How Planning a Year-Long Bicycle Tour Changes My View of Things

My husband and I are seriously planning a year-long self-supported bicycle tour beginning next summer.  That means that we will carry all our camping gear, clothing, bicycle tools and pretty much everything we will need for a year (except food and water) on our tandem.  We want to keep our total "gear" weight for the both of us to something under 80 pounds and hopefully closer to 50 pounds.  Not only do we want our gear to be under a certain weight, we have to be able to fit it all into a relatively small space.

Knowing we will be living the "simple life" on a bike for such a long time, makes me look at all the "stuff" I have in my home today.  It also makes me realize how little of the "stuff" I have that I actually need or use on a daily basis.  Each week, we haul "stuff" to Goodwill or other charitable organizations to lighten our load.

It's amazing how a bicycle tour can change one's perspective on what is needed and what is not!

Midwest Tandem Rally

This past weekend my husband and I went to our first tandem rally. We had owed our tandem for five whole days before we went and had probably put only 20 miles on the bike, so we were really "newbies" to the tandem world. 

It was amazing to see so many tandems in one place. I think there were about 1,000 bikes there. Of all the tandems, there was only one other bike that was configured like ours with a recumbent seat in the front for the stoker and an upright seat in the back for the captain. So many people asked questions about our bike. I wouldn't be surprised if the bike shop we bought it from gets lots of calls this week. 

We finally have a picture of the two of us riding the bike. Here it is! 

Our first picture together on the Hase Pino

There were lots of fascinating bikes.  Some of my favorites are the quads and quints.

An example of a quad.

A quint!

It's really fun to see so many tandems in one place.  It was quite an event!

I was the "captain" today on the Hase Pino!

We are learning to love our Hase Pino partial recumbent tandem more and more each day.  We bought it with the hope that we could take turns being "captain" (on the wedgie seat) and stoker (on the recumbent seat).  My husband is 5'11" and weighs about 175.  I'm 5'3" and weigh 139.  We weren't sure if I'd be able to handle holding the bike upright at starts and piloting the bike during takeoffs.

This morning, I decided to give it a try.  First, I took the bike out by myself solo.  I quickly discovered it was very easy to handle and soon thereafter I was doing figure 8's on our little dead-end street.  That's a sign of confidence on a bike when I can make tight turns in either direction.  After about five minutes of riding, we made a quick adjustment to lengthen the boom so my husband could ride in the recumbent seat in the front.  Off we went!!!  I felt very confident steering from in the back.  On level surfaces, I can easily maintain the bike on starts and stops.  At stop signs on steeper hills, it helps that Jim's legs are long enough that, if I need him to, he can put them down on either side of the boom while we are stopped to keep the bike  from rolling.

This is a fun bike, there is no doubt about it.

I'm really excited.  I'm sure now that we will be able to swap positions on a long tour to give each of us a break in our sitting positions and our leg muscles used.  How great is that!!!

More on the Hase Pino!

Yesterday, my husband and I woke up bright and early to drive five and a half hours to Pella, IA in the rain.  We were going  to test drive a Hase Pino. It was the closest one that we could find to us to try out.

 It's a fun tandem that's a combination recumbent and hybrid bike.  The stoker sits in the front (the princess seat) and the captain sits in the back in an upright position.  We both really enjoyed riding the bike and decided to take the plunge and buy it for a self-supported tour we plan to do next spring as soon as he retires.

It takes a little learning to be able to ride this bike.  First, an experienced captain takes the new captain out for a ride in the stoker's position to see how it feels.

My husband, Jim,  in the "Princess Seat" on his virgin ride on the  Pino.  It's a little scary that first time.  The man in the back is Marty, the owner of the LBS (local bike shop), in Pella, IA.

Next, the new captain rides the bike solo in the captain's seat to get used to the bike.  After that, the new captain takes the experienced captain for a ride....

Finally, the new captain, "Capt'n Jim" takes the new stoker "Princess Kay" for a ride.  Wheee, what fun!!!  I have no pictures of both of us yet on the bike.

We felt like the bike would be awesome for enjoying our long tour together next summer.  We can easily talk to each other as we ride, and perhaps take turns in the each position to give each other a break from being in the same position for hours on long rides.  The bike is great because it can be easily broken down into two pieces to fit inside our Prius, or to go into bike boxes to get the bike on Amtrak etc.

All good bikes have to have a name...so on the five and a half hour drive home, we thought of names...Silver, Germinator (the bike is from Germany and we wanted a strong name kind of like The Terminator), Ra (number one Egyptian sun god...also short for "the Relationship Accelerator"  which TreeHugger.com coined the Pino), but we think we might call it JaK....a combination of Jim, the captain,  and Kay, the princess.  We'll see how that name works.

After plunking down a lot of money for the bike and spending over eleven hours to and from the not so local LBS....JaK is sitting in the back of our Prius this morning waiting patiently to be unloaded and strut his stuff....

More to come on JaK and the adventures of Capt'n Jim (CJ) and Princess Kay (PK)!

Using a cycling shirt for running....duh! Why didn't I think of that before?

I've been an avid cyclist and an avid runner at various times in my life. I've been an avid cyclist and an avid runner at various times in my life. Most recently, I've been doing a lot of riding and just dipping my toe into getting back into running. 

Today, I was getting ready to go for a run and was having trouble finding a clean top to wear that would work with my jog bra and be the right weight for running. I have a 20 year old cycling shirt that I still love to wear for cycling. It was the only thing that came close to suitable attire today so I put it on. The minute after I put it on, I could have kicked myself for not doing this sooner. The pockets in the back of my cycling shirt were perfect for my keys and phone....duh! It was a great shirt for running, perfect weight, great wicking, nice coverage. 

I'll be running in that shirt again! 

I think one reason why I had never thought of running in the shirt is because is was originally very expensive. I only wanted to use it for "special riding occasions". Now, it's older and faded (but still in great shape). I don't mind taking it out for a run!

Roun' da Manure Ride, Sharon WI

Yesterday, we drove to Sharon, WI to do the Roun' Da Manure ride.  The weather was absolutely perfect for it.  Highs in the mid 70's, low humidity, clear skies with white puffy clouds and a gentle breeze.  It was a great day to be out on a bicycle.  It was such fun!

Sharon, WI and the surrounding area have long, relatively flat roads.  There were a few curves and rolling hills tossed in the ride for good measure.  We were given coupons for ice cream in the various stores we passed.  The ice cream was top notch with lots of choice.  The ride was VERY reasonably priced considering all the food and sag support that was included.

Speaking of sag support, I had a problem with the front V-brake on my bike when I was setting the bike up.  I'm not real familiar with V-brakes because the particular bike I was riding that day is relatively new to me and it's the first bike I've owned with that particular type of brake on it.  I took my bike over to the sag support wagon and a very kind gentleman quickly fixed the brake.  Not only did he fix it, but he gave me a free mini-course on V-brakes to that if I have problems in the future, I know the things to check and how to fix them.  As my husband and I were riding, we both commented on how great it was that the gentleman had not only been able to quickly diagnose and fix the problem, but was kind enough to teach a newbie a thing or two about bikes.  He was clearly a natural teacher.

I discovered after the ride, that the gentleman turned out to be Lon Haldeman...a world champion bike rider.  He won the Race Across America race two years in a row!  His record time for riding from Santa Monica Pier to the Empire State Building hasn't been broken in thirty years!  Here's a man who loves cycling and has given much back to the sport!  Hat's off to you Lon!

Yesterday was a perfect day for biking, and the Roun' Da Manure ride was the perfect place to do it....

By the way, there wasn't much "dairy air" during the ride, so the name of the ride is a bit of a misnomer.  Lot's and lot's of farms, but they seemed to be more geared to growing corn and other wonderful crops.

Found the Hase Pino for sale!

Are we nuts???!!!

After calling around in the Chicagoland area and finding no Pino's anywhere, my husband and I decided to branch out and call dealers around the country.  Amazingly, we found not one, but two Pino's for sale in Pella, Iowa....a MERE five and a half hours drive away from where we live.  One is a used older model Pino that doesn't break down into a smaller size for transport.  The price was good, but it's a "no go" for our car...a Prius.  The second Pino is a brand new Pino, but it's not really set up for touring and a lot would need to be done to it to get it into a more "touring ready" type bike.

We are really intrigued by the Pino, but I'm hesitant to pay so much for a bike that's not really what I want.

So the question becomes....do we drive 11 hours to test drive a bike that isn't really what we want?

Depends on how crazy we are!!!!

We have all day to think about it as we do the Round da Manure Tour in Sharon, Wisconsin.