Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: West to East coast tandem tour with hotels?

« on: December 11, 2022, 08:32:07 pm »

Have you considered making up your own route?

That's pretty much our plan at this point.

A good planner like https://cycle.travel/map would be very useful (other options are available).

I've been using Cycle Travel and Ride With GPS as the main route planners, but would be interested to hear if you or others have used other tools that they particularly like.

Unless you are limited on time or budget or involved in a race is there nothing to be said for taking a more meandering route?

Agreed, although when I strung a route together that inslcuded some of the places where we thought it'd be fun to visit, I ended up with a route that well exceeded 5,000 miles. It's funny how all those places looks so close together on a tiny little map! We're trying not to do much more than 4,000 miles. We're not limited on time per se, but the longer the route, the more challenging it becomes to deal with major season/weather changes. And of course costs keep going up too.

Unless you're an "every inch of the way" cyclist there is always the possibility of shipping/transporting the bike across sections or areas, no?

Because we're using a tandem without couplers, this isn't an easy option. Buses and trains don't generally allow tandem bikes. And shipping of a tandem is a challenge to find the resources needed to get that done and often quite cost-prohibitive too.

But thanks for your advice. It's much appreciated.

Michael

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General Discussion / Re: West to East coast tandem tour with hotels?

« on: December 02, 2022, 11:42:03 pm »

There is one unfortunate aspect of staying in motels / hotels on a tour.
You generally miss out on the truly empty almost by definition.
Because they don't have the traffic to support lodging in the few towns along the way.
AirBnB canhelp in that department, but AirBnBs also tend to be in the more popular places.

Agreed that this is a problem with needing hotels/motels/AirBnB rather than camping, but the upsides of actual beds, hot showers, and private bathrooms are of sufficient import to our touring experience at this point in our lives that it's really not something we're willing to compromise on.

Camping definitely has upsides too, but the challenges have come to outweigh those upsides for us in recent years. On our BC to Los Angeles tour this past summer we stayed in hotels the whole way. And to be sure, we spent some unpleasant miles on busy, shoulderless highways, but we also spent a major part of our time on quiet back roads. I guess it's really all about where you want to compromise and where you don't.

Michael

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General Discussion / Re: West to East coast tandem tour with hotels?

« on: December 02, 2022, 05:40:44 pm »

Michael -

I don't know about y'all, but I am an ocean-to-ocean person when I ride cross-country.

Ocean-to-ocean is preferrable, but not required for us. If there is a better route that does not include an ocean-to-ocean start/finish, we'd do that, but generally we'd like to do ocean-to-ocean.

Which leaves a couple of options - cycling in January in Montana -
or choosing more out-of-the-way places where you are more likely to find lodging.

January in Montana for us Southern Californians is not an option. We, well really I, start to get pretty whiny when the thermometer drops below 60F.

More out of the way lodging options is not only a better option, it's our preference anyhow. We don't need or even really want to go through Yellowstone. We've been there several other times and love it, but neither the lodging nor the traffic are very appealing to us when we're biking there.

Do you have your passports?
Do you want 100% US of A or would you opt for some Ontario between Michigan and New York state?
Summer touring is just so much nicer in the Northern Tier - plus more & better Mom & Pop motels.
(You have heard about the aircraft carrier they built for the mosquitoes and black flies in Minnesota?)

We have passports and would love to ride in part in Canada. Our trip this past summer (BC - Los Angeles) included a brief (a mere 20-30 minutes) stint in Canada and we would love to see more of the country by bike since we've only seen it by car previously.

If there's a good route that avoids crowded National Parks, like spending some time in Canada, we'd love to get a look at those routes. Currently, the route I posted earlier is also looking like a possibility. I'm hoping to hear from some of the folks here to see if anyone has any thoughts on the route.

Start at Santa Monica Pier (Route 66 terminus)

Take Bicycle Route 66 to Marshfield, MO
Take TransAm Route to Doswell, VA
Take Atlantic Coast Route to Bridgeport, PA
Take Chicago to NYC Philadelphia Alternate to Brooklyn, NY

Finish in Brooklyn, NY

Again, thanks so much for all your extremely helpful thoughts on our journey. It's very much appreciated. And, thanks for the direct email. If you prefer I can contact you that way. Mine is megmtb(at)gmail(dot)com.

Michael

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General Discussion / Re: West to East coast tandem tour with hotels?

« on: December 02, 2022, 12:18:55 pm »

Thanks to all for the very helpful suggestions.

I have plotted a very basic route possibility and am interested to hear if anyone has any thoughts on the feasibility of the route. Based on possible heat issues in the western part of the ride I was thinking that a late April/early May departure date might make sense. As we get farther east, we'll be in the heat of summer, but we'll have long enough days that we can do shorter days in distance but spend more time, as needed, riding in the earlier or later part of the day, but still during daylight.

Start at Santa Monica Pier (Route 66 terminus)

Take Bicycle Route 66 to Marshfield, MO
Take TransAm Route to Doswell, VA
Take Atlantic Coast Route to Bridgeport, PA
Take Chicago to NYC Philadelphia Alternate to Brooklyn, NY

Finish in Brooklyn, NY

As I mentioned previously, our ride priorities are:

1) As much as possible, we'd like to avoid busy, high speed, high traffic roads that lack good shoulders. Scenery is important, but we'd choose a day with safer feeling roads over better scenery almost every time.

2) As Southern Californians, we're pretty averse to cold and wet weather. We'd much prefer a 95 deg day to a 45 deg day.

3) Hotels/motels/AirBnB are a must. At the end of the day we want a hot shower and a decent bed to sleep in. Camping is not an option, except if an emergency or some disaster occurred. We do not plan to bring any sleeping equipment.

Thanks again for all your advice thus far...

Michael

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General Discussion / Re: West to East coast tandem tour with hotels?

« on: December 01, 2022, 11:33:51 pm »

Is there a reason you are riding in September/October?  Is it the only time you can take off or is it to avoid crowds. 

Our start time is completely open. I was just selecting a time to try to avoid the crowd issues in Yellowstone, but there is no reason we need start then.

For instance, if you start October 1st from the west coast, you will need to rule out pretty much everything except the Southern Tier due to temps and/or precipitation.  If you finish October 1st, then that allows a lot more options. 

The Southern Tier seems like a difficult route for a couple reasons. The riding itself seems comparatively easy, but the roads (at least in the western half seem very barren, very dull, and very sparse between towns where we'll find hotels.

If you look at https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/adventure-cycling-route-network/interactive-network-map/ you can then click on the "Logistics" tab of each route to get an idea of the suggested time to ride.  Yes, you can usually ride most routes as long as a road is open but that does not mean it is pleasurable.

Thanks. I'll give this a look and see if I can figure out the route and the best time to get underway.

Michael

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General Discussion / Re: West to East coast tandem tour with hotels?

« on: December 01, 2022, 08:35:02 pm »

Totally agree about booking your West Yellowstone thru Jackson accommodations way in advance.  Which is another pain as you have to keep a schedule. You probably will be able to get a room but it might be one of the $450/night rooms.

Avoiding having to have an exact day when we'd be at a location that's more than a few days into the trip is a challenge, as is a room that might cost upwards of $450. I think we'd prefer a route that avoids the need to plan that far in advance as well as avoids spending that much for a single night. We could do it if we had to, but it will eat into our budget in a huge way that we'd really like to avoid.

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General Discussion / Re: West to East coast tandem tour with hotels?

« on: December 01, 2022, 08:30:09 pm »

Everything depends on when you are planning to do the trip and how long you are planning to be out.
Some tandem couples do 100 miles a day and a direct crossing in a month. Doesn't sound like y'all.
If you average 60 miles per day with a day off per week ot 2 half-days then you can do about 360 miles per week.
A fairly direct crossing is 3600 miles or 10 weeks. The TransAm is 4200+, so about 12 weeks.
(That's using traditional  multiplication and division.)

This is about the pacing we'd like to use. We can make 100 miles in a day, but we prefer to take it easy and average about 60. We rode BC, Canada to Los Angeles this past summer, 1750 miles in 35 days with 2 days off the bike.

I helped develop the Parks, Peaks & Prairie route. And have done routing for some time.
You may need to combine routes and/or develop sections on your own.
Not sure where you want to start and to end up.
A spring ride is more often diagonal southwest to northeast.
A fall ride diagonal northwest to southeast.
Staying in the Northern Plains and Great Lakes makes sense in summer.

We live in Los Angeles, so starting there would be the easiest, but we're pretty flexible and can really start anywhere along the West Coast. In terms of timing, we're retired and can begin the trip at any time of the year. We were roughly thinking about taking 3 months to complete the ride, but again, due to our being retired, this is pretty flexible.

Our destination is also pretty flexible. When we get to the East Coast we plan to visit family in both NYC and Maine but we'll be using a car for that.

A perfect day for us is about 50-60 miles with up to about 4K of climbing. If necessary, we can handle close to double that, though not every day.

Our main preferences for the ride though are:

1) As much as possible, we'd like to avoid busy, high speed, high traffic roads that lack good shoulders. Scenery is important, but we'd choose a day with safer feeling roads over better scenery almost every time.

2) As Southern Californians, we're pretty averse to cold and wet weather. We'd much prefer a 95 deg day to a 45 deg day.

3) Hotels/motels/AirBnB are a must. At the end of the day we want a hot shower and a decent bed to sleep in. Camping is not an option, except if an emergency or some disaster occurred. We do not plan to bring any sleeping equipment.

Northwest > Northern Plains > Great Lakes > East Coast
Should permit you to have motel access all the way.

I'll start looking at this route and see how it looks. Do you know which ACA routes I should get to string this route together?

Thanks so much for all the incredibly useful information. It is much appreciated.

Michael

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General Discussion / Re: West to East coast tandem tour with hotels?

« on: November 29, 2022, 07:11:17 pm »

You will need to book your accommodations in Yellowstone National Park way, way, way in advance. Like now.

Do you think this is true even if we're passing through there during non-peak season, probably late Sept or early Oct? Or is it mainly a problem during the summer?

Thanks,
Michael

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General Discussion / Re: West to East coast tandem tour with hotels?

« on: November 29, 2022, 07:03:18 pm »

Thanks! That is very helpful.

Avoiding the I-80 if it means we'd need to ride the portion you described as a 125 mile stretch with 3600' of climbing from Lander, WY, to Rawlins, WY might be worth it. We could definitely do that in a day as long as it was followed by some easier days. The 3,600' of elevation gain will definitely be challenging for us, but spread out over 125 miles makes it sound like it's probably not too much sustained steep climbing.

Thanks again,

Michael

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General Discussion / West to East coast tandem tour with hotels?

« on: November 29, 2022, 06:14:22 pm »

My wife and I are beginning to look into planning a cross country (US) tandem trip from the West Coast to the East Coast. We rode from the Canadian border to our house in Los Angeles this summer (2022) and had a great trip. It was 1,750 miles in total, but we were able to plan the route in a way that allowed us to stay in hotels the entire trip. Our longest day was 80 miles and we rode a few days as little as 35 miles.

Is it possible to plan a route across the US that has hotels & motels spaced closely enough to accomplish this, assuming that we prefer distances of 50-70 miles per day, but can do 100-110 miles if there's no other option as long as it's not also a ton of climbing.

Looking at the ACA routes, I can see that they have several cross-country routes available, but it's not clear to me that they include stops where there will be motels/hotels or just camping options.

Thanks for any help you can offer...

Michael