What do you use to clean your chain on tour? Just a rag. Do you use any solvent? I thought about using methyl alcohol fuel as a degreaser, anyone try this?

The ultimate advice on desert touring is available in your own state from Jim Malusa who joined the forums a couple of days ago. Buy his book Into Thick Air which describes his bike tours through some of the world's most inhospitable deserts, or PM him. See this thread from a couple of days ago:

https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/453385-pedaling-pits-bicycle-travels-lowest-points-earth.html

Otherwise take - water, water and more water!

Look for visitor centers, forest ranger stations, gazette maps show windmills, etc the host will know where the water is along your route if they are any good.
You can usually get about a 100 miles off them where water is found.
Bring water tablets.

Bring a tarp. Very hard to find shade, yet getting out of the shade for an hour will do wonders.

Use wic shirts.

Lip Balm

Bandana and glasses for dust storms.

get up early sleep durnig high noon.

Do you think I will be okay with 5 L of water for going through southern California, northern Arizona, and southern Colorado? I checked my route on a map, and the longest empty stretch I found was about 50 some miles with nothing at all. I am not positive that all of the tiny towns will have some sort of store though.

Also, I have no problem with camping a little ways away from the highway, but will you get hassled by state patrol or passer bys because of the lack of cover? Also, should I worry about scorpions sleeping with me?

Dear Dan the Man,

Don't fret over the scorpions, but do check for them. I've been stung twice, but only in cabins, and not while sleeping outside. If the weather is fine for sleeping, I don't use a tent, and this is generally seen as reckless among non-desert folk. It isn't. Snakes and scorpions use their venom either defensively or to subdue prey, so your job is avoid merely to avoid being a threat. (In other words, because they will not attempt to eat you, they will not attack you, so long as they're not goaded into self-defense). Tents are attractive shelter for snakes and scorpions, so if you feel more secure inside of one, make sure it is securely zipped at all times - or you may have a visitor.

As for water, you'll soon figure out how much you need, based on the temp, distance, and realiability of info on the next available source. By the latter I mean this: if you've got a long distance to cover, ask more than one person about the next water source. When all the answers agree, you're more confident of the information. And don't worry too much: in the American Southwest, somebody will drive by sooner or later, and if you run out you can always beg, an easy matter for a cyclist: just stand by the road holding an upside down water bottle that shows your need.

You ain't gonna die out there by thirst, nor by vermin. Vehicles are your biggest danger, so pick the loneliest routes. (vechicle counts, by road, are available on the internet for many states - but remember that these can be highly seasonable, meaning that there may be very very people on the road from Yuma to Lake Havasu City in September, but a million on Labor Day, all of them towing power boats).

The big views, the easy camping (no searching for a clear spot to lay your bag, yet easy to hide from police and thieves - just pick a low point, and don't put up a tent), and the delicious evenings - you'll soon be hooked on the desert. Or wished you never listened to my advice.....


Good Luck,
Jim Malusa

I am carrying a Hennessey Hammock. The hammock isn't much use without trees, but I figure I will just peg out the fly as an open triangle with my bike holding up one corner and sleep under that.

Dear Dan,

I'll admit that I've never used a hammock for a bike tour, but that's because I prefer riding through deserts. As you guessed, there are few desert trees worthy of holding up a hammock (the larger mesquite and palo verde are well-defended by a tussle of thorny branches, so you'd need a saw as well as a hammock). And the chances of finding not one but two the correct distance apart are mighty slim. Worse, I wouldn't attach a hammock to your bike, for use as a fly - it could very easily bring your bike down on top of you with a gust of wind. (Does the wind come in the night? Yes, particularly when a storm's approaching, or near the rims of canyons, or in mountain passes).

Yours,
Jim Malusa

I wouldn't use the hammock with a bicycle as a support, that would be silly. The hammock has a separate fly that sets up over the hammock to keep you dry. I would just set up the fly over where I am sleeping. I would stake out two corners to the ground, and then tie the third corner to a cord that goes over my bicycle seat and stakes into the ground. Obviously I wouldn't trust an unsupported bicycle to hold up a fly. If it started to rain, I could quickly stake down the fourth corner to make a ridged cover, kind of like a rectangle with the diagonal going up my bike seat, and the other corners attached to the ground.

Dan,

OK, I get it: the bike is a post to hold the fly off the ground, and over you, as well as keeping you bike dry. Might work, too, but it still sounds like sleeping with a bike which I presume is balanced upon its kickstand. What's holding it up? Maybe you could let us know after you give it a try during a storm...

Signed,
Mr. Curious

Go buy thin, white cotton dress shirts from a thrift store to keep the sun off. Bright white cotton has an SPF of about 8.

Do not expose your skin to the sun if you can help it, it will prevent all sorts of trouble- from sun rash to heatstroke, plus the cotton can be wetted and will act as a nice evaporative cooler. This works well in dry air.

Also, I own a hennesy hammock, and it is wonderful; however, I think the desert is the worst place to take advantage of its benefits. The rain fly is too small and oddly shaped to conveniently serve as an effective cover when not combined with the hammock. There will be a dearth of trees for use in hammocking. You would likely be better off with a light colored square or hex shaped tarp, not that the hennesy idea cannot be done, I merely suggest that it will be inconvenient and work poorly.

When I toured with my daughter and one of her former college room mates, they did something similar. They used a cheap replacement water bladder complete with hose and bite valve ($8 from WalMart). They put it in the front pannier and had the hose run up to the handlebar. They had to bend down a bit to drink, but found it worked very well. They would fill it with ice and water and even in 100+ F heat it stayed cold a long time. The only drawback was that it was hard to judge how low they were on water until they ran out. Since they also carried bottles they used the bottles last for that reason.

On the bottled vs distilled vs tap water issue. I alway drink tap water unless it tastes really nasty, then either filter or resort to bottled water. Since I prefer not to carry a filter that usually means tap or bottled water only. In the US I just take my chances that the tap water is safe.

I think that distilled water tastes AWFUL. I guess that if you added the right minerals it might be OK, but when we bought it by mistake we found it almost as bad as the really bad tap water we were trying to avoid. We wound up using powdered gatorade mix so we could stand to drink it. It is hard to stay well hydrated when the water tastes bad.

Dear Bikemiker,

Your daughter's trick of tucking a bottle of ice water into a front pannier is an excellent idea. It's reminds me of another trick: using a sleeping bag as insulation. On even the hottest day, a can of beer snuggled into a sleeping bag (stuffed in its sack and strapped on the rear rack) stays cold for several hours. And if you don't like beer, it will work with anything cold.

Yours,
Jim Malusa

Not a real good idea. Methanol is not the healthiest thing to handle in that way (there is another thread about this), not the best thing to dump into the environment, and probably not a real good solvent for grime either. The liquid orange cleaners would be better or even charcoal lighter fluid.

At the risk of sounding careless, I never clean my chain. Of course, if there's a small rodent stuck in there I'll knock it off, but I don't do anything with my chain besides a wipe down with a rag after oiling. That's all, and I've yet to suffer any chain-maladies, despite being reduced, on a tour in Kyrgyzstan, to using butter for a lube. Am I just lucky?

Yours,
Jim Malusa

I am convinced that using solvents or water and citrus degreaser helps the grit get farther into the chain. Putting on lube and wiping it off is all I do unless it is completely caked in mud. I that case I gently rinse it off with plain water and let it dry before relubing.

As far as lubes... I have had the best luck with Boesheild T-9 and the worst with White Lightning. My chains all seen to last very well.

We just use a dry rag to wipe our chains before and after lubing - seems to work fine for us.

As for the comment on the CamelBak - a friend of ours rigged up the CamelBak tube to his water bottle so he didn't have to reach down and grab the bottle (he was captaining a triple, so it's hard to let go with one hand). He said it was wonderful having the nozzle right there so he could very easily grab it.

Just wanted to thank each of you who also helped bring this board back to life. I think before I stopped in the last post was back in 2005. And the great information keeps flowing. And to nancy_sv bravo on your family riding the Alaska Highway that must of been a great experience and to break a record besides bravo.

An earlier thread of yours also mentioned a possible Discovery Channel Spot did that pan out and is it available? For now thanks once more to you and to each of the people who also brought this area back to life. Otherwise the trip is nearing morea nd more and taking notes works well

Add me On Twitter would love to learn more.

This may or may not be useful but check out the "tips and tricks" and the "Survival Guide" at the Burning Man website. www.burningman.com
There is a lot of information about surviving in the desert. It comes from people that have been going to the event since it's inception over 25 years ago.

Dear Scruffyboy,

When I read your suggestion of the "Burning Man" website for desert survival, I immediately thought: yea, right. Burning Man may be a good place to throw up in the desert, but not much help for a bike tourist.

But I checked out the website anyways, and found it pretty good - at least for people who don't have much of a notion of what the desert might hold in store for them. Better yet, it's funny. Thanks for the suggestion.

Defineitely some interesting tips within that sight. The question is this thread again going to fall into obscurity?

Well I just got across the Southern California and Arizona desert, from San Diego to Flagstaff, and well it was pretty rough. I think it got up to 116 or so around Blythe. I managed mostly by doing a lot of riding between 5:30 am and 11 am. After that I would just do one or two hour sprints between towns and chug ice cold drinks when I stopped.

I usually ride light and I found that I could go about 30 miles in the middle of day heat before I started losing my mind and thinking about snow and ice. Also, I would splash myself with water and take a big gulp every mile. I carried 5 litres, but never used more t han 4 litres or so at a time. The longest stretch was 72 miles from Julian to Brawley, but it went very fast and I only needed 3 litres.

Hey Jim,
Glad you had a chance to look at the site. There is actually a core group of people that's been going out to Black Rock for quite a while. A lot of the tips and suggestions come from them.

Good to see these great points come up and even better from actual experience.

Hey Fellas,
Now that everybody else has covered the H2O issues, I'd like to share what I've learned from 18 straight months of living outdoors working and touring in the deserts of the southwest.

-My favorite electrolite replacement is an old Mexican tradition. A big, fresh fruit salad covered in salt, chilli powder, and lime juice. Anyone who's toured through Mexico will surely attest to that! Of course Salt and Lime make great electrolite additions to almost anything you can put in your body
-I really like to keep the sun off. Long layers in light colors will actually keep you cooler than short layers, especially when your sunscreen melts off in seconds. Thrift stores are great for old long sleeve shirts. I often take a white bandanna and place it on my head before putting on my helmet (you DO wear a helmet, right?) to keep the sun off of my neck.
-I LOVE my merino wool baselayers. Smartwool makes very nice ones in light colors, and I have worn these longsleeves working backcountry trail construction and bike touring year round in southern arizona and baja california and would never go back without them. I cover my body completely and feel much more comfortable than in shorts and a jersey. They do have a faint "wet dog" odor when wet, though.
-For Camping, take your time to thuroughly clean off your campsite to prevent cacti and other spines from ruining your $70 therm-a-rest.
-Scorpions like to hide under rocks, so if you're moving anything bigger than your fist use the "kick it before you flip it" technique to move the rock with your foot and wait for them to scamper out. Still use caution and only touch things where you can see your fingers. They're more afraid of you...
-I have spent many, many nights sweating laying outside of my sleeping bag, and this gets very uncomfortable on the sleeping pad. I like to either lay on a very thin bedsheet, or take off my shirt and put it on my sleeping pad so that I don't stick to my pad, and potentially save the piece of gear (therm-a-rest was understanding but not moved when my pad started growing bacteria and falling apart from my sweat and sunscreen residue).
-Pick a tent that is free-standing, can be set up without the rain fly, and has lots of mesh for ventilation on those hot, dry nights. It is very often impossible to push stakes into the rocky dirt.
-During winter the desert can get VERY cold, very quickly. Bring a warmer bag than you think if you're going in the winter. Cold air likes to drain down dry river beds and canyons very much like water, especially close to tall mountains, so you can stay 20 degrees warmer by camping 20 vertical feet higher, but this could also expose you to severe winds. A nice trick is to boil water and store it in a very water-tight water bottle (a nalgene or kleen canteen works nice, but I wouldn't drink the water afterwards) wrap it in an extra sweater or two shirts, and stick it in the bottom of your sleeping bag to keep those toes warm through the cold nights.
-During the rainy season those dry river beds can also quickly kill you. Flash floods are a very serious issue and can occur at really any time, even if you don't see a storm. They can also cut off your planned route for days at a time. Think "Into The Wild", both when his car gets wrecked in southern arizona, and when he tries to leave the bus but can't cross the raging river. I have personally been stranded in the wilderness for several days because of a flash flood and was very, very happy that I was completely prepared with extra warm cloathes, a waterproof tent, extra food, and enough fuel.
-Enjoy the open vistas, clean air, warmth, quick drying, easy camping, and amazingly beautiful sunrises and sunsets as they are the best here in the desert!
Peace,
-Donal

Great post ^ Thanks.