raydog

Well, tomorrow morning (Monday June 14) @ 6am, my tour from Reno to the Grand Canyon begins. Finally it's here!
My bike is a Motobecane aluminum as follows....Ultegra 26,40,50 triple, 12-27 10 spd cassette, carbon fork, Richey Pro wheels and 28 cm Gatorskins. I installed a very high bar stem and double wraped the bars...quite comfy. Total weight without water...24.5 lbs. I'm pulling a Bob trailer, went from a 45 psi tire to a 90 psi one. Total weight of Bob (including water and all cargo) is 51 pounds.
My riding buddy is also towing a Bob so our average mph should be similar. I know I could have packed lighter but my test rides have been really successful. The only critisism of the Bob I have is that you must pay more attention to steering and not let down your "riding focus".
I tried about a 9% grade this morning and made it in 1st gear.

Anyways, I'll be "off the air" for a couple weeks but will take pics and post the results upon my return....take care. Raydog

AdamDZ

Oh wow, that sounds like an ambitious plan! 100 miles a day for 8 days? Good luck, have fun and be safe!

mr geeker

dang thats ambitious. well, have fun.

valygrl

Check and see what the total weight limit of that trailer is - don't exceed the weight limit - or the speed limit until you are sure it's handling OK.

Have a wonderful trip!!!!

raydog

Thanks for the well wishes, the max capacity of the Bob is 75 lbs. and I'm only at 50....including the trailer itself.
OK, final farewell! In 15 minutes I'll be hammering down the road listening to the 1000 songs I put in my ipod (yes including Lady Gaga). Has anybody noticed how much more enjoyable music listening is WHEN you use a sunglasses mounted rear view? I feel so much better knowing what's comin from behind. BTW, I only use the earbuds on relatively untraveled roads....not busy city streets. Bye! Raydog

MUDDY88YJ

How was the trip.

Machka 

Good question. I don't think I've seen a ride report.

antokelly

probably died on the fourth day.

AdamDZ

Oh man, don't say that I read stories on CGOAB where people actually died on a tour from heat and heart attacks.

antokelly

only joking adamdz but hey doing 100 miles a day for 8 days ..
can you see a point touring like that i certainly cant .i hope they made it ok i would love to read there report ,
i know i would never be able to tackle those miles day after day nor would i want to.

johnr783

I toured like that this summer. I had a slight regret about not wanting to shift from my riding schedule too much but overall it was worth it.

I knew if I took too long in one area I would be risking my stay in major cities I wanted to visit later in the ride.

I averaged 90-100 miles a day and saw many great sights. Had I covered less ground, I would have missed quite a bit.

Machka 

I can ... but then I'm into long distance challenges like randonneuring and 24-hour races.

I figure there are two ends of the scale with tours:

1) Tours where you ride a little bit and sight-see, relax, take it easy ... maybe use alternate methods of transportation to get around, maybe participate in other activities like say, canoeing around a small lake just for fun, or going on hikes, etc. The goal might be to get to know another area a bit better, to get to know some new people, to see and try different things.

2) Tours where you challenge yourself to cover a certain distance in a certain amount of time, and where it is all (or mostly) about the bicycle and riding. RAAM would be an extreme form of this sort of tour. A tour where you ride 100 miles a day for 8 days is at this end of the scale ... it's a challenge. The goal is not sight-seeing or getting to know an area (although that may happen while cycling). The goal is to accomplish the challenge the rider has set out for him/herself.

And there are lots of variations of these two.

Because of my long distance cycling, I have a tendancy to lean toward the second one. I get out there and want to ride like I ride when I'm training for a long distance event, especially since there is usually a long distance event right in the middle of many of my tours. But I'm working on separating the tour from the long distance event ... ride easy, sight-see, do other things before and after the long distance event, and ride long and hard during the long distance event.

antokelly

last year i done just over the 100 mile mark in one day , ok i enjoyed the days cycling but i was glad i didn't have to do it the next day.
besides here in Ireland you don't have to cover distances like that to get from one beautiful place to other,(don't know how to add smiles).nah 60 miles a day is good for me thank you very much.

Enthusiast

Machka, I'm working on combining your 1 and 2 in a different way: I ride quite hard and fast but will stop on a dime for the smallest thing. I'll take hundreds of photos in a day, hold several enriching conversations, visit any attractions, yet since I bust a move on the bike, I'd still make 70-100 miles per day routinely.

Blues Frog

RayDog where are you??? Last post 6-14-10? Blues Frog

bored117 

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...1#post11096774

look like he survived

StephenH

I was thinking I'd seen an after-trip report on this, but don't remember what came out of it. Possibly there has been a post deleted at some point. Edit: Or maybe I'm remembering his comments where he tried the first century off the trainer for the year.

He had a wheel question post on the 19th, which was not 8 days later, so presumably he was not out 8 days.

Blues Frog

RayDog will be back.

TheHen

I often average 100 miles/day on my tours. Riding fast doesn't take the joy out of cycling nor does it preclude meeting interesting people and taking in the sights. If one averages only 15 mph it only takes seven hours of riding to go over 100 miles.

raydog

Hi you all! I'm so sorry I flaked out on a post ride report. My buddy and I started out and all was great for a couple hundred miles.....THEN....on Hwy 95 s/b the "bike trail" portion of the highway was 24" wide with 18-20 inches of that an effin rumble strip surface. It was endless, then the white line would disappear into a guard rail that narrowed the lane. A few times I felt the wind of big rig rearview mirrors on my head. A redneck lowlife drove up behind me and honked his locomotive type air horn, just to have a laugh. In a small central Nevada town (Mina) the wind picked up to 40 knots and in the evening, even in the tents, my mouth was full of sand. We called our wives, got picked up, drove to the North Rim and trecked for a few days. I then split, drove to Colorado and had 2 weeks of mixed road and mountain bike riding at altitude. It was heaven and the locals took me to places in high altitude meadows I would never have found otherwise. Anyways, yes, we wussed out and I learned a big lesson for my next tour.....PICK YOUR ROUTE! I will put so much effort into route selection in the future! BTW, my conditioning was fine and it was disappointing to not complete the planned experience. Next time it'll be way better, meanwhile I continue with 80-100 miles weekly to retain my base conditioning. Raydog

valygrl

Thanks for the recap raydog! Route selection is crucial, to be sure. So is having enough time flexibility built into the schedule so that you can wait out adverse weather or do shorter days when the riding is going slower than expected.

In case you don't know about it already, www.adventurecycling.org sells maps of long distance touring routes, many state Departments of Transportation have some cycling information and sometimes traffic volume and shoulder width maps. There's no one web site to go to, but with some googling and some phone calls (yes, really!) you can get a lot of info to plan better routes. you can sometimes also get info on www.crazyguyonabike.com, and ask in the regional forums here about specific roads you are planing to use.

If you decide to tour in CO, hit me up for info - but generally most of the mountain passes are OK to ride - some better than others.

antokelly

i could never average that speed on a loaded tourer just about manage it on my road bike, guess i'm getting old.
but i still say 100 miles a day is way to much cycling for a big percentage of cycle tourers .

raydog

Thanks Valygrl, I will ask you about some routes in the future. BTW, something I forgot to share, my Bob trailer weighed 52 lbs. out the door....I stopped at a post office 170 miles out and sheded 14 lbs., mailed stuff home, OMG, I can't believe how much better that trailer felt! "Every extra pound is an issue" is a true statement. Raydog

Quemal

+1

antokelly

raydog better luck next time around, can i ask what you taught of the bob trailer and what gear did you send back.