bikefor2

Do you think it's possible for two people to do a tandem tour from San Francisco to San Diego (two weeks) by taking only rear panniers and a tail/rack bag? We don't want to add handlebar bag or front panniers, but we realize that it's difficult for two people to pack one bike and only use rear (fairly large but not the largest) panniers. Any advice, feedback or suggestions? We won't be camping or cooking, just staying in motels and eating out.

valygrl

Yeah, of course! For a CC tour all you need is one set of bike clothes (including cold/wet weather gear), one set of clothes to wear in the hotel/restaurant and your toothbrush.

Philly Tandem

I'd encourage you to use at least a small handelbar bag. They are invaluable on tours as a place to stash valuables, camera, etc., You can easily remove it to head into a store, restaurant or whatever. As long as you don't load it down too much it won't impact handling much, if at all (especially on a tandem).

Our our tandem (and triplet), I've found that spreading the load between front and rear panniers makes for much better handling, even if you don't need the extra room. If you already have front racks and panniers, consider using them. (If you have to buy them, then I'd skip the purchase.)

sstorkel

I rode from San Francisco to Los Angeles using a 1200 cubic inch Carradice Nelson Longflap saddlebag and 600 cubic inch Lone Peak H-100 handlebar bag. I took quite a bit of stuff! Most, but not all, of it detailed in this post. As briwasson suggests, I put expensive or important stuff (wallet, digital camera, Kindle, maps) in the handlebar bag which made it very easy to carry into a store or restaurant when I stopped.

DCwom

We've done CC touring with our tandem using rear panniers, trunk bag, and a really small handle bar bag. The handle bar bag was for wallet, phone, maps, tissues, etc. Basically stuff that you don't want to dig through your panniers for. To travel as light as possible we've only toured in the summer so we don't carry any cold weather or rain gear, additionally your "off bike" clothes can be shorts, t-shirt & flat sandals which take less room. The down side of course is that you have to wash clothes often and you don't have decent clothes for dinner if you happen on an upscale place, this of course depends on where you are touring and what you want to do.

Look for sink size packets of laundry detergent, I found Tide in a local beauty store (Harmons), these are handy if you end up in a hotel without laundry available. Your pannier needs may also be dictated by your partner, in our case my stoker requires more luggage than I; be sure to discuss this early in the planning. Footwear takes a lot of room so I use toe clips and sneakers rather than "clipped in" cycling shoes when touring, while my stoker uses the afore mentioned flat sandals off bike.

Since we ride a long bike I've found its easier to shuttle our van (by renting a car) from start to end point sometime during the tour, this motorized break during the tour allows an opportunity to swap out clothing, and wear some decent clothes for dinner, etc. This motor break is very nice in a city where you might want to spend time touring .

Have you checked out the crazyguyonbike journals from other tandem tourers?

fietsbob

Guess you need a way to call ahead to the next Motel reservation,
that is not too far from the last one.
since tent and 2 sleeping bags and such won't be brought with.

Pat from CA

Good places to stop would be
Santa Cruz
Carmel
Ragged Point Inn
San Luis Obispo
Lompoc
Santa Barbara
Oxnard
Malibu/Santa Monica
and not sure beyond there

This trip can be done fairly easily in two weeks

spinnaker

You forgot Montara. Excellent hostel. If it were a hotel it could easily fetch well over $200 for a room and I think it is around $70 for a private room. But wow I just did searches for random nights and it looks to be pretty full from now till the fall. Maybe worth a call.

MassiveD

You could do a bike camping trip that way.

https://www.rayjardine.com/adventures...rica/index.htm

Pat from CA

There is the hostel in Montara and a hostel in San Luis Obispo... they fill up pretty rapidly.