Messages

16

Routes / Self-mapped Southern Tier Bicycle Route.

« on: March 17, 2025, 04:07:29 pm »

Using the bicycle option in Google maps, I wrote down a route from southeast coastal Florida to Ocotillo, California. And if you cannot get from Ocotillo to San Diego on dead reckoning, there is no way you could have gotten to Ocotillo. It is that very small settlement just where you begin to climb to over 3000 feet elevation going west on Interstate 8. Restaurant, small motel, small store, small population and many white wind-turbine towers marring the land.

It is written out in detail, double and triple checked. It is not offered to anyone for using. Well, maybe for getting through a large city. Anyone planning bicycling the southern tier, as I have done five crossings, ----Use maps from Adventure Cycling Association. It takes a lot of the guess-work out of it. My route looks good, and I was careful to choose roads with shoulders and side-lanes, however, it is unknown. The pre-mapped routes from ACA are well known. The popular ones seem to have developed a bicycling infrastructure. On these routes you are very likely to meet others going your direction, and the other way. If you want pre-mapped bicycle routes, get them from ACA.

17

General Discussion / Re: Most dangerous roads

« on: March 14, 2025, 12:05:28 am »

Since the subject of weather came up. I was riding on the TransAm in Kansas in 2022. The weather forecast called for high winds and routine gusts up to and above 50 mph. My route would take me from Eureka to Newton. I would have 20 miles of massive tailwinds and something like 50 with cross winds and no services. I decided to take a short day, due west to El Dorado on US 54. The crosswinds blew me off my bike 13 times. The winds were so strong that I had difficulty getting underway again. This went on for 20 miles until I benefited from some wind break berms on the south side of the road.

There is no way I would cycle against such strong winds. The energy and frustration are not worth the distance achieved. I would stop and rest and wait for the wind to change.

18

General Discussion / Re: Most dangerous roads

« on: February 19, 2025, 02:35:39 pm »

In the US, out of Savannah, GA the US-17
In the rest of the world? My Italy, car drivers are not very bike-friendly :'(

In 1990 I bicycled highways 17, 13 and 301 and 1 from from SE coastal Florida to Bangor, Maine, 20 days of cycling. The roads then were different from the way they are now. Much less frantic speeding traffic fouled the surroundings in those days. Quaint, locally-owned shops,  restaurants and cafes lined the roadways. Easy space for free-sleeping in wooded areas was nearly everywhere. You could get a motel for $30.00 a day. Those little radial wires were unheard of. Nowadays, people tear along like speed-demons from hell. Every town looks the same--same chain restaurants, chain motels, malls, strip-malls, auto parts chains--chain chain chain everything. Now you pay $90.00 for a few hours of shut-eye. Now, when you hear the HHhhiiissssssss and the tire loses air, guaranteed, 90 times out of 100, you will find a radial wire. The worst roads for radial wires are interstate highways.

19

General Discussion / 26 by 1.5 Schwalbe, the tube maintenance from hell.

« on: February 15, 2025, 01:44:00 am »

What can be easier and simpler than swapping out tubes on a bicycle. I had this touring bicycle. The last trip on it was 550 miles around south Florida in 2024. The C 2 C bike trail was one route. I let the bike set for a year. I thought about another ride and thought to install new tubes. The wheels are 26 by 1.5, double wall, approved for tubeless. The tires are 26 by 1.5 Schwalbe Marathon also approved for tubeless.
Taking the tires off the wheels required extraordinary imagination, ingenuity and elbow grease.

The tires molded to the wheels. They glued themselves tight and strong to the metal. It was impossible to press the sidewall away from the rim. It was locked in place. I laid the wheel down and stood and pressed my heels against the sidewalks of the tires with all my weight. The contact-rubber did not move away from the rim. No tire lever could pry it loose, this 26 by 1.5 Schwalbe Marathon. I had patched punctures at roadside in ten minutes. Now here it was, 30 minutes later, and I could not even get a tire to budge. I hit on an idea.

I mixed Tide liquid laundry detergent with water. Using a small sponge brush I pushed the mixture in between the tire and the rim. I gave it time to penetrate. Using a narrow thin screwdriver I kept digging between the rim and the tire and dripping the mixture there. After twenty-five digs the tire moved and the screwdriver caught on the bead and I levered to the top edge of the rim. The mixture did the job and lubricated other lengths of the bead. Finally, the levers could be fitted under the bead. Using three levers and a screwdriver one after the other, it did the job. That is only one side of the tire. Getting the other side to leave the wheel is much easier, but still much more difficult than removing other tires.

Getting the tires back on the wheels was an anomalously unusual pain in the neck. One side remounted was no problem at all. The other side of the tire would press  into the rim by hand, but for only about 60% of the perimeter. Levers were necessary after that. The problem was levering one length of bead onto the rim on the right of the wheel pulled bead out of the rim on the left side. There was no preventing that by hand and levers. It was impossible.  I hit on another idea. I tied a two-foot length of small rope extremely tight around the tire and rim until the tire was smashed down hard flat. Using metal tire levers and starting on the right side of the wheel, I levered the bead into the rim of the wheel. The tire part tied down tight to the wheel stopped the bead to the left from being pulled loose from the rim. The tire was now mounted.

This troublesome tire was on the wheel. Was it mounted so there would be no thump on each revolution? I knew from experience that even more would have to be done to make these wheels ride ready. Before inflating I brushed in another bunch of mixture between the tire and rim. That was in the rim the full circumference both sides. Then began the inflating. As the air was pressed into the tires there came crackling and snapping sounds of the tires releasing from where they had stuck to the metal. If they had not released it would have caused a slight uneven thump in the tire.

Mounting the wheels on the bicycle took 30 seconds. I rode the bike a short distance outside. It rides smooth and easy. I never had so much difficulty with tires before in my life, and I have been doing long distance bicycle-camping-touring since 1984--37,000 miles through 20 countries.

20

Routes / Re: Southern Tier (El Paso - Las Cruces)

« on: February 14, 2025, 01:13:10 am »

There is a road well before you get to Mesa St in El Paso. It runs north and south, south into El Paso. It is on the map. It runs north to Martin Luther King road and farther north you can cycle west to highway 28. It is flat land and gets you around that long steep climb in the city when you bear north out of the city. That is for the ST going east to west. Anyone who pedaled a loaded touring bicycle up Mesa in El Paso would likely take this new route instead. The new route makes a much less strenuous job of pushing pedals to Las Cruces and Silver City.

21

General Discussion / Re: Most dangerous roads

« on: February 08, 2025, 11:30:50 pm »

"caught out in remote places in lightning storms with heavy rain" One of the most exciting parts of the Northern Tier for me was seeing the lightning flash across the whole horizon in Montana in just such weather. I eventually cowered in a gas station market (there was nowhere else to shelter) for about an hour until it eased up. But that lightning was spectacular!

Lightning on the horizon is fine so long as it stays there. When it is crackling and exploding and slamming to earth all around, and turns dark night to brighter than broad daylight, that is a life or death situation. When, at the same time, wind is blowing heavy rain parallel to the road at 70 mph and bringing all traffic to a dead halt and pushing trucks over on their sides it is nothing at all like exciting. When an animal you see is killed instantly by lightning 50 feet away, to me it is mortifying and extremely scary. If I go on a long bicycle tour again, a top priority will be to check weather forecasts regularly every day.

22

General Discussion / Re: Costs per day?

« on: January 29, 2025, 12:49:19 am »

Within walking distance of a decent grocery store, bike shop, and outdoor store
The motel has a pump, some bike tools, a work stand, and a hose available for cyclists
A really good hotel breakfast

What they called breakfast in some motels was the cheapest, health altering, junk food. It was no good. They advertise What? Continental breakfast. Well, I traveled the European continent quite a lot extensively---bicycle, train, car, bus. I do not recall ever being served that kind of _____ anywhere. Small, ultra-sugared cupcakes? That is a breakfast. What they say is anything edible is breakfast. Some have signs they say, "Under new management." But, so what? It is a place for the night.

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General Discussion / Re: Most dangerous roads

« on: January 27, 2025, 12:58:09 pm »

As noted, bicycle touring can be stressful at times and in some areas. It is not a picnic. Nobody promises a rose garden. It can be challenging weatherwise, traffickwise and otherwise. There were trips when I cycled across the continent like a breeze and without a care or a concern. There were times I seriously questioned my own sanity for getting myself caught out in remote places in lightning storms with heavy rain and high winds and thousands of bolts of deadly electricity thundering and cracking and slamming to earth all around me. Hey, if it were all that simple and easy to cycle across the continent, then why do it? Some people need challenging adventures. Not everyone wants to stay home and hide under the bed.

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General Discussion / Re: Montana Proposes Bill to Force Cyclists to Ride the Wrong Way in Traffic

« on: January 21, 2025, 01:12:34 am »

I never heard of anything that dumbass. What did they think, also, that anyone needed to be told they could not cycle opposite the direction of automobile traffic with a pilot vehicle? They must have consumed a fifth of Irish whiskey before they thought up  that one.

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General Discussion / Re: Costs per day?

« on: January 21, 2025, 01:00:17 am »

... Cheap motels are out there and not often, from what I have seen, to be found advertising on Google. I think some are dodging the tax man. ...

Funny you should mention that.  I've noticed quite often at the less expensive motels that the credit card machine is "broken" and they only are accepting cash that day.

Yes exactly. I noticed the same thing. No electronic record anywhere. I did not ever tell. I was grateful for the reduced prices. If they got caught it was off their own bat.

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General Discussion / Re: Sleeping bag recommendations, bike tour from SF->NY and return

« on: January 18, 2025, 12:38:50 am »

Watch out for those inflatable, lightweight, sleeping mattresses. I bought one from gear doctors. It was good for 26 nights and then deflated permanently. I pumped it to capacity and submersed it in water and found no leaks that were obvious. It deflated again under no pressure from weight on it. They sent me another one. It lasted 14 nights of sleep and deflated slowly. Submersing and searching for leaks was useless.  My guess is the air leaks out through the material in myriad little openings that are so miniscule as to be impossible to detect clearly. I do not know what is to be reasonably expected of the durability of an air mattress that cost $80.00---$100.00, but 14 nights of sleep or 26 does not seem fair or reasonable. Does anyone know of an air mattress you know for a fact stands the test of time and endurance? Not from price or ads but from experience in the field.

Checking many advertisements for these mattresses online, one glaring omission stood out after a while. They went on and on about the comfort of the product, which is a legitimate claim, but not one said anything about their actually sleeping on one for a period of time that would justify the cost. One said he used one nine nights. That is poppycock. If you are dishing out cash in the sum of $100.00 or more, you need durability cross country, not only for 10 or 15 nights, but all the way.

27

General Discussion / Re: Costs per day?

« on: January 18, 2025, 12:13:26 am »

In eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, $5.00 a day was more than adequate, but the services and food were equally low-grade--As in will I survive the next meal? A three-course meal, dessert and two Pilsner beers (sparkling dishwater) for 50 or 75 cents. What can you expect? Dysentery, diarrhea, possibly much much worse. In the US it is possible to squeak by on $25.00--$30.00 a day free-camping most of the time. In that case, food is your main cost. More expensive using restaurants, less so using food stores. Cheap motels are out there and not often, from what I have seen, to be found advertising on Google. I think some are dodging the tax man. Some might be a bit dumpy but clean, and, after all, you will not live there, so a night here and there in a low-rent is hardly a problem. I try to bike tour as economically as possible. It takes a long time to cross the continent by bicycle. What seem like relatively low costs for extras add-up over two months to be expensive. A $20.00 a month black-card membership with Planet Fitness gets you entry in any and all PFs in the country, with a guest if you have one to invite. That takes care of personal hygiene when you opt for camping most nights. The one thing that bugs me about bike stealth camping is being unwashed for days on end. I am a spoiled westerner used to personal cleanliness.

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General Discussion / Re: Sleeping bag recommendations, bike tour from SF->NY and return

« on: January 17, 2025, 04:31:23 am »

It might be very cold that far north in March. I cycled the east coast in 1990. In May in New York the temperature fell below freezing one night. You need a bag rated for low temperatures. You should know the pros and cons of down and synthetics. I bicycled from Florida to California in the dead of winter 1984-85. My tent cost $8.00 from Eagle Army and Navy store. My sleeping bag cost $15.00 at a department store. But that was farther south. You better have a good tent and sleeping bag.

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General Discussion / Re: Seeking Trans/Am or Great American Rail Trail Group/Partners

« on: January 17, 2025, 04:21:25 am »

The so-called great American rail trail is probably good for a cross-country bicycle ride. There are gaps, which, if you get a close look at a map, are easily traversable by alternate roadways that are safe, and they cut miles off the 3700. The gaps and short sections are sometimes out of the way. Skip those places and keep going in your cardinal direction. You can cut 400 miles off that 3700 doing that.

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General Discussion / Re: Seeking Trans/Am or Great American Rail Trail Group/Partners

« on: January 17, 2025, 04:13:05 am »

That is quite a ride for bicycling. You might want to use a pre-mapped route. You will meet like-minded people doing what you are doing---heading out cross country from coast to coast. Mind you, these mapped routes can have you traveling many more miles than other routes. The ACA southern tier is about 3200 miles. Other routes are 2800. The ACA Atlantic coast route will have you pedaling 3000 miles, and other routes are about 1800. The maps do put you on safer, quieter, less trafficked roads most of the way. I bicycle camped from Stuart, FL to Bangor, Maine in 22 days total, with 2 days off because of inclement weather. It rained like hell. Using the ACA route would have required about 36 actual days of cycling.