I headed out yesterday on an overnight trip, my first bike tour, and a shakedown of my setup. I am riding a 2011 Masi Randonneur, which is stock except for changing to a 11-34t cassette, a Brooks saddle and racks/ panniers. I thought I'd share my experience with you guys, (I don't have my own hosting, so sorry if clicking for large images causes pop-ups).

Here is the bike all loaded up:


I rode from Castle Rock, CO to Cherry Creek State Park, about 30 miles away. The first day I rode 31.47 miles, average speed: 13.9 mph, max: 39.5 mph, time: 2.15 hours.

The ride went pretty smoothly, with a nice three mile downhill on Crowfoot Valley road where I almost reached 40 mph. I really enjoyed rolling along across the prairie, being able to see all of the sky and landscape, much of which I've missed when I've driven the road in the past.

The bike rides well fully loaded and wants to keep rolling along like a semi-truck. After about 10 miles on the road I rode on the Cherry Creek trail for the rest of the trip. This is a cement bike trail from Franktown to Denver, with an interruption around Arapahoe road that Fenny over in the "Mountain - Plains" forum was able to guide me around.

At the park I setup camp, I brought along my normal backpacking gear that worked great:


When I checked into the park office the girl thought I was crazy for riding so far, (I stressed that it was a relatively short ride) and asked me "what made you do that?!" I didn't really have an answer for her, only that it was a nice day and that it would probably be snowing tomorrow. I also got some odd reactions from others on the trip. Many roadies smiled and waved, which was a new experience for me. Also I had a ton of people ask where I was going, where I was riding from, etc. It was a fun way to get to talk with a lot of people I normally would not have.

After I setup camp and lounged around reading for a few hours, and had dinner I rode over to the reservoir shore to watch the sunset.


At night the campground was pretty noisy, with many heavy drinkers causing ruckuses. I was tired and listened to my ipod until things quieted down. I'm one who likes to go camping to enjoy the outdoors and be calm, so campgrounds usually don't do it for me. In the future I am going to seek out a quieter destination.

Sometime around midnight the wind started howling and shook my tent all night long. I wasn't able to get much sleep at all, and woke up after sunrise when it had calmed down. I knew from the weather report that a storm was moving in, so I made some quick breakfast of oatmeal on my stove and packed up.

The ride back up the path was tough, with a strong headwind blowing between 20-40 mph. It took me a couple of hours to ride back to where I would get on the road. I was facing an ride into the wind up the long hill I had flown down the day before. I could see the storm-front moving closer, and knew that I had to ride the last ten miles home fairly quickly so that I could make it to the airport to pickup my wife. The sun was shining but light rain was blowing all the way from the storm.

I stopped at the stream to have a banana and fill my water bottles, (I carry a water pump, my most often used piece of camping equipment). I was trying to psych myself up for the ride when something glorious happened: the wind changed direction 180 degrees, now it was blowing at my back! The hill took awhile to climb, but wasn't too tough without the head wind. I think I had a smile the whole time at my change of fortune. When I arrived home, tired, I had a tall glass of cold seltzer water and a hot shower. I had made it home on time, and shortly in short order it dropped 20 degrees and started snowing, a sharp contrast to the 80F temperatures the day before.

The ride home went like this: 27.73 miles, average speed: 11.3 mph, max: 33.5 mph, time: 2.26 hours.

I had a great time on the trip, with the time on the bike being the highlight. The campground wasn't the best, due to my noisy neighbors, but I am relaxing now and will head to bed early. I ended up using almost all of the gear I took along. It seems like the only things I forgot were Ibuprofen, ear plugs and a pair of casual shorts to wear around camp. I would call my shakedown tour a success, and look forward to many more tours in the future.

That Masi is a really nice looking bike.

Sounds like it was a fun tour, sometimes those overnight ones are just the break that I need. I'm waiting for a break in bad weather here so I can take a final shakedown 2-3 day tour before my big one this May.

I found it funny how you noted about the girl talking about how far it was. A few weeks ago I rode 30 miles to a town near here, just for a day ride. I stopped at a small little store and talked to the lady in there, and she was amazed I rode my bike 30 miles

Thanks skyzo, it was a fun little tour. Hopefully you get that break in the weather and can get out!

Foxtrot, a little bit of a side question but what Brooks saddle do you have on your Masi? I'm lookng at upgrading to a Brooks for my Jamis Aurora Elite and trying to get some different peoples opinions.


Thanks

I did a similar tour from the Springs up to Cherry Creek a few years ago, didn't camp in the campground proper, so my experience was quieter.

I have the Brooks Team Professional, (honey with copper rails) it is the only one I've owned but really like it.

I have the Brook's B17 Special in green its nice looking on my LHT and it rides good too.Short trips are a lot of fun here I had one set up here but other stuff came up but am hopping to get to do one this May.

That's great! thanks for the tour report. Definitely encouraging.

I gotta do a shakedown soon, also. I rode today with just my rear panniers loaded with crap and I definitely felt a different in how it rode. Made me think whether my 48-36-26 with a 12-25t drive train set up will be adequate. I might do a weekend tour instead of a S24O to prepare/practice for the real run.

edit:
I think I might need to do more loaded riding on my regular commute.

I rode unloaded around Cherry Creek Reservoir on Friday. A 60-mile round trip mostly on city bike trails for me. Your loaded speed sounds about equal to my unloaded speed. Nice work. Nice bike, too.

I had been considering an overnight shakedown to Chatfield, about the same distance for me. But I saw on Friday that there's a lot more shade at Cherry Creek. Your picture of your campsite tells me the same thing. Which campground were you in?

I was in the campground on the East side of the reservoir, I'm not sure if there is more than one. There was quite a bit of shade, I'm sure when the cottonwoods are leafed out it would be very shady. The cost was $16 (through April). It was nice, but one of my groups of neighbors were noisy- that seems to be pretty common in park campgrounds though. Next tour I think I will head out in a different direction and try camping somewhere quiet- the park was a great destination for a shakedown tour though.

The sunset picture with the bike is beautiful. Sounds like a fun trip... as soon as I find a bike I will be doing something very similar!

Nicely done! Do you have a map of your route?

I didn't map it on the trip, but here is a link to the Google map

It is accurate except for the Arapahoe road reroute, which fenny over in the "Mountain - Plans" forum helped me with, here are his instructions:

Nice write-up. I always bring ear plugs when I go camping. They don't weigh anything and can really help.

I have a campground with a hiker/biker site (San Simeon State Park) about 30 miles from home. Several times I've needed to get away from the stress of work and have taken an overnight tour up there.

I also find it fun that so many people want to talk to me when I'm on tour - stores, restaurants, campgrounds.