Sep 09 '08 - 1847 W, 2 I - Vote Good + 9 :: Bad - 7 Bicycle Touring – one beginner’s experience.
Published September 9, 2008 by C.I.C.L.E.
By David Pulsipher
Several weeks ago I took my first foray into the bicycle touring world. Along with my wife and close friends – we biked from Los Angeles to San Diego. Now I know that the summer has passed and with that vacation time, for many of you. But – the great thing about living in southern California is that you can take short trips by bicycle year round.
For those of you who are interested in bicycle touring but have been reticent to try, for people who are looking for a fun & new weekend adventure, or for anyone who’s wanted to make bicycling a bigger part of their life – I’m hoping to share some of the lessons we learned. But before we all hop on our bikes and head across country…
I tried to do a lot of research online. I was very interested in trying to find personal accounts of people who had biked from LA to SD – but didn’t find a lot of good information. There are a lot of good websites out there – and the two most helpful to me were Bicycle Touring 101 and the Adventure Cycling Association website.
Bicycle Touring 101 was helpful because it is a lot like an almanac of sorts – so you can skip to just the sections you are interested in. If you are planning a short trip – you’ll soon find that the majority of literature and website info out there is geared toward those who are doing big trips. While that information is useful, the strategies and tips are definitely different for trips of varying length.
The Adventure Cycling Association site was helpful because they have done extensive route-research and have highly detailed maps that can get cyclists all across the country. One of their greatest services is the maps they sell on their website. Their maps give step-by-step instructions on routes, repair & lodging info, as well as historical information on bicycle routes through out the country. They sell their maps in segments of the various routes, with most routes equaling 4-6 segments. We purchased the southern most segment of the pacific coast trail, which takes you from Santa Barbara to Imperial Beach.
1. Pick a Destination
Having a well thought out route takes a lot of worrying out of the process (if you are inclined to worry, like me). So the next step after picking a destination, is deciding how you’ll get there. Some people may like to fly by the seat of their pants and I’m all for discovery – but it was very reassuring to have precise way to get there.
2. Pick your route
The other nice thing about the Adventure Cycling maps is that they’ve planned routes that take advantage of bike paths, lanes & roads that are comfortable to bicycle on. The problem with going by the seat of your pants or figuring it out as you go along is that you may not be aware of the best roads to use. This is where local knowledge is so valuable. It is much easier to enjoy your trip when you have a comfortable road to ride on.
3. Carrying your stuff
There are three options here:
a. Carry your stuff on you (back pack, messenger bag – for light touring)
b. Carry your stuff on your bike (panniers, racks – heavy touring/long distance
c. Pull your stuff behind you in a trailer
There are advantages and disadvantages to all of these approaches. Ultimately, I opted for option C and I’ll tell you why. In order to do proper heavy touring, it’s likely that you’ll need a bicycle designed to carry heavy weights. Touring bicycles have frames that can carry racks on both the front and back, fenders, multiple water bottles, and 4-5 panniers. Touring bicycles also have heavy duty wheels, traditionally with 36-40 spoke wheels (standard wheels today are normally around 32 or fewer). Bottom line, I wanted to use my bike that I was already riding every day, and I knew that I was comfortable riding.
Bicycle Trailer to the rescue! I purchased a BOB Trailer and was very pleased with it. It was very simple to attach to my bicycle – and it had more than enough room to carry all the stuff my wife and I needed for our trip. Your bicycle handles much differently with a trailer – so I would recommend taking it out for a few test spins, and loading it up and taking it on an extended ride to really get the feel of it. You feel the weight the most when you are starting out from a dead stop, and when you are climbing. Other than that, you really don’t feel it that much when you are on the road. On the whole - I found that I rode about one gear lower than usual.
The other great bonus is now I have a trailer for doing all sorts of utility trips by bicycle like getting groceries, running errands, etc.
4. Accommodations
Generally – bicycle touring means riding on a bike for more than one day, so that means you should plan on where you’d like to stay. If you are going light, then a hotel, motel, hostel or bread and breakfast could work well. If you’d like to camp or will be doing a multiple day/night journey, it’s probably best to do some research and make preparations for camping. We opted to camp one night at the San Onofre state beach camp site. It was a little noisy, but by the time we rolled in we were so exhausted we could’ve been sleeping in the middle of a rave and we wouldn’t have cared. If you are planning to camp on campgrounds – it’s best to make reservations in advance. You’d hate to show up with no room for your road weary group.
We stayed at a motel once we got into San Diego. They kind of screwed up our reservation, but in the end it worked out. It was really nice to be sleeping in a bed after our 150-mile trip. Double check your motel reservation before you leave, you’ll be glad you did.
5. Eating/Drinking
Eat a lot. I read an article in Bicycling Magazine that gave advice for people doing a century ride. Their advice was that you should be eating something small every 15 minutes or so. This is hard. They also said you should go through about a bottle of water every hour. This was easy. We brought a lot of clif bars, pb&j’s, trail mix and fruit. All of which was very easy to eat while on the bike – but some times it’s just not convenient or you are in the “zone.” Make sure you keep snacking because it will make the ride much more pleasant – besides, your body needs the fuel. Bring lots of water bottles and fill up whenever you can. You never know how long you’ll be between fill up opportunities. It sucks being thirsty and having four empty water bottles staring you in the face.
6. Rest
This is touring, not racing. The great thing about bicycle touring is that you can stop and smell the roses. We stopped and got fresh strawberries at a stand along the Pacific Coast Highway. Sometimes taking a rest and having a quick snack is imperative for morale.
7. Bike stuff
Make sure your bike is in good working order. If you aren’t confident in assessing your bike’s health, take it to one of LA’s three fine bicycle cooperatives, the bike kitchen, bike oven, or the bikerowave. Each has friendly staff that will help you learn the tools you need to become a more independent bicyclist. Make sure you know how to change a flat tire, and bring a couple of spare tubes, a patch kit, pumps, and tire levers. The only maintenance issues we had were a flat tire and loose breaks – we were lucky.
8. Miscellany
Think about who you are going with, their/your fitness levels, and the dynamics. Many organizations offer supported tours where you can go on tours with a group full of strangers. I went with my wife and our best friends. Despite being among such friendly faces, we still all lost our cool a few times and tempers flared. Being in the sun, hot, and hungry will do that to you. Try to be patient and focus on the group’s happiness. Trust me, if everyone is thinking about each other you are all more likely to enjoy the trip individually. Be patient and don’t worry about being the first one to ask for a rest stop.
Wear lots of sunscreen. Can you imagine the discomfort of sleeping sweaty, tired and sunburned? That sounds like hell to me.
You might also think about getting some of those bike shorts with the cushion in the rear end. Whether you want to rock the all out spandex is your own choice (I wore gym shorts over them), but they do certainly help ease the pressure on your hiney. Your buns will thank you.
9. Conclusion
All in all – bicycle touring is a really fun thing that can be as easy or as challenging as you want it. By no means does one little weekend trip make me an expert – I just wanted to share a few of the things I found helpful. If you know of resources, have personal stories you’d like to share – or questions – please let me know. I can be reached at David@cicle.org
Most of all – its important to be safe, have fun and enjoy the outdoors. Take lots of pictures and eat good food. We definitely plan to do more trips like this in the future. If you’d like to see a more detailed account of our trip (with pictures), please feel free to visit my personal website.
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Awesome! I’m so glad that more people are getting into touring. If you want some tips (camping, gear, ride reports, etc.,) check out Epicurean Cyclist.
http://epicureancyclist.blogspot.com/
Russ Roca (Email) (URL) - September 10 '08 - 10:46
hello all;i love the la-sd trip. i must have done it 10-20 times. back in highschool we used to leave very early on sat (still dark out), bike all day then take the last train out to la-union station. along the way i remember a handful of stops for chili-dogs, tacos + beer, ice cream and scenery. i’ve not done the trip is 15 years now but have extremely fond memories of good times with good friends. i highly encourage everyone living in the area or maybe visiting to take a few days to try it. these days i live in colorado so i’ve got plenty of tours to discover but next time i’m in la visiting fam i’m doing it again. thanks for the reminder dude!
luis uribe (Email) - September 10 '08 - 11:04
Nothing like good times with good friends. I’m going to have to check this trip out. thanks for the tips.Dan Guzman (Email) - September 10 '08 - 16:33
russ – i love your website. i wish i would’ve known about it earlier. i’ll definitely be checking in. envious of the beautiful bikes you’ve got there.luis – i’m from colorado myself! thanks for sharing your experiences.
david p. (Email) (URL) - September 10 '08 - 16:33
Tell me about it…! That front loading cargo-bike that Russ has is beautifuuuullll!Shay (Email) - September 10 '08 - 17:39
This is a great little article for people who want to start traveling by bike. I think the reason you don’t see many accounts of people riding from LA to San Diego is because 1) Not that many people do it… and 2) it’s a pretty simple ride. You just get on the Pacific Coast Highway and go south. Of course, it is a little more cimplicated than that, but for someone like me who has traveled this route a half dozen times, it’s not a stretch of road worth writing about. But it’s probably a strectch of road that should be written about more. Especially if we want to get more Southern Californians on their bikes.Bicycle Touring Pro - Darren Alff (Email) (URL) - September 11 '08 - 21:41
thanks darren, i think.david p. (Email) (URL) - September 13 '08 - 09:47
I’d like to do a similar trip some day. I’m from the east coast so being able to ride my bike year-round would be a dream. Good advice about snacking and staying hydrated. I like to make my own electrolyte water by mixing lemon juice and salt into water. Something like the juice of 3 lemons to a quart is pretty good and a teaspoon of salt. My girlfriend and I like to stay at bed & breakfast inns and take little “bicycle vacations”. They call it “credit card touring”. It’s a great way to see the countryside and stay fit. Now all we need is more bike lanes and for drivers to be nicer to us on the roads.bbtouring (URL) - May 14 '10 - 18:29