Cycling/ Bike Purchasing

[Eddie Teach]

So, let me get this straight. Lettow plans to ride his bike from somewhere in the South to California?

California to Utah. He's already in San Francisco.

[alfred russel]

So, let me get this straight. Lettow plans to ride his bike from somewhere in the South to California? Without, say, a year at least riding regularly? I mean, yeah, stamina is one thing, but I imagine that after 50 miles his back, ass and legs will feel so sore he'd admit secession was wrong just to get a ride somewhere to lie down.

Stamina and lung capacity are both obviously important, but once you're above your early teens, so's getting used to the seat and the fact that you will need to pedal to move forward, except when you're riding down the Rockies Jim Carrey style.

Never mind the cost of a bike, this is just slow suicide.

I think he is in California and wants to go to Salt Lake City. (If we needed more evidence of less than stellar Lettow judgment, it is that he is in California but wants to go to Salt Lake City) 

Lettow, while this idea is really bad, if you get to Salt Lake City you will actually be in decent shape. With the hard part behind you (except for the Rocky Mountains, but how hard can those be?), why not just continue across America? You could start with your bike wheels in the surf of the Pacific and end with them in the surf of the Atlantic.

[Razgovory]

Isn't there a lot of desert in between?  This is probably a bad idea.  Like in "you will likely die", bad idea.

[Lettow77]

 Um-

I mostly balk at the cost. Actually, the temperature of the desert is an incentive for me to begin the cycling, I think. It caps out in the 80s according to a quick look at weather.com, and it is inhumanly cold here. Nobody told them it was summer, and I shiver in weather that drops below 60 in daytime. Inhuman.

Things I consider real problems with this idea:

1) sleeping
2) being attacked by wild animals while sleeping
3) carrying things while biking
4) what if the bike breaks down?

edit: it should be added I don't have a cellphone, or anyone I could really call regardless, so I'll be alone in the um, classical sense?

CdM's comments aside, I am not too worried about my physical fitness for the trip. I assume I am quite capable for 30 miles a day, which would get me there in around a month. Were I more fit, I could go a lot faster- cyclists on the internet claim 60 is sustainable, but they are cyclists with strange ideas about  fitness.

I acknowledge the physical risks of the trip, but I am in a good position to be reckless that I shouldn't waste. Later in life my absence would cause much more disruptions.

Unfortunately I am, at the moment, rather unprepared. I came out here without even a pair of shoes, save for some flipflops. Equipment purchases are in order, and it all sounds ruinously expensive. And other than biking to zion, I am not sure what application a bike has in my life, or indeed how I would get it back to the glorious South.

Still, this idea is superior to alternative options, and preparations are to begin soon. The scheduled date of departure is: June 22 

[CountDeMoney]

I hope you die.

[Razgovory]

Lettow, this is not a good idea.  If you do this you will likely give up, be taken to the hospital or die.  You are not going to be able to simply buy a bicycle and make it over a mountain range and through a desert.  There are few people out there.  If you dehydrate (which is likely since it will be difficult to carry the water let alone food), you will collapse on the side of the road and may not be found for days.  Since you know so few people out West you'll likely be doing this alone and nobody will know you are out there.

I looked up some of this.  Apparently there is a stretch of highway between two towns in Nevada that is 168 miles long.  One gas station in between.  Almost nothing else.  You can not make that.  You will die if you try.  Don't be stupid.

[Jacob]

At the very least plan out your logistics each day before you set out. You know, how far do you need to go, how much food and water you need to bring and so on.

By the time you get to the 168 mile stretch of desolation in Nevada you should hopefully have a good idea of what that requires from you.

[Liep]

4) what if the bike breaks down?

This is a horrible idea. Do you even know how to change a flat tire? You will puncture regularly. Also, depending on the type of bike you get and the terrain any number of things could malfunction making progress either much harder or impossible.

[Liep]

Also, even experienced riders crash.

[jamesww]

4) what if the bike breaks down?

This is a horrible idea. Do you even know how to change a flat tire? You will puncture regularly. Also, depending on the type of bike you get and the terrain any number of things could malfunction making progress either much harder or impossible.

Yes, I thought that odd, bikes don't break down, bits of them break and it's up to you to repair/replace defective parts. If the frame breaks, Lettow, you have to find someone who can weld it, assuming it's not C.F.

If you have little idea about dealing with bikes, or cycling or some of the real dangers this escapade involves, then you shouldn't try this.

I suggest instead, you plan a cycling tour of californian vineyards instead, JR might even approve.

[Iormlund]

Wait a second.  You do not own a bicycle, yet you want to go on a cross-state bicycle trip?  Are you sure you have the required expertise to do so? 

Expertise?  How about lung capacity, for starters?

What about the ass?

My brother is currently somewhere in the Balkans, probably Montenegro. He and a couple friends started biking down from Slovenia and can't decide whether to go for Greece or Istanbul. However, one of them has already bailed out, because after a month on the bike his ass is killing him.

[Lettow77]

 In the process of trying to determine, per Jacob's excellent suggestion, how far I'd be going a day, where that would put me on the map, and whatnot.

I admit I don't know anything at all about this. Is it so foolish to assume I could have a backpack full of water and some food such as peanuts? (Goober peas being the traditional light rations for a Southerner on the march)

Rather, the main concern I have is sleeping. I really can't overstate my anxieties about having a scorpion impose upon my rest.  And for the matter of rest itself- what does one do? I'm not sure what i'd lay on. I'm not soft in that regard though- I'm sleeping on a floor with one pillow and no blanket now, and i've done similar for a lot of my life.

I feel compelled to embark, because I long for Salt Lake City, I want to test myself, and even if I took greyhound or such there i'd be in Deseret without transportation. Furthermore, there is the very real concern that there is nothing to do in Utah-  if I have too much time on my hands once I get there, I will be forced to face that very real reality, whereas if I stumble in toward the end of July I will not have too much time and can delude myself into thinking I was torn away just before I could see Ogden's wonders, or some such.

I promised myself I would return from this trip a changed man. A few interesting news events from back home confirmed this decision for me, and so there really isn't much to discuss in way of _not_ going. I am apprehensive of the dangers of the trip, particularly as I have never had a head for repairing anything, but braving hardships for a glorious pilgrimage to the holy land is a romantic sort of thing. When I do make it back, I will have a significant laurel to speak of, and can seek the hand of miss emily.

[The Brain]

Go for it and give the naysayers the finger. If you risk your life to change it then my hat's off to you.

[Razgovory]

If you have little idea about dealing with bikes, or cycling or some of the real dangers this escapade involves, then you shouldn't try this.

I suggest instead, you plan a cycling tour of californian vineyards instead, JR might even approve.

This is a much better idea.  Less chance of dying.  Deciding to bike across California, Nevada, and parts of Utah by yourself is akin to waking up one morning and deciding to swim the English channel.  It's dangerous.

[Liep]

I admit I don't know anything at all about this. Is it so foolish to assume I could have a backpack full of water and some food such as peanuts? (Goober peas being the traditional light rations for a Southerner on the march)

You need too much water to carry in a backpack, get some bags you can mount on the bike.