Background, Training, Bikes
Several Years in the Making
Background; Whence Did This Plan Develop? My introduction to self-supported touring came in 2015 when I did a solo tour of the Transam route; that journal can be found here --> 2015 Transam Tour. That tour hooked me on bicycle travel, and in 2017 I rode the Western Express; that journal can be found here --> 2017 Western Express Tour. On the Western Express route I was accompanied by Sis and Doc (my sister and brother-in-law); that was their first self-supported bicycle tour, and they were bitten by the touring bug as well. We dreamed of taking an epic tour and riding coast-to-coast together; but how to make it happen?
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At the time we were considering this, Doc and I were both working full time, so it took some advance planning and coordination to arrange to be off for several months. In my case, I needed to first earn the vacation time in advance. I managed to accomplish a coast-to-coast crossing in 2015 on the Transam route in 10 weeks, but that's a wee bit fast for comfort. And so we planned on a 12-13 week crossing, which is more of a normal pace. To get that much time off, I landed an overseas assignment in 2019 where I would be working overtime and I could "bank" the extra hours to be used as additional vacation time when I returned home. With extra time earned in the extensive training for the overseas deployment, as well as extra time earned while working a few weeks in South Korea and 6 months in Germany, plus my normal allotment of annual vacation, I had enough vacation time banked for the coast-to-coast ride. Doc arranged a full year in advance to be absent from his practice for 3 months, and we planned to ride the Transam in 2020.
I had previously ridden the Transam, so why would we choose to ride it instead of another route like the Northern Tier? The Transam has a lot more cycling "infrastructure" - for example, there are many hostels along the route that specifically cater to traveling cyclists. Because the Transam route has been established since 1976, businesses are cyclist-friendly and folks actually aren't that surprised to see cyclists traveling across the country. We did the Western Express as a credit card tour with hotel rooms reserved for almost all of the entire 5-week journey (except 1 night that Doc and Sis camped); this tour would require more camping, and that adds to the difficulty. All things considered, I felt like the Transam would be a better experience, especially so for Sis. For one thing, it's much more likely that she would meet other female cycle tourists on the Transam. Cycle touring isn't easy, and it's always helpful - and encouraging - when you meet kindred souls along the way.
And thus it came to pass that we had a plan to ride the Transam in 2020. But the year 2020 changed a great many plans, including ours. The following section contains the details, but the plan now is that it will just be me and Doc and we will ride the Northern Tier route instead. My hard-earned vacation time was used up in 2020 mostly on "staycations" and Doc had to scramble to find work during his planned time off and re-schedule to be off in 2021. I retired in early 2021, so now I have all the time in the world. Doc re-planned and once again arranged for extensive time off in 2021.
Training. We trained for this tour. Some folks say not to worry much about training, that you will get in shape on the tour. My own experience leads me to believe that this is a terrible idea that can wreck your tour early. The first 2 weeks of any tour are the hardest, both physically and mentally as you adapt to the rigors of the daily routine - training not only hones you physically, it gives you the mental edge of knowing that you can get through a tough day. And even if you do train, most of us do so by slowly increasing our mileage on an unloaded bike, and it will be much harder to ride a fully-loaded bike on the tour. If your tour involves mountains in the early stages, you had better be ready to wrangle the weight of yourself and the loaded bike up steep grades. Considering all this, I feel that good training is essential for a successful tour. And so, we commenced training in Sept 2020 for a tour to commence 8 months later. In general, we rode 5 days/week, taking rest days on Monday and Friday. The general staple consisted of 10-25 mile rides most days and a long ride on Saturday.
I missed a lot of riding in 2020 due to health issues, and this is discussed in detail elsewhere should you care to listen to my whining. By the time I was finally able to commence training, it was already mid-September. Due to ongoing recovery from a skin graft on my left heel, I commenced training with a plastic "Croc" shoe on my left foot and a sneaker on my right, while riding with platform pedals without toe clips. My weekly long ride was only 15 miles in September. In October I was able to transition to wearing a soft sneaker on the left foot, I began using toe clips, and my weekly long ride increased to 25 miles. In November I upped the weekly long ride to 35 miles - this seemed like a long distance at that time!
In December I made a big leap once I was able to squeeze my left foot into an old pair of mountain bike shoes - I could now ride with cleats and clip in to my SPD-compatible pedals. I increased the weekly long ride distance to 45 miles, and this seemed to be much harder than I thought it should be. In January the weekly long-ride distance went to 55 miles. February in Tulsa is usually the worst month for cycling, and 2021 was no exception - with snowstorms and frozen roads I rode the indoor bike at my daughter's home for half the month - I did manage to get my weekly long-ride up to 60 miles for 2 weeks though, and I was happy with that progress. In March the weekly long-ride went to 65 miles, and this was challenging. The conditioning plan was working as intended, and in April I upped the weekly long-ride to 75 miles for 2 weeks, then I did a 50-mile fully loaded overnight camping trip on a weekend instead of the usual weekly long ride.
Doc and Sis followed a similar training schedule. Sis had to abandon in April due to a family crisis, but Doc continued training. All was going well until I encountered an unexpected issue that set me back and delayed the start of the tour (see later section titled "I Never Saw That Coming!"). Despite the setback, I feel that I am in adequate shape to commence this tour - I guess we'll see!
The following video may bore you - it shows snippets of some of my training routes, and it was made so that I could begin learning how to use the GoPro and publish videos. At the time I made it, I was using a trial version of the software to stitch video segments together, so you get a software banner showing throughout. It's rather long - if you decide to watch it, you were warned! I mount the GoPro on top of my helmet and control it using voice commands - in the following video I was experimenting, learning how to use it.
Gear Notes. Rather than offering the usual listing of gear taken, I'm going to just mention the high points and any exceptions or recent changes - this should be more interesting to the cycling audience, and perhaps not as boring to the non-cycling audience.
Bud's Bike - "Harvey." Harvey is a highly customized Surly Long Haul Trucker. In fact, the only thing about Harvey that is Surly is the frame and fork. The details of the components are discussed in my 2015 Transam journal (2015 Transam Tour) , so I'll just mention the highlights here. The wheels were custom built by Peter White and consist of a 36-spoke front wheel with a SON dynohub and a 40-spoke rear wheel. With the dynohub, I run lights 24/7 for safety. I like fenders for a touring bike, and Harvey sports Honjo hammered aluminum fenders with a leather mudflap on the rear that has a license plate displaying "George" so that all catching me know who I am. Harvey was already geared low with a compact double setup that spanned 19.5 - 98.2 gear inches. However, because he is heavy (and so am I), I changed the gearing prior to this tour and am now running an even lower range of 17.55 - 98.2 gear inches. Harvey should be able to climb a wall with that gearing, provided I have enough muscle power to keep him moving! On my recent fully loaded shakedown ride I rode up Kiefer hill (a very steep hill of some renown to local cyclists) and only needed the 2nd-lowest gear, so I think I should be good for the steep grades in the Adirondacks and Northern Cascades. Brooks leather saddles have been my primary seat since 1975 and I still use and like them - but I have recently become very fond of the Rivet Allroad leather saddle, and that's what I am using for this tour. That saddle has 9,000 miles on it and is beginning to show some wear - that wouldn't concern me if it was a Brooks saddle, but I'm not yet experienced enough with the Rivet saddle to estimate it's longevity. Harvey carries a click-stand and parking brakes so that he can stand and park most anywhere. The parking brakes are quite handy sometimes even when I'm not using the click-stand. I am trying out different pedals for this tour - they have SPD mounts on 1 side and a simple platform on the other. That way, at the end of the day, if I need to ride a couple of miles in my off-bike clothes to get food, I can just use the platform pedal side when wearing my tennis shoes. As a Galaxy-class starship touring bike, Harvey insists on some extraneous decoration. In addition to the license plate mentioned earlier, Harvey has always been accompanied by a bobblehead Hula Girl mounted on the rear rack - she dances from the road vibrations as we roll along.
At 64 cm, Harvey is a big boy. With all his accessories, he's no lightweight and weighs in at about 41 pounds unloaded (this includes front & rear racks, fenders, lights, seat bag with tools, and lightly loaded handlebar bag. It's difficult to keep him under 100 pounds when he's loaded for a tour. He sports Ortlieb panniers and an Arkel handlebar bag, and both of them have been tested in serious downpours and I'm confident that everything inside will stay dry.
Doc's Bike. Doc is a weight-weenie and a serious gear-head, and his bike is pretty much the polar opposite of Harvey. He has one of them new-fangled plastic-fantastic (aka carbon) bikes with electronic-computer-satellite-controlled gear shifting. It actually has negative weight and you have to load it down or it will float away. He's using a combination of panniers and bikepacking attachments to carry his gear. Oh yeah - Doc is a ham radio aficionado, so he is taking along a portable radio unit that he can use to contact Poland (or anywhere else on Earth) should we have a need for - I don't know, whatever. That should at least add enough weight to keep his bike from floating off with the breeze.
Doc Speaking;
"Not such a weight weanie, but weanie weight. I’m 130 lb with a bike that’s about 70 lb fully loaded with extras to facilitate anticipated cold and wet weather. My bike is a Specialized Diverge Carbon Pro running 42 mm tubeless tires with 1x12 SRAM electronic shifting and 36/50 lowest gear ratio. The Diverge front shock really helps protect my arthritic 68 yr old hands and wrists, important since I am an interventional cardiologist and need to preserve my dexterity. I have Ortleib mud panniers up front and Tailwind bags behind. My small tent rides the bars. I quit running and took up bicycle riding about 7 yrs ago because a sport bike (GSXR 1K) encounter with a deer cost me my 3rd lumbar vertebrae and left me with a shattered sit bone to match the two crushed cervical vertebrae that are a not so fond reminder of my youth. I’ve logged over 28,000 miles since slowing down, but only a few tours including the ACA Western Express, Texas Hill Country, and a 1200 mi tour of Arkansas last fall. Can I do this? Really don’t know for sure, but that is an important ingredient of a proper adventure!"
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