Overview

So, the trip is over. 17 rides, 5 states, and 2700 miles of driving. The whole process of boxing and packing as well as returning the rental car and getting luggage through the gate went as smoothly as one could expect. Will have to remember that a van is an easier method of transporting the trikes with no adjustments as this trip we had a Dodge Durango styled rental and we were forced to remove side handlebar bags, loosen the handlebars, and remove rear bike bags to make everything fit. Lesson learned … although I did get a small discount when I returned the rental and mentioned it wasn’t quite as large as advertised and it had no window washing fluid.

The trikes performed as expected although some work will need to be done on the brake systems as I’m tired of the squeaking and lack of general performance. Both trikes now have about 4,500 miles on them, 2,500 being trip miles over the last several years. I will also need to spend a little time redesigning the insert into my side handlebar bag as things don’t quite fit the way I need. I also found that I don’t need the same amount of camera gear as before as my iPhone and Sony RX100 did everything I needed as well as simply making the transfer of digital data much easier as the end of the day. There certainly is a place for the additional GoPro and Insta360 but not this time.

The small electric hubs performed wonderfully giving us a small tool to do deal with the fairly constant wind and a small boost on the climbing days. To give a perspective, there is just enough power to simulate a 1-2 gear adjustment. Certainly not the e-bike we saw climbing a 6% grade with no pedaling and going 15 mph. Our batteries (LiGO - Grin Technologies) once again went through TSA security with hardly a glance.

Quite pleased that I installed the new Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires before the trip as we had no flats on either trike for the entire ride something which was a nice improvement over our last trip in September.

As to the future, we now have 46 out of the 50 states cycled. Montana and North Dakota elude us in the northern states and Georgia and Florida remain uncycled in the south eastern states. It looks it will take two separate trips to finish up and tentative plans have already started along those lines.

Overall we were quite pleased with our southwest adventures and were quite impressed with the cycling in Valley of Fire, Joshua Tree, and White Sands National Monument. Each had its own flavor and certainly its own unique experience that is hard to simulate anywhere else we have cycled.

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