| From : | Zach Cox <zach_cox@hotmail.com> |
| Sent : | Monday, November 22, 2004 1:34 PM |
| To : | Mpfreebird59@aol.com |
| Subject : | RE: Big Ride 2005 |
| Hi Mike; I just brought up www.alaw.org/peluso and there is your alaw.org web page. When Jan 1st 2005 rolls around I will visit this site again and click the "Sponsor Me Online Now!" button. The only good advice I have for the ride is: "Less is More". The web site really gives good advice on what to take. I had all my stuff in two of those small 'dry-bags' (1 foot in diameter and four feet long). One had my tent and sleeping bag in it and the other had all my cloths in it. A good rule to follow is to make sure you are completely comfortable picking all your stuff up at one time and walking about 1/4 mile with it. If you are not then you got too much stuff. (a) Something To Ride - Your bike - I had a camel back, two bottle holders, and a thing that clamped on my seat post that had a bag to put stuff in. If I did this ride again I would keep the camel back and loose the bag clamped to the seat post. Most days you only need your two water bottles (the ride staff does just enough water stops to see you through the day). The camel back was big enough to hold my cell phone and camera and wallet and on long/hot days you can put water in it too. A cell phone was all I carried with me as far as electronic gizmos go. It was a tri-mode phone and I got extra text-messages and it had a camera. If I did it over I would just have a normal cell-phone and take my digital camera instead. There are drug stores all over the US that you can go in and dump your digital camera chip to either prints or CD Rom. Or you can buy a few extra chips and keep all you photos on them till the end of the ride. A spare folding tire and a couple of spare tubes will fit in your under-the-seat tool bag (well the folding tire may have to be strapped to the down tube or something like that). I also used a morph folding frame pump and it was great. I took a total of two spare folding tires and six tubes. I used both folding spare tires and five of the tubes. I also took a spare chain, and had the chain on the bike changed just before the ride and installed a 'power-link' to allow it to be changed off 1/2 way through the ride (I have a 9 speed rear cluster and that chain is only good for 1500 miles). I don't know how much bike cleaning you do normally but you do need to become comfortable with cleaning it before the ride because you wil need to clean you bike every few days (at least every rest day). (b) Something To Sleep In - A Tent - The tent I had was a two man tent that was very compact when down, a 'footprint' (another name for a ground cloth) is a must because it helps keep the tent dry in heavy due and or rain. A rain fly that comes with the tent is a must too. My tent was high enough to sit up in but not much higher. I think I would choose one a bit taller if I had it to do over again. (c) Something Soft To Sleep On - If I were doing it over I would get one of those very low fold up camp cots (REI - Byer TriLite Cot) and a 'ThermARest' thin self inflating mattress. I had a sleeping bag, a couple of single bed sheets and a small pillow. I started out using a battery operated blow up single bed mattress but it was not satisfactory, and switched over to a ThermARest. The sheets are nice because some nights you are sleeping in a dorm room in some university and they do not have sheets and some nights it is not cold enough to get inside the bag and so you use the sheets and the bag as sort of a quilt. I had one of those head-band camping lights and it worked great for a flashlight. I use one of those scrubbing poufs and liquid soap all the time at home and that worked great for me on the trip. I also had a swimmer's chamois to dry off with so I would not get my towel wet when I showered. If it weren't for hot showers I don't think I could do multi day bike rides, but with hot showers I could ride to the moon. (d) Enough riding cloths to last a three/four days. I took three jerseys, three shorts, three pairs of socks, and three pairs of knit-back padded gloves and my riding shoes. I also had riding rain jacket. For cold temperatures I took a single pair of long-fingered gloves, a pair of arm-skins, leg-skins, shoe-covers, one balaclava that I stuffed the arm-skins, leg-skins, shoe-covers, and long-finger gloves in and I only used that stuff a single day so I was glad I could stuff it all in a single small package. (e) Enough after riding cloths to last three or four days. I took three t-shirts, three pair of shorts, three pairs of socks, three pair of under shorts, and a pair of pajamas. I only took a pair of sandals to wear on my feet. If it was cold around camp I would put on my rain jacket and it kept me toasty. One guy on the ride had these pants that had zipper legs that you could zip off and make shorts out of. (f) I used, body-glide or A&D Ointment (not the zinc oxide but the cod fish oil based), SPF 45 sun-screen. I took a bottle of Aleve with me but did not even use the whole bottle (you get used to the miles pretty quickly). I wear glasses so I had some prescription sunglasses, a lot of riders that did not wear glasses had these cool wrap-around sunglasses. I'm also bald so I had a couple of ball caps and I always wore a biker cap under my helmet. I'm the type of rider that likes those riding pants that have straps that go over your shoulders. You should get your bike tuned up and have the same stuff you will be riding with well in advance of the tour. I rode with exactly what I would have with me for two months before I left and I felt really comfortable with my bike setup and my cloths and shoes when I got out to the west coast. The main thing is to get in the miles and the time-on-the-seat before you leave for the ride. Then do not push yourself at the start of the ride, take it easy you will have plenty of time get used to the 83 mile a day average, let it come naturally, don't ever hammer you will blow up your joints. Some days I rode with the folks at the back some days in the middle and a very few I rode with the folks in front. I enjoyed riding with everyone. You are right about loosing weight, the less you weigh the better you will be. I lost about 20-30 lbs before the ride and 20 on the ride and I felt good at the start and at the end. I rode over 3400 miles; the mileage they put on the web site just counts from camp ground to camp ground they do not count getting off the course and riding into to town from the camp site or stuff like that. You only ride 40 of the 48 days (8 days off). Our ride was never SAG'ed. One year they had to SAG the ride over McDonald Pass because it snowed. There were a few riders that SAG'ed a day or so here and there because of equipment failure or physical problems. I took it easy on my body and did not have to be sagged for physical problems and was lucky that my equipment did not force me to be sagged. The closest I came was when my rear hub cracked and I actually borrowed a spare wheel from our mechanic (I was lucky my cluster fit on the extra wheel he had, and I was lucky to be able to purchase a new wheel a few days later). They have 'host-families' in Seattle that you stay with, some of them are actually on the ride. Evelyn drove up to DC to meet me and I have some cousins that live in northern VA that came over, Evelyn and I drove back to NC that same day. A lot of the riders stayed at the same hotel and left the next day for home (either alone or with friends and family that met them). One thing that really, really, came through to me (and everyone else) was that the ride itself was the event not the start, and not the end, but the ride and the folks you ride with, eat with, camp with and get to know in those 48 days. Zach Zach D Cox zach_cox@hotmail.com (email) http://www.pobox.com/~zachcox (web) p.s. - I took my bike to a bike shop and had them take it apart and put it in a bike box and took it with me on the plane. That did NOT work out very well. The bike shop did not remove my back wheel and put a 'keeper' between the chain-stays and I think that was responsible for my rear hub cracking later on (it got over compressed on the flight out). If I did it again I would have the bike shop pack it in a new bike box (with the rear wheel removed and a keeper put in) and have the UPS ship it to the ALAW offices out there. And then either have the ride mechanic, or a local bike shop put it back together. Make sure you mark the handle bar height and the seat post height. Zach ----Original Message Follows---- From: Mpfreebird59@aol.com To: zach_cox@hotmail.com, Mpfreebird59@aol.com Subject: Big Ride 2005 Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 14:06:22 EST Zach, Man I'm so pumped up for this event of a lifetime. Been trying to find the time to write back to you. I have read most of your web-page about your ride but still have many questions for you. . . <snip> . Any other tips you may have for me I'm all ears. Talk to you again soon, Mike Peluso |
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