Messages

46

General Discussion / Re: Costs of Touring

« on: December 29, 2012, 09:08:36 am »

It's been asked before here and many other places; touring expenses is a topic that's easily researched.

As noted, too many variables. You've been presented a ten-to-one range of <10 to >100 US$/day. That's impossible to reconcile but it is easy to average or find a median which you are comfortable planning for. Let's say $30/day for 70 days (which is spartan and depraved but entirely doable and, from what we hear around here, possibly pleasurable)--$2,100--but call it $3,000. If you budget for $60/day (which includes camping mostly, cooking mostly, layover or storm days in motels and an occasional restaurant, that's $4,000-5,000.

Regarding the idea that you're not spending money at home, you may be paying your rent or mortgage while on the road, paying someone to house- or pet-sit and, if you're leaving family behind, they're still eating and driving the car around. ONe trick is to find someone who will pay you to stay in your home while you're on your bicycle tour. Dicey, that.

Visit your local library and find everything you can on bicycle travel. The vicarious experience is a fun way to spend your winter and you can learn much from mistakes already made. The biggest hurdle to a long bicycle tour is simply committing. ONce you've decided you're going, planning is mechanical.

47

Gear Talk / Re: Durability of Dry Bags?

« on: December 27, 2012, 06:26:46 am »

I'm planning my first tour this coming summer and have a question about dry bags. I've done a lot of ultralight backpacking,  so I have most of the gear I'll need for a 1100km trip. Everything, including camping gear, clothes, tools and 2-days worth of food seems to fit nicely into a single 25 litre dry bag + a smallish handlebar bag.

I was wondering if people encounter problems with items wearing or rubbing through a dry bag when it's mounted on a rear rack? I'm just curious if things like tent poles are likely to wear thru the fabric if they happen to be too close to the metal tubes on a rack? Should I perhaps duct tape a little foam on top of the rack to reduce wear-points?

I will likely fix the dry bag on top of the rear rack with either shock cord or webbing with adjustable buckles. Any recommendations on securing a dry bag are also welcome.

Thanks for any advice.

I do not do self-supported touring but I trod many miles in the early days of ultrlighting, back when we made all of our gear or supported a tiny group of home crafters. I didn't put anything in my silnylon/mesh backpack that might poke or wear through. That stuff either got stuck inn the outside mesh pockets or it was inside its own bag. I camped in a tarp and bivvy so no tent poles and I carried my staff. ONe of the more curious ultralight accessories I learned to appreciate was an umbrella. The umbrella's tip was modified and padded with a rubber ball.

Sorry, waxing nostalgic. If your gear is all ultralight, and you're not too weird about the gram count, you can carry an extra silnylon bag or two. You can carry a couple of garbage bags. You can cover your exposed metal rack tubes with cloth tape or sew an additional protective layer onto one side of the bag that will go against the rack's platform.

There are many experienced ultralight tourers on the INterwebs. Some, like staehp1, post here and others can be found on crazyguy. This ultralight bike touring techniques have, for the most part, all been invented and more or less perfected. Just takes a bit of research.

48

General Discussion / Re: self-guided support on lewis and clark

« on: December 22, 2012, 08:15:17 am »

Welcome to AC, peggy. Once you have decided on the region you wish to travel, try calling some of the bike shops along your route. They may be able to hook you up with trekking and travel support outifits. There are many. You can spend a few hours searching the Interwebs for support companies, too. They're out there.

You're paying for their time and gas and lodging, not cheap. Some outfits provide mechanical, meal or emergency support along the route; others just move your gear. Be sure you know what you're buying.

Sections of the Lewis and Clark route can be done easily by carrying your own modest luggage. Minimalist credit card travel is fun and easy; you need very little to be comfortable and warm and dry if you're taking your time and know  you will do some laundry each evening.

Hope you enjoy your trip. The L&C route through Idaho and Oregon is spectacularly great!

49

Gear Talk / Re: What is the best telephone & telephone service for cross country touring.."

« on: December 22, 2012, 08:04:29 am »

There are several cross country routes. Each one will have long stretches where there is no econoimical reason for a phone company to provide total coverage. There are stretches where you will be in canyons where line-of-sight simply cannot be maintained. You will be in tiny towns where coverage is supplied by a roaming provider that may add signficant charges to your service and you will decide not to use the phone even though your service map says you're covered. And coverage is constantly changing as systems are upgraded and new service areas become revenue generators.

Learn to cherish those times when your phone simply does not connect.

I've been with Sprint for more than ten years. I have no complaints about their coverage or their customer service. But I have NOT ridden my bike across the country.

50

Gear Talk / Re: Best way technologically to be connected on an x-country supported ride ?

« on: December 22, 2012, 07:58:17 am »

I'm planning to cross the country this year, supported, and am wondering what is the best/most efficient in size/cost/benefit technology to take in order to stay connected to current news, emails, blogs, books etc.? Is it possible to have satelite connections thus not worrying about towers? Suggestions and advice wanted.

You can get an iPhone for $50-$200 with a two year contract. A full access data plan will run you anyewhere from $50-150 months depending on factors on ly you can judge. An iPhone has everything on it you think you must have. (I've used Apple products all of my electronic career so that's where I go but I imagine there are excellent Android phones, I just don't know anything about them.)
Satellite commnication is not an option; those are dedicated, expensive, bricks. Your tour organizer may have one in their kit. In fact, that's a question you might want to ask them .

The smartphone stays with you on the bike and can run music, GPS, mapping, heart rate…there is no limit to wwhat you can have loaded up. Be sure you have a sturdy case and a lanyard. Buy the unit several months before your trip. Invest in a good book about the phone's operating system so you understand how it works and how to talk to the OS to get it work the way you want it to. INstall and practice with all of your apps many weeks before your trip.

You will also need an auxiliary charging system. Smartphones have stupid small batteries but they are built assuming you are charging every day. I plan to use a solar-powered battery pack that tops off the iPhone rather than trying to rig a generator or directly hooking into a solar panel. That purchase decision for me is a few months off. I have the case (OtterBox defender model) and the mount. 

Try to enjoy this shopping experience. A smartphone will change your life in a subtle way but once you've learned how to use it, you're going to wonder why you didn't get one a few years ago.

I strongly support the editorial position that you do not need any of these things on a bike trip. You really do not. Electronic toys and furniture are hassles when you're on a bike trip. They're expensive and small and hard to keep track of and charged and they're fragile. I'm taking my iPhone on my next several trips simply because I have one, not necessarily to use it for anything in particular. I may end up keeping it packed in a bag instead of mounted on the handlebars of my recumbent.

51

Gear Talk / Re: Efficient Lightweight Stove

« on: December 22, 2012, 07:38:38 am »

Ultralight backpackers have perfected the stove. Suggest you do your research in that sport's forums to find your stove.

Your descriptions of preferred fuel, mass, BTU development, efficiency, cheapness, multi-course convenience, soot-free combustion, ease of set up, field maintenance, geekiness and batteries are mutually exclusive.

You cannot get a more efficent stove than the current wave of hot water systems like JetBoil. Expensive (that's a relative metric) but it does only one thing very well and it should last decades.

Trangia (and homemade versions of similar) alcohol stoves are hard to beat for mass, simplicity, efficiency, cheapness, universally available fuel and ease of use.

52

Gear Talk / Re: sleeping bags

« on: December 12, 2012, 06:51:12 am »

If I were using panniers that use covers (in other words, not Ortlieb type that are water proof) or used a crummy tent I would go with synthetic. With a BOB dry bag and a good tent I've never had a wet bag and thus can take a down bag.

Prudent to carry several heavy duty garbage bags as basic safety equipment anyway. Easy to protect anything in net panniers with a couple of bags. Like the ubiquitous bandana and the (now less-ubiquitous) film canister, heavy duty garbage bags serve many other purposes, too.

53

General Discussion / Re: Cross Country on a recumbent bike

« on: December 12, 2012, 06:42:02 am »

You're out of the serivce in January or you begin your service in January? Affects everyone else's potential planning. Wherever you begin your tour, you can probably hook up with someone going your  way. 
YOu may wish to examine the riding partners section of the site.

Thank you for your career in the Army in your service to America. BEst of luck on your discharge, whenever it occurs.

54

General Discussion / Re: Advice needed!!!

« on: December 09, 2012, 07:15:44 am »

A friend and I with no experience are biking the trans am trail this summer starting on june10th. We are seniors in high school and find this very daunting but want to do it!!! Any advice? our biggest fear is underpacking and maybe running out of water??? would this be an issue? Advice is appreciated!!!

Go to your local library and check out all of the bike touring techniques books. There should be four or more. There is also going to be a good selection of bicycle touring memoirs. Check them all out. Visit the Adventure Cycling how-to sections and the store to buy some excellent books and resources.

As others have said, accomplishing a cross country tour is not that big a deal once you get started. It's all been done. It's all been documented. You need not invent anything. People do it all the time without any preparation at all. However, what will become one of your short life's more interesting experiences does not to be undertaken in ignorance. Do the research, invest in good gear (if you must) and carry only what you need.

You live in a beautiful and wonderfully expansive country. Go see it.

55

Gear Talk / Re: sleeping bags

« on: December 08, 2012, 06:54:03 am »

Curious about developments in sleeping bags, I went searching. The market is huge, much larger than I thought. Literally thousands of what appear to be superb bags. A trend that has crept over from the ultralight world of twenty-five years ago is the absence of bottom insulation, replaced by a pocket that holds your sleeping pad. I suppose that's not news to anyone who has recently researched synthetic bags.

56

Gear Talk / Re: sleeping bags

« on: December 07, 2012, 09:48:46 pm »

That's why we are all here, to share our stories and opinions. Personaly, I have not looked at the new synthetic materials; my down bags still have many years' of active enjoyment left in them. Backpacker magazine usually runs extensive product reviews and gear recommendations in their late winter issues. Watch for the reviews and try to have fun shopping.

57

Gear Talk / In prasie of OtterBox (phone cases)

« on: December 05, 2012, 08:50:39 pm »

<< otterbox.com >>

This company in Fort Collins CO (looks like their products are "assembled in Mexico") makes a huge variety of decorative and protective cases for many phones, GPSs and other portable electronics. We bought their heavy duty Defender cases for our iPhones and I have Otter's armored cases for our office iPads.

OtterBoxes add bulk to your devices and this level of protection is not necessary for most casual users. But if you're taking your expensive toys into harsh environments (or you're the kind of person who drops their stuff onto concrete and watches in horror as it shatters) you want the insurance of a good case. These guys makes 'em in lots of colors and different levels of screen and impact protection and dust and water resistance.

The cases are functional, practical and good looking but it was OtterBox's excellent customer service and warranty protection that have won my brand loyalty.

58

Gear Talk / Re: sleeping bags

« on: December 05, 2012, 08:44:02 pm »

Like Lightspeed, I carry two bags, both by Marmot: one pound and two pound ultrahigh loft down. I also carry a silk liner. The liner protects the bags from soil and moisture and adds 5-10 degrees to the comfort range. I sleep cold so I pack silk or polypro sleepwear, too.

But I must say I do not travel self-contained. I'm strictly a luxury bike traveler, participaing only in supported tours. My days of carrying my own gear like backpacking are behind me.

59

Gear Talk / Re: sleeping bags

« on: November 30, 2012, 08:40:01 pm »

I would suggest you hit lots of backpacking equipment review sites. The thing about sleeping bags is there are hundreds of models. It's difficult to make a bad decision but it's easy to get a great bag that is inappropriate to your needs.

Here in Idaho, down rules and, brother, I take VERY good care of my down bags. I have not shopped for a synthetic bag in twenty years. I have no clue what's out there.

You may need a synthetic for lots of reasons but sleeping warm and comfortably is a complicated recipe of clothing, insulation, separation from the ground and, of course, ambient conditions. You can get by with a much lighter synth bag if you have an excellent pad and sleep wear and maybe a silk or polypro bag liner.

Good luck in your quest. Please think about returning to tell us what brand/model you purchased and how it has performed.

60

General Discussion / Re: New Touring Bike Suggestions

« on: November 03, 2012, 07:05:16 am »

Tandem trike. Visit hostelshoppe.com

http://www.hostelshoppe.com/cgi-bin/readitem.pl?Bike=1139351005

Then research touring on tandem trikes on crazyguy.

Mounting touring equipment on a trike is no different from mounting bags and stuff on a conventional bike, racks and braze-ons and eyelets. Most trike mfrs have proprietary bag systems and they can get expensive. But there's no reason to scrimp on touring equipment if you're buying new bikes.