“These people, they ride all day long and they drink beer. They eat pork chops, eat fries, they keep riding. It’s a hell of a lot more fun than the Tour de France.”
– Lance Armstrong on RAGBRAI
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It’s always a challenge working out beer logistics when touring. Beer is sold in 6-packs but best prices can be had with 12-packs. This means that most days I’m carrying some left over beer bottles which add significant weight, but usually I don’t mind. But if the route involves significant climbing then I really don’t want to carry extra weight. Tomorrow is such a day. I may need to drink more beer tonight than necessary just to lighten my load tomorrow.
Good discovery this past week.
Moving to a new hotel each night a short distance away, say 15-30 miles, is working out well. I stay in my hotel until checkout time, ride to lunch, and arrive at my new place 1:30 – 2:30 PM. It hardly feels like I’m moving at all, just feels like a lunch ride.
Up to now, when not touring, I’ve been inclined to stay put at one place 3-4 days. In theory I get in some good rides from “home’ but in reality it just hasn’t worked out that way. More often than not I find an excuse not to ride.
I’ve gotten really good at packing. Most days I don’t even open the rear paniers and I can pack the front bags blindfolded. So moving daily is not an issue.
I try to target arriving at the new destination around 2:00 PM … my departure time is determined by how many miles I plan to travel that day. Yesterday I had a 55 mile day so I left by 9:00 AM. Simple.
I like the short days, but 50+ mile days are good too, as are layover days. I’ll keep fine tuning.
Downside is I have to plan and commit to where I’m staying each night, but that’s been pretty much the case all along.
I’ve been looking for a more leisurely way to do the 200 mile Around The Bay bicycle ride and came upon the idea of using it as a springboard to discover new Priceline Hotels.
So I’m starting in San Jose near the airport and traveling in a counter-clockwise direction.
I’ll update this post as days are completed.
date: 9/24/10
distance: 0.5 miles
climbing: 12 feet
date: 9/25/10
distance: 0 miles
climbing: 0 feet
date: 9/26/10
distance: 15.9 miles
climbing: 92 feet
date: 9/27/10
distance: 20.7 miles
climbing: 524 feet
date: 9/28/10
distance: 22.8 miles
climbing: 249 feet
date: 9/29/10
distance: 18.9 miles
climbing: 628 feet
If I come this way again, I will look for a different route and destination. Both pretty ugly.
date: 9/29/10
distance: 18.9 miles
climbing: 628 feet
date: 9/30/10
distance: 57.1 miles
climbing: 1105 feet
Bug in Google Maps entering Santa Rosa – will not let me stay on Sonoma Hwy.
date: 10/01/10
distance: 16.7 miles
climbing: 164 feet
date: 10/02/10
distance: 27.8 miles
climbing: 1453 feet
It would have been possible to do a shorter flatter route today staying east of Hwy 101, but this is much nicer.
date: 10/03/10
distance: 14.0 miles
climbing: 396 feet
date: 10/04/10
distance: 34.8 miles
climbing: 593 feet
Includes Ferry from Larkspur to San Francisco. Very nice route until you get on 3rd, then really ugly for about 20 minutes, then just ugly/industrial to Milbrea. Better option would be to ride from Larkspur to the Ferry Building then BART to SFO Airport.
Some have noticed that I’ve stopped updating this blog. I’m still vagabonding and enjoying it more than ever. But I’ve found that posting to Facebook is a much better solution for me and friends following me.
So look me up on Facebook. Note I only accept friend invitations from people I know.
One final post before upgrading WordPress to the latest release. Hope it still all works after that
We are in the planning stages for a 2000 mile tour beginning early June 2010. Starting in Salt Lake City, up to Jasper, Canada, then over to Vancouver, Canada.
If all goes well I’ll be departing for Geneva tomorrow for a 3-week bicycle tour of France along with 8 other ACTC members. The daily miles are low but climbing is high. We ride North to South ending in Nice. Tony and Ed have created a web site with all the details
The S&S couplers installed on my frame allows me to pack the bike in a 26x26x10 inch case and avoid airline excess baggage charges. The S&S website has lots of usefull information on how to pack a bike. I developed the sequence shown in the pictures below.
Initially I made lots of use of pipe insulation to protect the frame and fork but the thickness of pipe insulation was enough so that the 4-layer sandwich would not fit in the allocated 10 inch height.
The front and back of the case has two pockets for storing clothes and provide additional padding since it is a soft case. I found my small front Ortlieb panniers each fit perfectly in one of these pockets, and I put a camelback backpack in a third pocket. In all it comes in at 45 pounds, a comfortable margin for the 51 pound limit.
Can’t believe I’m off to France in just two weeks! I want to get in one more training tour and then have nothing on my schedule for the final 3-4 days prior to my flight.
Here is my current thinking:
Day 1: Train + Bus from San Jose to Ukiah
Day 2: Ukiah to Clear Lake ~ 42 mi
Day 3: Clear Lake to Lake Berryessa ~ 64 mi
Day 4: Lake Berryessa to Concord ~ 60 mi
Day 5: Concord to San Jose ~ 63 mi
This is a credit card tour, which is what I’m training for after all, so I’ll be traveling light. I’m tentatively planning to start May 28.
This is the return on the Larkspur Ferry back to San Francisco. Joanne and Gary enjoying the ride. John is inside keeping warm.
