Messages

1

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: March 04, 2008, 11:29:34 pm »

Terry,

First, I want to say I hope I'm still at it like you are at 67! Great!

Second, the rest of your post kind of follows abouut what I expect I'll find as I go on. I've picked my bike and it is a Surly LHT with butterfly bars and a low set of gears. I figure I can do a lot of stealth camping along the road for the next couple of years and the panniers will be good for getting off the road easily. I'm also figuring that I'll wear out of rididng everday after two or three years and cut back to living someplace and just touring some here and there, by then, around 63. A Bob trailer would come in handy then for around the homestead (where ever that is) and easier shorter tours. Sooner or later I figure the bent will come, but I don't want to go there just yet. Gotta live that long first.
Last, I'd like to say thanks for chimeing in. You have reinforced my thoughts on how it will likely un fold. As to mkaing it to 67 and still going, I can only hope I do and still like it. Prudent and pratical is what does it.
Bill

Geezer..Ride till you can't no more.

2

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: February 22, 2008, 11:07:00 pm »

Thanks Paul. I have decided to go with panniers. One of the biggest reasons isbecasue they will be easier to get on and off the road for stealth camping. I know it can be done withhe trailer too, but it just seems like it would be easier with out. I'm hoping to be just about finished my tour at about your age and I can see where the trailer would then come in handy for hauling things around the homestead then. (where ever that is)
Wondering how you find touring now at the later age. I'm figuring I ought to be pretty well rode out if I keep on riding all that time on one trip. Ought to at least be ready to take a few days off. What do you think?
 
Bill


Geezer..Ride till you can't no more.

3

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: January 22, 2008, 01:22:48 am »

Razor,
Been all over CGOAB great site. Haven't gotten to the other one yet. I've been doing a lot of planning, researching and thinking about this thing for a few months now. Here and CGOAB have been my main sources of information and both of them take you lots of places. Been thinking of writing up how this has all come about and asking a ton of questions to see how manyu others out there have doen anything of this type and get feed back. But, it has been hard to come u0p with the time and right way to put it out there so far. I'm leaning more toward putting it out on CGOAB since it seems like a more appropriate place for it. The support and feed back I have recieved here has been great, but the venue here seems to be a a bit different than what this is all about. Keep an eye out over there and yo might find a story thre soon though.
Thanks again for your thoughts and input.

Bill

Geezer..Ride till you can't no more.

4

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: January 21, 2008, 03:05:59 pm »

Razor, I've done the weekenders and the trips into the woods for days with nothing but a knife. I'll be doing a lot more of that stuff this summer on the bike I now have. But, what I am planing now is a long extended tour that I expect to last a couple of years at least. No back up from anywhere, but what money I'll have saved (not much) and what I can make here and there working at what ever I find when I need it. Takes a little more forethought or I'll find mysef broke down and real hungry real fast. Been there before too and getting too old to want to live that way anymore than I have too.

Geezer..Ride till you can't no more.

5

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: January 21, 2008, 02:57:50 pm »

My tour is going to be my home for a couple of years. There isn't going to be a job or home to come back too or money to throw around on stuff that might not or might work. It is going to have to work as best it possibly can. I hope the tour turns out to be a lot of fun, but it will be a tour to live as much as a fun tour. Not a recreational tour, I'm planning.

I plan to explain all of this at another time in a different forum when I have more time.

Geezer..Ride till you can't no more.

6

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: January 19, 2008, 05:41:17 pm »

You all have given me a lot to consider about the trailer vs Panniers thing, but in doing so I have been led to numerous other considerations about the bike I'm building, such as gears, peddals, handelbars, etc. This is turning into quite an education and I am glad this place is here to get the ideas and answers. I want to thank everyone for their input and support. One answer always seems to lead to another question here, even if only to see what others think.
Now if one of you could just point me in the direction of the pile of money for all of this......

Geezer..Ride till you can't no more.

7

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: December 23, 2007, 02:12:28 pm »

I want to thank everybody again for their input to my question. I have considered all I have heard and made my decision as to whether to use a trailer or not. Not. The reasoning is that I plan on being on the road for quite an extended period of time, how long exactly I can't say. The deciding factor is that I will have no place to store a trailer or a means to ship one anywhere should I decide I cannot enjoy pulling it. I see many use and conviences to them and only one major downer to them. Pulling one up hill could tend to be a added weight at that particular time that I may not want to deal with. I can push a loaded bike easier than pull that load the bike and the trailer up a hill when I can no longer peddal up it. Those days will come along, I am sure. The Blue Ridge Mountains are something I am very familiar with  and figure I will spend a good deal of time in. There I think I would be better of without the trailer. I like Mountains and plan to see a lot of them all over the country on this trip, so I feel the trailer has lost because of that fact.
At some time after I finish my touring around the country, I will most likely get a trailer for a whole host of good reasons. Also If I was thirty and still into the pain and proving I could, I'd probably pull one along just to prove I could, but I'm long since proving anything to anybody now and into doing it for the enjoyment. Getting lazy in my old age, I guess.
Thanks again all.

Geezer..Ride till you can't no more.

8

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: December 23, 2007, 01:53:40 pm »

It seems that my caling myself Geezer offends some people here. I would like to clear the air about that and let anyone that thinks I am looking for sympathy for my age understand that I am in no way invalidid by my age or my condition. When it comes to doing a days work or even a days ride, most people half my age can not hang with me. There are exceptions and they are mostly exceptional specimens!
That said I have found that I am not the man I was at forty six (when I feel I peaked)and I cannot spend the rest of my life trying to bull my way through every physical task. I am much more into enjoying now than I am pain.
As for my Copd, it is a condition that I earned throiugh stubborness and stupidity over the many years of amny packs of cigarettes. I find that is no where near the problem that rheumatic fever left me with as a four year old. I'm aware that it will slowly get worse as the years go by and that there are treatments and such to handle it. But all the treatments and such do not take away the fact that when I peddal up hill it is much harder than down or on the flat. Since I plan on this tour I'm undertaking lasting quite a long time I'd like to make it as easy and painless as possible and as long as I can make it last. Hense my questions about trailers and the ease of pulling one.
I hope that from now on when someone hears that I have chosen to call myself Geezer that it is not meant to be offensive and that I do this in jest. This Old Geezer is alive and well and still a force to be reconed with. There will be days when I will be seen on the rode and someone will think, "that old geezer should be," here or there, but many will not be able to be there when they get to my age. I feel it fitting, ironic and a proud name to wear.
 

Geezer..Ride till you can't no more.

9

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: December 17, 2007, 12:57:34 am »

Thank you all. A lot of good information to consider in your replys.

Bill

Geezer..Ride till you can't no more.

10

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: December 15, 2007, 11:31:09 pm »

"As for the trailer, I pulled a neighbor's child in their trailer once, and I couldn't even tell the trailer was there.  I looked back a few times to make sure it hadn't somehow become separated and left behind."

That is the stuff I'm looking for. I am new to riding in the sense that I haven't done it since a kid when I would ride anywhere and not think of it. I have surprised myself to find that sity-five miles in a day doesn't seem to bother me unloaded. Hills are getting easier al the time, but they bother me. I know I'll get stronger over the next year, but I'm still new enough to this not to know how much. You all are giving me points to consider an that is what I need. Asking dumb questions is how I learn. Thanks a lot for all the imput.

The hills are my biigest concern about all of this. Guess I need to work on them. I was a swimmer and a cross country runner in the day, but the day was a long way back. Have to start thinking like that again, if I can remember how. lol

Thanks all


Geezer..Ride till you can't no more.

11

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: December 15, 2007, 04:54:08 pm »

I think maybe I have somehow confused the question here. I know that I would normally pick up, say forty pounds and carry it on my back in a pack if I were walking rather than pull it behind me in a wagon. But, a heavier weight would be ungainly without the wagon. I'm not sure how this works when on a bike when it comes to on the bike or behind it. The article in Fred's reply showed me reasons and situations where the trailer could be a hinderance rather than a help. It also gave me some insight leading me to beieve the pulling the weight might be more strenous than carrying it on the bike. That is the point I am trying get straight in my head. Face it, starting out at this age both ways will be hard and take some getting used to. I'm looking for the easiest of the two.
Thanks for the information. All appreciated greatly.

Geezer..Ride till you can't no more.

12

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: December 15, 2007, 04:33:52 pm »

I like hearing that there are others out there my age and older biing all over the country. I figure that gears and slower and walikng are all going to be a big part of my trip, but I'm wondering about the peddaling part and if trailers seem to be harder to peddal with than panniers to older riders in general. I kind of lean to the idea that they might be, but if I am wrong about that, I'd like to hear and know why.
As to age and riding.. I'm hoping to be doing this for sometime to come, but how long it lasts will be seen as it goes. I have to wait a bit before starting out for various personal reasons in volving familly health. I plan to use that time to plan and build my bike up and aquire the gear. I guess the thing with the trailer is the thought of buying one and finding out that pulling it is harder than packing on the bike. In that case a harder trip and shorter one. I don't plan on having a place to just ship it back to and buying a different system, since I probably won't be financially able to do that. I also probably won't have a home until the trip is over. Just a mailing address. I,m figuring on many months at the least and possibly a couple yeasr or more at the best. In this light a decission about trailer or no isn't one to take lightly for me.
I'm starting a bit later than Paul, but the idea that I might still be able to do it at his age sure makes me feel hopeful that I can keep it up too. My thinking is that the easier it is the longer and farther I'll go and the more I'll see and the better I'll be. Hence, trailer or no.
So far the no's are wininng, but the votes are not all in yet. Or maybe they are...

Geezer..Ride till you can't no more.

13

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: December 15, 2007, 11:44:10 am »

Fred,
Thanks for your input. I read the link and found it to be very helpfull. It is just the kind of thing I have been looking for.

I don't know how old you are, but I have to say that there comes a time when you reach the age where you realize that you cannot quite do what you once did. Along with that comes the fact that your body just plain won't go past some limits for very long at all. Extra weight has a big effect on this to me. Since I never pulled a trailer on a bike I wondered about the effect of the trailer had on the effort of peddaling, especially up hill, since age and COPD make this one of those things that is much more limited than it was a few years ago. The article you pointed out addressed this in terms I well understood. One thing the the young don't know yet. AS a young guy I coul dsay I just have to get stronger to compensate and do that. As an old guy I know that I'm not as likely to get that much stronger and more likely to get somewhat weaker each year. That is where age has its differences in just about evreything you do. When you get old and it gets harder you have to want to do it much more.
As a geezer taking his first ride of this type I figure that I'll find it pretty challenging to say the least. Readinig about a few extra pounds and whether one should pack this or that becasue of it makse an old guy like me wonder what the best way to pack it will be. I want to be able to make it up  some of those hils in the Blue Ridge, not die on them. I figure it is going to take me a long time to make this trip as is so I'm not putting a time limit on it, but I would like to get'er done before I die of old age too.
I've included this little narative on age only to let those that have never thought ot it be aware ...Age makes a difference on everything after a time. If you want to keep going you have to find a way.
Thanks again Fred,
The Geezer

14

Gear Talk / trailer pulling and old guys

« on: December 15, 2007, 12:56:34 am »

I'm sixty years old and planing a long tour in 2009 and wondering about pulling a trailer verses racks and panniers. Anybody in my age bracket have any experience in this and can offer advice?

This message was edited by Geezer on 12-15-07 @ 12:35 PM