Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: Tandem bike possible with large rider in Stoker position

« on: May 21, 2013, 07:52:41 pm »

You want to seriously explore a tandem recumbent or a tandem trike before you make ANY decisions. See some fascinating systems at hostelshoppe.com.
A tandem 'bent has the stoker way behind the captain in a heads up, comfortable position. On a tandem trike, three wheels keep the unit stable at all times. It never falls over.

A tandem 'bent is a bit heavier than a conventional tandem but you're not setting speed records on this trip so that's not a factor, really. The investment is a bit steeper, too, but a good bike is worth every penny it costs. CraigsList should have a few recumbent tandems.

Look up the Northwest Tandem Association and you can also research a few tandem buying guides that may still exist.
I'm telling ya: recumbent.

2

Gear Talk / Re: Bio Lite Stove...

« on: May 21, 2013, 07:44:03 pm »

We started talking about it about two years ago but I don't think anyone has actually invested in on and taken it to the field for extensive, realword testing. You are more likely to find useful reviews with a more general web search. The mass of the unit makes it more suitable for large groups or basecamp style outings. The thermocouples that provide the heat-to-electricity service are nothing new but the electronics designed for charging digital devices is an interesting twist.

Stoves for bike touring is an interesting topic around here. SSo is how to charge one's  GPS, iPad, iPhone, iPod, iMac, Kindle, Nook, Fire, Android and GameBoy.

3

Gear Talk / Re: Tips for avoiding back pain at night

« on: May 21, 2013, 07:35:30 pm »

I enjoy the services of a physical therapist in Boise ID who is a bicylce racer and marathoner. He understands everything about sports injuries and sports-induced pain, weighs it against your age and fitness levels, pokes and prods and forces isolated bands of muscles to fire and let go and then prescribes a set of exercises.
Phyical therpaists are not chiropractors. I am almost 60 and I have seen Mchael Devitt no more than fifteen times in twenty years.
You want to find a guy like him. A PT like Michael won't tell you to get a pillow. He or she will isolate the precise location of your issue, find the root cause, and go after that cause. Then it's up to you to do the exercises.

4

Gear Talk / Re: Underwear

« on: May 19, 2013, 07:12:24 am »

I ride aa recumbent without shorts.
No, I don't.
I run triathlon-style jammers with seamless synthetic briefs.
Jammers are basically bike shorts without the chamois or padding.

Everyone finds their own recipe for maintining the comfort of their nether parts and the preventing various afflictions that can occur on long distance rides.


Bicycling shorts have evolved to the current designs over nearly a century. You need to separate the hype from practicality (you do not need to run $300 Cinelli bibs worn by Tour d'France stars) but you need to find a style of padding that fits your anatomy while providing protection from your chosen saddle. Because you will be sitting on it for many hours, I suggest you find the saddle you will love first.

5

General Discussion / Re: Do we need to do any training?

« on: May 14, 2013, 05:28:25 am »

The discussion aboiut preparing your nether regions for long hours in the saddle is a bit scary. Saddle sores are not caused by inexperience, they're a localized bacteriainfection, like a pimple but weirder, that can show up on anyone. A sore butt is a different issue that is caused by improper saddle adjustment, improper bike fit, the wrong bike shorts and many other, more subtle causes.

I suggest you explore a recumbent tandem. Two engines will move the bike more efficiently--if you are not going to train--and the delightfully comfortable recumbent chairs take care of your butt prep. The additional benefit of the tandem is you cannot get away from each other. At all. Ever.

6

General Discussion / Re: Do we need to do any training?

« on: May 14, 2013, 05:22:28 am »

The question that I don't think you asked, is are the two of you ready for this?  That is best answered by trying out your team and your equipment, in some test trips.  Do some overnight or weekend trips.  Start modestly and increase the difficulty.  I think you can figure out if the two of you are ready for this.

Find a week-long supported bicycle tour event in June and do it.

You will learn how much you do not know and some time to figure it out.

A July event is too late. It only gives enough time to panic about how much you do not know.

7

General Discussion / Re: first big bike tour

« on: May 10, 2013, 09:30:15 am »

Hey guys so i'm planning a long trip across canada and it will be my first long term expedition. i've been looking into different types of bikes and from what i can tell there are specific bikes for touring i was hoping for a little insight on what would be the best type of bike for mostly roads with light offroading terrain? any other advise is welcome regarding gear, camping or anything else you think may be helpfull
Thanks for your time
Darren

My advice to virgins is to save up and then pay for a week-long, fully supported bike tour event. It is a cheap way to decide if bicycle adventuring is for you. And you can test your stamina, your head, your bike, your routines and your gear under conditions that have little risk of disaster.

The AC site is loaded with all the information you could possibly need and links to additional resources. Visit your local libary and check out everything they have on the topic.

8

Gear Talk / Re: Ultra Light TransAm Ride

« on: May 09, 2013, 05:38:16 am »

Excellent work, thorough documentation.
Thanks!

9

Gear Talk / Re: Ultra Light TransAm Ride

« on: May 06, 2013, 07:44:45 pm »

The truly illuminating moment for me came when I set up my first ultralight camp: maybe five minutes. Then I had to deal with rampaging boredom; read, write, eat, sleep. I was ready to hit the trail the next morning in about ten minutes.

The cool partabout going ultralight is the movement is the goal, not the destination. Camp goes up in a few minutes so you can ride till the sun sets. Striking camp is easy and quick because you just don't have any stuff to organize or lose track of.

There are many online resources for ultralight backpacking theories and cottage industry gear. While the initial expense can be uncomfortable, you really don't need much and it will last many, many years. A tarp, maybe a bivvy, an alcohol stove (or no stove), titanium pot (just one), custom-made super-light frame bags or panniers, down sleeping bag (or one of the new synthetics) ... that's about it. You already have everything else; just take less of it.

If you get your gear all organized and have the time, drop by and post your gear list. Remember to come back and tell us how your trip went. Have fun, good luck!

10

Gear Talk / Re: Ultra Light TransAm Ride

« on: May 06, 2013, 07:35:23 pm »

I wrote an article about my adventures in going from 45 pounds of gear to about 10 pounds of gear (in several stages).  Folks tell me they have found it useful so it might be worth checking out.  Also if you have more specific questions, please post them and you will likely get more feedback than with such a general post.

Buddy, post the link!

11

General Discussion / Re: Tents

« on: April 30, 2013, 06:12:19 pm »

You don't REALLY need two doors. I backpacked for a decade with a samll tent for two. We coped just fine.

Your budget of about $300 might buy two, single-person units--maybe not. Good one-perosn tents are in the $200 range.

There are many ultrlight weight alternatives to consider including bivvies and tarps.

Whatever you get, be sure you set it up a few times, spray it with a hose to test the seams and get a feel for what might leak, try setting it up in a heavy wind and try setting it up v-e-r-y quickly and in the dark with headlamps so you know what to expect under adverse conditions. The order of operations in rain-wind-dark is different than erecting it at your leisure.

For instance, you can throw your sleeping bag and panniers into the tent body before it's up if the rain is coming down. You might find out you can rig the fly before the tent body and erect the tent under the protection of the fly.

12

Gear Talk / Re: a bit more on the Goal Zero Guide 10 Plus

« on: April 30, 2013, 06:01:27 am »

I have no way to determine the capacity or performance ability of the four AAs in this system but the case's ability to recharge my iPhone 4s has dropped tremendously after only a few weeks.
There is no direct indication on this device of the available on-board charge or actual power/energy level except for a multi-function LED.

Just a few weeks ago I could attach the Guide 10+ to my phone and get at least a 40% recharge, taking the iPhone from, say, 35% to about 75% in an hour or two. Now I can only get about 10% back into the phone before it appears the Guide 10 either shuts down or actually starts to feed FROM the phone.

13

Gear Talk / Re: ACA & Smartphones

« on: April 21, 2013, 07:02:54 am »

Thorough, practical, real world experiences relying on various phones for navigation, communication, photos, journaling and entertainment would, indeed, make a series of great articles.

Confirming the battery issues but I think they are more complicated. My iPhone 4s in GPS mode, running MapMyRide, takes the battery from 100% to under 40% in less than four hours, much more quickly below 45F. A good day of touring can be eight to twelve hours between overnights so the phone will be dead long before camp is reached.

The expense and mass of auxiliary battery packs are not trivial. You need at least two aux battery packs, one hooked to the phone and one to charge the phone at the end of the day's ride. But two packs are not really adequate; you need three battery units: one to run the phone on the bike, one to recharge the phone at night and one that is either topped off or that is being recharged by mains or solar either on the bike or in camp. If you have only two packs, you cannot safely assume you will be able to recharge the other one so, when you get into camp, you can easily have two depleted battery packs.

Solar is not yet viable if you depend on your phone for everything, just do the math. A panel that can fully recharge a pack of 4-AAs or a li-ion pack while riding is both big and heavy. And solar is not magical. The panel requires lots of direct sunlight to do its job.

A bike-powered generator would be my recommendation but I don't like the idea of a power hub. I have no experience with bike generators yet. 

My Goal Zero Guide+10 battery pack (4-AAs, heavy duty case, circuitry and LED lamp) is seven ounces. CArrying three of those, plus the big Goal Zero #7 panel, is more than two pounds. My experiments are conducted just riding around the valley but I can tell you it's a hassle to keep the batts in proper rotation and the solar panel fully exposed on the bike. My recumbent has more places to rig the panel than conventional bikes but the thing is not small and, no matter where I put it, it's always in the way. Also, even in Idaho, insolation simply is not reliable as a power source.

14

Gear Talk / Re: do I have too much crap?

« on: April 21, 2013, 06:29:55 am »

The topics of loads and equipment lists come up often. You can spend several happy hours researching them here and I suggest you take a looka thte ultralight backpacking and bike camping communities. Wehn I was backapcking, I went from a load of 45+ pounds to less than 20 and still felt secure. It was a tranformational event, completely changing the nature of the sport.
Minimalism comes at a price, though. You might need some expensive replacement gear (a sil-nylon tarp and bivvy bag instead of a tent, for instance) and you need to practice under a variety of weather conditions to make sure you can rely on your equipment and your competency to keep you warm and dry.

You can also forget all the numbers and just take off. People do that all the time and they enjoy themselves tremendously. 

For training, check your local charity bike event calendars. Even if you don't sign up for the rides, you can download their route maps and they can make excellent training runs because they are always loops and usually take interesting backroads. Charity routes tend to avoid hills, though.

15

General Discussion / Re: Getting hungry too fast while riding

« on: April 13, 2013, 05:33:10 am »

Thanks for all your answers.

Concerning proteins: As already suggested plenty of times, this is the way to go. However as paddleboy mentions, they take more time to digest: I read somewhere on the internet that proteins need to broken down to carbs in order to fuel the muscles. This break down process (break down before they get available as fuel) requires energy. And that energy is taken from 1st hand carbs (like pasta, potatoes etc). Thus, it should be an "evil" cycle where valuable carbs are used for processing protein instead of being used as "fuel" right away.
I was always told that Tour de France racing (and alike) cyclists eat carbs alone.
I do drink Gatorade, however cannot remember if it is the G2 version - I just pick whats in the fridge. Or Powerrade. I like the stuff and could easily spend 10 dollars each day on "gas station Gatorade/Powerade". Alternatively I tried buying Gatorade powder (which is more economic) but that is a bit messy and tastes more chemial.
I never experience muscle cramps.
Lucas

Umm, digestion is far more complicated and everything you read on the interwebz is doubtful at best, dead wrong at worst. And there is a huge difference between these three states: hungry, depleted and empty. Hunger is often about satiety. Depletion is dangerous. An empty stomach is not necessarilly associated with either of the previous states. To be satisfied, you need to eat what you like and what you know works for you under the stress of touring. To avoid depleting your system, you must know what supplements and micronutrients you must maintain. The feeling of an empty stomach can just mean your last meal is successfully moving along.
You cannot make a direct comparision between yourself and a TdF racer unless you are a professional athlete. If that were the case, you'd have a nutrition specialist on your staff. Their diets are designed for their metabolisms and their riding requirements.

You can start with any of the several bicyclist nutrition books that are on the market. Adventure Cycling sells a great book written by their former nutrition columnist. Then you start the long process of experimentation, trying to find what foods and consumption schedules work for you.

Cramps are different from muscle spasms and they are caused by many factors including muscle strain, dehydration and trace element depletion.