cyclists: have you ridden the U.S. coast-to-coast?

amandaeve

I am considering taking a supported cross-country tour and am hoping to hear from folks who have done it. Tell me your story!

-What replacement/wear items did you need for the bike? I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around that since I’d effectively be riding my typical annual mileage in 60 days. I plan to overhaul the bike before starting, and thinking I’ll need to replace the chain twice, brake pads once, and go through a whole bottle of lube. What else?

-For those of you who went on a supported tour, what were the pros/cons of the group you went with? If you opted to do the ride again, what would you do differently? What would you be sure to do the same?

NorthCascades

I'd love to do a supported tour! What route are you taking? Where will you sleep?

jessicapk

Haven't done it but that's really my dream vacation. I wish you the best!

ajwcyclist2016

I personally haven't done yet I know a couple of people that have coached riders doing raam. Things to look into is a bike fit and checking you're in optimum position for you. Spares do you need if supported or how difficult is it to pick things up as and when needed. Are your used to riding in groups if not try to find a group to ride with and get used to sitting on the wheel of the rider in front and having road craft etc it will be pretty amazing to do. When are you're planning it. Also a journal or diary might be an idea to not thing down as you're doing it. Best of luck

amandaeve

@NorthCascades Seattle (Everett) to Boston, northern route. From my research there is a main northern and a main southern route, the northern being easier and west-to-east being easier. We'd camp in campsites designated by the tour. https://www.cycleamerica.com/cc-tour.htm

@ajwcyclist2016 YES! I would definitely journal. I have a biking blog that I plan to update with a Bluetooth keyboard and my phone each evening. Journaling for me is almost as much part of the travel as the raveling. Also thinking about keeping a headset mic on so I can dictate thoughts while I ride. I imagine it will get pretty boring, so stuff like that would help.

It would start in June. I'd love to do it in 2017 as it would be a good milestone to hit since I turn 40 this year, but I'm not sure if I still have time to get the unpaid leave of absence from work approved and whatnot. I haven't committed to the idea yet.

NorthCascades

That looks pretty incredible! It's the kind of experience you'll remember fondly for the rest of your life.

I would prefer to do something like that as a solo venture or in a smaller group. Like for me, I look at the map and see that it goes through Montana and skips Glacier National Park. I feel like you don't find yourself in Montana that often and might as well take advantage, etc. Of course you could say that about a lot of places and you'd never get there if you're always making detours. But anyway I don't think I could ever get support for my own route. And that support is going to make a world of difference for how comfortable you are on the bike, for many long days. I imagine the camaraderie will be pretty helpful too.

NorthCascades

Couple questions @amandaeve. Where do you ride now? Do you get to do much rural riding? Do you like it if so? And are you going to camp or sleep in hotels if you do the tour? If it's camping, have you done much?

T1DCarnivoreRunner

I'm not a cyclist, but I've heard of a few people doing this. My only thoughts... and you can do whatever you want with this... is that you might consider a route that avoids my state of Iowa. I say this because, despite having RAGBRAI, our laws and culture seem to be very anti-bike. Over the past few years, there have been quite a few car-bike crashes and the drivers always seem to be let off without so much as a traffic ticket even when it is clearly the driver's fault.

I can recall at least 2 in the past year where the car just drove up behind the cyclist and drove through as if they weren't even there... just said they didn't see them and that was considered acceptable. There was 1 where the driver was charged with OWI (alcohol), but the cyclist was not a cyclist at the time - he was sleeping in a tent and got run over. Just happened to be in a tent while he was passing through during RAGBRAI.

I'm sure other states are like that too, but maybe to a lesser extent. It's kitten and unfair, but I'm not going to take up cycling anytime soon because nobody cares about the safety of cyclists in this state.

marathon_44

My husband did a cross country ride in 2012 with me driving the support camper van. I'm sure he'd have more advice than could be covered in one of these posts. Crazyguyonabike is a good information resource - a lot of people to journal their mega-bike ride experiences there. My husband was addicted to the site before his trip.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=te&doc_id=10873&v=HM

Hornsby

Just chiming in to say there is a show on the Outdoor Channel about Kayden Klainhan's ride through South America. It's called Global Wheeling. He is unsupported and films the entire show himself. It's really fun to watch.
http://www.globalwheeling.org/
Anyway, good luck OP. That's a beast of a ride. I'm not a cyclist and only ride bikes these days and can't imagine taking on a task like that.

cwolfman13

A part of me thinks this sounds like an exciting adventure...another part of me is like no friggin' way...

amandaeve

@NorthCascades About 90% of my riding is in the city these days, but I prefer rural riding and get out in the country as much as my schedules allows. I would camp. The hotel option sounds appealing in that showers, laundry, etc. would be easier/more comfortable, but a good part of the day would be spent off the saddle and I’d rather spend that time in a park-like setting than around acres of parking lot and strip malls (budget wouldn’t allow for a B&B kind of thing, so I’d probably be at the low-budget freeway interchange sort of motels). Many people who do solo touring travel spontaneously and depend on the friends they make along the way. I’ve done enough solo travel to know that’s not how I want to do a trip like this. If my return-to-work date were more flexible, that would be another story. I’ve done a one-week camping bike tour and a 12-day self-supported B&B tour. The reason I want to do a supported tour is that the bike I love and want to ride this distance on can’t support panniers.
@midwesterner That’s really terrible to hear. There are a lot of bike-unfriendly states out there. I live in the “#1 most bike friendly state” and still a guy on my riding group was unable to walk for 6 months after being ran over from behind. He just getting out and about this month. The cop didn’t issue the driver a ticket. I bike to work every morning, and it’s nearly every day some co-worker tells me a story about how so-and-so died biking and how terrible it was. My point is, I’d rather die doing what I love than live in fear and regret. I hear the same thing about Alabama and other bike un-friendly states.
I have several self-supported contacts, I’m specifically hoping to hear from someone who’s done a supported ride. My old roommate is on a self-supported international tour at this moment, a pretty cool journey: http://longhaultrekkers.com/

Machka9

I have never cycled across the US, and I have to say, I've never had the desire to do so.

However, I have done some long cycling tours ...

3 months in Australia
1 month in Europe
8 months around the world, a mixed bag of cycling and other methods of transportation

On those tours, I did not have to replace my chain or brake pads, but I did go into the tours with my bicycle all tuned up.

I also went into most of those tours with quite a bit of cycling in my legs, in preparation.


And I would like to cycle across Canada ... and maybe across Australia too.

amandaeve

Interesting. I replace my chain every 1500 miles. The couple of times I waited I ended up having to replace my rear cassette too, however, I don't have a bike specifically designed for touring. @Machka9 what components do you use? Maybe I can swap to some hardier options.

SingingSingleTracker

amandaeve wrote: »

@NorthCascades Seattle (Everett) to Boston, northern route. From my research there is a main northern and a main southern route, the northern being easier and west-to-east being easier. We'd camp in campsites designated by the tour. https://www.cycleamerica.com/cc-tour.htm

@ajwcyclist2016 YES! I would definitely journal. I have a biking blog that I plan to update with a Bluetooth keyboard and my phone each evening. Journaling for me is almost as much part of the travel as the raveling. Also thinking about keeping a headset mic on so I can dictate thoughts while I ride. I imagine it will get pretty boring, so stuff like that would help.

It would start in June. I'd love to do it in 2017 as it would be a good milestone to hit since I turn 40 this year, but I'm not sure if I still have time to get the unpaid leave of absence from work approved and whatnot. I haven't committed to the idea yet.

Wow! 3 months that includes 55 days of riding 68-86 miles per day, and only 8 rest days. Having done RAGBRAI many times averaging that kind of mileage for 7 consecutive days in the July summer heat riding across Iowa, as well as a week of riding that daily mileage in Italy this past summer in the July summer heat - I don't know how people do it for an entire three months. Even after a week of doing it, my mind and body were shredded and needed some good recovery time. Taking care of "down under" to prevent saddle sores and irritations would be a never ending routine of goodies.

Sounds like a great Bucket List dream trip for the $7K base fee and what is included with it (even includes a bike mechanic to take care of any issues that might arise with your machine). If it were me, I would definitely pay the extra fee for a massage a few times a week. And grab a motel at least a few times each month for the AC and fresh bed.

Have you done a week or two of consecutive daily mileage like that before? I do like to do that kind of riding a week at a time each year (I usually like to do a week in March down in southern Utah of intense daily mountain biking, and a week or two in the summer on some road biking trip somewhere) to get my annual fill. Have you considered doing a one week segment or two with that tour group to get your feet wet first before committing to the entire 3 months?

My wife and I used this group out of Oregon for our week of riding in Italy this past July, and they have nice tours in the US as well: http://www.lifecycleadventures.com/

We liked the self-supported aspect of riding through Italy. It was just my wife and I as the tour company simply hauled our suitcases to each hotel (and we booked all the overnight lodgings with them as well as a couple of dinner reservations). They provided the cue cards for our routes, and the rental bikes, but we were on our own for the week outside of being picked up in Florence on day one, and hauled back there on day 7 after our final day of riding. We liked all of that, but I could easily see doing that all on our own next time if we went back to Italy - or any country (all we would need is to hire out a service to haul our luggage). I hate hauling my own gear on a bike, so I definitely am one who is in favor of the way to cycle on these long trips is for a tour group or company to haul it for you as the way to go.

What we loved about the Life Cycle tour we did this summer is dropping in at places to eat for lunch and dinner of our own choosing. Of course, a week of riding in Tuscany in the Chianti Region included the opportunity to have a great bottle of wine every night. ;-) I only had one flat tire during the week on a long mountain descent due to my rims overheating from the braking as I tried to keep it under 60 KPH, and the front tube popped just as I approached the edge of the town at the base of the mountain. Us luck would have it, there was a bike shop right on the corner as we pulled into town. Rather than use my spare tube and change the tire myself, I had the bike shop put a new one in, used their restroom - and we were on our way 10 minutes later after paying him 10 Euros for the tube and service.

I can understand the need for the water stop, and picnic lunch from the tour group you linked as you'll be out in some pretty remote, desolate areas with miles and miles and miles between civilization. It at least removes the worry of where you are going to get fueled and hydrated. Are there reviews of Cycle America?

amandaeve

Thanks for your feedback, @SingingSingleTracker !

From what I’ve heard, the 1st week is the worst, and then you just sort of get into the groove. I’ve done week long tours at 60 miles per day. I’m pretty confident doing that every with less than 5000 feet in elevation. I am not confident about the days with more than that, so I would need to get in some serious training beforehand. Looking at the route profile, I feel like if I can get through the first week, I can get through the whole thing.

I would love to get my feet wet first, but the problem is work. I accrue 1 day of vacation time a month. Because of family holiday obligations, if I take a week off this summer I will zero out my vacation time and I don’t feel like 1 week is worth having to wait another year to be able to take another vacation (that’s how it would work out with the family time). If I am going to do one week this summer, I might as well go all out and make zeroing out my vacation time “really worth it” and take unpaid leave. I don’t want to wait until retirement age to knock this off the bucket list.

I haven’t heard any reviews of the company, and I’ve never done a for-profit tour before. I’m hoping by posting on these forums I’ll find some! That Oregon tour group looks pretty nice, and I have a hunch a personal tour would be out of my price range. I’m also hoping for a bigger group. I feel like with a bigger group there would be fewer mismatched riding paces and more opportunities to connect with other cyclists.

I LOOOOOOOOVED riding through Tuscany! Fueled entirely by wine and cappuccinos!

Machka9

amandaeve wrote: »

Interesting. I replace my chain every 1500 miles. The couple of times I waited I ended up having to replace my rear cassette too, however, I don't have a bike specifically designed for touring. @Machka9 what components do you use? Maybe I can swap to some hardier options.

SRAM chain, if I'm not mistaken.

And I use mtn bike gearing and components on my road touring bicycle.

I do also try to make an effort to keep everything clean.

I go 6000+ km between changing my chains, and longer between changing cassette rings.

SingingSingleTracker

amandaeve wrote: »

I haven’t heard any reviews of the company, and I’ve never done a for-profit tour before. I’m hoping by posting on these forums I’ll find some! That Oregon tour group looks pretty nice, and I have a hunch a personal tour would be out of my price range. I’m also hoping for a bigger group. I feel like with a bigger group there would be fewer mismatched riding paces and more opportunities to connect with other cyclists.

I LOOOOOOOOVED riding through Tuscany! Fueled entirely by wine and cappuccinos!

Italy is fun to ride. We took a bit more comfort with the new laws introduced in March of this year which were designed to help protect cyclists even more. I wish drivers had as much respect for cyclists here in the US.

I only asked about reviews of the Cycle America outfit as I searched and couldn't find much. I only linked the Oregon company as a response to your original post as what company we used. They are not a trans-continental outfit at all and i didn't mean to confuse that they were.

I've met people and read about many who have ridden across the US on their own. One of our friends has helped a couple of years in a support van for the RAAM - but that's a relay race, and not a tour.

In terms of sheer numbers, there probably are not that many people who do a trans-continental tour due to lack of support, lack of the time, lack of money, etc...required. I bet if you posted your questions about doing it on one of the cycling specific websites, you might get more information and opinions from those who have done it than the response has been here at MFP. Road Bike Review.com would be one.

I found this outdated review, but I'm sure there are more out there somewhere:

http://forums.roadbikereview.com/commuting-touring-ride-reports/has-anybody-rode-cycle-america-tour-23355.html