{"id":135,"date":"2020-05-05T11:47:19","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T18:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestrides.org\/bikeschool\/?page_id=135"},"modified":"2020-09-28T12:32:56","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T19:32:56","slug":"cycling-vacations","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/bestrides.org\/bikeschool\/?page_id=135","title":{"rendered":"Cycling Vacations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Asolo, Italy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Me, asking for mid-ride water refill at a cafe in France: C’est <\/em>
possible que j’ai un bouteille d’eau?<\/em>
Disdainful waiter: Of course<\/em>!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For some cyclists, riding a bike is exercise. I am not one of them. For me, cycling is a form of travel. My dream is to ride my bike all over the world and ride every good back road on the West Coast. I love my bike for its ability to get me out of town. The standard greeting from my cycling friends, when they haven\u2019t seen me for a while, is \u201cWhere\u2019s the next bike trip, Jay?\u201d This chapter is a naked attempt to infect you with my disease. I want to turn you into a person who always has a to-do list of cycling destinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are an infinite number of ways to do a bike trip, from an overnight to years spent circumnavigating the globe. I\u2019ll describe some basic types and the logistics and gear associated with each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Car-Based Trips<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Day-Ride Trips<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are trips where you drive to a good ride, ride it, then drive to the next ride, and so on. You stay in motels or airBnB\u2019s, and you may stay in one town for 2 or 3 days, doing 2 or 3 local rides, before moving on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pick an area<\/strong>. It works best to dedicate a trip to a geographical area: Western Oregon, Greenville, Santa Cruz. I\u2019ve done trips that attempted to survey the riding in an entire state, but this takes at least 3 weeks. You can use the tools in the Finding a Ride chapter and map out and schedule each ride before you start, or you can wing it by driving to the local bike shop and saying, \u201cWhere\u2019s the killer ride around here?\u201d Bestrides.org will guide you if you\u2019re riding anywhere on the West Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ride easy. <\/strong>On a bike vacation, you want to ride every day or nearly so, which means you don\u2019t want to ride so hard one day that you need a recovery day following. So do every ride at 50-75% effort. That doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t do a long ride or a big climb; it means, do those rides at a relaxed pace. Get into the scenery, take some photos\u2014get completely out of your at-home training mentality. And don\u2019t take risks\u2014you don\u2019t want to spend the rest of your vacation off the bike, healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ride only the good stuff<\/strong>. On vacation, time is short, energy is short, so don\u2019t do the 15-mile unrewarding ride to and from the start of the good riding\u2014drive to where the good riding begins and start there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get a bike rack<\/strong>. You\u2019ll need a way to transport your bike in or on your car. It\u2019s easiest to just put your bike in your trunk or back seat, and far more secure from theft. This can get messy, so you might want to get a bike bag or chain snood<\/em> to keep dirt and grease off your upholstery. But unless you have a van, you can only do this with one bike, so as soon as you\u2019re traveling with a buddy you\u2019ll need a bike rack. Racks are expensive and come in many forms. Thule and Yakima are the two best-selling brands, but others are worth considering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are lots of variables to consider. First, where will the rack go, on the roof, on the trunk, or off the trailer hitch? Each has its pros and cons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roof rack advantages: they can hold a lot of bikes, they keep the bike up high where it\u2019s out of the dust cloud you kick up when you drive on dirt, and they (usually) secure the bike via the front wheel drop-out, so the bike frame isn\u2019t sustaining wear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roof rack cons: you have to lift your bike up over your head, which can be hard if your vehicle is tall or your bike is heavy, the bike is in the wind, which can mean there’s a layer of bugs on your bike after a buggy drive, and you will eventually drive under a low-hanging branch or into a carport with your bikes on the roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trunk rack advantages: they\u2019re cheap, they often can be installed and removed in a moment so you don\u2019t have to have them on the car all the time, thus they\u2019re easier to protect from thieves, and they keep your bike free from bugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trunk rack cons: they\u2019re less solid than the other types, they\u2019re more easily stolen when they\u2019re in place, they usually can\u2019t carry multiple bikes safely and easily, your bike rides directly in the dust cloud you kick up on a dirt road, you can\u2019t get into your trunk when the bikes are in place, they often hold your bike via rubber bands around the frame, which can cause serious damage to your bike’s paint job, and they can mar your car\u2019s paint job. An expensive and elegant trunk rack made by Sea Sucker uses suction cups and is reported to work well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trailer hitch advantages: they\u2019re strong and secure, they can hold several bikes, they keep your bikes free from bugs, and they often use a securing rail system which doesn\u2019t threaten your paint job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trailer hitch cons: they\u2019re expensive, they\u2019re heavy, unless they\u2019re designed to swing out of the way you can\u2019t get into the trunk when they\u2019re in place, and your bikes ride in the dust cloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After struggling with these pros and cons for years, I finally bought a mini-van and now put both my bikes inside effortlessly. Best decision I ever made in my cycling life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever rack system you choose, scrutinize it in three ways: 1. How are the bikes secured? Is there potential rubbing or wear anywhere? If so, your paint job will be a shambles eventually. 2. How hard is it to get to gear stored in the car when the bikes are in place? And 3. How flexible is the system when it comes to handling irregularities\u2014huge tires (you may want to transport a mountain bike), techno advances\u2014can it deal with through-axles or disc brakes?\u2014 or unconventional tube shapes (some racks assume your downtube is round). You will not always be transporting the bike you have right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some racks require removing the front wheel; some don\u2019t. The advantages and disadvantages are obvious. If you don\u2019t have to remove the front wheel, you don\u2019t have to store the wheel, keep it from harm, and remind yourself not to drive off and leave it after the ride. But you have to lift more weight, and lift it higher, to get the bike on the roof, and you have to clamp the bike somewhere other than at the dropouts, so you run the risk of frame damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However you load your bike, if it involves removing the front wheel, when you take the wheel off, lean it against a car door you must open or close before driving off, and<\/em> nowhere else<\/em>. That way you won’t be able to leave the front wheel behind, which you invariably will do sooner or later if you don’t follow this rule. Once a friend of mine and I were packing up after a ride on the Main Street of a small Gold Country town. As we drove off, a local came out of a store and began waving his arms and screaming at us. We figured we had violated some local shibboleth. We prepared ourselves for the verbal abuse we assumed was about to come. When he got close we could hear he was yelling, “Don’t you want those wheels?”\u2014the two front wheels we had left leaning against the storefront.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wear travel clothing<\/strong>. You need a clothing system that doesn\u2019t have you packing twenty jerseys and twenty pairs of socks but also doesn\u2019t have you doing piles of laundry every night. The solution is anti-bacterial (aka anti-microbial) clothing. Buy socks, underwear, and base layers that don\u2019t smell\u2014either because they\u2019re wool or bamboo or because they have silver particles imbedded in them. This stuff isn\u2019t particularly expensive and can be sweated in day after day for a week or more without noticeable odor, thus cutting your daily laundry pile down to jersey and shorts. There are no anti-bacterial shorts or jerseys (remember from the Clothing chapter that \u201canti-microbial\u201d means something else when applied to shorts), so you\u2019ll have to launder those. I travel with three bibs and three jerseys and wash the day\u2019s outfit every night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to do laundry<\/strong> on the road<\/strong>. Doing laundry in motels or private rooms is an art. Don\u2019t look for a laundry machine\u2014you\u2019re only going to do a few small pieces. Carry a small bottle of gentle detergent\u2014cycling clothing doesn’t like harsh soaps. If the motel sink will hold water (about half the time, in my experience), fill the sink, add detergent, handwash, rinse, and wring. Chamois need special attention, so I rub them down with motel bar soap and scrub them manually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You aren\u2019t done<\/em>. You want your gear to dry as fast as possible, so lay the wrung garments on a motel bath towel, roll the towel up, lay it on the carpet, and walk all over it. This is much more effective than wrapping in a towel and wringing. Your jerseys will dry easily in a day, your shorts in a day or two. Lay out or hang the damp clothing in your car, where the greenhouse effect will dry them more quickly than a motel room will. Remember to keep your shorts out of direct sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the motel sink won\u2019t hold water, wash your clothes in the bathroom wastebasket\u2014it\u2019s clean because it\u2019s lined with a plastic bag. Take the bag out. Get water from the shower\/tub if the wastebasket won\u2019t fit under the sink spigot. If this disgusts you, you\u2019ll have to carry a washtub in your car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eating on the Road<\/strong>. Of course you can eat at restaurants three times a day (or hit the free motel breakfast in the morning), but it\u2019s unhealthy, expensive (except for the motel freebie), and time consuming. I typically eat one meal a day at a taco truck or small ethnic restaurant (friendly, interesting, tasty, cheap), and eat the other two meals in the motel room or on the bike. For this you need a small traveling kitchen, which for me consists of<\/p>\n\n\n\n