Cyclist and Bike - Exploring Northeast Oregon 2023 - CycleBlaze

Cyclist and Bike

I'm 62 years old. Not a gifted athlete, not disciplined about training, and not a nutritional role model, but I'm determined to do bicycle tours. This is my 52nd independent bike tour since 1988. My Profile page has a list of all the tours.

I weigh about 190 pounds when dressed and fed. The bike weighs 58-70 pounds depending on how much water and food I carry.

May 2022 during my Brigham Young's Promised Land tour.
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The bike is a 2007 Bacchetta Giro 20 short wheelbase recumbent that I have pedaled more than 65,000 miles. Under the seat are a Terracycle underseat rack and heavily worn Arkel RT-40 recumbent panniers. 40mm wide Schwalbe Marathon Racer tires work well on pavement and gravel. The lowest gear is very low. 24 tooth chainring and 34 tooth rear cog driving a 26 inch rear wheel.

In 1990 I bought a laminated and mounted U.S. map to mark my bike tour routes with a Sharpie marker. 33 years later I'm still adding routes.

Bike tours have taken me to all 50 U.S. states plus Nova Scotia, Alberta, British Columbia, and New Zealand.
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Charmaine RuppoltGreat you've done so many bike tours!! :) I'm going to enjoy reading your journals. :)
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1 year ago
Wayne EstesNice to meet you Charmaine. I hope you enjoy the journals. I try to include information that other cyclists would want to know. I notice you have done a lot of bike tours but have no journals posted here. You might have fun creating a journal that is a digest of all your tours similar to my 1988-2002 Bike Tours "journal" which has one page per tour, with the route map, a couple photos, and a little bit of text for each tour. You could also upload your favorite bike tour self-portraits to your Profile page. Or just scenic pictures of your touring bike if you're in the Witness Protection Program. Food for thought... Thanks for all the comments!
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1 year ago

I'm not much of a global traveler but I have traveled extensively in the United States. I have pedaled through almost every region but the map reveals that my main interest is the western third of the U.S.

My Profile Page has 34 bike tour journals, plus a summary journal of the first 18 tours.

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