View Single Post
Old 04-16-15 | 05:52 PM
  #1  
Shiloh253's Avatar
Shiloh253
Senior Member
 
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 103
Likes: 0
From: Laramie, WY

Bikes: 2015 Motobecane Mirage S

Considering a long, long trip to school

So, I had a crazy idea the other day.

Short rundown of things going on:
-I don't have a car/license, due to eyesight problems
-Moving from a community college in Riverton, WY to the University of Wyoming in August/September of 2015
-All of my friends who have cars have moved or are going to move out before then
-I need to get there somehow, parents live in western WA so that's far from convenient for them.

Now, most "normal" people would probably just find someone else with a car, take a bus, etc. But I thought this might be a great opportunity to test my confidence, dedication, equipment, and cycling abilities. I currently ride about 5-10 miles a day, but that's increasing consistently.

It's about 350 miles from Riverton (where I live) to Laramie. I checked google maps and found it's relatively flat, with a few long but pretty shallow climbs on the way there. If I did this, I'd also plan on doing the following:

-Mailing a good amount of my stuff ahead of time, so I only have to carry the minimum
-Getting rid of a lot of junk that I don't need beforehand
-Ensuring my bike is capable of the task (Trying to sell my Trek 3900 ATM, looking at something like an affordable aluminum frame model such as a Vilano or Giordano)
-Making sure I'M capable as well. Sometime next week I plan on doing a 25 mile trip to the nearest town and then taking a bus back, just to see how I handle that.
-Spending at least a few days a month practicing living out of my bike.

Does that sound doable, and do you pros have any advice? The longest I've ever ridden before was around 40 miles and did that in an entire day, though that was because we were with a bunch of people and kept stopping for pictures, bathroom breaks, saddle adjustments (lots of those) etc etc.

Right now this is more a pipe dream than anything else, but I'm still really excited and hoping I can pull it off. It'd be a great opportunity to test myself beyond what I've tried so far.
Shiloh253 is offline  
Reply