pdlamb

50.1% of posters aged 55 and up would be "most." You have any demographic data on who uses BF to back up your assertions?

spinnaker

Who says they can afford $17K for a trip? Only you do.

indyfabz

pdlamb

IKR

It's not quite feeding the troll, more like tweaking the troll...

ksryder

LOL.

Tell me you got a feeling of intense satisfaction when this thread reached multiple pages? I'm proud on your behalf.

DropBarFan

I think US bike tourists are probably a bit more up-scale than avg. One can tour cheap but nice bike/equipment/transport can add up. OTOH I haven't seen any posters owning ultra-premium $8-10K touring bikes.

Even folks with money don't usually throw it away so I'm a bit mystified why folks would pay the absurd Trek price. What really gets me is the regimentation. Plus with internet/GPS/phones any half-way intelligent newbie should be able to plan a nice CC trip. Folks worried about accidents etc can carry RoadID, satellite phone etc.

Tourist in MSN

You are right that people with money do not usually throw it away, if you spend like you are rich you have a much smaller chance of becoming rich than someone that spends like they are poor. But, I am not that surprised, you only need a dozen to sign up and I could see a handful of people that have the time and the money to do it. And of course they would need the fitness and interest in doing it.

indyfabz

Yep, and that minimum appears to have been met as the site notes the ride is guaranteed to run and that there is limited availability. There are people out there who have the means, physical ability and desire to do stuff like that. The head of my department told me about a former neighbor of his who is into "crazy" stuff like that. In fact, from what he told me she may have done this very tour a few years ago since he said she rode across the county averaging over 100 miles/day.

raria

I think covering the cost is not that challenging, but the 100 milesa day, that is tough. That's a good 6-8+ hours in the saddle!

indyfabz

I looked at the description for a couple of days in Montana since I have done some touring there. Missoula to Helena is 125 miles with more than 5,600' of climbing. The next day, Helena to Bozeman, is 120 miles with 4,100' of climbing. I wouldn't like that.

When I was looking to ride across the country in my mid-30s I was sort of a "bike snob." In my mind, people who did loaded touring were older, bearded, tree huggers. They wore tube socks from Woolworth's, Bell V-1 Pro helmets and cotton t-shirts. Their bikes were old and their panniers dirty. They carried all that gear because they were not strong enough to ride fast on road bikes. Why was that my image? Because that pretty much described the small handful of touring cyclists I knew. When my research into organized, supported x-country tours revealed high prices and consistently long days. I didn't want either, so I decided to go self-contained with Adventure Cycling. I wanted to go with a group since I had never even slept in a tent before. (I only took one, fully-loaded day ride of 62 miles the week before I hopped the train out west to start the tour.) Turned out my image of touring cyclists was dead wrong--for the most part. There was one guy in our group of 13 who sort of matched the above-description. I was so glad I went the way that I did. After we reached Bar Harbor, ME from Seattle I was enjoying myself so much that I rode home to Philly and then on to Ocean City, NJ. Took two other long tours the following year during my hiatus from the working world.

skookum

That pretty much describes me and my touring buddy. Funny that nobody else wants to hang out with us.

saddlesores

you forgot the rearview mirror that clipped onto the eyeglasses!

Tourist in MSN

I did not know any bike tourists when I was a kid or young adult. But I had wanted to try it ever since I worked in a bike shop in my late teens. I met a couple in the early 80s (when I was about 30) that were bike touring, they were camped in the campground next to my site. They were teachers, had the summers off so they went touring every summer. They had either the old Cannondale Overland panniers in rear or maybe the Kirtland panniers. And I think they had handlebar bags, maybe another bag on back but not much else. I remember thinking that they had a lighter load than my backpack for backpacking.

I looked over their bikes, average mid level bikes but each failure they had they replaced the part with really high end stuff so they had an odd mix of components on their bikes. A wheel that has a lot of miles on it, the spokes will have grooves worn into them where they touch other spokes. And I saw that their spokes where they touched other spokes had more wear on them than just about any other wheels I had ever seen. They had cut ensolite foam from their foam pads to wrap around the handlebars and secured there with duct tape. They looked like they had the entire bike touring thing figured out perfectly.

pdlamb

I got curious after reading this thread for a while, so I checked Adventure Cycling (van supported) and Pactour.com. Both of them will get you across the country for about $8,000; one mostly tenting and taking ~80 days, the other in motels in 30 (and yes, that's about 100 miles/day average).

I don't ride fast enough to enjoy the extra $9,000 of luxury on Trek's tour. At the end of a 100 mile day I want food, a shower, and a bed.

jamawani 

Would that ship be, perhaps, the Titanic?

alan s 

DropBarFan

Those tours are a lot more reasonable esp since Trek stays aren't all 4-star hotels. OTOH one still pays a hefty premium for the organization/support. I guess some folks really like the group aspect and/or minimizing time ie bucket-list thing.

spinnaker

It is a lot more than just riding with a group. They arrange for each nights stay and meals. They haul your bags and they are there if you need them to get you to the stopping point for the night. That is huge. It makes it easy for those that are not entirely sure of their abilities and don't like facing the unknown. .

indyfabz

Since you went there....Mary Anne or Ginger? Me: Mary Anne hands down.

Interesting bit of trivia: Despite wearing short shorts on the show, Mary Ann (played by Dawn Wells, who represented Nevada in the 1960 Ms. America pageant) was not allowed to show her navel on TV. Wells helped design the shorts so that they rose high enough in the front to cover her navel. She owns a business that designs clothes for people with limited mobility.

saddlesores

okay, raise your hands.....how many here just googled (ogled?) "mary anne's navel"?

indyfabz

Should have clarified that in the early days it was not allowed. Sorry. Been up since 4 a.m.

spinnaker

She would make a pretty nice roommate even today.

mev

I've found more than cost, this is perhaps the biggest difference between an supported vs. unsupported extended trip. It is also going to be a personal preference thing. Some will find it liberating, others will find it really frustrating.

On the liberating side, some like the fact that you mostly can concentrate on showing up and riding. Everything from mapping out the route, arranging accommodation, hauling gear, buying groceries/picking restaurants might be done for your payments. If something comes up, you've got backup of a support vehicle.

On the frustrating side, to keep logistics of a group going, there are often fixed schedules and other choices. Today's route is X miles even independent of weather, how you are feeling, mechanical issues, etc. For some finding routes, accommodations or food is part of the adventure and the otherwise fixed nature can be frustrating.

For the frustrating reasons, I can't ever see myself doing this type of extended trip in the US (a few days is different). I have however, taken supported rides outside the US including TDA across Africa. In that case, I was willing to trade off some structure for logistical help crossing Africa. I probably could have done it on my own, but the structure provided by TDA gave me some confidence in traveling I wouldn't have had on my own - even after crossing four continents prior to Africa.

So I'm willing to believe that there are personal differences that come into both confidence and willingness to make different tradeoffs here.

spinnaker

My big problem with supported tours or even group rides. While I often have to meet my own schedule, it is my schedule. I typically make my days short figuring that I would rather want more ridding at the end of the day then hating the fact I need to do another 10, 20, 30 miles when it is near the end of the day and I am dog tired.

The ultimate is to have an open ended schedule where you just do the miles you feel like doing that day. It is way I like Europe so much, A train almost always has your back.

alan s