Wednesday, May 30, 2007

T minus one week

Our arbitrary departure date is June 6th, one week from today. Since I will be gone for a month and a half (after I reach Wisconsin I will be traveling without the bike) I have been putting a lot of energy into making sure I have my affairs straight before I leave. If I forget anything there is always the cell phone!

Last minute things include:

  • lok-tight on all of the little screws holding on the bike racks and bottle holders
  • taking all four wheels to the bike shop to get them trued
  • purchasing extra spokes, a few tools and one spare tire
  • picking the brain of the bike shop owner at the Cycle Cave for anything I forgot (like spokes)
  • riding the 100 mile ride in the Albuquerque Century this Saturday
  • replacing a questionable front pannier rack with a more reliable one
  • checking to see if the multi fuel cook stove really does work on unleaded gas
  • contacting a few folks on the way that we might stay with through a bike touring network
  • ordering a few extra pairs of shorts and shirts online
  • telling people about this blog

Friday, May 25, 2007

The Preparation


In January I made the commitment to make the trip. After reading a lot of travelogues of long distance bike riders I decided that, while we could do it with our mountain bikes, we should get touring bikes -- basically longer and more comfortable road bikes with a lot of attachment points for racks and water bottles, better brakes and wider tires.

I became an eBay and Craigslist regular looking for 60 cm touring bikes. I quickly picked up a used steel Bianchi Volpe and then, in March, I bought a beautiful aluminum Klein Navigator frame. From March to May I bought the components and built up the Klein, acquired racks and bags for both bikes and looked at maps. The Klein ended up being a solid bike and rode very nicely. The way it ended up Ted fit the Klein and I fit the Bianchi.

As for our route we decided on the direct route through the end of Oklahoma, the width of Kansas, the corner of Nebraska, the diagonal of Iowa and the bottom of Wisconsin. I flew from Albuquerque to Chicago in February and had a chance to look over the route. Basically it's pretty empty until you get into Kansas. Once there you can go either North or East and there are a lot of farms. There are no mountain ranges to cross. I've driven the route and many times and know this to be true but it was interesting to see the trip distilled into 2 hours out of my window. I estimate the distance to be anywhere from 1300 to 1500 miles and have allotted 3 weeks to do the trip. I have probably driven across this region of the country 30 times and I have always been struck by the constant southwesterly wind in the summer so I hope for strong tailwinds. Still, I am aware that I am often deluded when it comes to such things as wind direction and distances.

The idea

Since I was a kid I have always enjoyed riding my bike --to me it was independence, adventure and simple transportation. By the time I was in my 30's it was good exercise and fun amidst a busy work and family life. My experience with bike touring was limited to a 4 day unpaved mountain epic from our house in Marysvale, Utah to Capitol Reef National Park. I estimated the mileage to be a little over 100 miles but it ended up being about 165 miles. At one point I was lost on the Aquarius Plateau and I came across a rancher doing fence work. He pointed me in the right direction and then seriously asked me if I was doing this for fun, taking time off of work and such to ride my bike. When I said I was he laughed and suggested that I might as well just close myself up in the closet and hit myself on the head with a hammer. I must have appeared pretty odd to him.

Since I moved to Albuquerque I have been commuting by bike and I've run up at least 8000 miles on my mountain bike going back and forth to school in the last 8 years. For many years I have been intrigued by the idea of a long bike trip. My youngest son Ted and I have talked about riding our bikes to Uncle Bob's house in Wisconsin since he was about 6 years old. I always said that when he was big enough we would go. Last spring, when he was 13 years old and kicking my butt at the end of the Santa Fe Century Ride, I realized that it was time.