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Author: Tim Mooney

Adverse conditions and moxie

I was in New York for a brief trip following the loss of my beloved grandmother (more on that in a second) and marveled at the number of bikes out and about following the sloppy mess of a 10″ snow storm. With the temperatures hovering in the single digits, a couple of inches of slippery gray slush and the gridlock of Manhattan, biking was still a preferable way to get around for so many New Yorkers trying to get things done. It got me reflecting on adverse conditions while touring – they’re all what you make of it. You can prepare with some gear for hot or cold, blistering sun or rain, and even the occasional mechanical breakdown. But what really gets you through adverse conditions is willpower mixed with a little moxie. Maybe a lot of moxie… A saw a lot of it in New York the last two days.

This past week I lost my grandmother – she rocked this fine planet for just shy of 100 years, which is about as good of a run as you can ask for. She was fiercely independent, living on her own until about six months ago. I know a lot of my independent streak comes from her and that is probably one of the big reasons why bike touring is important to me. After her passing I decided to go a little bigger with my summer tour, perhaps as a tribute. The new goal is Portland to Minneapolis by bike. I think it’s fitting to link those two great biking cities as bookends for an epic tour. I’m not sure if my grandmother would think it was sane (in fact I’m sure she wouldn’t), but I think she’d appreciate the adventure of it all. She too had more than a bit of moxie in her…

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back tire in snow by doviende

map deck

Dreaming up the next tour

If you’re like most readers of PedalShift, you’re in an offseason for touring… after all, it’s winter in the northern hemisphere. While many can handle the cold of winter, it’s the incredibly short days that often hamper tours or even simple weekend bike/camping adventures. Winter for many (not all, of course)  is more about dreaming up the next tour. And that’s where I am right now.

I’ll write more about this in coming weeks, but I’ve fashioned my work life in a way that allows me to spend at least a few weeks to a few months per year working on the road. Last year I experimented with a combination of mobile tech and on-bike energy production to allow me to be productive while I was on the road between Portland and San Francisco. This productivity allowed for a longer tour. I learned a lot, and have a few tweeks to make to the system (again, more on that in future posts).

But winter is more a time to dream up what’s possible with the route. So, here’s a couple of trips I’m hoping to make:

DC to Pittsburgh via the C+O Canal Townpath and Great Allegheny Passage

Sometime this spring, I’m looking at a 6-day trip to finally complete the well-traveled C+O/GAP combo. I live most of the year on the DC end, and my early bike tours were almost exclusively on the C+O. I friend from San Francisco is coming out this spring – time TBA, but almost certainly after Daylight Savings Time begins, the temperatures rise and the trails dry out a bit. We also need to wait until  Big Savage Tunnel on the GAP opens, which isn’t until the first or second week of April.

Portland, Oregon to Somewhere in North Dakota via the ACA Lewis + Clark Route

This summer, I’m planning on embracing the heat rather than fleeing from it. For the past few summers I’ve biked while enveloped in the Pacific coast’s cooler temperatures. It’s time for something different, and I’ve always been attracted a reverse route of the Lewis + Clark expedition (starting in Portland rather than the coast due to logistics more than anything else). There’s the added bonus of getting to roll through North Dakota, my elusive 49th visited state. Start would likely be sometime in mid-July and I am looking at hopping on the train back to DC to help transition back from tour to reality.

I’m neck deep in details and maps, and after too many weeks off the trails and roads with a fully loaded bike… I’m starting to get that excitement back.

What kind of tours are you dreaming up? Are they new experiences or repeats of well-loved routes?

image credit: “stacked deck” by fluidthought 

grand canyon

… and we’re back!

Looking back, I think I see the first few months of pedalshift as a beta release… the ideas were all there, but it needed a bit more time in the lab, at least from my perspective. The hiatus was helpful in shaping that, largely because I wasn’t terribly focused on bike touring so much as I was working from the road.

Most of the fall I was out and about with Tranquility Tour. We traveled 11.500 miles over the course of several months traveling to over 20 events related to the launch of Tranquilologie (the latest book authored by my better half, for those who don’t know). We did all of the traveling by RV, which was a wholly different experience than traveling by bike. On one section of the trip, we mirrored portions of my summer bike tour, and it was interesting (or perhaps offputting) to drive several days worth of the bike route in a matter of hours. I realized how much one misses when traveling faster than you can pedal because I knew what we were passing at 55 mph.*

So, in 2014 pedalshift returns with the same basic ideas… bike touring meets lifestyle, particularly in ways that allows for more bike touring. How can we work from the road to enable longer tours? How can we live a more sustainable lifestyle to support more time to be on the road? I’m hoping to have a post per week exploring these ideas, and I’m also hoping to create a community where we can collectively share all facets of the bike touring lifestyle.

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*I did see a handful of bike tourists out on the trip, and I have to say I felt a lot more affinity towards them than the others driving RVs.

Mini hiatus from touring posts

PedalShift is going to be on a short hiatus while I continue around North America on Tranquility Tour. Being in an RV and handling all the details of the tour, plus running the other business activities back in DC is taking me out of the bike touring mindset, so rather than simply fade and post in November, better to come clean now!

I do have my bike with me and I hope to not only revisit a few spots I’ve toured before, but also scout some new spots. I also intend to refine my “work remotely” techniques that are so important to PedalShifting lifestyle.

So, radio silence, but much more to come! If you’re interested in following the tour, check out tranquilitytour.com!

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Route and pacing lessons on the Pacific Coast tour

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Continuing the series on post-tour takeaways… Some thoughts on the route and pacing for the section of the Pacific Coast route.

There’s little to quibble about with the route that the Adventure Cycling Association uses… It’s challenging but not overly so. I keep mentioning “the book” which is Bicycling the Pacific Coast… It’s worth having, but bear in mind its latest revision is 12 years old, and there’s some changes since the last writing (duh).

– I recommend deviating from the set schedule when possible, if only to break up the logjam of riders you encounter here and there.

– The mile markers in the book are wrong in a few spots, none more important than on Rockport Hill. Rockport is the hill after Leggett (the highest point on the ride) and is much steeper and – in my opinion – a trickier challenge then Leggett due to steepness and the fact it lies after a long descent and the cold legs that brings. The mile markers are a full mile off… So when you think you’re nearly done, there’s a serious mind game that happens… Rider beware 😉

– I recommend a different mileage split late in the tour… Rather than do 40 miles from McKerricher Beach (near the amazing Fort Bragg) consider going all the way to Gualala. The county park on the south side if town is far superior and the next day’s tougher-than-advertised trip to Bodega Dunes is better as a 40 mile day than a 60 mile day!

– Pacing: this is total personal preference… You’ll see people zoom past you from time to time, but bike touring is rarely a race. Go with the flow and what your body and mind are telling you. This trip, I focused on comfort and energy conservation, so I downshifted frequently and rarely pressed into my pedals or got out of the saddle. I enjoyed the ride… even the climbs… a little bit more, even if my speeds weren’t always efficient.

These are all just my takeaways – there are do many ways to rock a bike tour, and there’s no right way. Tomorrow I’ll chat a bit about the first person to rub me the wrong way on tour and why his “there’s only one way to do it” attitude contributed to his title of being the only bike touring “Lance” I’ve ever met…

Touring tips: 5 things I’ll definitely take on my next bike tour

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There are so many things you can bring on tour – rather than create yet another pack list, I thought I’d start my post-tour thoughts series with my top 5 items I’ll never leave at home:

A rear view mirror
I resisted using rear view mirrors for years, largely because I was using the wrong kind for me. Many people have great luck with the versions that clip to your glasses or helmet… I always found them distracting and difficult to use effectively. For this trip, I used a version that clips and velcros to the left handlebar. What a difference! Instead of craning my neck back to look for approaching traffic that was too far away to hear, I always knew when it was safe to take the lane on curving downhills or when glass or other obstructions made travel in the shoulder a bad idea. Find the right mirror for you and start using it!

A pack towel
If you’re lucky enough to be touring a route that has showers or other bathing opportunities (even swimming!) I can’t recommend a pack towel enough. They’re light, super absorbent and dry with a simple wringing twist. Forget your cotton towel… It’s not nearly efficient enough. Another tip: consider hitting your local dollar store… Car shammies work just as well and they’re a lot cheaper than the specialty towels at camping stores and online!

Bandanas
Whether as a sweat rag, makeshift hair covering, pant leg tie down, or sleep mask… Bandanas have so many uses I always bring as many as I can. While they are cotton (normally a no-no) they are so thin and light that they dry quickly in the sun or on the back of the bike as you roll.

Wool clothing
While I do use synthetics for base layers, you really have to have one wool layer if you’re biking in cool or cold areas. The rumors are true: wool keeps you warm even when damp. It also resists some of the smells that those synthetics tend to trap between washes. I recommend finding a nice used sweater at your local thrift shop… I probably wore mine every day on this last tour.

High capacity batteries
I have a lot to say about charging solutions on the road, but if you use any kind of USB chargeable device, I can’t recommend a high capacity battery enough. I have a 12000 mAh battery (“milliamp hours” is a measure of capacity… the higher the number, the more juice it holds!) made by NewTrent… It can recharge my iPhone from dead to full about three times before needing to be pugged in again. Battery technology is constantly improving, but the demands from our devices are also increasing. Get the biggest battery capacity you can, balanced by your budget and the size of the device. I like batteries that can charge more than one device at once.

What’s on your list?

Being on tour when things happen at home

One of the consequences of being on tour is you may not be around for things you’d prefer to be around for. Sometimes they can be good events you wish you could celebrate with your family or partner (success at work, winning an award, etc.) and sometimes it’s sudden or not-so-sudden things when you’d like to be there to provide comfort.

Today’s the latter.

My girlfriend’s cat Bonnard is rounding the corner on life number 9. Tonight on the east coast, Kimberly will have to face losing her first born without me. As I tap this post out I’m sitting in the shade of a tree with no cell signal, no data, no wifi and no way to get in touch. I knew this could be the case, and I told her I might not be there for her even though I desperately want to. Some might say, “it’s only a cat” but he’s been a part of Kimberly’s life for a long time and losing him is not going to be easy.

So… I’m going to add a few miles. Up Leggett Hill (only the highest summit on the entire Pacific Coast bike route). In the heat. At the top I know there’s a weak cell signal and I intend to be up there and try my luck at getting through. I’m pretty cooked from the ride already (I’m not a hot weather/direct sun kind of rider… I wilt quickly under these conditions) but it’s important that I try to find the balance between being on tour and being home for a loved one.

I share this mainly because it’s part of the dialogue in the bike touring lifestyle… Where’s the balance between relationships at home and being on the road? For me today… It means giving up a comfortable night at a campsite and a fully rested assault on a big climb. It means deviating from loosely held plans and schedules. But… It’s all worth it.

Work Day 3: efficiencies of gear choice

Today was my third zero mile work day of the tour… I think I have a few opinions on the relative merits of working while on tour. First, let’s look back on the “why” part. The theory is that taking a few zero mile days, while disruptive to a bike tour, can allow one to either bike further or longer, or even take more frequent tours, so long as the work days are earning you money or otherwise keeping you from burning vacation days for your entire time away. So far, I’m finding that to be largely true.

While I can’t say the pauses in the tour haven’t been without downsides (saying farewell to others that you would ordinarily ride hundreds of miles with) it hasn’t taken away from the adventure of the ride, nor the opportunities to “reshuffle” the deck and meet new people. Overall… I think it works.

What I’m discovering, however, is my preconceived notions of what gear will be the best for the tour are slightly off. My main tool has been my iPhone 5. It has been a remarkable device for staying on top of email while on the road during breaks. Cell coverage has been good on this trip, although not perfect. I happen to have an unlimited data plan, and that’s been helpful.

The device combination that I thought would be my workhorse on work days was my iPad and a service called LogMeIn. On a wifi connection (my iPad has no cellular data capabilities) I can use LogMeIn to port over to one of. Couple of Macs I have running in Portland (my laptop I left behind in my brother’s home) and my office iMac in DC. I chose redundancy in case one went down. Having this allows me to take on tasks that my ipad alone couldn’t do easily, such as setting up ecourses or producing podcasts with audio I didn’t have on board. The idea was the ipad has much better battery life, plus if it were lost, damaged or stolen, the pain is much less than if the same happened to the MacBook Pro I left behind.

So… It works. But the efficiency drop is a bit maddening. I can do absolutely everything I could do on a desktop, but the pace is hampered by the interface wackiness (a touch interface converting to a non-touch one) plus the limits of wifi speeds on both sides. My laptop at my brother’s place is far from the router, so it’s pokey. My iMac was the better choice, despite being across the continent!

Still, my efficiency drop is so noticeable, I have decided to make a change for the next tour. Before they disappear rom the market I plan on getting a sub $300 netbook. They are disappearing for a variety of reasons I won’t go into, but I think having a “real” computer OS will up efficiencies for the tasks that require it. I’m happier in the Apple ecosystem, but I can always use LogMeIn to hitch back on a full Mac OS X computer if needed. Weight and battery life will suffer, but overall… I think for my needs the iPad is not the right second device since it replicates so much of what the iPhone can do, without offering much more than a bigger screen. I still love the iPad but not in this context… Unless I can find some apps I’m unaware of to do some of the things I do on a traditional computer.

I have another work day coming up, and I plan on chatting a bit more about what I’m doing while on tour, specifically:
– how I manage my AirBnB rentals and why that’s an important part of funding touring (a big topic!)
– my email and to-do list philosophies that lean heavily on “inbox zero” and the amazing Evernote.

What kinds of tech do you bring on tour to get things done? Just a smartphone? Full laptop? Nothing? My ideas are definitely not the only way to go… Share yours in the comments!