Just sent you a PM.

.... i just replied.

You get Both, by working on organic farms WWOOF

Plus bacon and maple syrup, yum.

I agree with your sentiments completely, just not the way they were expressed because of the rules of the forum. Disagreements and discussion are great, but vulgarities should be avoided.....trust me I swear in real life, but even vulgarities masked by * or omitted letters are against forum rules so we shouldn't use them. I find the ignore button is very useful for some members as their posts are also best avoided.

I like to compare my bike touring food costs to a similar activity, long distance hiking. My last long tour, 4450 miles across the US (Northern Tier) in 55 days cost $12/day in food. I hiked the AT a few years earlier, 2180 miles in 106 days, and that cost $12/day in food. A trend maybe? Both trips were faster than normal, and I finished both at nearly my starting body weight and was able to return to a job as a firefighter without noticeable loss of muscle, so I think I did well with nutrition.

A note on cheap food--I think it's a false economy. As I do more long, strenuous trips, I find myself craving salads over ice cream, and will often spend $4 on greens rather than a milk shake, for instance. Try to avoid a "white food" diet.

Only food is very doable @ <$10 average if you are OK with packing some and carrying some extra weight. rice/beans/sausage/carrotcellery sticks. Very easy to cook, supply good callories and nutrition, and is cheap. Also powdered energy drink to mix with H2O is good if in need of extra calories. Where it gets you are the little luxuries: coffee, desert, and candy. For me, coffee is essential, so plan on an extra $1-2 per day for that depending on brand/cream/sugar, etc...


Camping in campgrounds or overnights in a hotel for a "good nights rest/refresh/clean" is where it gets you too. Hiker biker sites are great and pretty reasonable, but plan on at least $15/night for camping and up to $50+ for a hotel.


I really highly recommend doing a long weekend test run(s) before applying in practice. Planning and knowing what you can do is the most important part of the game. If you know you need eggs and bacon every morning to get motivated, then you need to plan your time and budget accordingly.

On my NT I took 55 days and spent around $3k from Anacortes to Boston. So that's ~ $50 a day. I stayed in motels a third of the time, warmshowers another third and camping for the final third. I think $50 a day is sensible as it allows for the odd motel and a good food budget. One thing you must do is eat well and regularly. Do not be tempted to skimp on calories as most of us have normal physiology and need to eat well to avoid bonking.

My daily routine was usually breakfast at a diner if I could find one. Then fruit and energy bars while riding. Lunch might be cheese and salami and flat bread or I'd buy a sandwich....SubWay is a great resource and way to load up on veggies. I'd usually carry two one litre bottles of water in my cages and often Mountain Dew in my jersey back pocket or handlebar bag. Dinner could be chilli, or a can of chunky soup that I'd pick up before camping. One of my best dinners was Chinese in Midland MI....endless rice! I also got into the habit of a Miller High Life after the day was done.

Pi's, by any chance?

I grew up in Midland!

Almost. I stayed in the Midland Econolodge and looked in at Pis but decided to go to the China Buffet across the road as it got slightly better reviews. I was mostly interested in volume of food so I was easy to please.

Reviews lied to you. I highly suggest pedaling back and having Pi's, which is by far better and also has all you can eat

I for one wouldn't even want to do a tour if I could only afford $7 - $10 a day! I'd wait to save up to try and push it to at least $20 so I could enjoy a few of life's pleasures along the way... a beer at the end of a long day, a big hot breakfast on a cold rainy day. Your going to be travelling through our beautiful country and you'll be penny pinching the whole time, which imho, just takes away from some of the great experiences.

I mean, even meeting and getting to know people becomes a challenge. If you use warmshowers, this means you'll show up to someone's house empty handed each time? Like not even being able to offer to cook them a meal for their generosity??

Im all for budget travel, but there's a line between budget and just being cheap. What happens if you meet some people, they buy a round of beers? You won't take one? And if you do...you're going to be that guy that takes and doesn't give?

The fact remains that my budget would still be $7/day with or without any host I may encounter along the way.

How did you get your calories? I eat really healthy at home. Salads, no dairy etc. On tour I can burn 8K calories and only eat 4K-6K and be fine. Salads, I've always been taught, are empty calories. Therefore I've avoided salads on tour.

Every time I've offered to cook my WarmShowers host a meal they refuse. I always get the "You're my guest so......" As for the beer? I don't drink. Unless it's cider. Outside of the PNW it's hard to find a real cider. (Angry Orchard, Woodchuck etc is not real cider).

On a side note: Knowing your metabolism is key. As noted before; Person A, B, & C all burn 8K calories. Person A only needs to eat 4K-6K (someone like me). Person B needs 8K. Person C needs 10K. What your body is trained to handle could be vastly different than others.

I've always penny pinched and still have a great time on tour without spending a lot of money. Money is materialistic and growing up poor you do without.

9 years ago I toured the 5 most eastern provinces- from Quebec to New Foundland. It was a 6 week tour, also strapped for money. I think I paid for one hostel and that was it. Fairly easy to find free places to camp - a lot my nights were camped behind churches and many of those next to cemeteries (insert spooky music here). So that's easy to do for free. You could always dumpster dive. I don't remember if in Canada supermarkets have a discount area for food that's expiring. We do here in the states. Maybe you could volunteer some soup kitchens along the way to get free meals?

There is something really wrong with this reasoning, unless you have a ton of body fat to burn, and even that is a finite resource. I'd like to see somewhere in the literature where this phenomenon is explained. I do not believe there is any way "training" can bring you to that point. If there is something that explains this training regime, it would be nice if you could share it with all of us.

Metabolism has nothing to do with it. If you burn 8,000 calories and don't replace them, there is a deficit. By most conventional nutritional estimates, you should have lost about 47 lb. on your 71 day journey, using a daily deficit of 2000 calories.

I'm vegetarian. I get minerals from leafy greens, veggies and fruit. And I enjoy them. Calories (and protein) come from nuts, cheese, whole grains like oats, bread, and fruit. Proper eating, I believe, is not only about the calories. Calories and salad shouldn't be in the same sentence--don't eat leaves for calories. I don't carry water for calories, yet it's necessary.

I cannot run a daily calorie deficit. A 3000 calorie deficit is a pound of body fat, or even more lean muscle mass. I have a lean build and cannot afford that one bit.

I carry about 4000 calories per day and that maintains my weight in most conditions, so I assume that's what I burn on my typical day of bike touring. On a tough day I might stop for a pint of Ben & Jerry's, a thousand-calorie treat (there goes half the $7 budget!).

On long strenuous trips I have a habit of checking the only place I ever store fat, the "love handles." If they go away, I know it's time to slow down, eat more, or both. I figure that's a pound or two each side, so not much buffer. Sorry if that's TMI.

It's got very little to do with metabolism and everything to do with how fast you ride, or not. If we make the wild leap you are actually eating like this, you are likely touring relatively slowly for your math to work. Once you get more fitness and train some more, you'll be riding harder, faster and will need to fuel yourself more. I can speak for myself, which is 100% contrary to what you are saying, but the handful of Elite level riders I train with and ultra runners I know, eat a lot and often and know better than to cut calories, especially during back to back days.

Become a warmshower host and give back

You think 7$ a day is OK... WOW. I try not to spend too much, but... WOW. Not a chance of that working for me... Doing without, if that is how it works out is, well, just the way it is sometimes, I grant you that... BUT, excepting it, as a way of life... NO THANKS.

Unfortunately I didn't weigh myself before the trip. I think my weight stayed relatively the same. Around 155lbs, +/-5lbs.

I have a really good running coach and I totally agree that it's not common to the general public but it is to the people I hang out with because of what we do.

Part of it (I think) comes from growing up so poor and running marathons after eating barely anything. Your body becomes use to it.

haha It's all good. One of my sisters I tour with is vegan and another is pecestarian (sp?). The vegan sister ate a ton of peanut butter (without honey of course).

I usually go with store brand ice cream. $1-$2/pint

Thanks for the information though!

I am one! I'm also a Couchsurfing host! I live outside of Portland so I get folks doing the TransAm occasionally. 2017 will mark the 6th year in a row I've done a 2+ month long tour though so I'm gone during the peak season.

When you are a bit more fit, like most the folks in this forum, you'll probably burn a bit more and eat like the rest of us! Until then keep up the good work. Your jogging coach sounds like he knows what he is doing. I can give you some training advice, just PM me, I'm familiar with Joe Friel, I got through half his book. Good luck.

Which book? He's written a dozen or so. I have a few of them. He was Ryan Bolton's coach. I heard he lives outside of Scottsdale (at least the back cover of one of his book says so but it's an older book) so may see if I can reach him when we pass through on the Southern Tier in a few months.

Yeah, he does! Him and his wife are both avid runners. She's an Olympian. He's not that competitive but he's also her coach.

PS: Just noticed you live in Portland. We (Nike) had our Christmas party downtown tonight. Took me 3 hours to get home to Beaverton

OK to be on the opposition I've got to put up the other perspective on food.

On tour I eat two oatmeal packs for breakfast with a protein powder serving about 50% of the time I'll stop for second breakfast at a diner of an omelette. For both lunch and dinner I'll have a pasta side each or soup or some other filling food along with bread or sandwiches. On a daily basis I'll try to stop at a local ice cream shop on my path to have a double scoop of ice cream. Please know I'm not exactly a fast I'm only moving 50 to 75 miles a day. On this diet I can easily be losing half a pound or more a day. However for a long journey you've got to think are you going to do if you lose weight like this. You probably already know if you are in such condition that you will simply lose weight like this. Please note I don't have the weight to be losing starting my last tour at 160 and finishing at 135. I don't bonk but I am not hungry, so don't eat more even as I know I am losing weight.

So for the cost of food it may be a lot higher then you plan, to stay on my budget I removed some money from the museums entrance tickets part of my plan for more food. Yes I feel bad about skipping the museums I wanted to see but it put the whole tour was in the budget.

I want to go on a year long tour but am double thinking this goal.

I spend between $10-$20 a day on food on average.

Another false economy! Next time you reach for cheap ice cream, check the calorie content. Ben & Jerrys is typically double, justifying the extra cost. It tastes better, too.

Ty,
What distances did you run at WSU, I'm surprised that if you have the talent to become a "professional" athlete that you were not there on a full scholarship, and food would be the least of your problems. I'm also a WSU alum.