Been thinking of building/buying a Touring bike for long distance(coast to coast) unsupported touring. I've done a little research on it so I'll share some links I've found useful. Bicycle Tours & Maps, Bicycle Gear & Equipment - Adventure Cycling Association Bicycle Touring 101: Welcome to your next bicycle touring adventure! crazyguyonabike: Bicycle Touring: A place for bicycle tourists and their journals Peter White Cycles Home Page I've been considering a Trek 520 or a Fuji Touring Bike. Anyone have any experience with this kind of riding?
Anyone have any experience with this kind of riding? Not yet, but I've done a lot of long distance rides and I personally love them. I'm considering the tour type of riding with all the panniers and whatnot. I've met and talked with a few folks who have done it extensively and they love it. I'm a little hesitant because I'm not sure how much I'll like it after 3 or 4 days. I can mountain bike for two weeks straight and not be bored, but I'm not sure how'd I'd do in touring. But I'm itching to give it a try.
My next bike build will be a touring type bike. Built around a Niner Air-9 frame or a custom built steal bike from The Path. Fully rigid geared 29er. After seeing the stuff the work crew was clearing with their Bob Trailers this weekend, I would like to borrow a Bob Trailer before I build a bike...it might change things a bit. Note, my touring will not be on the road but bikepacking. Colorado Trail, Arizona Trail, White Rim and Maah Daah Hey comes to mind. I have no interest sharing the trail with cars, too much dirt to explore.
The bike I was thinking of building would be capable to handle both road and dirt, but probably with a lean to the dirty side of things.
You guys would definitely be interested in the Great Devide Mountain Bike Route. Adventure Cycling Association I enjoyed reading these Journals of doing the Great Divide. crazyguyonabike: Bicycle Touring: GDMBR 2002, by Michael Morse crazyguyonabike: Bicycle Touring: Eat, Sleep and Ride the Divide, by Heidi Domeisen
My friend in the UK did jsut rode from one end of the country to the other (1200miles). He had a pretty basic Trek 1500 and some rear paniers. He had no problem with the ride of the Alu frame and did about 80-90miles per day.
Some good information I've found over the years. Now I just have to actually start touring. Bike Forum: Long Distance Cycling Bike Forum: Touring Rugged Panniers: Old Mountain A different type trailer: Extrawheel MTBR Thread: Cruizing on the Bolivian Altiplano Canning Stock Route by Bike 2005 FYI: BoB gives discounts on the Yak and Ibex trailers to IMBA members. Pretty good discount, like $100 off I think.
i've always wanted to do some touring, do like 500 mile rides, but not any of this 100 miles a day stuff, im talking about do the 500 as fast as i can, RAAM styles! 2-3 hours of sleep is all you need before you can get back on the bike.
I know that there are campgrounds at state parks from Washington down to Dana Point (although in California, there is a section about 94 miles without any) reserved for hikers/bikers. You don't need a reservation for any of these sites (though you may have to share with others) and it's relatively inexpensive to stay there (I think it's about $5)...the sites range from full camp sites to a slab of dirt where you can place your tent. Robin Lemonds and his wife are working on trying to get El Moro to open a site, too (but they are reluctant so far). If you'd like more info, you may be able to get some from SHARE, or I can ask Robin. There are some companies that do fully supported touring, including renting the bikes (some companies have nice bikes)...some of them will even transport your supplies to the next stop for you. Don't know anything about the bikes....
The guy that runs these tours is super cool. He's done the RAAM and some serious MTB rides as well. Check out his site. The tours look great. Rob Templin presents Second Summer Tours
yup ... i've been meaning to get into this too - maybe an la to san fran ride. i have a steel 2001 lemond tourmalet road bike, and i hear it's great for touring and road racing ... which is part of the reason i bought it. you can score 'em used on ebay for 500 bucks. solid bike.
Still undecided on what bike to build. I'm thinking maybe a 29er, with 1.5 inch tires. I've also been talking to a guy that builds bikes to your speck, so I've been doing some research on what particulars and sizes I'd want to build it to. This is probably the way I'm going to go, and believe it or not, it's cheaper then some of the standard frames offered.
A couple of years ago, I rented a car in OC, threw in my bike and BOB trailer, drove up to San Francisco, dropped the car off and rode home. I stayed in state parks and some private campgrounds. My stops were Belmont, Santa Cruz, Big Sur, San Simeon, Pismo, and Ventura. The worst part was the section between Redondo Beach and Long Beach. That was the worst hour of my life. I'm pretty sure people were actually trying to kill me. BTW - if you do this route, I highly recommend doing it from North to South because of the pervailing wind thing.
