TransAm Stats?

[BikeliciousBabe]

My choice of E-W was dictated by wanting to go with a group, and the westbound self-supported AC tour was reasonably priced.

That was the same for me.  I did AC's unsupported Northern Tier W-E starting in late May.  I had neither toured (unsupported) nor camped (ever), so I thought it best to be in a group so I could learn some things.  As things would have it, its Atlantic Coast route went by my home town, so I kept riding (solo) after the group tour was over.

[John Nelson]

I am usually ready to be shed of the bike at the end of the tour so if it is a long way from home I do use a bike shop to pack and ship it home for me rather than deal with packing and schlepping it around in a strange town.

It’s a wonderfully liberating feeling walking around without worrying about the bike.

[BikeFreak]

When I did the transam a few years back I was surprised at how lonely the route was. It should be the most popular route of all but I guess I met a total of maybe 10 groups (in both directions). By "groups" I mean anything from 1 person and up. At one point I catched up with the unsupported ACA group somewhere in western Colorado. They were 6 people or something like that. Of course it all depends on your daily average. The faster you travel the fewer riders you will meet.

Lucas

[staehpj1]

When I did the transam a few years back I was surprised at how lonely the route was. It should be the most popular route of all but I guess I met a total of maybe 10 groups (in both directions). By "groups" I mean anything from 1 person and up. At one point I catched up with the unsupported ACA group somewhere in western Colorado. They were 6 people or something like that. Of course it all depends on your daily average. The faster you travel the fewer riders you will meet.

Lucas

That sounds pretty low compared to what I'd expect most meet.  How many days were you on the road?  We were 73 days and I can think of 7 groups going the same direction that we crossd paths with multiple times and made friends with.   I can't even guess how many we flagged down or were flagged down by who were going the other direction, but it was quite a few.  Also the hiker bike site in Yellowstone looked pretty full, but we stayed in a regular site and didn't go and meet the folks at the hiker biker site.  We stayed in a church (Dayville OR) that hosted folks that had a bunch of folks for the night.  I can't remember who all was there but it was a large-ish number that night.  I think that was where we met our first west bound rider ahd he shared a ton of info about the route.  We may have missed some interesting stuff without his advice.