January Progress Report

Hey so check it out, I've been a busy little bee. My list of stuff to do in January is already done.

By the end of January:

1. Buy a bike
2. Pick an NPO to start talking with about sponsorship
3. Plan a rough budget for the next 10 months
4. Decide how I'm going to pick a route (Whether I use ACA maps, Google Maps, releasing from San Diego a pigeon captured in Boston and following it, etc...)
5. Sell car

Task 1 was done in style way back in the first week of January.

Task 2, you might notice a big shiny new widget on the side of my blog. While I'm doing this trip for fun, I might as well do something useful at the same time. I'll post in more detail about the good cause I'm riding for.

Task 4, I'm WAY ahead of schedule by already having a rough draft of the actual route.

Task 3 is done but I didn't need to take you with me on that particular journey because have the fiscal responsibility of Robert Downey Jr in a Vegas VIP strip club, so I found myself writing things like "Don't buy magic beans from a strange man on the side of the road" and "At the very least burn 1's senselessly instead of 20's you idiot".

Task 5 I completed as well, and came out of the deal 150 bucks richer. Oh sure, you could look at that and say my car must have been a real piece of crap, but it only depreciated 400 dollars in 4 years. How much money has your car gone down in worth, Mr. Car-Manufactured-Sometime-in-the-21st-Century? Yeah that's what I thought.

I plan to go way more widget crazy sometime soon as well, hopefully culminating with some sort of map that shows a big ugly cyclist slowly moving across the US in real-time.

So here's the rub

If there isn't a pool going for what day I'll likely die on this stupid, ill advised trip, there really should be. To help the bookies, here's the part of the trip that I'm thinking is going to be where I have to take regular sitting down and crying breaks.


It doesn't look that bad, right? A nice, relatively straight shot. It looks fairly uphill, but that's merely an optical illusion produced by the Mercator projection style of map, and the fact that "North" and "Up" have the same symbol. But, when one looks closelyer...





Now we leave the familiar yellow background and red lines of the political map and venture into the dark, frightening realm of the topographic map. Those dark green areas mean trouble. Let's look even more closleyer.



That brave little blue line has elected to cross straight through the Rockies. I mean just a straight, who gives a crap shot straight into the heart of that evil, wretched geographical feature. I've crunched number and played around with route all I can, but there's just not very many roads in that area, and there doesn't seem to be any way to avoid this route that doesn't add another 500-1000 miles to the route. Want to see how bad it gets? Let's look even MORE closeleyer! (Is this esoteric, obscure South Park joke doing it for anyone else? No? No one? FINE.)




Do you see that? That's called a "switchback". It exists because if you simply had the road continue straight, the elevation change is so steep you'd be driving at damn near a 45 degree angle upwards. It's ridiculous and there's no reason for it. The Rocky Mountains have no reason for existing there I said it.

Hey so here's my new Bike

Ta-Da!!!

Features Include!

Sexy Aluminum Alloy frame!
Sexy V-Brakes!
Sexy Bontrager Hardcase 700x32mm Racing Tires! (Whatever that means!)
Sexy Jingle bell thingy!!

And let's not forget the sexiest component of all, the strapping Irish lad perched atop it.

It's a Trek 7.3 FX, which is, in Trek's view, a "Hybrid Fitness/Road Bike". Basically this is the third best kind of bike to take out on a cross-continent trek like I intend to. The first two best are, in order:

#1. A dedicated touring bike. These include the Bianchi Volpe, REI Randonee Navarro, and of course the fan favorite Trek 520. I ruled out these bikes for a few reasons. They're built from all steel, heavy-ass frames. While this makes them more reliable and comfortable, it'd slow me down. My mileage goal is fairly agressive, so I needed a bike trending a bit more towards the "speed" side of the bar graph. Also the cheapest ones were 1000 bucks. That was a bit expensive for my tastes. Although touring can be done best on one of these, they're hardly the ONLY option. My way is much cheaper and will, again, supposedly get me there faster at the expense of a bit of comfort.

#2. An old mountain bike frame stripped down to the frame and re-built with better components. I avoided this option for a few reasons. I wanted to be fitted to a specific size and style of frame, which you can't do when buying used. I also would be leery of any used frame, if it'd been crashed it could crap out on me a week before I leave, or worse, while I'm in the middle of desert. I probably could have saved a few bucks going this way as well, but in the end I just wanted something new. Not the best excuse, but there it is.

So there she is. There's some things to be done to it before she's ready for touring.

Critical:

1. New Wheels (The ones on this bike are decent, but I need hand-built eXXXtreme 36 spoke beasts for maximum reliability on this trip)
2. New Front Crank (Current one bottoms out at 24 gear inches. To get up the evil, blighted Rocky Mountains while fully loaded I'm going to need 19-20, minimum.)
3. Bar Ends (Flat bar bike = no hand positions to switch to)
4. Racks front and rear
   

Would be good:

1. New Saddle
2. New Shifters
3. New Brakes
4. New Tires

Will probably do, but not a big deal either way if not replaced:

1. New Front Derailer
2. Switch to 9 speed cassette

All told with all of those new components, I probably WILL end up spending close to 1,500 on this thing when all is said and done, but that's fine. When changed out this will be a great, fast touring bike, but in the meantime it's also a nice FAST commuting bike when equipped as-is.

(Editor's note: Hey wait a sec, cross country trek! And I'm on a Trek bike! Now I get it! Haha, awesome!!!)

Rough Draft of Routing finished

So a little bit earlier than expected, the rough draft of my route is set. It looks a little something like this:

San Diego CA - Tempe AZ 411 miles
Tempe AZ - Fort Collins CO 861 Miles
Fort Collins CO - Alexander KS 440 Miles
Alexander KS - Girard KS 335 Miles
Girard KS - Murphysboro IL 411 Miles
Murphyboro IL - Berea KY 410 Miles
Berea KY - Norristown PA 667 Miles
Norristown PA to Windsor CT 317 Miles
Windsor CT - Boston MA 104 Miles

Total = 3956 goddamn miles.

Or, according to Google, 32,000 Furlongs. Or 6.808972e-10 light years.

San Diego to Tempe, Alexander all the way to Berea, and Norristown to Windsor are all ACA approved and mapped routes, so I'll have nicely laminated maps that show me where I can reasonably expect to camp for the night.

Tempe to Fort Collins, Fort Collins to Alexander, Berea to Norristown, and Windsor to Boston are a little more dicey. As of right now I'm going with a simple Google mapping with the option for "Avoid Highways" selected. This means I'm going to have to get a bit more creative with my camping and stopping options. My fervent hope is that somewhere in Fort Collins and Alexander I'll come across some dilapidated farmhouse where the kindly ranch hands offer me a place to stay, while being expressly forbidden to nail the farmer's beautiful daughter. From my vast experience watching TV, this situation always ends well for everyone.

The ride from Tempe to Fort Collins is going to be a nightmare in its own right that I'll address in some other post when I feel braver. Even thinking about it terrifies me right now.

4000 miles is more than I had originally planned, I'd originally figured I'd go with a straight route where I just go from point A to B. This changed for a couple of reasons. A few people have offered to put me up for the night along the way, so with a quick and minor detour in their direction, I'll have a warm bed, a shower, and with the exception of crashing in Fort Collins, the oppurtunity to steal something cool.

There's benefits to be had here, though. People at the Bike Forums rave about the ACA maps and how easy they make it to plan your day. I'll be able to have the company and support of other bikers as well, BUT I'll have nice extended breaks from well-worn biking routes and the people who frequent them. If I'm any indication, bicyclists are arrogant, obnoxious douchebags who are only bearable in the smallest of doses, so I don't want to surround myself with them ALL the time.

It's not the distance that worries me, it's the time crunch. 4000 miles over 59 days works out to be roughly 67 miles per day, which is a pretty easygoing average ride. However, I can't simply bike every single day. I'm going to need the occasional day off. So I'm roughly planning on this schedule:

Crash in Tempe/Phoenix for 1 day.
Crash in Fort Collins for 2 days
Crash in Girard for 1 day
Crash in Berea for 1 day
Crash in Windsor for 1 day
Spend 3 days in Boston visiting friends and family
Spend 2 days at home recovering and peeing blood.

So that's 11 rest days, out of 59 total, which is roughly 1 rest day every six days. That, again, is a pretty normal ratio from what I've been learning. However now we're talking about doing this over 48 travel days, which works out to 82.5 miles per day.

82 miles per day on average is a VERY high number. There are some freaks who can probably do that while weaving a basket with one hand, but for an out of shape slob like myself that's going to be cutting it extremely close. I can shave off a rest day or two here and there, but there's not much wiggle room in that list.

This is a problem I'm not 100% sure I know how to fix. It's an agressive pace, but not insanely so, so I can't just abandon this route and start over. But I'll have no way of knowing if I'm in shape enough to handle it or not until I'm basically out there. In the end though, I think I have to err on the side of Boldness. Worst case scenario if I scrap this route and start over is that the new route is completely unacceptable for unforseeable reasons. The good part of this proposed routing is that most of it is VERY well travelled by bicycle folks and known to be workable. The worst case scenario if I just say "Fuck it" and go with this route is that I go to hell because I swear too much. The second worst scenario is that I run out of time in like PA or something and have to take the train the rest of the way home. It'd suck, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Awww Hell Yeah

A week ago, big news came down from the glowing, disembodied head surrounded by fire that is my office manager: My request for a 2 month leave of absence was approved from August 20th - October 15th. What do I intend to do with this time? No, not learn how to brew crystal meth out of my car's trunk. I'm going to hop on my bike and travel from San Diego to Boston.

That's a bicycle, not a motorcycle (which would probably make more sense). And yes, that's me doing this, not a person of even marginally impressive physical fitness (that would also make quite a bit more sense)

I requested the time off basically as a lark, I didn't expect for a second they'd actually approve it. My company is pretty cool, but I didn't think they were THAT cool. Usually leaves of absence are reserved for getting married or having a nervous breakdown or something.

So now I've got 7 months to plan this, get into shape, save up a lot of money and vacation time, and settle all of my affairs in case a bear eats me on the way. It's quite the list of stuff to do. I decided to make this my hybrid training/planning journal and journal kept on the way itself. It's not going to be the most updated journal of all time, as there will be months during training where I'd write nothing but "I biked 15 miles today as a test and my left kidney ruptured oh God I'm so doomed" and various points on my trip where even the unlimited, omniscient reach of THE INTERNETS cannot find me. So basically it'll be like that ...other... blog I used to write in, except now when it doesn't get updated for 11 months at a time people can and should assume I died.

I've kind of formed a rough plan of what I need to do beforehand, and in what order:

By the end of January:
- Buy a bike
- Pick an NPO to start talking with about sponsorship
- Plan a rough budget for the next 10 months
- Decide how I'm going to pick a route (Whether I use ACA maps, Google Maps, releasing from San Diego a pigeon captured in Boston and following it, etc...)
- Sell car

By the end of March:
- Decide on how to outfit the bike (Components, panniers vs a trailer, blah blah)
- Have relationship with whatever NPO established so I can start collecting
- Performed at least 1 60 mile day trip

By the end of June
- Have final draft of route planned
- Perform at least 1 80 mile day trip
- Convert bike from commuting to touring componentry
- Start loading bike fully during commuting for practice

By August 15th
- Perform a 100 mile day trip
- Have packing list completed and all supplies purchased/stowed
- Find Cat-sitter
- Invent new breakfast cereal

I'll start by addressing the first "Huh?" response this list likely elicited. Yes, I'm selling my car and going bike-only. There's a multitude of reasons I shouldn't be driving at this point, but I'll focus on two here.

#1. I am supremely, utterly lazy. I can realistically see myself driving to work every day and not even touching the damn bike until August, and then desperately trying to will myself into shape for this. I'm planning on doing 70-80 miles a day, including going straight through the horrible, accursed Rocky Mountains, and I need to get in every single bit of training I can, starting now. With the car still in the picture, that's not gonna happen.

#2. Tucson is rated like #3 or #4 in terms of "bike friendly" cities in the entire country. Getting to work, the store, the local S&M leather hangout, is all very easy. There's no excuse to not ditch the car. I'm going to be biking through downpours, 110 degree heat, and 40 degree cold at various points on this trip, so if I can't hack it for a 9.1 mile commute to work, I'm certainly not going to be able to do it over the course of several thousand miles. Therefore, no car.

Donate here!

So if plan to donate a set amount per mile (like 1 cent, .5 cents, etc...) please post a comment here letting me know. Thanks!