ben8jam

Anyone done this ride before? I have started planning this with a couple friends and curious if anyone has pointers for pre-planning. Yeh, a long way to go, but good to get a soft date in place.

Looking at February or March over 10 days if necessary. But hear Feb is super hot/humid. Hoping my cousin who lives out there will drive a support van. Or we are looking non-supported.

I currently ride a Specialized Allez Elite but was thinking of upgrading to carbon. I know that carbon is probably not the best for a 500 mile ride, but would the Allez but okay for it or should I buy a cheap steel frame too?

Anyway, chime in if you've done this ride or pieces of it and have any advice.

Steve0000

Do you want to avoid gravel roads? If you can handle gravel for some of the time, I can suggest some very attractive routes. Even on sealed only roads, there are some attractive and less busy routes possible. I have ridden most of the routes you might take at some time or other on a touring cycle.

tortron

You will find 99% of sealed roads here to be of the chip seal variety. Tho i have never had any problems with touring loaded on 23x700c tyres.
You might consider using parts of the cycle trail (i dont think all of it is open yet, but by 2014 it might be), you would want something happy to take on hardpack trails.

Feb/March is a pretty nice time to cycle, The weather should be cooling off and with any luck you will get a full 10 days without rain.

I dont see anything wrong with touring on your current bike (assuming you can carry whatever gear you want to).

What sort of route were you thinking of?

ben8jam

Thanks for the responses. Route has not been totally firmed yet as we are just putting it all together. A friend worked on the music for this little film, so we have this as a starting point.

https://vimeo.com/43273929#at=0

I personally wouldn't mind some x-country gravel riding, but we all need to discuss.

andrewclaus

I rode it back in the late 80's. I took the route around the Cape, through a lot of little Maori villages, and will never forget the wonderful people I met. Have fun.

ben8jam

Is there any benefit to riding North to South or South to North?

andrewclaus

I chuckled at this because when I went there I started off riding north from Aukland for a few days, just to have the sun at my back for a while. I forgot about the southern hemisphere thing until I realized the sun was in my face! I put on more sunscreen and laughed at my stupidity.

Other than that, I remember the South Island as being a more impressive place physically and it would be a more climactic finish, in my opinion.

valygrl

I rode the East Cape and had the same feeling. Beautiful scenery, nice people. I took the bus back from Gisborne to Aukland and the road we were on (thru a national park) would have been a super scary ride due to lack of shoulder & poor visibility, so get a route from one of these friendly folks who are offering to help, I think there are good ways and bad ways.

charbucks

I highly recommend picking up a copy of Pedaller's Paradise. I only toured the South Island, but this book was invaluable for providing information such as "no services for 83 km", or "heavy traffic, not recommended".

znomit

Theres some ok riding on the direct route Auckland/Wellington but you would be much better off bussing into the middle of the north island and tripping around for a week before catching another bus out.

dontwaitup

Its the opposite direction but take a look at www.dynamoevents.co.nz -Wellington to Auckland Cycle Challenge. It may have some useful information for you.