Messages

421

General Discussion / Right bike for mtn biking and one TransAm trip?

« on: April 13, 2006, 04:52:02 pm »

I would buy a mountain bike and not a hybrid for many reasons. Use skinny tires on the road and whatever your favorite tire for the off-road parts.

I use a mountain bike ('95 Marin team) hardtail to bike commuter, and also long distance (road) touring and find it works for me (plus, I'm to cheap to buy a real touring bike).  

However, I find the longer wheelbase MTBs to be better because they will be more stable on the road versus the short wheelbase ones that are more for "east coast singletrack" so-to-speak.   Best thing would be able to try them out loaded and see what works best but that is usually not an option. I use Old Man Mountain racks front and rear on my Marin. I use a QR rack for the front which has an old Marzocchi Bomber Z1 fork on it and the back, I use a OMM red rocks which mounts to my V-brake arches on the seatstays.  

Jay

422

General Discussion / first tour 2006

« on: April 13, 2006, 04:52:49 pm »

Well, good luck to you, hope you have a great ride!

Jay

423

General Discussion / MSR Velo Tent

« on: April 26, 2006, 03:19:49 pm »

It is reviewed in Mar 2006's ACA magazine which I am reading now. It does appear to be very heavy.

ACA magazine also says that the tent space itself is fairly small for 2 persons. I've never seen one in person yet though.

I think what would be lighter is simply a single walled tarp tent, like a Henry Shires and then a simply tarp to cover the bike if you thought that was necessary.

Jay

424

General Discussion / Cross country bike advice

« on: October 19, 2005, 11:54:50 am »

You might also post ads in the ACA magazine, they do have a section for partners wanted.  

Or you might try a local college campus.. Somebody during the summer might not want to work and perhaps take a slight adventure following you around or so... Never know....

Jay

425

General Discussion / What kind of back pack is it?

« on: October 19, 2005, 11:52:40 am »

With enough bungee cords, you can carry almost anything

Might just be a custom job, as long as you keep the center of gravity closer to your body and up, it'll work.  If you ask any adventure racer, which it looks like that picture could be of one, he/she might be more experienced in carrying a bike.

Like Randy says, most people that I see carrying weird and heavy, sometimes very heavy loads use packframes. If you do any hiking in NE's white mtns, the AMC volunteers who pack things in and out of the huts use packframes to bring stuff down and back. I've seen them hiking on the trails before with this huge honking loads..

Jay

426

General Discussion / MTB vs Touring

« on: October 19, 2005, 11:49:35 am »

If you are comfy on the MTB, that is the key. I tour on a '95 marin Team hardtail with front and rear racks with no other modifications other than skiinny tires.  I also commute to work with it.  What is beneficial for MTB touring is that you already have low gears (most likely anyway), you have wide clearence for any tires, and since it's made to ride off-road, can handle the abuse of urban and rural environments and dirt trails.  

I say go for it and it's certainly a lot cheaper than buying another bike specifically for touring.

Jay

427

General Discussion / Adirondack Cycling

« on: March 14, 2005, 11:24:12 am »

Hans, wow, you're in for some changes. 17 years is a lot of time in the ADKs. You'll find a lot more (winter)rules and regulations in the ADKs, a huge bear problem, and a lot of popularity.  But it's still an awesome place. This would be an interesting year for Lake Placid as it's the 25th anniversary, the Miracle on Ice, etc. etc.  

Enjoy the trip!

Jay

428

General Discussion / Touring with a Suspension MTB

« on: February 15, 2005, 12:12:49 pm »

I have a OMM Cold Springs on a front fork (a '97 Marzocchi Bomber Z2). The rack itself has a 50lb weight limitation but nothing that I've heard about on a suspension fork. I don't know if the band clamps that OMM sells has a limitation, but I use a QR mounting system. In any case, I don't ever really put 50lbs of weight in the front.  

Works out fine for me. If you get a fork with a lockout, that's even better. I don't but my new commuter/touring MTB will.

Jay

429

General Discussion / Alaskan Moonlight - Book

« on: February 03, 2005, 12:30:02 pm »

Why not here?




Jay

430

General Discussion / Please help me with my essay.

« on: February 03, 2005, 12:39:05 pm »

http://www.transalt.org/

I mentioned this in my response to your other thread. Contact somebody there and they should be able to help you. They might have some advocacy articles there and stuff. Some of it is particular to NYC but some of it could just be general statistics on the benefits of cycling.  

Good Luck.

Also, check out your town or county's Department of Transportation (DOT) as they may have actual resources on bike commuting.  I know some counties here where I live in NJ publish bike maps and good bike routes and they may have an actual bike coordinator who is in charge of all the bike paths and bike lanes.  

Jay

431

General Discussion / I'm thinking of starting a bike club at my school

« on: February 03, 2005, 12:33:41 pm »

What location are you in? California? (You mentioned the CA driving manual before). Perhaps contact a local grass-routes cycling group in your area.  In NYC, we have a group called Trans-alt (or Transportation alternatives) and they promote a lot of alternative transportation in NYC, be that bikes, walking, mass transit. But a group like that would have all the ammo you need to promote the environmental benefits of cycling as well as a practical "how to" guide to get non-cyclists to start cycling to work/school/play.  

Barring that, how about contacting a general bike club in the area or perhaps a good local bike store. All is a good place to start.  Tell us what part of california and perhaps somebody local can give you more local info.  I think it's awesome that you're starting a bike-to-school program at such a young age.  

I used to walk to school when I was young, but that was before I got into cycling.  

Jay

432

General Discussion / NZ - A Gr8 place to tour!

« on: January 21, 2005, 11:42:55 am »

Nice folks, NZ sounds like a cool place to tour.  As far as campsites, I think between campsites, you'll have to differentiate between public campsites (Run by the state government) and private ones. Every private campsite that I stayed in on my way to Maine had a kitchen and a general store. Some even will cook for you. Believe me, my friend and I took advantage each time we were in a private campsite to simply buy something there and have them cook it. Each public campsite that we stayed in had no kitchen facilities other than a picnic table.  But I think most private campgrounds cater to a lot of the RV folks and therefore, they'll have cooking facilities. Of course, it's generally more expensive than a state-run facility.  

All of the campgrounds we stayed in on our trip to Maine were pretty much 100% RV campers and little ole us in my Shires tarptent :-)  My, you should of seen some of these RVs, they're 10 times nicer than my house.

Jay

433

General Discussion / How To Uploading Photos To A Journal

« on: December 31, 2004, 01:23:54 pm »

Well, first you'd have to find a place that will allow you to download your pictures to a local (temp) folder on a hard drive. Libraries, internet cafes, etc. Libraries though you may have a problem with downloading stuff since many of them will prohibit any data transfer between outside devices, be that USB connections, Floppies, CDs, etc. (virus and liability problems). Internet cafes might be more receptive cause they are a business that you'd pay for the time.   But given that you have access to a PC and an internet account/ISP, the idea would be to transfer the pictures to a hard drive and then upload it to your ISP via some kind of FTP program or through a server's HTTP protocol. (OFOTO, Grovestreet, Webshots will allow you to upload with an FTP client just by having the photos on a local hard drive and uploading it).  So basically, you need to sign up with a free photo hosting place such as ofoto or others, and then have some access to a local drive on a PC/Mac.   Or, if you're travelling with a notebook, you just need an internet connection.    Then there's wireless networks....

Jay

434

General Discussion / touring

« on: November 21, 2004, 02:27:52 pm »

Do you already do any camping, backcountry camping or at least car camping?  How about bicycle maintenance, I would think that any class in bicycle maintenance would be handy and if you start camping, you'll gain experience in that regards. In effect, bicycle touring is a lot like backpacking, except instead of hiking your gear around in the woods, you're cycling it.  I know all my ultralight backpacking gear (camp, sleeping bags, stove) get used for my bike tours so if you are already a camper, the same experiences for camping you can use for bike touring. I never took a class in bike touring, but I alrady had a large background in both cycling (on and off road) and backpacking, bike touring was just a natural extension of cycling and camping.

One thing that is different is bicycle maintenance, the ability to improvise when things go wrong many miles from home and mental preperation which is best learned by experience.  Then there is stamina and physical limitations, know your child's limitations, etc.

Jay

435

General Discussion / Time for New Bike

« on: November 10, 2004, 11:52:23 am »

Do you mean a grand for the bike, and the trailer, how about the racks, bags, etc? If you're looking at the whole package, $1k isn't terribly much if new is the plan.

A cross bike is a good compromise when looking at non-touring specific bikes, they'll allow more width than most road bikes.  I personally feel that there isn't any one bike that is good for touring, if you are comfortable with the bike with the necessary touring gear, then it should work for touring.  I tour on a MTB, fully loaded and have done 130 mile days before partially loaded on my MTB.  

Jay