Originally Posted by
Paul J
Thanks for sharing this, this is helpful yo get others perspectives on the route. I've enjoyed following some of your rides the past few years. A couple we've been following on CGOB have done this ride twice on their Co-Motion Speedster which has been great information to get a feel of the ride. We have been riding pretty much all of our lives, and off and on with the tandem for 35 years so have a good idea of traffic and road riding. The touring part is where we are novices as we've only done one of two night out rides. We are hoping to get a multi-night tour in the summer to get some better feel for the riding, sleeping, riding, sleeping routine under our belts. We've pulled kids and grand-kids in two-wheel trailers so are pretty confident in that. I hear you on the climbs and we might be walking a few though I'm taking the gearing from 53/39/28 on the front to 48/36/24 coupled to a 34 tooth large rear cog. We've not walked many hills but we have stopped to catch our breath mid clime a time or two. :-)
My derailleur touring bikes have a granny chainring of 24, cassette big sprocket of 32, so that is slightly higher gear than the lowest gear you plan to have. But when the hills get steeper than about 9 percent grade I am happy to walk the hills to keep my heart rate better under control. I need to maintain a speed of about 3.5 mph to maintain vertical and directional stability on the bike, trying to pedal a heavy bike up a steep hill at that speed is more wattage than I am comfortable doing. Walking, i can go slower and use some different muscle groups. I have a lower gear on my Roholff touring bike, but that does not make the steep hills less steep, it just means I can spin faster on the hills that are shallow enough that I can still pedal up, thus on that bike I am just as likely to get off and push.
You said this coming Dec is when you retire, should I assume the Pacific Coast trip is for summer 2021? If so, you could try a one or two week long tour this year to get more into the mind set of multi-day touring. Being in Pennsylvania, maybe do GAP/C&O the full length out and back, or maybe just part of it. Or, take a week long trip with ACA somewhere, either one that is van supported so they haul your gear or one that is self supported so you haul your own gear. Then let them take care of the planning and logistics. If you did a van supported trip with them, make sure that they know you have a tandem in case that would complicate things, as they hauled our bikes a couple times on the roof of the van.
This past summer I pushed my bike up a 13 percent grade hill that was over 1,300 feet high, not fun but if I tried to pedal it, it would have killed me.