Dear VertigoFlyer, thank you very much for your comment and sharing your experience with us, I appreciate it. After reading your post, I am thinking about buying a brand new touring bike, or a very reliable used one. Car and bike rack is a good idea of course, but,,,we want to exercise and lose some weight, cycle slowly, enjoy nature and meet people. Car driving will be too fast for us. We have enough time, I am self-employed, and my wife is a homemaker.
Your wife and you are really considerate, I appreciate your suggestions very much.
Originally Posted by
VertigoFlyer
I also suggest buying used touring road bikes. Then take them to Veloce Velo on Mercer Island for a good going over before you start your trip.
You should also invest in someone showing you how to service your bikes on your trip. No matter how much pre-trip prep you do to your bikes equipment failures are going to happen. Your trip can/will come to complete stop when something breaks. You need to know how to deal with that independent of outside help. Stuff rarely breaks a block from a bike shop.
A prime example of that was yesterday my wife and I were on a mtn bike ride when her chain broke. We had a chain tool and some extra chain links so we set about fixing it trailside. But in working to insert the new chain pin the chain tool snapped and broke. We had to make our way back to our truck some 4 miles minus her chain - it was very slow going. And it started to rain... We made it OK but that wasn't how we had planned our day to go. We made light of it and laughed our way home. At least we were prepared for the crap to happen in the first place.
With so little prep time in your schedule it might be wiser to narrow the scope of your trip. I know that sux but better safe and happy then broken down on the side of the road and with no options....
Maybe what might work is to rent a car and a bike rack. Put the bikes on the rack and drive to pre-selected rides along the route down the coast. This gives you a safe/dry option to get around and limits your exposure. You can still camp out with the car to reduce cost along the way. Having the car will really reduce your risk.