pacific coast tour

colby

New Member
Local time
6:22 PM
Joined
Nov 8, 2011
Messages
16
this is a continued thread from my intro thread. Members have been giving me advice on the ideal touring mb.
 
My general advice is this, treat your tour like a regular bicycle tour, expect to pedal most of the time. if you do this, you'll get a lot of exercise and your butt will hurt less, and you'll realize how rad MB touring is because you end up averaging 20mph, rather than 12.

Best piece of advice you can get right there.

Get a bike that you are comfortable on, one that is both easy and you like to pedal because that's the basic idea with a self-contained touring MAB. If not a small motorcycle or scooter would be a better bet.

Weight is the enemy of the distance tourer. Consider well what you can do and do without. Saving a few ounces here, a pound there adds up because ultimately it becomes a power to weight ratio equation.

I've done thousands of miles of pedal bicycle touring and more recently over past 4 years gotten into power assisted bikes. We did a tour on MABs of the coast of Maine this summer, 380 miles one way planned route, ended up a bit over 800 miles round trip with side travel.

Wheels, can't say enough about it and the first thing I would say is have good wheels, stout spokes with quality hubs and maintain them meticulously, I had a bearing race go bad on a rear wheel this trip because I didn't.
Tires and tubes, use the best you can afford. I also use tire liners and thorn proof tubes. 800 miles and no flats, a first.
Trailer, don't know if you'll use one but I love the single wheel I have. It's the Bob style knock-off from Nashbar I picked up used for $50 and tweaked it some, swapped out the wheel with an upgrade.
I saw mention in the earlier thread of using a Chinese fuel tank but I wouldn't do it. They come cruddy and often rusty and IMO would be a pain and right in the way on the top tube. Besides, fuel is heavy and you don't need 4 liters if you're only doing 50 miles or so a day with gas stations along the way. Using an additional 1.5L aux plastic scooter tank, gives about 75 mile range.
Lighting. There's no end what you can spend on quality bicycle lighting but minimum for daytime travel I wouldn't go without a flashing red in the rear and white nano strobe in front.
A center kickstand is a great asset on a touring bike with panniers.
 
Last edited:
I cant thank you enough Happy Valley for the advice. I've already learned a wealth of information.
 
Back
Top