Nice bikes, long trips, and carrying capacity

[dmaze]

I have come up with a reasonably nice bike. It makes me happy. I can go on longish trips with it, and perhaps the Climb to the Clouds people's assertion two years ago that a mountain bike outright takes 20% more energy to go the same distance is correct. (We were trying to account yesterday for it apparently being easier to climb on this bike, in spite of not having super-low gears for it...but that's not my point here.)

My actual question is this: how do you go on a long unsupported ride on a nice bike, and still have all of the stuff you need? With a seat bag you can carry a spare tube, tire levers, and a CO2 inflation kit; you can put two water bottles inside your frame for 2L, give or take, which goes pretty far. But for this I have no food, no lock, no maps, and only minimal tools. Right now I carry this all in a backpack, and while having 3L of instantly-accessible water is nice, my shoulders complain some about the load.

How do people go on long trips deal with this sort of problem? Credit cards and energy bars in their jersey, and hope to not get lost? Is putting a rack on my bike sacrilege, assuming it's possible?

Comments

[nuclearpolymer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have always been a bit confused how people who go long-distance touring will need front and back panniers or actually some kind of towed cart...but will also have road bikes. I mean, by the time you're carrying around a tent and sleeping bag, why not just go with a bike with tougher tires as well.

My other unrelated confusion is whether losing 5 pounds off your bike, assuming same tires, is the same as losing 5 pounds off your butt, as far as biking effort.

[dmaze]

I've also heard the criticism that people spend a lot of money on very light bikes, when they could be healther and have less total mass by losing weight themselves. I didn't intentionally set out for a very light bike, but it was what Wheelworks handed to me, it was about the price I expected to pay, it had the features I wanted, and it was in fact more rideable than the one-cheaper in the same line.

(In contrast, the bike fredrickegerman and narya have is intentionally heavy, but I do now see that narya's commute is substantially half-paved roads...I wouldn't try to commute on my new bike.)

[narya.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad my choice of bike makes more sense to you now. I didn't realize you hadn't experienced the wonders of that part of my commute before.

[narya.livejournal.com]

I have the impression that if you're going to lose 5 lbs from somewhere in the bike + person system, you'd do a little better to lose 5 lbs that's higher up rather than lower down. I'm not sure if that's truly accurate, but if so it would argue for lightening the person.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I was bewildered when people were astonished that I did a triathalon (just 12 mile bike) with an ordinary commuter bike (I hesitate to call it junky because I believe 76trombones did actually choose it.

My goal was to see if I could do it, and I didn't see the point in buying more and more expensive equipment to do it; that would not make the goal any more interesting (and not make me any healthier.)

[gigglefest.livejournal.com]

Really, people were surprised by that? I thought Danskin (at least in 2003) had a lot of first-timers with relatively junky bikes. But then when I did the triathlon with the 27-mile bike ride, I seriously didn't see another mountain bike the entire day.

OK, dzm, time to stop hijacking your post with not entirely related comments... :)

[narya.livejournal.com]

Yeah, people were similarly surprised that I biked the PMC on a ten year old low end hybrid that I had bought used. But, it was certainly good enough to go the distance, which was all I cared about.

That said, having a bike that's actually the right size has been much kinder on my knees - if you're working up to more biking, you may hit that point too.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Makes sense. I have not worked up to that level of biking.

I think my long-term biking goal is to be able to use a bike to commute distances of 20 or 30 miles round trip, with ample break in between. (Like going to my parents house down the street from the Dedham courthouse, or my friend's house past Lexington Center off the bike path.)

My short-term biking goal is to use the bike for carrying errands within five miles, and to/from the Fells for walks there (I have no interest in mountain biking, though.). I suspect that means I should get a rack or somesuch. Also I should probably upgrade the lights and reflectors.

My guess is that working on me and keeping the bike tuned will be sufficient for this summer at least.