The Old Man and the Bike
The Missoula to Twin Falls route is plenty long and challenging for this 64 year old solo cyclist. I'm not a gifted athlete, not disciplined about training, and not a nutritional role model. But this will be my 55th independent bicycle tour since 1988. I mark all the routes on a laminated map, which shows that my main area of interest is the western United States.
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Mindset
My touring style is to explore for scenic views and stop at cultural and historic sites, frequently pursuing a theme of some kind. I stop often, take many photos, and usually arrive at my motel late in the afternoon. The mindset is to see as much as I can because I might never be there again. But I also search for ideas for a possible future visit. The mindset could be summarized as being a tourist on a bike, rather than a cyclist on a tour.
I almost always tour solo and prefer it for several reasons. I'm an introvert-social activities wear me down and solitary activities charge me up. Traveling alone allows me to be more fully immersed in the "here and now" of my bike tour. In a group I'm inevitably distracted with thoughts about the group. When solo I don't have to stress over a partner's problems affecting my plans, and I don't have to stress about my problems (or changes of plan) negatively affecting partners. For similar reasons, I avoid news altogether during bike tours to help me stay focused on today's sights and experiences.
Abilities
My abilities are decreasing but still manageable. In 2011 I did a mountainous 39 day camping tour with no rest days. Recent tours have a shorter duration, with shorter and flatter days, and I stay in motels and take frequent rest days. Future tours will surely continue the trend of becoming gradually less difficult. I don't plan to switch to an e-bike soon, hopefully not until my 70s.
I recently started taking Magnesium Malate supplements to improve recovery. It seems to make me less fatigued the day after a long bike ride. Hopefully it will reduce chronic fatigue during multi-day tours.
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The Peculiar Bike
The bike is also vintage, a 2007 Bacchetta Giro 20 short wheelbase recumbent with Euro-Mesh seat and Ventisit seat pad. This will be my 31st tour on the bike. It works for me! The rear wheel has a 26 inch (559 mm) rim. The front wheel has a 20 inch (406 mm) rim. Tires are 40mm wide Schwalbe Marathon Racers which are fast on pavement and adequate on gravel.
When people ask me why I pedal feet-first, my short non technical answer is Nothing hurts at the end of the day.
Two bottle cages and two rear flashers are attached to the bike. A TerraCycle underseat rack holds the underseat panniers. ALL cargo must fit in the panniers because there is no rear rack, seat bag, or handlebar bag for overflow. I can easily reach inside a pannier while riding the bike.
Components are old school: rim brakes, inner tubes, 9-speed grip shifters, 11-34T cassette, 24/39/42T half-step chainrings, 155mm cranks for my short horizontal legs. Crank Bros Candy 3 pedals, Shimano SPD sandals.
My Destruction and Renewal 2024 tour journal has more pictures of the bike on a page about the old and new panniers.
I weigh about 190 pounds (86 kg) when dressed and fed. The loaded bike weighs 59-72 pounds (27-33 kg) depending on how much food and water I carry.
Maps and Navigation
On the handlebar is a VDO M4.1 wired cyclocomputer which has a full suite of altimeter functions. The journal page for each tour day includes total ascent and descent measured by the cyclocomputer. I will be very unhappy when it dies because it's not replaceable. GPS units killed the market for high end cyclocomputers. The replacement will be a GPS unit that is larger, heavier, less reliable, and requires frequent charging.
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Jacinto just bought a Coros brand GPS. The selling point was the over 100 hour battery life. It is also solar, claiming to charge one hour for every two hours ridden. So far he has taken four long rides, and the battery is at 94%. He raved so about the unit that I expressed interest, and he bought me one for Mother's Day. I've had two rides. Sadly, with my recumbent handlebars, my Coros sits vertically, and I think gets almost no solar charge. After two rides, the battery is at 91%. I was initially not so happy with the information layout. Careful reading this evening allowed me to reconfigure the main page to my favorite nine items. Perhaps you and I would choose the same things? Current elevation, elevation gained, and elevation lost were three of my nine choices.
An interesting Coros feature is that there is a tiny screw that can be screwed in to lock the computer to the mount. That is a plus for Jacinto, as electronics and lights have a habit of jumping off of his bike. That's what happened to his last GPS.
3 weeks ago
EBAY. Never found anything close, not even the more common wireless version which might work on my wired mount. The main problem is that over the years, the German company VDO has almost never had a U.S. distributor. I bought mine from MEC in Canada. Wish I bought two of them. A couple years ago I paid $28 for another mounting kit from a bike shop in The Netherlands, to use on the Ti Aero. I don't plan to research the handlebar GPS units until the VDO cyclocomputer dies or gets lost.
2 weeks ago
EBAY. Never found anything close, not even the more common wireless version which might work on my wired mount. The main problem is that over the years, the German company VDO has almost never had a U.S. distributor. I bought mine from MEC in Canada. Wish I bought two of them. A couple years ago I paid $28 for another mounting kit from a bike shop in The Netherlands, to use on the Ti Aero. I don't plan to research the handlebar GPS units until the VDO cyclocomputer dies or gets lost.
2 weeks ago
My route map is stored in the RideWithGPS smart phone app for offline access. To see the map I have to stop and pull my phone out of a pannier. I seldom need to do that because my tour routes have easy navigation, usually 2 to 5 well signed turns per day. I use GPS maps like a paper map but appreciate the "you are here" function and the ability to zoom in. I don't use voice assisted navigation and don't create GPS tracks of actual rides.
Sorry, Not Live
The introductory pages of this tour journal were made before the tour, but the actual tour journal pages will be created after the tour. I admire the people who are able to create good "live" tour journals, but I just don't have the motivation or energy when on the road. During the tour I post photos and a brief update on Facebook and write a brief paper journal. The journal and photo captions help me remember details when creating this journal.
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