Messages

1396

General Discussion / Re: Living on my bike

« on: April 25, 2009, 01:26:32 pm »

It sounds like the way to go. You should have a great time. If you need any particular advice on the touring on the road and camping parts, I might be able to give you some tips. Are you going to stealth camp, use campgrounds, stay in motels, all three?

1397

General Discussion / Re: Living on my bike

« on: April 25, 2009, 12:55:34 am »

It looks like you are preparing for an expedition, and for having a great time. A table and chair are more than I would carry, but I was looking at a journal on CGOAB.com, and one guy was hauling 100 lbs. in gear, much more than I ever would. How will you carry six months worth of MREs. If you are talking about the military style meals, they weigh quite a bit. I have read stories about people hiking the Appalachian Trail who hid MREs along their path ahead of time, and dug them up as they came to them.

1398

General Discussion / Violent Crime Alert Atlantic Coast Route

« on: April 25, 2009, 12:36:05 am »

This partial article appeared on the front page of Yahoo.com  25 April 2009. Miami, Florida is rated with the third highest rate of violent crimes in the United States.
==============================================================================================================


No. 1 Detroit, Mich.

(Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich., metropolitan statistical area)

Population: 1,951,186

Violent Crimes per 100,000: 1,220

No. 2 Memphis, Tenn.

(Memphis, Tenn.-Miss.-Ark. metropolitan statistical area)

Population: 1,295,670

Violent Crimes per 100,000: 1,218

No. 3. Miami, Fla.

(Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Fla. metropolitan statistical area)

Population: 2,401,971

Violent Crimes per 100,000: 988

No. 4 Las Vegas, Nev.

(Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., metropolitan statistical area)

Population: 1,834,533

Violent Crimes per 100,000: 887

No. 5 Stockton, Calif.

(Stockton, Calif., metropolitan statistical area)

Population: 684,406

Violent Crimes per 100,000: 885

To determine our list, we used violent crime statistics from the FBI's latest uniform crime report, issued in 2008. The violent crime category is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. We evaluated U.S. metropolitan statistical areas--geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics--with more than 500,000 residents.

1399

General Discussion / Re: Living on my bike

« on: April 23, 2009, 10:49:29 pm »

I have met other x-country cyclists only rarely. I did meet a group of ACA cyclists on the northern tier in 1987; then they were called Bikecentennial. I had the maps, and ended up calling it quits after cycling from Seattle to Ana Cortes to Chicago. An emergency came up and I drove back to Florida. I cycled with a newly married couple who were on a Santana tandem. They were very religious. They had a sign on their bike that said, "Holy spirit on board." They stopped at churches along the way and got money from them. We stopped at a hostel one night. I think it might have been at Sand Point, maybe Cut Bank. They had a broken spoke on the freewheel side of the back  wheel. The problem was the freewheel had tightened so much he could not get it off. He tried with all his might until it broke the teeth right out of the freewheel. He ended up spending an inordinate amount of time micro-bending a spoke until he finally was able to get the spoke to fit between the flange and the free wheel, and up to the hole in the rim. I remember he had been talking about how much the bike and gear had cost. He had told me the rear wheel was high quality and cost something like $200.00, which was more than my entire bike cost. It seemd to me then, and it still does that if a rear wheel was so expensive, and it was used on a tandem going over mountains, such a problem as they had would have been foreseen, and some sort of stop should have been built into the wheel threads to prevent the freewheel from overtightening the way theirs did.
========================================================================================================

When it comes to making unwarranted inferences and conclusions, people do it all the time. Internet discussion forums are full to the brim with it. They seem steeped in it. It is a willful national pastime in the United States.

1400

General Discussion / Re: Safety issues for solo biking

« on: April 21, 2009, 12:01:08 pm »

People threw sixteen ounce cans of beer at me twice from moving cars. Once someone threw an empty beer can from a moving vehicle. It hit the wheel. Three times people ran me off the road deliberately with their vehicles. There was also an incident with a pellet gun. I believe one of the beer throwers might have been Aileen Wuornos not far from Tallahassee, Florida on hwy. 98 while I was cycling between Wakulla Station and Perry.

1401

General Discussion / Re: RI TO Key West tour

« on: April 19, 2009, 07:36:44 am »

Get a bike and panniers. Get maps. Go.

1402

Gear Talk / Re: I want to tour …cheeply

« on: April 16, 2009, 05:08:53 am »

You can Rube Goldberg just about anything to fit with some imagination and the right tools.

1403

Gear Talk / Re: Does anybody bring a cooler on the tour?

« on: April 16, 2009, 05:06:54 am »

I have never carried a cooler. A thermos would be more to the point.

1404

Gear Talk / Re: bike security

« on: April 11, 2009, 07:56:27 am »

The Kryptonite, horseshoe locks are really good. Nobody can break the thing and carry your bike away from what it is connected to. However, they do have a weak point. Anybody with a battery powered, hand-held power drill of good quality can drill out that lock, and have your bike in about two minutes. A lock is good for one thing only, and that is for keeping an honest man honest. If somebody really wants to steal your bike, they will figure out a way.

1405

Gear Talk / Re: Trailers Vs. Panniers - Prudhoe Bay to Tierra Del Puergo

« on: April 09, 2009, 11:39:04 am »

I was seriously considering the same trip you are talking about, or at least a similar one. I would have used panniers. I already have panniers, faded and worn as they are, and I did not want to spend money for a function I already had equipment for. Panniers or a trailer, panniers and a trailer, either way, it should be OK. Don't worry about it. Just do the trip. Keep a excellent record of it in photographs and writing.

1406

General Discussion / Re: Carrying Pepper Spray

« on: April 09, 2009, 11:31:43 am »

Easy answer. Put it on top in your handlebar bag, and leave it unzipped. Those little key-chain sized pepper sprays are a joke. Get the big aerosol can that puts out a serious stream or fog. If you must use it, you want to make sure you can get a serious dose of it directly into the face and eyes.

1407

Gear Talk / Re: Trailers Vs. Panniers - Prudhoe Bay to Tierra Del Puergo

« on: April 06, 2009, 10:31:29 am »

I'll be setting off on a 15 month trip from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in July. I'd always figured i'd be using just panniers, now i'm thinking of using a trailer. Does anyone have any advice on the pros and cons of the two options for this route? I'm still leaning away from a trailer (more to go wrong).

I am in favor of panniers for the reason you mentioned, and others.

1408

General Discussion / Re: East Coast -South

« on: April 06, 2009, 10:28:24 am »

I, myself, would not tour that distance on a one-speed bike. Multi speed bikes were made to use appropriate gearing for the various pedaling conditions. Gear down for going up hill; gear up for pedaling down hills and on flat or rolling roads with a tailwind. Gear down for head winds.
You can do it. You will have problems with forward progress that are dealt with more efficiently with a multi-speed bike. One guy cycled east to west or vice versa on a unicycle. It can be done.

1409

Routes / Re: Riding North on the Pacific Coast

« on: April 05, 2009, 01:28:10 pm »

I did the PCBR in 1993, north to south. I remember clearly having tailwinds day after day after day, on and on. The winds were sometimes strong, usually brisk. There are many many hills, and deep horseshoe bends. You do not want tthe combination of going up steep hills against strong winds.
You can probably do it, but it will be very much more difficult that going north to south. The hot inland valley might provide more helpful winds going north, but here you have temperatures in the nineties, maybe even 100. Go north to south.

1410

General Discussion / Re: Living on my bike

« on: April 04, 2009, 01:10:13 pm »

When you are putting in the miles on a loaded touring bike you can be a bit more liberal with eating. The fact is, I could never get enough energy for that kind of cycling from fruits and vegetables alone. I eat in restaurants, out of food stores, and convenience stores too. That extra charge of energy from highly refined sugar gives a raggedy let down later on, or at least it did for me. What is excellent for cycling in sun and heat is a quart of freshly extracted carrot and celery juice mixed half and half. Of course, getting a regular supply of that on a long tour would not be the easiest most convenient thing to do. It might be possible with a had-cranked juicer.