Messages

1

Routes / Re: Transamerica route question

« on: March 26, 2017, 11:54:22 am »

For a base layer, strongly consider lightweight merino wool and ditch the synthetics. Synthetics smell after one day, whereas merino wool can be worn many days before people stop talking to you and desperately try to stay upwind of you. A long-sleeved merino wool top can also be worn all day - you will be cooler than in short sleeves from wicking action, plus protected from the sun.

A critical piece of bike gear you should consider is a really good taillight. On our trip last summer, we realized that too many riders have lots of black and gray when viewed from behind, blending into the road. A good, well-positioned flashing taillight (many we saw were partially blocked by panniers) does wonders to let drivers see you from a distance. We were literally thanked by drivers we met @ rest stops for being visible.

2

General Discussion / Re: Eating the Transam Trail

« on: March 24, 2017, 02:38:48 pm »

As others have said, it depends on what your definitions of "good nutrition" and "affordable" are. It also depends on how many miles you do in a day, what the weather is, did you fight headwinds, cold, hot temps and how much climbing, plus a bunch of other stuff, like a bike mechanical?

Also, it depends on your budget. We met a couple of guys from the Netherlands who only rode with a rain jacket as additional gear. They rode hotel-to-hotel 60 - 120+ miles a day and ate in restaurants. They were fast!

On our W-E trip last summer, we found that many small towns had lost their grocery store because there's a Wal-Mart 25 or so miles down the road, easily accessed by car. Some significant number of small towns have had their grocery "replaced" with a Dollar General. We found them to be a good source for peanut butter and trail mix. I ate more trail mix last summer than in all of my prior life combined, LOL.

We also carried lightweight cooking gear and bought a few days worth of relatively nutritional items that we could make into a one pot meal. This included cooked chicken breast in pouches and pre-cooked Uncle Ben's rice in a variety of flavors (also found in pouches). We also carried flour tortillas and peanut butter. A great lunch is a flour (whole wheat) tortilla, peanut butter and roadside wild blackberries.

You can make a very lightweight alcohol stove and carry pretty minimal gear to cook with. Consult the ACA TransAm maps to see where there might be "holes" along your planned daily rides and plan accordingly.

Tailwinds!

3

Routes / Re: Another way to cope with dogs

« on: March 20, 2017, 09:28:05 pm »

... The difficulty in doing that is that we can't guarantee a cyclist won't run into dogs if we move the route

While this is a great point, our experience this summer leads me to the conclusion that Eastern Kentucky is a unique problem for the number of dogs encountered vs. the rest of the TransAm. You can dismiss this as an n=1 survey, but for virtually every TransAm rider we encountered, whether EB or WB, this area stood out. So, if we were to ride the TransAm again, I think we would strongly consider routing around this area. However, I think there is a solution that doesn't require sprays, sticks, stones, etc.

Our solution was pretty foolproof and has two parts. We were fortunate to have traveled EB, so we could perfect our technique before reaching Eastern Kentucky. Step 1 is to yell at the dog(s) in a commanding voice, "GO HOME!!" If you can point in the direction of "HOME", that is a significant help. Frequently, that is the only step needed. A huge key is you have to be commanding and not fearful. For those instances when your "GO HOME" command is ignored, move on to step 2. Step 2 requires an AirZound horn. Dogs will stop and turn around when assaulted by a short burst of painful sound. The key here is you have to wait until the dog is close, maybe so close that you are not comfortable.