Tandem Cycling - Family on quint to Alaska

We are leaving on August 1, 2009 to pedal our quint bike to Alaska. The journey will take us from KY to Charleston, SC - The Florida Keys - San Diego, CA - Vancouver Island, from where we take the ferry to Whittier, AK. Here we pick up biking north to Fairbanks where we plan on arriving in the summer of 2010.

Our family consists of three daughters, my husband and myself. Our girls will be 6, 4 and 2 when we start. We have stoker kits for the 4 and 2 year old. We live in the rolling hills of Eastern Kentucky, giving us ample ability to practice the hills.

We are working on getting a website going which will include our more detailed route. We would like to connect with (tandem-)bikers along the route, to travel with us for parts of the trip and/or to help us find places to stay.

We will be pulling a trailer and perhaps put on some pannieres, depending on how much we'll be lugging along. We will be self contained, so we can stop and enjoy anywhere we want.

Has anyone pulled a trailer with a tandem before? Which one would you recommend? We are currently looking into the Wilderbeast from Kool-stop: http://www.koolstop.com/trailers/beast.html
Does anyone have any information about this trailer? How does it pull, etc.

Which are the best/most durable pannieres?

The trip is about 7,000 miles, so our stuff will have to last us that while at least. And that is not counting the return trip.

Anyway, we are very excited about the trip and are looking forward to your help on above mentioned questions.

Sincerely, Amarins

For panniers, I would go with Arkel http://www.arkel-od.com/ Check them out: you won't be disappointed. The trailer you are considering looks great. We have had many trips and no problems or issues pulling a BOB trailer behind our tandem. Except on the hills, we hardly know it's there!
Your trip looks ambitious. Have you done any shorter tours in this fashion before?

Mike

You might want to check out Family on Bikes site. They are presently on a ride from Alaska to Argentina - they just left Mexico the last time I read their website. They travel with Orrtliebs panniers I believe. Hope you'll have a site for us to read your adventures!

Wow, sounds awesome. I hope the kids all make it fine. I know my little one (now 7 yo) has a hard time going on long rides. We do some tours, but I would love to someday do a transamerica, or transcontinental ride.

In any case, if you plan on being in the Kansas City area, we would certainly join you for a while

Bobby

Thanks for the input.
We are very excited about the trip. It will be a learning experience for us all. We have never done any tours like this before. The trip is a couple of dreams put together with a just do it attitude. We won't push our kids as in 'we have to do this many miles'. Since we will be self contained, we'll be able to just stop where ever we want to. If it's going to take us two years to get to Alaska, well then so be it. The journey itself must be fun too.
I will certainly check out the family on bikes website. I just found it on google. That will be fun. We will have a website too, which is currently in the making. As soon as it's up I'll let you know.
The route will not take us through Kansas, we are going to hug the Atlantic south bound from Charleston SC to the Florida Keys, then hug the Gulf Coast to Texas. After crossing over to California, we'll be following 101 up the Pacific Coast.
I'll be looking into the Ortlieb and Arkel pannieres. I appreciate the input!

Amarins

Just a thought about a web site.... if you are looking to put your story in front of a lot of people....consider the "Crazy Guy on a bike" site. I did a cross country trip in 2007 with my wife and two sons (older than yours) and did our site thru the Crazy guy website and in 50 days we had over 66,000 hits.

here is the link so you can see how it works http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/tourdemiller

the key to web traffic is to make it so people can find it. Mine for example ---if you Google "Tourdemiller" boom straight to it. Everyone interested in cycling knew of the tour deFrance so Tour de Miller (our last name) was VERY easy to remember.

Another thought is to make cards with your website on them .....this is really easy using Word and precut sheets of bus card stock.

Good luck on your Journey

Mike:thumb:

Did I read right? A two year old on a stoker kit on a long tour??

What is your plan in Canada for routes ? I gather you'll be taking 97 North to Prince George BC ?
From there you'll have to decide north east to Dawson, and then up the Alaska Highway, or West on 16 to the start of 37 (Stewart Cassiar highway).

I have some knowledge of some of these roads. I've driven the Vancouver to Prince George - then 97 to Dawson Creek, the Alaska Hgwy to Whitehorse. I've also driven the car enough trips on the Alaska highway from Edmonton to Whitehorse to exceed the circumference of the planet.

I've been as far south as Dease Lake from the north side, but that was years ago, I'm not sure how good my memory is. Services are few and sections are still unpaved.

Either way you'll end up on the Alaska Hgwy just west of Watson Lake, Yukon and go through Whitehorse, YT on the way to Alaska.

I used to live in Whitehorse Yukon. Let me know if you need any info re: this area. I've I still have friends in Whitehorse, so if you need anything near there, shoot me a message...seriously.

Barb and Randall Angell of the Evergreen Tandem Club, rode their tandem from the Arctic Circle in Alaska to Key West, Florida in 2004. You can read about their trip at http://www.teamangell.com/.

Due to the ages of our children, we will not be riding the bike over the Alaska Highway. Perhaps we will on the way back. Our plans are to take the ferry from Port Angeles, WA to Vancouver Island. From there ride the bike to the most northern point (Port Hardy I believe) and catch another ferry to Whittier, AK. We will be getting of the ferry from time to time for visiting other cities and areas. Robin will be three in November, but we consider it just to young to go through so much wilderness.

The trip as we have it planned will take us through a city/village every day, so we can stock up on groceries. We plan on doing about 40 miles per day, with a 2-1 ride-rest ratio and then extra rest days in historical places, or where ever we feel like. Being self-contained gives us a lot of flexibility this way. We have a lot of time flexibility.

It's amazing to see how many long distance bikers are out there. I'll certainly look into the crazyguy site.

Thanks, Amarins

I checked out the family on bikes website. That one is a beauty. Thanks for the link. I have been in touch with Nancy (from familyonbikes). It's interesting to see how the bicycle community spins.

Amarins

1) we need pics of the Quint

2) A friend did Jacksonville to Key West in December, if you want any input on routing the Florida portion of your trip.

merlinextraligh: I have tried to attach a picture of a quint we looked at (ours will be similar), but the file is to big. I could sent it via e-mail if you'd like. Just e-mail me at walksinn@yahoo.com

We plan on taking A1A most of the way south from Jacksonville, FL. We haven't quite figured out how to get from Key Largo to Key West. We were told it's just a 2 lane road without much of a shoulder, which would inconvenience cars perhaps to much. We heard about bicycle clubs that sometimes go in big groups. We anticipate getting in touch with them and have their help.

All input is welcome.

Thanks, Amarins

For the FL part of your trip;

Key Largo to Key West will be easy compared to A1A.

Most of US-1 south of Florida City has a pretty good shoulder and there are a couple of sections of paved multi-use trails. There are also a couple of sections and bridges that you’ll want to plan on to ride in off peak hours. It’s been a while since we’ve been down there so you want to get some better advice from folks who’ve ridden it more recently.

A1A from J-ville to Key Largo will be much more of a challenge. A1A is not a continuous road. It stops at various un-bridged inlets between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean and you’ll have to detour out to US-1 or other busy highways, and then come back to the beach on the other side of the inlet. Not to say that all of A1A is a breeze either, some parts have full bike lanes, some have shoulders, and some have nothing.

Contact South Broward Wheelers and Everglades Bicycle Club for routes that might get you off A1A between Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach to Florida City. They may recommend you take an alternative other than A1A all the way to South Beach and through downtown Miami. If you insist on going to SoBe, EBC can give you the best route from there to Florida City.

First of all, good luck with your projected trip.

Second of all, you are planning on using a single-wheel trailer (Kool Stop or BOB). I would suggest you carefully look at your prospected load.

I have toured with my two daughters (only two) and in well-serviced areas. Yet, I find the Burley Nomad quite useful. For your trip, I see a few advantages in having such a 2-wheel trailer:
- Better cargo capacity (about twice the volume) and more weight capacity.
- Less tongue weight on the rear wheel of your bike.
- Less possibility of having a wobbly bike... though it would depend a lot on how rigid your bike frame is.
- Easier to pack the bike and pick it up in the morning.

In terms of wind resistance, a cargo trailer such as the Nomad doesn't have much more frontal area than a BOB, so it does not act as a sail like a child trailer.


There are two potential issues with the 2-wheel trailer :

- It has two tracks of its own, so if you ride on soft terrain or on trails, it might be a problem. However, with a quint, I don't think you will do singletrack.

- In spite of what it looks like, the overall width you will need on the road with a "narrow" 2-wheel trailer such as the Nomad is about the same that you would need anyway. My rear panniers are as wide as the Burley Nomad. So in the city, I need a total of 1 m anyway. On the highway, I guess I can ride about 15-20 cm closer to the edge without a trailer than with one. So in practice, you will need more room to manoeuvre on the road than if you were riding a single bike loaded with panniers, but the room will be needed because of the quint, not the trailer.
Note that I found it totally different when I pulled a 2-children trailer. It's only 82 cm wide (vs 63 for the Nomad), but those few centimetres really showed.

April Fool's???
A 2 year old. People will be calling Family Services in every county you ride through.

Good luck on the trip. Our extra stoker has been riding on the triple going into his 3rd season now. he just turned 6 this week. He can do 30 with a couple stops for food and play. we are planning on doing more with him this year. Can't picture trying to do this with him, never mind 3!

We finally have our website up and going. So check it out. There are lots of pictures of the Quint bicycle.
www.pedouins.org

Thanks for your patience!

Amarins

I am completely blown away by your planned trip. I can't even imagine doing this. I wish you and your family well. A part of me wishes I could live a less structured life and be as free.

Amazing. Everytime I see one of these sites/trips, it's the same things. In every case, someone's going to travel some part of the world "teaching" their children and everybody else they come into contact with how to "go green" and "live the dream". Only thing is, they need our money to do it. "Please donate!"

I often wonder if any of them realize just how hypocritical that is.

The "please donate " part doesn't really bother me. I think it takes courage to undertake an adventure like this.

We did a short tour from north of Los Angeles to San Diego last year with a 7 and 9 year old on two tandems. On one of the tandems we towed a Burley Nomad. As you know, kids tend to wiggle around a lot and with a two wheel trailer you are just stabilizing the kid rather than the kid and the trailer. A quad with a single wheel, very loaded, trailer might be a lot to handle, but that is just me guessing.

Riding about 35 miles a day and spending some time off the bike each day to explore was plenty for the kids - and us, on our tour last summer. I would guess you are planning on doing some stealth camping since campgrounds/hotels are not always that close in some of the areas that you are planning on going to. Might be kind of tough with a two year old. Especially in areas that you need to carry all your water.

Many years ago, before I did a solo European bike tour I read a book written by a couple that took a kid in diapers in a trailer along the described routes - in Europe where facilities are much closer together. It can be done, but it seemed like a lot of work.

We hope to ride Lands End to John O'Groats with the kids on the tandems when they get a little older so we can go a little farther each day. Just don't have that much vacation time.

"After crossing over to California, we'll be following 101 up the Pacific Coast."

Plan on having a strong headwind for about 1,200 miles. There is a reason nearly everyone rides south. It makes a big difference. You may want to consider altering your route.

Good luck :thumb:

Very impressive. Please don't forget to consider adequate horn/lighting/reflectors as well as hydration/first aid and wet weather gear on your journey. Your primary danger will be from moving vehicles who may not see you.

.

He is seriously outnumbered. LOL

I think it takes courage to undertake an adventure like this.

Oh, I agree. And I agree with all the other goals stated on the many websites I've seen of people making these trips.

But when you're asking for other people's money, you're not really "living the dream", are you? What you're doing is apparently not sustainable within the limits of your own resources, so you're asking people who still bother to work for a living to support you while you go on a fantasy vacation.

On their website they state, "On the trip to Alaska we want to share our family's journey with others to demonstrate how to live a dream despite the economic, social or educational climate."

But the only thing they are demonstrating is how to panhandle. It's the hypocracy of it that bothers me.

I see your point but I think in the greater scheme of things the bicycle community is served by individuals and families who make epic bicycling treks. If nothing else, people will see that the whole family actually cycle together. I somehow see it as a call for simple living. Probably will throw a few bucks their way via paypal.

I don't see it as being panhandling as much as a "If you want to help out, please do...". There is no arrogant hypocrisy such as an outright demand that we as tandem nation ought to support them. OP did not seek contributions in her post only rideshare and camping information. The support page was ancillary to her website (e.g. not blatantly conspicuous on front page). You may not have been charitable in your forthright pronouncement of hypocrisy.


So, if they announced 100% funding provided by...XXX Corp. then you will have felt better?

.

So, if they announced 100% funding provided by...XXX Corp. then you will have felt better?

hehe! Only if they were going to "demonstrate how to live a dream" based on tapping into corporate largess and/or advertising budgets! Course, 90% of the time, that wouldn't be very "green", would it?

I don't want to beat this thing to death, but c'mon. You don't see anything hypocritical about publishing the statement, "to demonstrate (to others) how to live a dream despite the economic .... climate", and then start asking for money?

Look, everything else about this project I both support and applaud, but I think they ought to either:
A. Pay for it themselves, or
B. Drop all the high-handed, altruistic verbage while they're asking for our money.

I don't want to beat this thing to death, but c'mon. You don't see anything hypocritical about publishing the statement, "to demonstrate (to others) how to live a dream despite the economic .... climate", and then start asking for money?

It takes money to do anything. I didn't see them saying that money wasn't necessary.

Maybe they're saying that just asking for help is a part of how one can accomplish doing something...:D

Can I go