Last Minute Advice

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 14:45:29 -0700

August is at hand. It is the high season for bike touring along the Pacific Coast. I’m nicely booked for the month and thought I’d take a moment to pass along some last minute bit of advice for people setting out on their first substantial tour.

My advice is to get a brand new pair of the fattest tires your bike will take. The absolute, and I mean _absolute_ minimum I’d leave home on are 28mm. A better minimum would be 32mm. I only mention 28mm because quite a few bikes can’t fit more than 28mm. And to be sure, those are minimums. Don’t shy away from 42’s or even 50’s if they will fit your bike.

Unfortunately, fat tires have a bad rap. I suspect for two reasons 1) racers ride thin tires, racers must go as fast as possible, ergo thinner tires must be faster*, and 2) most fat tires one is likely to encounter are on cheap department store bikes. Taking them in order, racers ride thin tires because they are weight-obsessives that do what everybody else is doing. If you’re not in first place and are on tires different from everybody else, do you want to be second-guessing that just maybe you could have placed at least one spot higher if you were on different tires? No, it’s not worth the risk. However, touring has nothing in common with racing. The speeds are lower, the loads higher, the roads less predictable, the hours longer. Fat tires are superior on all these counts. And key to going with fat tires are to pay up for a good pair. If you aren’t an expert and aren’t sure what to get, go with Schwalbe. They don’t make a bad tire. Schwalbes won’t come cheap, but they will be worth every penny. You won’t be able to find them in a discount catalogue or in stock at any old suburban strip-mall bike shop. A good bike shop that caters to daily commuters will have a pair. And of course you are reading this on the internet...

As for me, my touring & camping bike sports a pair of 50mm Schwalbe Big Apples. I’ve ridden them up and over the North Cascades Hwy. I’ve also ridden them for very nearly a century, after getting a very late start (about 11:30, I think it was) and going until dark with a full camping load. I run them about 35psi and they roll like a Bentley. And believe me, if you’re going to haul a full camping load a 100 miles in a day, you want to be rolling like a Bentley.

So, there you go. If you haven’t left yet, there’s still time to get yourself a new set of rubber before heading out. You should be heading out on a new set of tires anyway, it’s not worth spoiling a tour with lots of preventable flats.

* In truth, Bicycle Quarterly readers know that fat tires are, in fact, faster than thin tires on real pavement: cracks, pot-holes, gravel, and all.

Summer 2011 Tour Planning

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:37:59 -0800

Inquiries for summer 2011 have started coming in at a nice, steady pace. Word about the shuttle service has really gotten around. That’s the good news. The -- well, it’s not bad, call it other -- news is that late last summer I went back to work full time. I still have the van and will be available for weekend shuttles, or maybe the odd late-afternoon run, but that’s mostly it. No more morning runs from the airport to Astoria. Sorry.

I am still available for free advice, and in fact have been giving out a lot of it lately. If you have any questions about touring in or around Oregon, certainly feel free to drop me a line. The email is still live and I still check it most every day. That said, I am a lot busier now so it may take me a bit longer to respond, worst-case a couple of evenings. If you haven’t heard back in a couple days please resend. Sometimes the spam filters get a little too rambunctious, sometimes new mail gets buried under even newer mail. I’ll not be offended by a little friendly nagging.

I think the only other news of mention is shuttle rates have gone up 10 cents. Blame our Central Bank.

Touring Season 2010 Complete

Sun, 17 Oct 2010 21:25:06 -0700

I’m about a month late getting this out. My last scheduled shuttle for the year was actually back in September. There’s still plenty of good cycling weather left, this last week being a case in point, but the days are too short, the nights (almost) too cold, and more so the weather too unpredictable to schedule a tour. I’m sure there’s still a few folks out on the coast, no doubt the year-round tourists beating it south before the rain arrives. But by and large now is firmly into the off-season. This being my second full season shuttling cyclo-tourists, here are some of my closing thoughts.

First, most people pack way too much. By now they know who they are. For those starting out and thus do not yet know, I have a hint. 22lbs.

Local knowledge and experience are priceless. No one is going to tell you to start your tour at the Astoria Column. Without a shuttle it would be a tremendous amount of work to pedal a loaded tour bike up to it. But if you are going by shuttle it is absolutely the best place to unwind and take in what you are about start. The typical trans-am route has cyclists taking Hwy 30 from Astoria to Portland. That is great if you are driving. If you are riding allow me to suggest OR202 through Jewell and Mist. If you must stay on Hwy 30, allow yourself time to catch the ferry to Cathlamet.
If you are headed south from Astoria, instead of US101 to Seaside take the back way using the Warrenton-Astoria bridge south across Young’s Bay and then catch Lewis and Clark Road. It’s a few extra miles, but Astoria to Seaside is short anyway. You’ll have plenty of time on US101 the rest of the ride, this detour is well worth it. I should warn that there’s one and a half tough climbs at the end, but after the last one it’s all downhill into Seaside. If you can’t do the whole Oregon coast the south is by far the best. Newport to North Bend and Port Orford to Brookings are unmatched in the world. If you are bike-camping plan one night for a little stealth camping on the beach. There are a few spots where the highway is up above the beach a ways and a couple cyclists squirreled away in a small dark corner without a campfire are never going to be seen. Now the south coast isn’t all that convenient, so in the interest of practicality I’ll also offer Tillamook to Florence is very nice and Florence to Eugene along OR126 is probably the easiest connection there is for cycling from the coast to the valley.

Finally, yes those are a pair of Bridgestone XO-1’s setting out for a tour down the coast. They made it all the way to Brookings, in fact. The orange one still has its original owner. The pearl one was on its first tour since being built-up from frame and fork off e-bay. Both were gorgeous bikes with very nice builds. Unfortunately my photo doesn’t remotely do them justice. In my defense was using a borrowed camera phone.

Until next summer, keep the rubber side down.

Summer Touring Season

Tue, 11 May 2010 16:04:14 -0700

The summer touring season is upon us. Hooray! Inquiries and reservations have been coming in for a few weeks now. If you’ve been sitting on the fence over busting out of your rut and seeing a bit of Oregon from your saddle, as they say, there’s no better time than the present.

And don’t let a busy job or other commitments stand in your way. As I’ve said many times, little rides can be just as fulfilling and refreshing. Last month a group from Seattle drove down for a three day weekend. They stayed at a hostel here in the city Thursday night, caught breakfast at Marathon’s morning happy hour Friday, then rode from Hillsboro to Tillamook to Newport. I picked them up in Newport and returned them to Hillsboro where they had parked their vehicle. (Drew, Jessica, and Katrina if you read this, thanks for the yummy breakfast!) They had a wonderful time, no less because it was a relatively spontaneous trip that allowed them to break outside their normal routine and do something totally new for a few days.

Of course epic rides are cool too. In fact, next week I’ll be shuttling a trans-am rider to Astoria for the start of his summer of cycling. Wish him luck.

New in 2010

Wed, 6 Jan 2010 13:08:41 -0800

Happy New Year to all my readers and fans. I have some nice changes to report for the new year.

First, and most exciting is a cross-marketing agreement with the folks at Wend Magazine. Chris Schwind, cool dude and marketing guy at Wend, is going to outfit the Sag Wagon with issues of Wend. That’s right, Portland Sag Wagon now has it’s own in-flight magazine, just like the big-boy, commercial airlines.

OK, technically the magazine is not my own, if by “my own” you mean it in the western capitalist paradigm. But if by “my own” you mean it in the shared community resources and gift-culture of the Pacific Islander and Northwest native tribes paradigm, Wend indeed is “my own.” They’ve also added Portland Sag Wagon to their outfitters directory. I’m there under the North America listings alongside Alaskan mountain guides and Bajan sea kayakers. Oh, and if you need a ride from Alaska to Baja, look me up. I probably won’t be as cheap as flying, but I can promise a pretty cool road-trip.

Also new for 2010 is an increase in the mileage rate. The first hundred miles now cost $1.25 a mile. After a hundred, the rate drops down to the old rate of $1. (Note a surcharge for international border crossings may apply.) The two-tier rate is to lessen the hit to folks needing a long-haul to Bend or the southern coast, but still earn myself a little more scratch to keep the wheels turnin’ true.

I thought about taking it to $1.50, but I’m doing this gig largely for fun and riders have been great tippers anyway, so it’s cool.

Well, that’s the news. Best wishes to one and all for an exciting and memorable 2010. Life is short and work will always be with us. My advice: make a resolution this year to do one big thing you will remember fondly 10 years from now.