General Discussion / Bicycle Trip form Arizona to Alaska
« on: October 11, 2008, 12:13:50 am »This message was edited by whittierider on 10-10-08 @ 9:14 PM
Your username and password for these discussion forums are unique to the forums. Your forum login information is separate from your My Adventure Cycling login information. Also, please note that your login information for the forums is not connected to your Adventure Cycling membership number. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
We have blocked registrations from several countries because of the large quantities of spam that originate there. If the forum denies your legitimate registration, please ask our administrator for an exception. Send an email to webmaster@adventurecycling.org and we will follow up with you.
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
When you say, "It is highly recommended that you go the other direction, because of the prevailing winds" what are you basing that on?
"North of Santa Barbara, encoutered stiff headwinds that blew the fun right out of his adventure. Scenery and the thrill of exploring became secondary to his daily battle with the wind. The wind created an invisible, never-ending hill that had to be constantly climbed. The wind beat dirt into his face, produced an annoying whistling through the vents in his helmet, while attempting to push him back to Mexico. By San Francisco, riding had become a chore. In Oregon, 80-mile-per-hour winds blew him to a stop while going down a steep hill.
"When describing that trip, Tom will pull out his trip journal. The beginning of the journal is full of his thoughts and impressions; in the second half he wrote only of the wind. His journal describes how he got up early in the morning to avoid the winds that blew strongest in the afternoon. ...Nowhere in the second half of that book is there any mention of beautiful vista points, magnificent redwood forests, sea otters, sea lions, lighthouses, sand dunes, and fascinating old forts. Nowhere is there any mention of the word fun.
"The following summer, Tom and I rode back down the coast to prove it can be fun. It was an incredible trip. The wind was still blowing but this time it was pushing us south. Near the Sea Lion Caves in Oregon, I had to apply my brakes to stop on a steep uphill grade....We were surprised to note that the highway department expects cyclists to travel from north to south. We frequently enjoyed a good shoulder on the southbound side while northbound cyclists had to dodge trucks and cars on a shoulderless roadway."
I'm assuming the trip from Arizona to Alaska would involve getting over to the coast quickly and then going up the coast. I have not ridden very far north of Santa Barbara, but I can tell you from experience that from there to San Diego the wind, at least in the summer and fall, is much more conducive to going south. Last summer when we were riding from Santa Barbara to L.A., I especially remember a place we were climbing a grade of 3 or 4% at nearly 30mph because of the tail wind. Our son looked at me and said, "We are climbing, aren't we??" I said, "Yeah, isn't this great?!"
The wind will be much better going from the coast to Arizona too, than vice versa.
The thing with CF is that you can get microcracks that are almost invisible leading to catastrophic failure and shearing of the fork/frame.
I believe the only weight limits I've seen in cycling is mostly on carbon fiber road bikes and/or front forks.
however all their bikes have autoshift. has anyone ever used autoshift and does the auto shift work properly up and down hills??
i just dont need an aluminum frame as its not as sturdy as steel so ill keep that in mind as well.
For the lower attachment, the QR adaptor works just fine. I mounted the Fly & QR adaptor on my titanium road bike, and used it for credit card touring. I think I would want to have a converstation with someone knowledgable about using it on carbon, to make sure that wouldn't put bad stress on the frame.