Originally Posted by
venturi95
When I was 15 I went on my first tour with my best friend and riding pal, Ed. I had a box stock Schwinn Colligate Sport (drop bars, Schwinn gas pipe frame, steel rims, 26x1 3/8 Schwinn tires, 5 speed w/chainguard). A pletcher rat trap rack was poorly attached. I packed a lot of canned food, a crappy tent, heavy crappy sleeping bag, and 3 pairs of full length Levis. I remember - trying with all my might - that I could only lift the loaded rig about 1 inch off the ground. We had an absolute blast, there was no one there to tell us we couldn't.
Yep. I did pretty much the same 'cept on a Rayleigh Record 10 speed also with a Pletcher. Had the dreaded rear-end overloading problem referred to recently in previous threads. We were forced into the dirt on a Boston-to-Quebec City tour by some idiot passing on a two lane road. My bike did a 180 all by itself and ended up going backwards. Came to a stop and I was still upright. A least I didn't need to strain my neck to look back at my friend who was also off the road but all right.
What a great tour that was. Everyone thought we were lost, down, out and wanted to help. We would stop at roadside stands to buy food and would have to force money on the owners who would think we must be riding bicycles that "crazy distance" because we couldn't afford otherwise...Then later you would find a lot more in the bag than what we had paid for.
I always looked on the "mechanical details" as a minor price to pay for discovering how wonderful and generous most people in the world can be (the idiot not withstanding).