Richard A. Lovett - The Essential Touring Cyclist: A Complete Guide for the Bicycle Traveler

THE ESSENTIAL TOURING CYCLIST SECOND EDITION

The Complete Guide for the Bicycle Traveler

RICHARD A. LOVETT

Photographs by Vera Jagendorf

Copyright 1994, 2001 Ragged Mountain Press. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-170513-4
MHID: 0-07-170513-9

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-136019-7, MHID: 0-07-136019-0.

All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps.

McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs. To contact a representative please e-mail us at bulksales@mcgraw-hill.com.

TERMS OF USE

This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (McGraw-Hill) and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hills prior consent. You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms.

THE WORK IS PROVIDED AS IS. McGRAW-HILL AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise.

To Pat and Dick Lovett,
for nurturing the spirit of adventure.
And to the memory of John and Helen
Holland, for the encouragement
to share it.

Your bicycle slips gently along a winding ribbon of asphalt, smooth as glass. Pedaling seems effortless, as natural as breathing. Crossing a small creek, you watch the water leap over rocky ledges. A farmer waves at you from a field of new-mown hay; then for the next half mile you are overwhelmed by the sweet aroma of curing alfalfa. It is the last hour before sunset, when the motorized tourists have gone to ground and what little traffic remains is as benign as the warm glow of the sun, which bathes everything in gold and gives you a shadow 50 feet long.

Such is bicycle touring at its finest. Unless you wish it so, it is not a gasping effort, straining to climb hill after hill. There may be hills, but you dont have to race over them. The essence of touring is spontaneity and flexibility. If you tire, you stop. If you encounter the dream tailwind and you feel as though you could go on forever, you milk the day for all its worth. But always you are immersed in the scenery, surrounded by sights, sounds, and smells denied those who travel in the fleeting, insulated world of an automobile.

There are as many styles of bicycle touring as there are types of vacation. Some are athletic challenges; others are relaxed excursions with time to bask in the sun, read a book, or share the camaraderie of a campfire. Its even possible to mix touring with fine wines and rustic B&Bs, with someone else carrying your baggage. Here are some possibilities.

Day Rides. Single-day tours are the easiest and most frequent type of touring. Do them on your own to explore rural byways, finding treasures youd never encounter by car. Or sign up for any of the thousands of group rides, be they hundred-milers or something considerably less challenging, conducted each summer wherever cyclists can be found.

Posh, Catered Touring. For a fee youll be put up in inns or motels and given meals, a guide, and a van to carry your baggage. This is touring at its most luxurious, combining cycling with southern mansions, California wineries, or New England fall colors.

Van-Supported Touring. This is similar to catered touring, except you do the catering yourself, persuading a friend to drive the van or taking turns driving. You can stay in motels or rough it by camping.

Organized Touring. These camping tours are conducted by bike clubs, state tourist departments, or budget-minded touring companies. They provide baggage transport and arrange camping on school lawns, country fairgrounds, or in parks. Group size ranges from a few dozen to thousands of other cyclists.

Credit-Card Touring. For this form of lightweight touring, you need a credit card and little else. As on catered tours, you stay in inns or motels and eat in restaurants, and you carry what little baggage you need.

Light Touring. In mild climates you can do short camping tours with little more than youd carry on a credit-card tour.

Self-Contained (or Loaded) Touring. With everything you need for a week (or longer), your load will weigh 40 to 60 pounds, depending on weather and how good you are at paring out un-needed luxuries and making what you do carry serve multiple purposes. With low gears this type of touring isnt as difficult as it sounds. It pays back the extra effort with a flexible schedule that gives you the ultimate in cycling freedom.

Some people take up a sport as an act of deliberate volition; others drift into it by a series of steps so gradual they seem to have been born to it. I was the latter: when I was a preschooler on training wheels, my greatest ambition was to bicycle into the unexplored country 3 blocks away. From those beginnings it was simply a matter of extending my range and learning from experiencesometimes good, sometimes bad. By the time I was in my early 30s, Id done a half dozen shorter bicycling trips before I struck out solo cross-country. It was a life-changing adventure, recorded in my book