenice to visit my sister. Next day was very rainy and I was glad to have an excuse to stay with Beata in her apartment and chat about everything and nothing. The following morning was still cloudy but at least dry. I had to go. I went south east and crossed Carpathian Mountains in Pieniny Range. At the same time I also crossed border with Slovakia. I stayed for the night in a small town not so far from the border. Already forgot the name of the place. Next day I biked south through Spiskie Podhradie, where the beautiful ruins of an old castle are located, down to Kosice. After a night in this charming city I went to Hungary and stopped there in Nyiregyhaza for two days to pay a visit to my friend Csaba. After that short stay, which helped my buttocks feel better, I went towards Romania, crossed the border and spent one night in a little pension in Satu Mare. It was my first and only visit in Romania, so far. I turned to the north from Satu Mare and after a few hours found myself in Ukraina. I had some problems crossing the border as it wasn't meant to be for pedestrians or cyclists but officer took pity on me and let me go. Otherwise I would have to go to the other border crossing which was something like 100 km away. Weather that day was a mix of almost everything. Rainstorm soaked me wet then sun burned me, but it was fun as I had excuse to try local liquours to warm me up or cool me down, depending on needs. Shhh... it's not recommended to drink and drive, but bike is a bit of a different story. Obviously I was able to sweat that alcohol out very quickly as I didn't even feel tipsy. I biked that day for 165 km anyway, which is my record so far, crossed almost whole SW corner of Ukraine up to Uzhorod. This time I treated myself to a nice hotel, since it was inexpensive and actually the easiest acomodation to find. I really had no strength to look for something cheaper, which usually is the case with me. The following day I hit the road and soon was on the border with Slovakia again. This time I was going through east part of the country, still in Carpathian Mountains. Twenty-four hours and I crossed the border again and was back in Poland. I biked to Rzeszow, where I decided that this is not an adventure anymore, just stupidity to share the road with buses and loaded trucks. I got my bike into the train and came back to Lublin, where I lived. In 8 days I covered 1050 km, almost each day covering more then 100 km. Whole trip was 11 days, as I stopped in Myslenice and Nyiregyhaza for few lazy days.

map downloaded from Google Earth (earth.google.com)

White dots indicate the places where I stayed for the night. Unfortunately I don't remember anymore the names of all the places. Double coloured blue lines show my route. Two colours to make it easier to distinguish each day's route. Pictures of Csaba and me (one with helmet) in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary. Dear Friend escorted me to the city limits...

2nd Long Trip - Nusa Tenggara (Indonesia)
I don't know what made me do it. It is so hot in Indonesia, but I decided I will see its eastern province called Nusa Tenggara from the bike saddle. I saw Lombok, Sumbawa, Rinca and Flores - four islands of that region. In total covered 1300 km within 15 days, however whole trip took 20 day including flying.
I flew from Jakarta to Mataram in Lombok and then took a taxi to Lendang Bagiyan near Gondang. The next day I assembled my bike (sepeda as they call it here) and made only small trip to waterfalls in the area. Real biking started next day.

01.09.2007 - From Lendang Bagiyan to Senaru. Only 50 km but at the end of the day was very tired since the road became very steep. After all I already started ascent on Mt. Rinjani, second highest volcano in Indonesia (3726 m a.s.l.)
02.09.2007 - Hiking on Rinjani, 7 hours ascent to the rim, about 2650 m a.s.l. and then 3 hours descent to the lake in the kaldera. Reward: bath in natural hot springs.
03.09.2007 - Hiking back to the rim, then long descent to Sembalung, where my bike was waiting for me. Could not even wash sweat and dust off myself, since the village had no water. Crazy descent along steep road full of holes down to the ocean, where I could take a bath. But it wasn't the end of the day. I had to go to Kayangan, from where a ferry took me to Sumbawa Island.
04.09.2007 - I spent a night in the quarantine station for animals. That was the best place I could find. Fortunately there were no animals, just two very friendly guys who let me sleep there for free. I even did the laundry. That day I was heading east. Heat was so bad that I decided to stop for about 2 hours near noon to avoid total dehydration and sunburn. It became my habit to stop biking at noon in Sumbawa. I reached Sumbawa Besar. Actually stayed in a beach resort 5 km west from the town. Coverage 95 km.
05.09.2007 - I was planing to stay here another night, get rest, do laundry, but place was so boring that I decided to go late that afternoon. Therefore I did not cover much this day, but night found me in Lape area 61 km closer to the destination point.
06.09.2007 - For the first time during this trip I managed to cover more then 100, to be precise: 115 km. Good, cus I was getting worried already that going 40-80 km a day is definitely not enough. Obviously today I got "wind in my sail" eventually. For my defense, I have to say that some minor health problems were bothering me. I started to feel bad during climbing Rinjani, but am much better now.
07.09.2007 - From Napa I went to Bima. It is 130 km. In the beginning it was very hard ascent, but then rather pleasant biking downhill, reaching a flat area on the bay. Maybe it was the wind that pushed me a bit or maybe biking in the dark, when it is cooler helped me feel strong, but I was going pretty fast for the last 30 or 40 km. Too bad my cyclocomputer had no back light, I can only estimate my average speed during the last hour on about 30 km/h. It felt great!
08.09.2007 - I started from Bima something that was supposed to be a short and easy bike ride up to Sape, where I was supposed to get on a ferry to Flores. Well, it wasn't as nice as I expected as it turned out to be damn 70 km and at least half of it was uphill. When I got to Sape about noon I learned that my ferry had already left and the next one would be in 2 days. Hmmm... so everybody I asked was wrong. Ferry leaves not at 1 pm but 8 am! Every day except for Sundays. As a matter of fact it leaves about 10 when all trucks and busses are being loaded. So what to do for the rest of the day and tomorrow? I was stuck in Sape, there is nothing there to do but... laundry and bike cleaning. At least I could enjoy fresh sea food, which was so cheap there and really enak (delicious).
10.09.2007 - Whole day on the ferry. We passed very near Komodo Island, but ferry doesn't stop there anymore. Could not see any lizard from the ferry of course.
11.09.2007 - I am joining divers on their boat to visit Rinca Island. It is also part of Komodo National Park and as a matter of fact komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) are easier to spot here. Indeed they are big. Small ones were about 80 cm long and they were just finishing a buffalo for lunch. The females that I saw were about 1.5 - 2 meters long, while males can be as big as 3 meters, but the biggest I saw was about 2.5 m. Impressive! If they were more active it would be pretty scarry, but fortunately, they like to lay down and get warm in the sun. I assume they are also used to the fact that people are coming to stare at them. I also saw wild pigs and buffalo - dragons food.

map downloaded from Google Earth (earth.google.com)

White dots are places where I stayed for the night. Some places were hard to identify as they were rather small villages, maps available for the public are very general, out of date and often contained errors, while there are no information about what village or town one is entering. On the whole trip I only saw roadsign before Detusko, a small town of Flores. Double coloured blue lines show my biking route. Two colours to make it easier to distinguish day routes. White lines show my hiking routes and dashed line shows ferry routes. Pictures show me in Bena, Airplane I took back from Maumere to Denpasar (Bali), family that allowed me to stay in their house for the night with no charge, cute girl from Lombok, bird I saw in Sumbawa and famous Komodo Dragon called by locals ora, photographed on Rinca Island. More pictures from that trip on: polrad.art.pl/gindosia2.htm

12.09.2007 - Back on the bike. From Labuhanbajo I am going east towards Ruteng. I stayed for the night in a private house somewhere halfway between Lembor and Ruteng. Flores is more mountainy then Sumbawa and cycling is even harder here. In the middle of island it's hard to get a decent meal with meat. On the coast they at least had fish. The problem is also with accomodation, as hotels are located only on a few places on the coast or in bigger towns. So what to do if night will catch me in the middle of nowhere? Well, I biked a bit further to some village and with my poor bahasa indonesia was asking if there is a hotel there. I knew there is none, but after seeing my disappointed face locals were getting hint and always asking me to stay with them. This way I was getting free acomodation, dinner and breakfast. Both meals looked the same: rice with... rice. Ok, there was something on it usually, like... noodles. Yeah, they are very poor and also easy to satisfy. As long as they have some rice to eat they are happy. Considering their situation and hospitality I was always trying to leave some money and sometimes they would take them, sometimes not. It was interesting to stay in those villages. The only problem that day was with a "shower". When I asked if I can get a bath they lead me to the well. Two boys were helping me to get water while half of the village was just standing there and watching! Needles to say, that night I took bath and washed my lycra padded biking shorts at exactly the same time.
13.09.2007 - Day started from climbing up to Ruteng, which occured to be something like a big village. It has many inhabitants but really it's a village. I looked for the internet, because there was no chance to check email for 10 days already, but failed to find it. I don't think they have it! Did I mention that Indonesia is a tropical country, that Nusa Tenggara has day temperatures of 30-40'C? Yet I managed to get really cold this day. After Ruteng road was still going up and after awhile I found myself in a cloud. One can say it was foggy. While I was biking up I was still warm and looking at droplets of water condensating on my hairy legs and arms was just funny, but when the road started to go down I started to shiver and eventually tremble! Now, I was just sitting on the bike without my muscles working and wind which was rather strong since I was going downhill nearly 50km/h was cooling me down. I never thought I would dream of hot tea in Indonesia. I did not get it anyway, but an hour later I was out of the clouds and much lower, so air temperature here was back to normal 30'C. Rest of the day was very pleasant since it was the longest descent during my trip. I covered 159 km that day and spent night in Aimera on the south coast.
14.09.2007 - Another day with very steep ascent up to Bajawa. From there I went to Bena, a traditional Flores village. It made me feel like I would be in stone age era. Very impressive, located in beautiful place, big and totally different from what I saw before, even in Asia. Very interesting architecture. It was certainly worth to take that damn, full of holes dirt road to see it. But it made me trip 26 km longer. I ended up that day in Boawae after tiring 107 km.
15.09.2007 - From Boawae to the tiny village near Ratusuko is 108 km. Nothing new, very steep and full of serpentine roads. Usually good quality, but suddenly asphalt can get very bad or even disappear for few kilometers. In general its not too bad, as long as its a day and one can see what's happening infront of the bike. Few times I was trying to bike after dark and darkness there is just perfect, as there are no big cities on the whole island. I only had small Cateye lamp, which made me visible, but did not light up the road infront of me. Sometimes there would be a motorcyclist nice enough to go together with me to light my path. I wasn't even slowing them down IF road was going downhill. Climbing up is another story, but then getting into the hole is not so dangerous. Anyway, after coming back home I got the strongest lamp I could find! (Too late).
16.09.2007 - Biking to Moni was uneventful. Here I decided to take an ojek (motorcycle taxi) to the Keli Mutu National Park. I was running out of time really and the motorcycle saved me. The park is really nice due to the three lakes located very near each other. What's extraordinary is the fact that each lake has a different colour. They change depending on the time of the year and climate too! One lake was rather normal, other brownish and third had the most amazing colour I ever saw. Very bright light green. So bright that rocks nearby had a greenish glow on them! After a rather short hike on that volcano and looking at the lakes in the caldera I had to go farther. This day, about 5 pm I got to Maumere, which was basically the end of my trip. I covered 131 km. From there I flew to Bali, spent there one day, biked for about 30 km just to see Kuta Beach and after one night I flew back home to Jakarta.

3rd (not so) Long Trip - Bali (Indonesia)
I took an evening flight from Jakarta to Denpasar - the capitol of Bali. As soon as I landed there it started to rain cats and dogs. When I eventually found decent hotel for decent money (about USD 25 per night inc. breakfast) I was soaking wet. After warm shower I fell asleep while planning my trip - ok, tomorrow I will start biking clockwise around the island. From Denpasar I should be heading nort-west...... zzz..... zzz......
08.10.2008 - From Denpasar (Kuta) to Negara. I started rather late, around 9am and biked only 6hours. At first it was a bit boring as I was doing my way through the traffic of pretty spread out city, but later on it became more interesting. In the middle of the day heavy rain forced me to take a nap in the restaurant along the road. After 105km I reached Jaangati restaurant, which I can recommend as the best place to eat in the Negara area.
09.10.2008 - What a change of a climate and landscape! I reached NW corner of the island and while I was biking area became gradually dryer and eventually I found myself on a half-desert. It was very hot (42'C) and tiring day. Also a bit boring as the terrain was very flat. I covered only 112km, but since those are my first days after looong break I am falling asleep in Seririt already at 8.30pm. Town has good location, decent size, but its hard to find here working internet, nice place to eat or decent hotel, best one I could find was named Singasari.

10.10.2008 - Another tiring day as I had to climb the mountains. Since 8.15am to 3pm I was biking non-stop uphill. Later on there were some short downhill parts. From nearly sea level I made it up to 1300m above it, within 6hours and after covering only 45km. One of these days when number on altimeter grows faster then on odometer. Roads were incredibly steep, but nice views were my reward. I stopped by somewhere in the middle to walk along the trail to the waterfall. Instead of smelling fumes as in Denpasar I was able to feel the scent of gloves and vanila, which are grown here. I stoped for the night in the town inhabited mostly by moslems, who are minority in Bali.
11.10.2008 - Day started very pleasently with a long effortless downhill ride. Soon I moved to the typical balinease villages where people vorship hindu gods, build picturesque houses and fences around them and keep colourful plants. I was swooshing down through the neat small fields down to Ubud - place well known as a center for local arts and crafts. I had a hearty lunch at Naughty Nuri, obviously popular place among bule (westerners). Food was nice and portions big! That's what I needed. Full stomach dragged me down to the sea level. I found myself on the southern coast again with an almost black, vulcanic sand on the beach. End of a day wasn't nice as I got into "civilization" again, which means thousands of old vehicles running on cheapest gasoline or oil available and drove by drivers who despice any road rules and safety. Last day's coverage was not bad 128km.

Plans
I really enjoy those trips and already thinking of others. So far the most likely one to happen is a bike trip to the Philippines. I would like to cover the whole Palawan Island. Since public transport there is not so great, biking seems to be a good idea. I am also thinking about a bike trip north to south of New Zealand or the other way around. My ultimate dream is to sightseen South America from the bike's saddle. Those things however take time and make a big hole in my pocket.