planning on doing the t.a. trip next year.
would like to be home during july
is it better to leave the 01 May or 01 Aug?

Leave in May, east-to-west. Then you'd avoid the worst of the summer heat on the East Coast.

Here it is, middle of September, and the Midwest is swimming in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Ike's remnants went right up through Missouri and Illinois, leaving several feet of rain in its wake. I'm not making any predictions for next year, but you can see the chances you'd take if you left in August.

But.... two months for a TransAm? That's ambitious.

-- Mark

just read a couple journals on cgoab. your right, looks like missery is flooded out.
and illinois was hit with the hurricane aftermath.

was going to ride home in illinois for couple weeks in july.
then after arriving in virginia, ride back home.
probably on highway fifty,
depends how much i like virginia and kentucky.

Dr.
You asked for advice but did not provide any of the considerations that are important to you. If you leave W-E in May you will see snow in the air and on the road. But many folks do that and are ok with it. Certainly it will be warmer in the east if you go W-E than if you go E-W, but many folks do that and are ok with it. All depends on what you want. If I had other considerations that dictated my riding W-E then I would probably opt for the Aug departure. Good luck with your ride.

Obviously weather varies greatly from year to year, but may 1 is pushing it for W-E. Early or mid June is better, that won't have you home for July though.

If you decide to go E-W May 1 is a good time. You probably would hit the weather better that way.

Two months is possible, but pushing it for most riders. We took 73 days and might have taken more time for side trips if we weren't limited for time. Ideally another week or maybe two would have allowed us to explore a few areas a bit more.

Aug 1 might be do-able for a W-E, but not for a E-W. I would try to allow 12 weeks and then finish when you finish without a firm deadline hanging over you. If you finish in 8 weeks great, if it takes 11 or 12 you are still OK.

BTW: Depending on where you live... I think it is nice to plan direction of travel to get air travel out of the way up front. This allows a more flexible schedule.

I don't have a recommendation, but I can tell you what I did.

I started 8/1/04 W-E on the Lewis & Clarck to a northern route - MT, SD, MN, WI, MI, IN, OH, PA.

Had hot weather in oregon, a couple of days of rain in MT, and it started to get cold at night by the time I was in OH. Finished 10/13.

i did w-e this summer from vancouver to boston along a northern tier/trans am type route. i left in mid june and spent 42 days riding to boston. the only weather related disappointment was that going to the sun road in glacier was still closed when i got there. other than that my weather was as perfect as possible (not including the headwinds) and i got to enjoy the benefit of the longest sunlight hours of the year during my trip.

check out my journal if you like: www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/rosey2008

Dear doctortalk 121,

It's so great to hear from someone planning a cross country trip. Talking about cross country cycling makes me feel as as if I was a pioneer going west and swapping tales and advice about the journey into the wilderness. My wife and I did our honeymoon on a ride from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. We left LA on about May 3, 1977 and arrived in Washington DC around June 28. Eight weeks was a pretty reasonable pace, to even include some rest days. The weather was great, even crossing the desert in California and Arizona. Kansas in June was pretty hot and we only had one day of substantial rain, in Virginia, two days out of DC.

I personally liked Virginia. We only briefly crossed northern Kentucky, but the towns of the Ohio River Valley were quite charming. Best of wishes for your journey. BTW, though my screen name is Jim from Boston, I am known at work as,

Yours truly

Dr. Perfect

Just curious, what was your route? Was it shorter than the TA? If so allowing a bit more time might be wise on the TA. Then again maybe you just ride longer per day or faster than we did. It took us 73 days for the 4244 miles and we didn't do as many side trips as we might have liked. We did train as we went so we did pretty short days for the first week or so. I am not big on rest days but it is nice to get some day hikes, rafting trips, etc, in. It might have been nice to sidetrack to see Glacier or do the Grand Tetons Spur. It also might have been nice to spend another day in places like Yellowstone.

I say allow extra time if possible. You can still finish early. To me, having a firm deadline would make it hard to relax and enjoy the trip.

Hi staehpj1,

I may have been confused by the original question. I thought "t.a." just meant a generic transamerica ride, coast to coast. I presume you and the OP are referring to the route that I think was started by Bikecentennial in 1976, from Oregon to Virginia in a somewhat meandering course. We went in a particularly direct line from LA to DC passing through the southern tip of Nevada, the Grand Canyon, Four Corners, Durango CO, and on through Kansas, St. Louis, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia. Sorry for the confusion.

On our trip we met a cyclist living in Garden City KS, who had done Bikecentennial in '76 and put us up for the night. Also unfortunately, we did have a firm deadline to be in Boston on July 1, and we originally planned to ride directly there. We realized by Colorado we weren't going fast enough, so we went to DC and took the train.

BTW have you heard of the Pacific-Atlantic Cycling Tour that crosses the US in 21 days? FYI check out the website, especially the recommended training regimen.

https://www.pactour.com/

Jim

Yeah, by TransAmerica I mean the route that was started as Bikecentennial in 1976.

No I had not heard of the Pacific-Atlantic Cycling Tour. I'll check it out. Sounds like a challenging trip.

FYI I did a one week spring training camp with this outfit last year and they rock. Best service, support, and planning I've seen in a tour company (not that I've done that many). If anyone wants a fast-paced high-mileage hotel-based supported tour, PacTour is really great.