Originally Posted by
Angus37
I'm definitely going with a sag vehicle; any suggestions on what a good one would be? I'm thinking my Ford Ranger; I'll try to build some sort of platform/rack to carry bikes and gear underneath, plus I've got spots for 1-2 boys if needed. We are planning on camping, so the sag vehicle will need to carry all of our gear from site to site. A car won't be able to fit boys and gear, and I'm not too comfortable with a lot of the trunk-mount racks I see. Hence my decision.
Much depends on how many kids you'll have and how much gear you'll need to carry. Are we talking 40 kids with 5000 cubic inch backpacks? Or a dozen kids with an overnight duffle? I probably wouldn't go smaller than the Ranger. The question is: do you need to go larger?
I have a Nissan Xterra and use
this rack from Nashbar. It lays across the back of the SUV, so it's simple to install/remove. With the seats folded down all the way, I can carry 2-3 bikes and a bunch of gear... but I only have room for one other passenger. Nashbar is overpriced for the bike mounts, BTW. I use
these mounts from Performance Bike for half the price. If you've got the capability to carry bikes or gear on a roof rack, then you'll have more space inside the vehicle for kids.
If you really think there's a possibility you'll need to sag multiple kids and bikes, you might need a larger vehicle. Full-size vans seem to be what many groups use. Either that you you have to be prepared for the sag vehicle to make multiple trips up and down the route: one trip ahead of the group to drop gear (and a person) at the next campsite, then back along the route to help with mechanicals or pick-up stragglers.
What about the possibility of a round-trip tour? I'd love to go point A to point B, but San Simeon is 6 hours away. That's a lot of driving, and I don't know how well the boys would take to that. Plus we'd have to wait at the end while vehicles are brought up from the start. If we were to leave from and return to Ventura/Santa Barbara, our travel time would be cut and we wouldn't need to worry about vehicle retrieval. We could probably actually do some riding on Monday. I'm just curious if there is a way to go as far as say, San Simeon and then be able to get back to Ventura a different way.
For trips like this, Amtrak is your friend. When I rode from Silicon Valley to Los Angeles, I used Amtrak to get home. $50 for my ticket and another $15 for the bike. Don't believe the hype: the train ride is pretty damn boring! But it's a relatively cheap, convenient way to get people and bikes up and down the coast.
FYI, the best riding is from Monterey/Carmel to San Simeon. I found the stretch of coast from San Simeon to Los Angeles to be relatively boring...