cinelliguy 

Just to share a brief description of my tour from Redwood City CA to San Luis Obisbo CA, on my 76' Masi. This was a three day ride. Redwood City to Pebble Beach (102mi/7,500ft), Pebble Beach to Cambria (102mi/7,700ft) and then the third day was Cambria to San Luis Obisbo (39mi/1,400ft). In SLO we took the AmTrak train back to San Jose, then took CalTrain from there back to Redwood City, then rode home by 10pm. The mission for me was to do a pretty challenging tour on a vintage steel bike and see how that went. Just like other vintage riders who I deeply respect.

My ride buddy rode a five year old Moots (Titanium of course) heavy duty touring model with Shimano Di2 gearing, 35mm tires and very slim/aero bags. A fast, modern set-up. My Masi has an IRD triple touring crankset, freewheel is also a 13-32 IRD , tires are Rene Herse Stampede Pass 700c x 32. I used a standard old school Carradice Camper Longflap with a seat rail mount and an older Ostrich handlebar bag. The fully loaded Masi weighed in at 42lbs, I weight 165lbs.

My impressions: I think that the Masi did ok for a non-touring geometry, way more in the direction of a road bike (aka Gran Criterium!). The loading balance for the Masi was really a big deal. I had suspected that any weight on the front was going to present some challenges. And it did. After just a few hours or riding/climbing I realized that I needed to get as much weight off the front end as possible, so I just moved anything with any weight in it to the large Long Flap bag in the back. The issue was all, for me, related to slow speed seated climbing and the tendency of the front end to change directions much too easily and being a challenge to keep riding straight. This turned out to be a big deal on day 2 along the curvy sections of Hwy 1. I had to put a ton of attention and effort into making sure the bike held a safe line. This factor added to downtube shifting, selecting the right gear smoothly, and just dealing with the "climb/descent repeats" that is the nature of this ride added up to a pretty intense ride. BTW, the Carradice bag performed perfectly in my opinion. The only negative would be its width, it did slow my descents I think. All that said, I feel I accomplished my mission and have a new level of respect for touring riders such as Jobst Brandt, Peter Johnson, John Woodfill, Jan Heine who rode/ride with this set up.

Here are some images of the tour: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cinell...77720303063373

davester

Nice! Similar to our Touroica tour last year. though your second day distance was about the same as our second and third days combined. I'm curious regarding your first day route. Did you do Kings Mts/Tunitas Creek/Stage Roads like we did or some other route.

Bad Lag

Looks AWESOME! I love that road but have never once stopped at the town of Big Sur.

Does this qualify as "credit card touring"?

The bike's weight was very low, what did you carry on them.

cinelliguy 

The route to get up on Skyline was Pierce/Hwy 9 to Saratoga Gap, then head south from there. We wanted to stay on the ridge as long as possible with the turn west being near Corralitos. Summit store for lunch.

cinelliguy 

Yep, you're right, credit card tour, no camping gear. The bags contents: Handlebar bag - snack food, sunscreen, wallet, phone, tire lever, small hand pump, and cold weather gear. Long Flap had tool kit, spare tire, shorts, tee shirt, sweater, back up set of bib shorts & jersey, socks, baseball cap, toiletries, charger/cables, night running lights, extra road food.

Spaghetti Legs 

Well done and looks like a fine time. I always love me some California coast pics.

Bad Lag

I spent an hour or so today fantasizing about credit card touring and using MapMyRide.

I started the route in Carmel with stops in Big Sur, Gorda and Cambria.

It would be about 100 miles total, covered over 3 days of leisurely riding - breakfast, 15 miles, lunch, rest, 15 more miles, sight seeing, motel and dinner,... repeat for three days.

The high point was somewhere around Big Sur at 1,000 ft ASL.

Bad Lag

I spent time looking for overnight accommodations at the planned stopping points.

HOLY CRAP!!! Almost everywhere wanted $4k/night with a 2 night minimum stay and they were 100% booked up until February or March.

One place had yurts at $400/night and up; their camping sites were $125/night for a bare patch of ground.

Well, that burst my bubble.

cinelliguy 

Yeah, that's sort of the way it is. For me, we stayed in Pebble Beach the first night, its a friend's get away home, cost was free. In Cambria we stayed at the BlueBird one double bed room, $179. BTW, super nice people, would go back there in a second. Hearst San Simeon State Part tent camping is $35-40 per day, and I have stayed there for the Eroica a couple of times, its just ok, if neighbors are cool.

Bad Lag

Monterrey area and Cambria do have reasonable accommodations but they are 100 miles apart, longer than I wanted to travel in a single day. I could do it but,... why?

I wasn't really thinking of this as a camping trip. There must be decent places to stay along that route that do not cost an arm and leg - I need them all to ride, the kidneys, too.

Maybe I can call Uber and have them pick me up when I get tired. That would be less than $4k/day. It would be an Uber "sag wagon".

Kabuki12

What an adventure, nice photos. Some day I will do a long trek on my bike and I’m sure it will be a coastal ride. Maybe Oregon fro Washington to California. I think the accommodations would be more affordable. Those Cali prices are absurd.

Bad Lag

Everything I've learned about this trip points out just how EPIC what you guys did really was.

Great trip, great photos, epic ride. Congratulations to you both!