Messages

31

General Discussion / Best to ACA on new home, hope you add camping!

« on: April 14, 2012, 06:29:47 pm »

Exciting to read about A.C.A.'s new construction on the home headquarters. Here's hoping they add camping space for bike tourists making the pilgrimage to/through the home base. During our cross country ride we made sure to stop in and get the grand tour. It is a delightful experience to see where it all comes together, to get some free refreshments, to get your photo taken, to buy items in the store, and to meet the folks that answer the phones and make the maps. But...

It would complete the experience if they offered a place to pitch your tent in a courtyard, or throw down your sleeping bag in a common room. As it is, the only campground in Missoula is a KOA on the west-side of town. Even if A.C.A. charged a minimal fee, it would be great if they offered something.

32

General Discussion / Re: Cash, debit cards, credit cards, travelers' checks??

« on: March 20, 2012, 05:45:18 pm »

A debit card will do ya. These things are a combo Visa credit card/debit cash card connected to your bank account. Big towns, small towns accept them in one way or the other and you can keep up a cash reserve by hitting dept. stores/pharmacys (Evil EmpireWallymart, Target, Walgreens, CVS) that have taken over everywhere and hit the cashback button.

33

General Discussion / Re: Which sunscreen?

« on: March 14, 2012, 09:30:07 am »

Neutrogena helioplex 70 spf

This is what my dermatologist recommended for our family's 4 month trip of daily application as being safest and most effective. It worked great. Only time will tell regarding chemicals vs skin cancer, but our dermatologist is highly respected. Clothing is the only anti-chemical alternative, but try to get clothes that are SPF rated.

34

General Discussion / Re: Recumbent trike travel

« on: March 13, 2012, 05:56:57 pm »

More and more folks are touring on trikes these days. Here's a few links to check out:

http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/forumdisplay.php?f=13
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/categories/?o=1&category_id=22&doctype=journal

35

General Discussion / Re: Affordable/free camping idea

« on: March 13, 2012, 12:29:26 pm »

One of the most common addendum updates to the ACA maps are:The XXX RV resort no longer accepts bicycles. Just like we are a nuisance. It is really sad to read those addendums. Lucas

I've wondered why many RV parks have said "no" to cyclists, too. Can anyone speculate (or actually been told by an RV campsite host) why on earth bike tourists are refused? Only thing I can come up with is that either 1 bad apple cycle tourist trashed the park at some point, or too many RV guests complained about the park allowing guests in that "weren't like them".

36

General Discussion / Re: Long distance trip alone?

« on: March 12, 2012, 05:16:21 pm »

I know this isn't advancing the discussion, but I read the thread title and shuddered. I love long distance touring, but have absolutely 0 interest in EVER doing it alone. To me, sharing the experience with one or more humans is an absolute essential and pleasure and makes the journey all the better. To me, bike touring solo would be the perfect mix of heaven and hell: bike touring (heaven) and doing it solo (hell). I wish those of you that are hard-wired to do it solo all the best!

37

General Discussion / Re: Affordable/free camping idea

« on: March 07, 2012, 02:16:25 pm »

I'd forgotten about it until now, but while riding on a recent cross country trip I found it interesting that some towns that were located on established A.C.A. routes (or had rail trails running through them) obviously catered to the bicycle tourists that were riding through their towns, yet many did not. We were always delighted to see a sign pointing out bicycle accomodations, supplies, cycle tourist's favorites (ice cream/ fresh fruit/ etc.). So many struggling towns in the U.S. that are begging for tourist dollars (and are located on regular bicycle routes) could be doing so much more to reach out cycle tourists. Offering a simple camping area for cyclists (as a number of towns do) would go a long ways to keeping some extra tourist dollars.

38

General Discussion / Re: Affordable/free camping idea

« on: March 07, 2012, 01:51:07 pm »

Sorry, I disagree about Warmshowers.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with a warmshower guest and even more so that you never used warmshowers as a guest yourself. Being able to conveniently pull up to a stranger's house, share a meal, have wonderful conversations, sleep in a bed/floor, enjoy other hospitalities, and usually reaching some point of feeling that you were re-visiting long lost friends - all for free, is a wonderful aspect of bike touring.

For others considering being a warmshowers host, know that you always have the option to say no to anyone that asks to be a guest. Whenever we get a call/email from someone that wishes to be a warmshowers guest I always look up their account on the WS site and read recommendations that have been left from others (we also do this when on the road and searching for a host). If there are 0 recommendations, or any bad ones, I'll just ignore the request. But even if they are new to warmshowers, you can always "google" their name and find out about them before saying yes or no.

Jamawani, I'm wondering if you read the recommendations of the guests you hosted that were rude to you, or if you wrote a negative report on those folks to prevent the same experience for other hosts. Warmshowers isn't a perfect system, but I find the checks and balances make it feel a safe opportunity to host or be a guest.

39

General Discussion / Re: Affordable/free camping idea

« on: March 06, 2012, 09:08:28 am »

Warmshowers.com is a great idea but it has the drawback of having to trust strangers. 

Trusting (and meeting) strangers is a huge appeal of warmshowers for me. Everyone I've met as a guest and a host has been great.
As far as simple campsites for bike tourists, I wish campgrounds across the US followed the Hiker/Biker model of the Pacific Coast State Parks and had a separate little section that was  cheap and simple and located away from the vehicles. (Heck, I wish the sponsor of this fine website had a simple Biker campground (on or offsite) at their headquarters in Missoula, MT. While the hospitality is wonderful when you visit, the only campground in town is a KOA.)

40

General Discussion / Re: how safe is it to ride in the US?

« on: March 05, 2012, 02:01:22 pm »

... and the window rolled down and out came a hand with a cold beer for each of us!

We had a pick-up truck stop ahead of us and get and stand next to his truck waiting for us. We nervously rode up and were surprised by handfuls of fresh picked apples being offered to us.

I can't comment on sections of the US I haven't ridden, but I can say that 99% of the drivers between Boston,MA and Seattle,WA and Portland, OR and LA,CA have been courteous and friendly (or at least left me alone).

41

General Discussion / Re: how safe is it to ride in the US?

« on: March 02, 2012, 12:18:33 pm »

Boston to Seattle on bikes w/o any incidents = safe.

42

Classifieds / Rans Stratus Recumbent Bikes

« on: March 02, 2012, 12:16:38 pm »

I have 2 Rans Stratus bicycles for sale. $800 each or $1500 for both. PM for details.

43

General Discussion / Re: Communications on tour

« on: February 28, 2012, 10:11:38 am »

I voted something else, as this is not a multiple choice poll (after checking it looks like this forum doesn't allow you to create multiple choice polls) and we used cell phone and netbook about equally. But the most common way we communicated on tour was talking the folks we met on the road.

44

Classifieds / Re: New Schwalbe Marathon XR tires, 700x35 and 700x40

« on: February 22, 2012, 04:11:40 pm »

Hello Neil,

Good to see you on this website. Many a reference has been given from here to your crazyguyonabike.com site, so it would be cool to see you posting in the touring forum here.

If anyone is considering what Neil is selling, I can vouch that the items will be in as advertised condition.

45

General Discussion / Re: No ride reports???

« on: February 21, 2012, 04:36:46 pm »

http://bikeovernights.org is also another Adventure Cycling Association site worth checking out if you have not already.

Nope, never seen that one either. Looks very cool!
Why do you people hide these things so well???