Hey man, where y’all from?
I’m from the UK.
Huh?
Oh man I love England!
Actually I’m from Wales. Wales is one of the states that makes up the UK, along with England, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Oh, I thought England was the UK!
No, that’s like saying that Texas is America. Wales, Scotland and Ireland have their own languages and culture too. It’s the same sort of setup as the USA, but with a bigger difference between the states from what I’ve seen so far. England is by far the biggest state in terms of population though.
They really have their own languages?
Yep, celtic languages, different from latin languages like Spanish, it’s all very old. A good percentage of the population in wales/Scotland/Ireland will speak English as a second language.
Is the culture very different from here?
Umm, no not really to be honest. America is a more right wing, religous and conservative, Britain is a more left wing, secular and liberal. But they’ve got a lot more in common than apart I think. Also, we are a post-imperial declining power, and you guys are the major superpower at the moment.
At the moment!
Well, yeah, nothing lasts forever. Empires rise and fall.
We’re not an empire!
Lets leave this discussion for another time, it’s a bit deep for a cycling faq.
Where you riding from?
I’m riding from Miami to Seattle, started out a few weeks ago, it’ll take me a couple months in total to ride.
Miami, FLORIDA to Seattle, WASHINGTON???
Yep
Man! I drove across Florida once and thought I was never gonna get there! I can’t imagine cycling all that way!
It’s a different experience, I feel the same way as you when I’m driving, but on the bike you have a different mindset, once you got the fitness you just sit there and watch the miles go by. It’s not like a car where you get bored, you’re always doing something - dodging potholes, managing your body, looking at the road kill. Quite often I find I’ve done about 20 or 30 more miles than I thought I had. Even weirder, sometimes I’ll stop to think about whether to carry on or stop for the day, and while I’m engrossed in that my body saddles up and starts riding again, and when I come out of my deep thought mode I realise I’ve ridden a few miles and the decision has been made for me by my body!
Where you going after Seattle?
Vancouver
Huh? Where?
Vancouver, Canada, it’s just across the border from Seattle. I’m probably gonna drive from Vancouver to Toronto, where I’ll meet up with most of my family.
How do you choose your route?
Well, I know I gotta aim for denver then seattle, so I basically draw a line on the map and take the smallest roads I can find that stay as close to that line as possible. So every night I plan a detailed route for the next day, and I have a rough plan for the couple days after that, and a very rough plan for the couple weeks after that.
Don’t you use the interstates?
No way! Too dangerous, and anyway the little roads are way nicer.
Do you have a gps or something?
Nope! Too big and heavy, and you gotta have batteries, you can’t use it to plan a route, and it’s no fun. I use a map on the handlebars, and I’ve got a compass there too
You really need a compass?
For sure, it’s really handy, especially when you get into a city and there’s a roundabout with 6 exits and none of them signposted for where you want to go. I didn’t take a compass on my last trip and regretted it, it’s none too easy navigating by the sun in a city. Seems crazy in the 21st century, having to rely on the sun and a compass, but there you go.
What do you take with you on a trip like this?
As little as possible, weight and volume are crucial. I’ve got a small tent, weighs about 1kg / 2 lbs, shorts and a couple of t-shirts, some cold weather bike gear, emergency spares and first-aid kit, sleeping bag, that’s about it. You don’t need much to live really, it’s surprising.
Have you been planning this a long time?
Initially I thought people meant ‘did it take a long time to arrange the logistics’ as I’m a literal minded guy. Eventually I sussed that they really meant “have you always wanted to ride across america”. Disappointingly, it’s always been something at the back of my mind behind a lot of other stuff, and it just suddenly leaped to the front one day whilst lying on the sofa at my good friend Bert’s house in Brighton, UK. I’m quite spontaneous, so booked the flights as soon as I’d determined when the weather window was. From deciding to flying was about 3 months, and a lot of that was waiting for the weather window.
Where do you sleep?
A mixture of campsites, motels, camping rough in a field somewhere, and kind people putting me up. I was struggling with the heat for the first few weeks so stayed in cheap motels mostly, then I stayed with my buddy Brandon for a couple of nights, since then I’ve mostly been camping. From now on will be a lot of camping, either rough or in a campsite. It’s good to have a motel on a rest day though, so I’ll be in a motel a couple nights a week.
How do you find somewhere to stay?
Just ride for about 70 miles then look for somewhere. I usually have a rough idea of where motels and campsites will be from looking at the map, and I ask locals as I get close, they always know where stuff is.
What about all the crazy people/serial killers/muggers/criminals?
Travelling solo does sound scary, there’s nobody to look out for you, and if you disappear nobody will look for you for a while. But it just isn’t like that, pretty much everybody along the route looks out for you. I’ve been through some pretty rough areas and met nothing but kindness and offers of help. You also develop a pretty good sense of danger. In fact, the only time I’ve felt at all uncomfortable on this trip was when I was cornered by some full-on evangelist born again christian preachers, who as soon as they found I was a non-believer (well, I actually said I was a militant atheist) subtly blocked my exits, went into aggressive body language and wouldn’t let go of my hand! But they were nice really, just concerned about my soul. Good luck with that.
Don’t you get lonely?
Umm, not really. A little bit sometimes, but in the same way that if you travel a long time with someone you can get a bit fed up of them and need a little time on your own. There’s usually a low point about a week into a solo trip where you see a beach full of people having fun and you feel a bit left out, but it soon passes. Luckily I’m a bit of a loner anyway and am quite self contained. It’s great to have good friends along, but it’s also great to travel solo for a while. A mixture is best. Going too long without seeing anyone you know, or having time to build friendships, is not good for your mental health though.
Why are you doing this?
It just felt right. I know you’re expecting me to say I’m doing it for charity, or to make a statement, or something like that, but really it’s just because I love doing this stuff.
How can you afford to do it?
Saved up, sold my car, rented out my apartment. Camping is cheap, so I get by on about 40 dollars a day or so, more if I’m in a motel or have to fix the bike.
Don’t your parents worry about you?
Yes.
How do you keep in touch? Do you have a laptop or something?
I have a prepaid cellphone that lets me make international calls fairly cheaply. I didn’t have a laptop for the first month but just bought one as wifi is everywhere and it’s dead handy to have one, even though you pay a significant penalty in weight and size. I think it’s worth it, although the rockies may change my mind about that. If you see a laptop floating in a river somewhere it’s probably from a touring cyclist.
Do you really throw stuff away like that?
Yep, big time. At the end of the first day I threw away my trousers, t-shirts, sunglasses, books, maps, camping stove, cooking pots, normal size bottles of shampoo and toothpaste (I bought some tiny ones instead), some spares and tools, and lots of other stuff I’ve forgotten about for now. For the next few days I ruthlessly shed stuff until I reached my happy minimum. It’s no joke that touring cyclists really do cut the handles off their toothbrushes and the labels off their clothes.
How fast can that thing go?
Down a big hill you can do about 60, it gets pretty scary though. On the flat you can sprint up to about 30, but cruise is usually about 15mph.
How often do you wash your bike clothes?
Erm, well, it usually turns out to be about once a week! After that they are usually greasy and horrible, although for some reason the strong sun seems to stop them stinking too bad (you may disagree, I saw you take a step back when you got close), maybe because the sweat evaporates immediately.
You’re very brown
Check out my farmer’s tan! (Lift t-shirt sleeve to show blinding white skin). Quit laughing!
Well you look great, look at those legs!
I get quite shy when you are gawping at me in my skintight lycra.
It must be a great way to lose weight
Yeah, for sure, I’ve lost about 13lbs / 6 kg since I started, and that’s on a constant all-you-can-eat diet of pizzas burgers donuts fruit snack bars and chocolate muffins. In fact, I’m a bit sick of eating so much now! But no eat, no miles.
What’s the longest you ride?
Usually I do about 70 miles or so at a fairly steady 15 miles an hour, which works out at about 6 hours including breaks. I usually stop for 5 minutes every hour just to get off the bike, and chopping up the ride makes it a lot easier. There are usually supermarket and gas station stops for food and water too. The longest I rode in one day was 137 miles, which was 12 hours, dawn until dusk, but that was too much to do every day. These days I’ve taken to having a decent, hour-long break for lunch with some solid food, and have something light in the evening. Breakfast is usually a quick carb-fest stuffed down as I’m getting ready to roll.
You will be real careful on those roads, won’t you?
I promise. I’m way better in traffic that I was when I started, and I was pretty good then. You kinda develop a sense of danger, and I’ve only had to jam my brakes on about twice in 1300 miles, and each of those times I’d spotted the potential danger and was well prepared for it. I’m mostly on tiny wee roads anyway. In general, american drivers are quite courteous and considerate, often giving me an entire lane when they overtake as long as it’s quiet. If it’s busy then things get a bit more hassled and they tend to squeeze past, which is why I avoid big cities and rush hours.
How long have you been cycling?
Well, I rode a lot when I was a teenager, dropped it when I got a car at around 19, and took it up again about 10 years ago when I started commuting to work, and did my first bike tour in spain.
Don’t you have a mirror to see what’s going on behind?
I keep thinking about getting one, but it’s extra weight and it’ll probably get broken soon enough. My main objection is that your main method of communication with the other drivers is your head movements. Arm signals come a long way behind, you only use those when you‘re about to turn. Looking over your shoulder (or usually just pretending too, cos I can tell whats going on behind using my ears with a suprising degree of accuracy) is a clear signal to the driver that you know they are there, and you’re not gonna do anything stupid. Once you have a mirror you tend to stop doing this, and drivers get confused as you seem to be cycling along obliviously. I’ve noticed this myself when following cyclists with mirrors, even with all my cycling experience I find mirror cyclists very unpredictable. The best way to get a driver to give you space is panicky looks over your shoulder in traffic, that comes across clearly and they will almost always back off and give you space. So, in short, I don’t really like mirrors, which I guess puts me in the hardcore-purist category, which I think is the only time I’m ever in that category. Go figure.
Do you have a camera?
Yeah, I have a little one that I keep in my back pocket, which I mostly use to take wobbly shots of striking bits of the road and scenery without stopping. Some of my friends like to stop all the time and take pics, but I have serious miles to do, and they’re not here. This usually leads to minor but amusing friction when they come out to ride with me!
Whas sorta gas mileage you get with that thing?
About 10 miles per chocolate muffin, or about 40 for a large bacon cheeseburger, fries and a coke ;-)
Man, you must have seen some interesting things!
This one has given me the most food for thought. The cycle touring life is actually quite focused and monastic: get up at dawn, ride all day, eat, sleep, repeat. I’m usually too tired at the end of the day for wild adventures in bars and clubs. So mostly what I’ve seen is roads, road kill, wildlife and friendly people.
Are you running away from something?
Good question, but not really, unless you count running away from a life that had gone a little stale. I’m more drifting with fate to see where I end up, and having lots of fun on the way.
Don’t you worry about your stuff being stolen?
Umm, not really, no. I have a little lock for the bike that will stop an opportunistic thief running off with it, but as it’s covered in mudguards/fenders, racks, bottles, bags, grease, sweat, dust, it’s not the most attractive bike for a thief. Most of the time I’m in tiny towns and villages where I happily leave it outside shops and restaurants without locking it, you can generally feel how safe a place is. I never leave it too long though, and I carry my wallet on me. Basically, if you care about something, you shouldn’t take it on a bike tour! That is the best defence against theft.
9 comments:
Kelv, this is like reading "Zen and the Art of Bicycle Maintenance". Great stuff - keep it up!
:-D
Good work Kelv, sounds like your getting a lot out of this experience. Take car buddy.
Daz.
Obviously I'm missing an 'e' in that last post...
don't take car! Take bike!
I'm looking forward to writing my own version very very soon.... :)
great stuff kelv. I can assure you it sounds a lot more fun than your old work...
it almost makes me want to buy a bike..
you missed some question like how long into the ride did your ass start to blister?
Excellent Kelv, more for my book :)
Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, you know the rest...
Principally, that I did not latch on to your blog earlier. Then I could have delved into a book I contributed to back in 1994. Published by Macmillan, The Atlas of the Civil War is still a great read, and something I have some pride in.
But you have left all those battlefields behind you now, so I am wasting my time telling you about the attack on Mobile by Grant in 1864. Be grateful that you never passed anywhere near Vicksburg, or I'd bore you to tears.
Again, should you have strayed north in Mississippi towards Jackson, I may have got started on the life of guitarist Robert Johnson, born in Hazlehurst. Could you have passed by the apocryphal Crossroads, where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for musical genius? I started listening to Cajun and Zydeco (sp?) about 15 years ago, when an old run down venue in Derby promoted Blues music. Fortunately, my local in Charlbury promotes live music, and I still listen to a bit of the Delta Blues live.
Enough about all that stuff - here's tonight's History lesson.
I don't quite know why the history of the making of America is so fascinating to me. Maybe it is that it is so recent. Oklahoma was only admitted to the Union in 1907. My mum may correct me, but my Grandmother was a babe in arms at that time. Astonishing. So hold on to your hats, here's a potted history of the Mid-West - but beware, it's a bumpy ride!
The era of exploration, begun by Lewis and Clark in 1804-06 (more of them later!) ended when emigrants in Conestoga wagons entered the Great Plains in 1834. The Pony express, a feature of so many old Westerns I watched as a child, running 2,000 miles from Missouri to California, only functioned from 1860 to 1861. In 1869 the transcontinental railway was completed, ending the era of the wagon train.
Should you pass near Hugo, just north of the Red River in Oklahoma, you will cross the Shawnee Trail. This was one of a number of Texas cattle trails, along which 10 million longhorns walked from Texas to the new railways at Kansas City and St Louis. These cattle trails survived for only 20 years from 1866.
The 75 million buffalo roaming the Plains were wiped out by the 1870's. The Native Americans were defeated by the U. S. Cavalry shortly afterwards.
An uncharted threatening wilderness to the West of the Mississippi was conquered, mapped, surveyed, settled and accessible within the space of one generation.
And we think we live in a fast moving age...
tata Kelv,
Stay safe, ride on.
Ok, can't wait any longer - I've booked flights and hired a convertible since my pathetic cycling speed won't cover the necessary distance :) See you from 5th - 11 May.
James.
man, why didnt i read this before hand? we might could have met in US at the time and..i would have had some impressions before i went on my first trip to USofA. how much i hated that, but good trip you had...
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