One Speed Wonder

More teeth on the chain shares the force better so less wear too.

Maintaining chain tension is the biggest issue probably and, if you are changing the gears remotely, if there are enough braze-ons. One crazy sounding idea I tried was to make a 3x1 with a chain tensioner. So you add a front deranger and install a triple. that gives quite a large range of adjustment and worked well. I used an old bolt on downtube shifter.

It will eventually be at the local Post Office that usually delivers your mail. They will send a slip to collect it from the Post office if you are lucky. It takes a while to get there. The post office has a tracking app for foreign parcels and it will eventually give an Xnnnn code that, if you are lucky, they can use to find the parcel. At my small dorp they just walked around and looked at every parcel. It takes more time than seems reasonable so you do need a bit of patience.

I think a bike adventure/bike packing/bike touring forum is a great idea.

Bike24 sell Brooks spares. A quick glance over their offerings looked promising as I did see rails etc for sale.

In 2007 myself (South African) and my my mate Chris from the USA did the race on steel rigid singlespeeds. I believe this year William from William's Bike shop and a mate are doing it on singlespeeds. Cheers, Shaun.