(Possible) Upcoming solo mini-tour

I've got a class for work near the end of the month that will take me up into the Red Bluff (CA) area. After posting on Bike Forums for some good 2-3 day routes in the area I've come down on doing a loop around Lake Almanor. Sure, it's only a little over 30 miles, but this would be my first tour and it looks like I'll need to carry food with me (not fully loaded, but reserve).

Image from MapMyRide

The class is M-Th, so my plan would be to drive over from Red Bluff after the class ends, crash somewhere for the night and leave my truck at the hotel while I do the ride. I plan to finish in 2 days (one night on the road) and would probably stay at the same place after so I can rest before the drive home (3+ hours) which I wouldn't want to do right after the ride.

This would give me plenty of time for the riding and to check out the area. I'm not sure about the terrain, but it looks pretty level. If that's the case and I do the whole 30+ in one day then it will turn into a couple of day trips from the hotel. I would still ride fully loaded and can use it as a chance to check out the bags and get used to the balance of a loaded bike.

Two good pieces of kit

Despite the unpleasant weather (40s, drizzle) yesterday I set myself up to bike home. I had my new bags from Swift and loaded them onto the bike to test out.

The first thing I noticed when I got the box a couple of weeks ago was that the bags were beautiful. Swift lets you customize the bags and I couldn't be happier with how they cam out. The attachment is simple - I tossed in a little extra to have a bungie attachment with an S-hook for the bottom so all I did was hook the bungie on the bottom and pull up until I could hook the top bar on the rack. The two bags worked great for what I wanted to carry - my work clothes, computer, and some notebooks. With a second set of bags (which I have) I can easily load enough gear for a short trip (couple of days) without trouble. When the weather turns enough for me to test the bags out with a full tour, I'll let you know.

The other piece of kit I wanted to crow about is my Fat Cyclist woolie (sorry, it's a limited edition and there hasn't been any info on the next version). Like all FC gear it's made by Twin Six, and it's fantastic. Yesterday was the first time I really tested it in poor weather, I'd worn it on cool days before but not in the cold. I was wearing the jersey with a day-glo vest over it and shorts, and within a few minutes I was plenty warm. I will soon be ordering a few more wool jerseys for winter riding.

Training - a request

I haven't been updating my training lately because I haven't done any. I've been on the road for work and that's going to keep going for the next few months. That brings me to my request. 

Anyone who has followed this thing since I started should know that my primary ride, my Long Haul Trucker, has S and S couplers installed on it. In theory, they should allow me to pack the Trucker up and take it on the road with me. Since I've been and will be traveling to places like Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii I'd really like to have my bike with me. Unfortunately, things haven't worked out as well in practice as in theory.

I have tried exactly once to pack my bike into a case. It was a soft-side, rented from Mt. Airy. Problem was, I couldn't get the bike into the case. There are all sorts of guides on how to do it, but it seemed like the Trucker was just too long to fit. What I'm hoping for is that someone who reads this is familiar with S and S couplers and has packed a bike with them. Or, maybe that someone in the Bay Area can recommend a good shop that works with tourers primarily that might be able to help me out.

I'd really like to be able to use the Trucker as I intended, which means being able to pack it up. Any ideas?

Another bike/camera post

Rather than repeat the post, I direct you here to a post from mid November on Bike Hugger. The post is about a nifty little rig the author saw in Japan, where a cyclist had mounted a small camcorder (looks a little like a Flip but isn't) to the front axle on his bike. 

With the right angle adjustment and a sufficient record-time on the camera this could be a really cool way to record a tour. It would require either a remote on/off (like I discussed when I posted about mounting a still camera to the racks on my Trucker) to allow easy recording of fun stuff (crazy descents, great views and the like) or an amazing amount of time and patience allowing the rider to flip through a day's worth of riding to find the segments worth keeping.

Either way, I've been thinking that a camcorder like the Flip might be a nice addition to documenting a tour. Hopefully I'll be in the shape to start some S24O tours early in the new year and wills tart playing with some of the ideas I have.

More lighting

Continuing on Tuesday's post on lighting, here's a short one. 

A little while back I saw a post referencing a semi-hack that Gino was working the bugs out of before getting it manufactured. What? A nifty little device that can be screwed into any 5mm braze-on and will hold most lights that go on handlebars. Head over to Gino's blog for the details on why it's better to keep your light low.

I love the look of these and will probably pick up a few for my touring bike. Since it is being equipped for loaded touring handlebar space will be at a premium and I don't really see where I would put a light. One option is to add a secondary bar, but since I have a front rack with a top platform, any light mounted behind the rack might get blocked. Having the lights down on the fork avoids that problem nicely.

(The pic is Gino's, but it's pretty close to what I'm looking for)

Over at EcoVelo last week was a great post on the lack of lighting on many commuters. Short, to the point, and even including some statistical analysis (for people who like that sort of thing). The point is: if you ride in the dim, dusk, or dark you need lights. If you're riding through well-lit areas go with the blinky/steady combo to make yourself visible (blikies to attract the eye, steady to give something to focus on). If your ride is darker, go with something high powered to give enough light to see the road by.

Cameras and bikes

A little while back I posted about using a mini tripod on my handlebars for taking pictures while riding. I used it to shoot a Sunday drive style ride, but the goal is to figure out the best way to carry a camera on a tour to get shots without having to stop and dig the camera out. Shortly after that post I came across this one from Bike Hacks, a great collection of commercial and home-brew camera mounting options.

Another option that I'm beginning to think about, especially if I can resolve the remote issue I mentioned before, is hooking the camera to the front end of my front rack. I purchased a set of Nice Racks, which have platforms on both the front and rear racks. The racks are about the same width as my camera and it shouldn't take much to rig something up to hold it. Obviously, that set-up requires 1) 2 cameras - one in front for the road and one in back for the other people on the tour; and 2) cameras with remotes. It's certainly something I want to look into.

"But the waiting is the hardest part"

With apologies to Tom Petty.

A few days ago I got notice that my racks (Nice Racks, in fact - yeah, I had to go with Surly for the Surly) for the Trucker were on their way from Bikeman in Maine. Now, everyday when I get home the first thing I do is scan the door, mailbox, and stoop to see if there's a "we missed you" tag from UPS letting me know the racks are here.

No luck yet...

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Bike freedom

When I decided to stop annoying my friends with bike-related nonsense and start a blog I chose "Liberation Cycling" because it captures a number of things about me. I realized that I never really fulfilled a semi-promise from my first post, which was to explain the name, and since I've been thinking about it recently, why not?

This week I've had to drive to work. Yesterday specifically drove home the freedom that you lose driving (when you should/could be riding). I got stuck on a road where a delivery truck for a construction site had blocked off one of the two lanes of a major commute-direction street. This led to a significant back-up stretching through two lights. As I sat there all I could think about was that I could be dodging the whole thing on my bike. The freedom of cycling.

Another aspect of it for me is the clarity of mind that develops, primarily on longer rides, when you can settle into a cadence and ride. No shifting, little effort, just riding. I miss that here, since there aren't easy places to take longer rides that aren't crowded MUPs, and can't wait to get back to CA and have the backroads I know available practically at my door.

The last aspect of liberation that I get from a bike, or at least the last significant one, is the freedom of movement. Not just freedom in commuting, discussed above, but true freedom of movement. Bikes allow you to go anywhere, and with a little preparation (or a high-limit credit card) you can go everywhere. Getting around town is easier on a bike, taking a vacation (touring) isn't necessarily easier, but it is certainly more open to changes of whim. There are very few barriers that can stop a person with a bike.

Those are a few of the ways I see bikes as liberating. There may be others for you, and there are some other, smaller ones for me.

Touring build update

A week or so back I went back out to Mt. Airy to pick up my LHT, now with the S&S Couplers installed. The guys at Mt. Airy sent it up to Bilenky to have the work done, and because of when it got shipped (a couple of days before NAHBS) it got to Philly without a name attached. The end result was that it was done and sitting in the Bileny shop for about a week, when I emailed Larry to ask for an update and he was able to bring it home.


The next step is for me to go back out to Mt. Airy with a parts list (I emailed it out to them last week) to finalize the parts and put the orders in. Once the parts are ordered it will just be a matter of waiting for them to come in and then I'll have a working bike.


If I get super lucky I'll have the rig for a trip to Portland in a couple of weeks. If not, I hope to have it for my triathlon in LA at the end of April.

Also, I now have a fairly large bruise on my upper left arm - the result of the slo-mo dooring I had last week. It's about the same size around as 2 water bottle tops side-by-side, and is mainly yellow. Guess it's a result of being pretty deep into the arm. It's only tender if I press right in the middle of it, which is a good sign I guess.

Touring build begins

Yesterday I finally made it out to Mt. Airy, with my Long Haul Trucker, to talk to Larry and the other guys out there about building it up into a loaded touring rig. This has been a goal for more years than I can remember, roughly five at this point, and I've actually had the frame for almost two full years, just sitting on the floor of my apartment and then down in my basement gathering dust.

I first got interested in putting together a touring bike when my buddy Slav (from RMS) was planning a California coast tour with his wife. I was bike commuting from Concord to Alameda at the time, and we started doing some longish rides on the weekends around the Oakland Hills. They had recently purchased a pair of Bianchi Volpes and I was riding my 10 year old Trek 930. After they got back and I heard about the trip I wanted to do one of my own.

Initially I started looking at converting the Trek to tour on. For short tours it would have been fine but the top tube was a little short to be comfortable for the long haul, so I also started looking around at other bikes. For reasons I can't fully explain, something about the Trucker appealed to me the first time I saw one. After lusting for a few years, and hearing that Surly was changing the paint color, I was able to track one down in my size in the great "Gang Green" original color. Getting it built up was held off by being broke, and then being a broke student.

Yesterday was mainly talking parts, giving Larry an idea about what I wanted to go with. Some of the things (gearing, hubs/rims) I had a good idea about what I wanted both from Slav's experiences and looking at other touring bike specs online. Other things are pretty open at this point, which is something that makes me glad I trust the shop. The last thing I decided to add to the bike are a set of S&S couplers, which will make it easy to take it apart for travel. Since I can think of many different places within the US that I would love to go, being able to break the bike in half and carry it without penalty on a plane or train seemed like a good call.


As soon as there is something to post pics of I will do, but as of now the fork is at Mt. Airy and the frame is being packed for shipment to Bilenky Cycle Works in Philly to get cut and have the couplers added on.

pics: Helmet - Slav Dugenny, bike - Bilenky Cycle Works