Routes / Re: South of Buffalo
« on: March 28, 2022, 08:52:38 am »The speed limit on US-62 seems to be 45mph or less and has a shoulder south of Lackawanna where then a bike lane seems to appear.
Tailwinds, John
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I don't agree that any of those would "mean the end of your dream ride" and I am not clear on what a simpler choice you are suggesting.
My recommendation: Keep it simple. You can ride any bike across the USA - it doesn't have the latest high end components to have an enjoyable and successful ride. Things may go wrong with complex components which may mean the end of your dream ride. For example:I can imagine myself possibly choosing a bike with electronic shifting if in the OP's shoes. Remember that he is going on a long (Southern Tier) van supported tour. I definitely wouldn't choose a touring bike. I am not saying someone else shouldn't, but I wouldn't. I rode the ST on a old 1990 Cannondale Crit race bike skinny tires and all when I did it and I wasn't van supported, but was packing very light (camping and cooking with 14#). It would be fun to be on a sporty bike a race bike with lower gearing or a gravel bike with fairly skinny tires would suit me. I might go fatter on the tires than last time. I started out on 23mm and put on 25mm when they were worn out. The 23mm were already on the bike so I decided to wear them out first. By the time I got to Texas I found the buzz pretty bad on that state's chipseal. The 25s were a little better. I think I might consider 28mm tubeless if starting from scratch with setting up a new bike for that ride, just to have a cushier ride as the roads were pretty rough a lot of the way.
a) Your bike falls over and bends a rotor on your disc brakes;
Not a huge deal. First off it isn't a frequent problem and second you can pull off the caliper on that wheel and tie it out of the way and ride with one brake until you get to where you can get another disc.Or just remove the rotor until you can get a new one.b) Your electronic shifters fail;
My understanding is the following... Electronic shifting is actually more reliable than mechanical. Adjustment is easier, more precise, and less frequent. The large majority of fussing with shifting issues has to do with cable so the lack of them is a good thing. A downside is dealing with charging. Another is availability of parts is worse. One interesting thing is that if a shifter is broken you can shift from the derailleur itself until you get a new shifter, at heast with the shimano setup. Even the bike packing community is starting to use electronic and even in pretty severe conditions. See the following link for some interesting info https://bikepacking.com/gear/electronic-shifting-reliability-video/
c) Embedded cables within the bike frame fray and fail;
If properly done they are less likely to be a problem than external ones and if they present a pronlem external routing could be done to get going again if necessary, but I don't see a reason you'd need to.Sram AXS shifters are totally wireless so there are no cables to route, fray, etc. Granted, you do have to take the little charger along to charge the battery every few weeks but not a big deal.d) Pannier racks break;
Not likely unless poor quality and or seriously overloaded and certainly unlikely to end a dream trip. Not sure what alternative you are suggesting here, frame mounted bags? They can fail too. Pretty much anything can.
You can always carry hose clamps and zip ties like I have for decades and (knock knock) have never used them for a broken rack. I have had Ortlieb mounting parts break/come off but the Bruce Gordon and Tubus racks have been fine.e) Your GPS dies and you don't have any cell phone coverage or hard copy maps (that has happened to me!)
And that ended your dream trip? Seems unlikely. The OP is asking about a coast to coast trip. I bet he'd do what I'd do and keep heading in the general direction he needed to go. Asking directions when he could, but he'd probably never be without any paper map or downloaded map on the phone. At the very least he'd probably have the free state map from the DOT for that state.
f) and so forth...
Lot of good, simple bikes out there that will get you across the USA. The one you'll see the most often is the Surly Long Haul Trucker. People rave about its reliability and comfort. You don't have to go high end to have a great ride.
I agree that there is nothing wrong with simple. I am not a fan of the LHT myself, but I did ride an older (1990) bike with downtube shifters and all on my last coast to coast tour. I rode an old hard tail MTB with thumb shifters(again 1990) on another mixed surface tour. I wouldn't advise anyone against riding newer tech though and might choose it myself.
....I've also moved to Be Welcome [ https://www.bewelcome.org/ ] which is another hosting site that is HUGE in Europe and growing rapidly in the USA.Can you narrow it down so you only show that you host cyclists? Without trying to sound rude, we only want to host cyclists so don't want to sign up and then have to continually refuse non-cyclists.
...I want to bike thru the state of IOWA.Why did you pick Iowa? While I am not putting Iowa down, a lot of international visitors go elsewhere so I am just curious.
I did the route back in Sept. Stuck to the original route without any issues. There were a few trucks on SR 78 but you know when they're coming and they give you room.I too did the same route about 5 years ago and while we didn't have too much issue, we were mid-week. I talked to the convenience manager in Glamis and he said that the traffic is a lot worse on weekends. I am not worried so much about the semis as with the weekend RVers who may not know the edges of their rig while they haul a dune buggy (or two) on a trailer while heading home after a weekend of partying. We only had a couple of close encounters on that road mid-week but I sure would not want to ride it on a weekend.
I've never had issues with semis and wish Adventure Cycling would quit making them sound like their always some huge risk.