200dollarbike

I'm in Buchanan, Michigan. I still have no xD card reader, so entries and photos are on hold at the moment. I hope to be in Ann Arbor on Wednesday. I'm running out of time!

Friday, June 19, 2009

---

This entry will remain unfinished until I can get back to Albuquerque and recover my pictures, in the meantime I only have one picture.

Sleeping in? Not likely. I thought I might sleep in at the Motel 6, but I was wide awake by 8 am as per usual, so I figured I should get down to taking care of my resupplying and cleaning things up. I called REI and the Englewood location was able to check out my bike that same morning (Englewood REI rocks!), so I took the light rail over and they looked at my bike and gave it a quick tune up in about 20 mins. Denver light rail is great, but I had to take the trailer off to get the bike up and down the stairs on each rail car, and race the closing doors.



( Read more... )

There will be a temporary gap in my journal. My xD card from my digital camera is on the fritz, I've mailed it home and I'll have to recover the pictures later.

I'm in Scottsbluff, Nebraska today, and with my new xD card, expect a full update around July 4th. Here's an approximate map of my progress so far (~700 miles) -- On Google Maps

June 15, 2009

---

I camped on the edge of Leadville in the National Forest, and in the morning as I rode back into town, I spotted three animals on the road ahead of me - cats? dogs? And as I approached I thought at the time they were foxes sporting long winter coats, but thinking about it now, they may have been coyotes with winter coats. Two of the three dove into the woods and the third sat down on the road and gazed at me. I whistled and it headed for the woods.



Leaving leadville I climbed up and over Fremont Pass, a climb of around 1300 feet from where I was camped. I didn't feel like climbing, and the weather looked more and more grim as I approached the top.

( Read more... )

June 10, 2009

---

Chama did not want to let me leave. My friends had baked a lasagna for me the night before I was to leave and the hospitality made heading back out difficult. I woke up on Wednesday to find that it was pouring rain. I had already packed up my gear the previous night and waited for the rain to clear, but it didn't. By early afternoon, the weather was only getting worse.





( Read more... )

Sorry for the huge images, I haven't found an easy way to resize them from a library terminal without making them look lousy

Friday, June 5, 2009

---

Leaving is never easy. My final tweaks on my bicycle and going over my gear for the 11th time took me a lot longer than I'd hoped. At 5:15 am on the morning of my departure, I was finally satisfied that things were packed and ready to go. The car was loaded and I went to sleep for an hour or so.

By about 11:45 am we were on highway 550 northwest of Albuquerque. I'd decided not to bike this section, where the speed limit is 70 mph and traffic sucks, so we -- my good friend Jude and I -- started from a place called Gilman, New Mexico (map). Gilman is on the south side of the Jemez Mountains, the remains of a former stratovolcano that blew its top a long time ago.




( Read more... )

Pictures and more details to follow

Well, we're on the road. Pardon the brief entry, but I'm posting from an iPhone. Jude and I started around noon yesterday. The climb up and over the Jemez Mountains was beautiful but very challenging. We made camp near the Rio de las Vacas (river of the cows). We're down in Cuba now enjoying lunch at El Bruno.

I drove up to Colorado over the weekend to scope out a few roads, looking to see how much snow is on the ground at altitude, and where roads are washboarded or muddy. I was joined by my good friend Jude, who plans to ride the first three or four days with me.

( planning details )

Getting out and seeing some of the route was a good time. There's a little snow left above 10,000 feet, but nothing too bad where I was. I'm still not 100% sure where I'll head north after Chama, NM, but I'm sure I'll know the right answer by the time I get there.

Not much to update on right now. The bike is pretty dialed in, with the new brake and shifting cables things have been running smoothly, the derailers are adjusted OK (maybe a little fine tuning would be nice, but it's a small thing), the new tires, saddles, and handlebars are all working pretty well.

I'd love a new stem to shift the handlebars just a bit, but what I have now is working.

Lately I've been riding about 5 days a week, and I feel my legs are noticeably stronger than I did just a month ago. I need to put together a couple longer rides in the next two weeks or so - but there isn't much time left!

Two big things left to do:
1) get my wheels checked for tension and trued, maybe check on the bearings,
2) get the trailer here and all dialed in; just waiting for it to arrive

I'm planning to drive along the expected route up to Colorado on Monday, and that'll make the trip feel a bit more real.

Route Planning

I've been working on possible routes to make my way north and east. It has been pretty easy to rule out West Texas and Oklahoma in June -- I'm not that much of a masochist.

( Read more... )

The plan is to begin from the south end of the Jemez Mountains, about 40 miles from home and to head north on a mix of paved and dirt forest service roads. From there I plan to head for Chama, NM, and on into Colorado over one of two passes. Depending on how challenging the climbs are, I'll either head east for the plains or continue north across the mountains.

Here's my inital route out of New Mexico, the only route I'm reasonably sure of:


(click the image for a more detailed route on Bikely)

Planning Resources

- New Mexico State Bike Map - http://www.bikeabq.org/maps/statebicycleguidelines.pdf
Orange roads on this map have a shoulder and are lightly travelled (up to 2500 cars per day). Pink roads are either lightly travelled with no shoulder, or busier with a large shoulder.

- Colorado State Bike Map - http://www.dot.state.co.us/BikePed/Maps/Colorado%20Bike%20Map.pdf
There are little L/M/H symbols to indicate traffic volumes and black lines for roads with shoulders.

I went to Home Depot. The lumber cart is a good bike rack.



I've probably put in around 100 miles on the bike in the last 10 days or so. I'm feeling pretty good, now to get on my new handlebars and to nail down my bike fit.

Here's my bike:



It's not the nicest looking thing, but thusfar it has gotten the job done.

I just got in my orders of a new saddle, new tires, new bike shoes (couldn't walk in the old road shoes), new handlebars, and I've removed the milk crate and will soon remove the rear rack in favor of a Bob Trailer.  The only nice upgrade, tho, is the saddle, here's a side by side shot of the 8 yr old saddle with the new one.



I've done 6 rides on the new saddle and it's pretty comfy thusfar.  My weight rides on my sit bones, so I suspect that will help with me being more comfortable and less injured in the long run, even if it seems a little firm now.

This summer, I'm planning on setting out on a bike ride from New Mexico, hopefully biking as far as the east coast but with no set destination, timeline, or end date.  I have a rather limited budget and part of that is the namesake of this journal.

My bicycle cost around $200 new about 8 years ago.  I have been worried about this, but I can't afford a new touring bike.  I realized that with any bike I would customize the accessories for touring, so I'm really only spending an extra $100-$200 to get the bike up and running, far less than I would likely spend on a better bike (a noticeably better one anyway).

I've made more than a few modifications to the bike, but it's the one and only bike I've owned as an adult, and I'm sure it's not as bad as bike mechanics have told me.

I hope to record photos and entries on the people I meet and things I see all along the way.  Bikepacking is my favorite flavor of bicycle touring.


What route are you following?
I don't have a set route.  I haven't done enough biking this spring to know how I'll react to heat and climbing hills, so both of those factors are going to determine my daily itinerary.  I may well catch an Amtrak train en route if I'm running out of time rather than pushing myself too hard and getting injured.  I'll post a map with some ideas soon.

When do you leave?
If all goes as planned, the first week of June.

Where will you sleep?
I plan to camp most nights as I have on backpacking trips and bike tours in the past.  Some nights in public campgrounds (no KOA, thanks), some in the wild on public land, others in towns and on farms and the like.

What will you eat?
Supermarket food mostly (unless I want to run out of money).  I plan to cook at dinner time and snack and eat small meals the rest of the day.  I'll pass through towns where I can resupply most days, and get the occational restaurant meal.

What are you bringing besides the bike?
a Bob bike trailer carrying: a tarp tent, down sleeping bag and pad, alcohol stove and cookset, water treatment drops, extra clothes, bike parts and tools, first aid stuff, 1-3 days worth of food, and hopefully at most 2-3 gallons of water

How did you get this idea in the first place?
I met someone doing this many years ago.

How will you get on the internet to update your journal?
Most public libaries have internet access these days, otherwise Kinko's and internet cafes.

Why are you doing this?
I'm tired of dreaming I'm on the road.  I'd rather be on the road, dreaming of home.

My general rule is:
if you're not having a good time, you're doing something wrong.  This usually means if several days pass and I'm still unhappy with the trip, it's time for a change.