Topics

1

Routes / Spring Break Practice Trip

« on: March 02, 2014, 11:32:12 am »

Hello All,
Four friends of mine and I are biking across the country this summer. We are wanting to do a week-long trip over spring break as a practice run. We are looking to get out of this bad weather that we have been having in north-east Ohio. We were thinking about going down to the Virginia area. Does anyone have any experience with the weather around there in mid March; we would be starting on the 16th? Would it be really cold and possibly snowy up in the mountains? Im sure it is really unpredictable, but I'm guessing that it will be better than staying in the Cleveland area.

Now about the route. I was going to make my own route, but because I do not know the area very well I was thinking about following one of the Adventure Cycling routes. The routes I was thinking about are either of the first two sections of the TransAmerica or the Allegheny Mountains Loop. We have road bikes so I was wondering if the Allegheny route would not be a good route for us because it sounded like there are some gravel trails.

Let me know what you think about the weather and routes, as well as any other information you have.

Thanks so much,
Tim

2

General Discussion / Need advice for my trip this summer

« on: December 05, 2013, 10:52:01 am »

Hello everyone,

I have been hanging around this forum for a little while as I plan a cross-country bike trip with a couple friends. We are planning on going from Savanna to San Francisco this summer. This trip is going to be a charity ride. We are new to this so we are looking for all the help we can get.

With our route we are planning on hitting the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and a few other locations. Do any of you have any suggestions about this route?

We do not have bikes. Because this is a fundraiser and we are college students we do not have a lot of money to spend on bikes. We are trying to not spend over $800 on a bike but preferably less. Do you have any tips for getting a good bike in our price range? What would you recommend for a cheap touring bike, or would you recommend that we try a different type of bike. Could we get a hybrid or mountain bike to work well for this trip? We also heard that you could take a normal road bike if you pulled a trailer. Is that true? We could probably get a nice used road bike for cheap.

If a couple of the guys were to get mountain bikes while the others had touring or road bikes would the mountain bikes be able to keep up? Would it take a lot more work to stay with them or with smooth tires could they ride with the road bikes just fine?

Have any of you done a fundraiser trip where you were able to partner with a LBS and they provided gear for you? We are hoping that we can get some good deals because it is a fundraiser but we are wondering what we should expect. We are students in Chicago but live in Ohio and Michigan; let me know if any of you are from that area and have had luck with a specific bike shop.

If you have any other tips or comments that would be awesome too. We are getting really excited about this trip but there is a lot to figure out. This forum has already been a lot of help and I am sure that I will be seeking more advice in the future.

Thanks,
Tim