Bike Touring Advice

[gus]

hello all bikerowavians.
i am interested in doing a bike tour.
my idea is LA to San Francisco
i am also planning on buying a surly long haul trucker, ultralight camping gear, goretex rain gear, spandex bike clothes and the works. about how much money will i have to save? does anyone have touring gear they would rent?
this is my plan... http://tiny.cc/gus-bike-tour-plan
how realistic is this? average miles, time etc.
thanks guys!

[Alex Thompson]

Oh man - you totally came to the right place - so many people are gonna have input on this . . . just not me = I'm a city boy!

[E-Rock]

by posting here, i think you've already thought through riding from LA to SF more than most of the people that actually do it.  godspeed

[Steve Mattson]

My first bit of advice would be to consider riding from SF to LA instead.
--Winds: most of the winds come from the north and west.  Which is in your face if you go north.  That sucks.
  (although the former Bikerowaver, Steven Ma did it and said it wasn't any big deal.
--The roads don't give you much shoulder for the northbound trip.  Much more accommodating if you go south;   plus you have the views.

Surly LHT (nice...) you can buy it through us you know at a significant discount.
Panniers and some decent clothing.  I'd recommend the Ortliebs.  We've got some decent racks. 

Or... you could try a Bob trailer... and just use your Peugeot. 

I'd say NEW, less than $2K.  Used stuff, patching things together and making do; $1.2K

My friends and I did that route in 8 days.  A relaxing train ride up to Oakland, and the first day was 82 mi.  Next day, 28 mi (?).  We had some epic big days, but also some reasonable days as well.  I could give you some more details about it in person.

You'll have an adventure.  Do it.

[gus]

if im doing it im definetley buying an lht cuz it would also be a nice city bike to have. my plan was there and back. is that insane? also under 2k with all the camping gear? do u guys also get discount on all the panniers and clothes and camping gear. do i even need to buy the stretchy pants?

[gus]

Also, I'm curios about dynamo hubs. Can you charge iPods/cellphones off of them? And how much are they? I don't want a whole wheel cuz I would just relace the stock wheel with the hub.

[Alex Thompson]

You know, odds are, if you took your time, you could get a group to do it.  Paul Bringetto is worth talking to about it.

[Steve Mattson]

You can get a pretty cheap Shimano dynamo hub from J&B Imports.  I put one on my touring bike; my Cross Check.  With the planet bike dynamo powered headlight, it puts out an impressive and very usable amount of light.  I wouldn't bother with a dynamo tail light though.

I do know there are some usb-out power sources that will power an iphone via a dynamo hub.  They are pricey though ($100+) but talk about handy.  Also, you could get a NiteRider MiniNewt which recharges it's battery via a usb connection.  Imagine how much light you'd have when you were making that wild descent to the hot springs of Esalen about 7 miles south of Big Sur at 12 midnight!

Both ways?  Awesome.  How about a trip from Seattle to LA--train up, ride back...  I know, I'm all about the train ride.

We cannot get Tubus racks or Ortlieb panniers from our suppliers.  There are plenty of other good racks--Axiom, Nitto, Topeak, etc.  which we can get.  Ortliebs and Tubus are cheaper if bought in sets from this guy:

http://www.thetouringstore.com/

REI has them too, so if you have a dividend (or maybe ma or pa...) save some money that way.

[gus]

i am down for the seattle ride but just not this summer. my original plan was take train to portland and ride back but my friends and i decided that that would be too much for a first tour. whats cool about seattle is there is an old railroad track that was converted into a 130 mile or so bike path, but if you take that its a big detour if youre planning to go through all the cool coastal cities like ashland and portland.

[Dylan Boroczi]

I've been giving a lot of thought to doing something like that this summer as well, and i've been wondering how complicated it is to get a fully loaded touring bike on a train, in terms of cost, teardown of bike, etc.

[Alex Thompson]

The pacific surfliner has bike racks in some of the cars.

[Steve Mattson]

I can't remember, but I think the train ride north to Oakland cost about $30 to put the bikes in incredibly wasteful cardboard boxes and loading them in the freight car.  We had to show up early and load the bikes in the boxes, hand them over to the Amtrak folk in the loading room of Union station downtown, and then go to the freight car in Oakland and wait for them to be downloaded into an incredibly ancient push cart.

The surfliner bike hangers are on most cars that carry passengers.  They can hold three bikes on three hooks.  It's all fine and good as long as they aren't already taken.  Our recent trip south to SD was slowed because three in our group couldn't get on because all the racks were filled.  They had to board on the next train, two hours later.
Also, I've found some conductors are d-bags and refuse to consider putting a bike on the otherwise empty freight cars that are part of the train.  Others, don't mind helping out at all.  Don't get an extra cycle or a trailer, there's a good chance they won't let you on cuz yooz bikey is too biggy.

[MaxTheHeathen]

Pacific surfliner racks are good for normal size bikes. Unfortunately that train only goes between San Luis Obispo and San Diego.

On other lines, the boxes are pretty huge, you just take pedals off and turn your handlebars sideways. They're big enough to fit a pannier or two in as well I believe.

Another option, Greyhound or Chinatown buses. You can just throw your bike in the luggage compartment. Panniers providing padding. I believe you can catch a Chinatown bus to SF for $19

I should ask my friend Matt, who rode across the country for 5 bucks a day, If he's written up any pointers I can repost here. I know one would be eating lots of peanut butter.

[MaxTheHeathen]

Okay, more like $29 for the Chinatown Bus, but you can catch in Santa Monica, and they're way nicer than Greyhound. Nearly half the price and half the time of amtrak, Goes to SF proper rather than east bay as well.

gotobus.com

[ShaneQuentin]

Oh man, I kinda wanna do this too, and I believe lucas, Raina, Enzo, and perhaps Max and Peter might be interested as well, as well as my special lady friend and another dude I know.  Buy stretchy pants with padding and a Brooks B17 the combination of the two is amazing.