president's message - the Bicycle Touring Club of North Jersey

3BEGINNEr’s CORNERBy kevin gatelyMore onBicycle TouringAs I write, club member Brian Zino is wandering through Ohio onDay 59 of a cross-country self-supported bike tour. Good for him.Since we left you last time, you've bought a new touring bike andbags, or formed an intention of actually buying them someday, really,but you still don't know how to plan and carry out a bike tour.This article will answer that question. You should be ready to leaveby tomorrow afternoon. If you head straight west, you should runinto Brian somewhere around Harrisburg. Give him my best.First, decide how much stuff you're bringing. You'll hear everythingabout this, but in the end it's a personal choice. If you pack heavy,you'll just go a little slower, but if you're new to this, you might wantto give yourself a break. If you're willing to do a lot of hand laundry,a small load goes a long way. Remember that the heaviest materialsare paper, glass and liquids, so think twice about the hardback noveland the fifth of Stolichnaya. (I have a good story about that, butnever mind.) One thing you definitely do not need is a computer. Thehand-held email device is a great invention.Now you can plan your route. Where you go is your business, buthere are the main considerations.First, use a GPS. It allows you to plan your route on your computer,then send it to your handlebar GPS unit where it is displayed as anelectronic map if you're a man, or a cue sheet if you're a woman. Thesuperiority of this method over paper maps is huge, but the learningcurve is a little steep, so don't wait until a week before you're leavingto buy one.One important thing electronic mapping can do for you is to identifyhills. Unless you're touring Saudi Arabia, you will always climb hills,but on a 60-pound bike you don't want to do it any more than necessary.Some GPS software show grades, and some of the on-line toolsshow the climbing profile of the route you've chosen. If you don'tlike your friends, you can lay out a really hilly route and tell them it'sflat, then back out at the last minute.In the west, riding on highways is normal, and in many cases they'rethe only roads available, or the flattest route (the highway engineerswent that way for a reason). In the east, or in metropolitan areaseverywhere, the highways are frequently unrideable. I once saw aloaded touring cyclist pumping east on Route 4 at the intersectionof Route 17. No kidding. That's what happens when you just follow aline on a map.So you need information. A really good tool is Google Earth. It allowsyou to fly over a section of highway and even zoom in to seewhat type of road it is. The main thing to avoid is the fast four-lanehighway with no shoulders and hard curbs. Google Maps can beused both for satellite views and to find hotels, which will be more ofa challenge than you might think.The key to hotels in the U.S. is that they are usually found alongmajor highways or in the suburbs of large cities, i.e., the places youdon't want to ride. Even in New Jersey, if you’re not along the shoreor in the central corridor, it's surprisingly hard to find a hotel. Whenyou do find one, it's often like the Bates Motel, which is not good ifyou want to take a shower. The usual strategy is to try and engineera rural route that parallels an interstate, or that ends up each night insome population center. It can be challenging.If all this seems too imposing, here's a shortcut. Adventure Cycling isa non-profit organization dedicated to long distance bicycle touring.They're at http://www.adventurecycling.org/. They publish aninformative monthly magazine, Adventure Cyclist, and they sellmaps of good bike routes all over the United States. Of course, if youonly have a week, you can just do part of a route. Be aware, though,that they assume most of their users are camping, and hotels may bescarce in some locations. You will have to combine their maps withyour other resources to find hotels.Unless you're touring New Jersey (weekend in Perth Amboy, anyone?)you have to decide how to get your bike to the start line. Packingand flying is an option, sometimes the only one, but with loadedtouring bikes it's often easiest to just drive to the route. Getting aone-way rental to and from the end points is expensive, but may becompetitive with the alternatives, especially for a group.There's still one more thing to do before your first expedition,though, and that's to train. Riding a light bike fast on weekends andriding a heavy bike day after day for a week are different athleticskills. Set your bike up with the weight you will be touring with andget your legs ready. If you can't do a whole training program, atleast take a trial run with the weight on so you know what you're upagainst.One strange phenomenon about a loaded touring bike, which defiesthe law of physics, is that it actually gets heavier as the tour goes on.No one knows why this happens. Start out conservatively and takeyour time. Don't be afraid to go slow. Remember, if you're in a hurryto get it over with, why are you doing it at all?Kevin Gately is a 14-year member of BTCNJ who, like his touringbike, gets heavier as time goes on. His opinions, like his extra eightpounds, are his own.