Atadloco

I bought a Surly LHT frame and finished building it up a few weeks ago. Leaving Wednesday morning from southern New Hampshire and heading to Burlington, VT for the annual EMS Nor'easter festival, should be arriving Friday night. First day will be about 80 miles, second day will be about the same and the third day will be 60 to 70..

Got my tent, sleeping bag, Advil and everything else packed up and ready to go, should be a fun trip. Anyone else heading up to Burlington for the festival?

Enjoy!!

zzOtherlandzz

Good luck and have fun on your first tour...... Let us know how it went when you get back....

Gotte

Hope it goes well. There's nothing like your first tour. Enjoy, and get back to us with the details.

10 Wheels

Have fun and take some pics to share.

Atadloco

The weather reports are all saying it is going to be a wet one. Rain starting Wednesday night (sleeping in a tent), continuing through the day and night and next day as well.... I may have to puss out and go next week....

zzOtherlandzz

I'm with you there.... I'm kind of holding out for the love bugs to leave and looking for a stretch of nice weather before heading out on my first tour (mini tour 3 night 4 day big circle ride). Luckily I have a bit of flexibility as for when I want to leave.

Good luck!

indyfabz

Huh? Weather Undeground is saying, at best, 50% chance of showers through Friday. None Saturday and only 30% chance on Sunday. 40% on Monday and 30% on Tuesday. Showers does not = all day, steady rain.

bradtx

I like that wunderground alot. With the drought we've had here I think I'd skip mounting the fenders and have at it like a little kid.

Brad

gpsblake

I got two thoughts bout this. One, if you are really going to go on an extended tour, you'll going to have to ride in the rain, wind, and other crappy conditions. Might as well do it now. Doing this in the rain will allow you to tweak your equipment and know exactly what you are getting into when you go on an extended tour.

The other thought is, touring is supposed to be fun and you won't have a lot of fun in the rain. But unlike what this forum claims, touring isn't all fun, It's a trade off.

Atadloco

So.... My first mini tour turned into a mini mini tour. I left early Wednesday morning on my fully loaded LHT complete with 40lbs of gear (I need new and lighter gear). This was my first ride on the bike while it was fully loaded, I have about 200 miles from just riding it after work. Yesterday I ended up riding 85 miles and the bike performed awesome.

I built the bike over the course of a few months, gathering information and asking many questions about various parts and configurations. I went with a SRAM triple mountain bike gears for the front which helped on the vast amount of hills I rode in central New Hampshire and Vermont. The Brooks B67 saddle is getting closer to be broken in, but still has a ways to go.

I made it to Ascutney, VT and stayed at the State park for the night. Wednesday was a beautiful fall day with a few white puffy clouds and lots of sun with temps in the low seventies. Referring back to my earlier comment that I will at some point need new gear leads me to 3:00AM Thursday morning when the what seemed to be torrential wrath of god type rain coming down onto my 15 year old tent with a less than waterproof rain cover.

I stayed in my damp sleeping bag until 7:00 or so until the point I decided to pack up and get back on the road. I decided it was best to ride back to NH instead of onto Burlington where I would be in a damp sleeping bag and damper tent for the next night.

So today's ride was wet and warm. Rained pretty much the entire day for the trek southward. Part of my purchase was LonePeak panniers that come with road sign crossing green for a rain cover which worked well in these conditions for both being seen by traffic and also kept my dry stuff dry and my damp stuff,,, well still damp. But not soaked. I also bought Ortlieb panniers for the front and those worked just as well without a rain cover.

So my first mini mini tour was a 165 mile round trip whichnwas a lot of fun even in the rain. I'm glad I went and very much looking forward to my week long trip next year..

Doug64

Good Job!

You answered the crucial question, "would you do it again"? It sounds like you are looking forward to the next time. That is a good sign. Someone should have warned you that bike touring is addictive.

When I asked a couple of young men if they enjoyed their 2 week tour of Iceland; one of them summed up most bicyle tours pretty well-- "some of it was enjoyable and some of it is really memorable".

gpsblake

Excellent! You learn a lot of things by mini-tours especially in less then ideal conditions. Best wishes.