If you’ve been following along lately, you would know that I have put a ton of work into documenting and sharing my adventures from my recent 1,700 mile cycling trip down the Pacific Coast!
You didn’t think that this big ol’ cycling trip was yet another one of my crazy ideas, did you? As a matter of fact this whole bike trip was far from my idea. This trip was inspired by a stranger named Ben, whom I met in Nicaragua last year.
Like Ben inspired me, I hope to inspire you to do your own cycling trip at some point in your life. I advise you not to wait too long though because you know, we’re only getting older!
Trip Details:
- Total Mileage: 1,692 mi
- # of days it took to complete: 44
- # of hours training for prior to the trip: 0 [yes, zero!]
- # of miles ridden prior to the trip: 0 [yes, zero!]
- Top Speed: 42.8 MPH [Pismo to Gaviota]
- # of Flat tires: Ryan: 8 or 9? Will: 2!
- # of Tunnels: 2
- # of People who have hosted us in their homes: 7
- # of States covered: 3 [Washington, Oregon, California]
- # longest streak of riding days without a day off: 12
- # of times we were ran off the road: 1 [San Francisco to Seaside, CA]
- # of Crashes: Will: 2 [Day 1/Day 12], Ryan : 1 [Day 30]
- # of Hospital Visits: 1 (Will) [Day 12]
- # of visits to Inn N’ Out: 3
- # of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches consumed: 96 [rough estimate]
- # of times we ate Chef Boyardee cold straight out of the can: 6
- # of new tires: Will: 2, Ryan: 2
- Interesting Wildlife Spotted: Bald Eagle, Whale, Elk
- Most Scenic Camp Site: Kirk Creek Campground
- Most Scenic Days of Riding: [Day 3, Day 11,
- Worst Night of Sleep: Camping at Humbug State Park
- Things we craved: Will: Espresso, Ryan: Diet Pepsi
- Biggest Climb of the Trip: Leggett, CA
- Best Sunset: Big Sur
Over the course of our 6-week Pacific Coast Bicycle Tour I wrote 32 blog posts covering all of the details of the trip from Day 1 to Day 44. Click here to read Days 1-44.
Note: If you have any questions regarding bicycle touring, feel free to contact me! I’m far from an expert when it comes to bicycle touring but I’m sure I could help answer a few of your questions!
Hello Ryan and Will. Congrats on your cycling trip/tour. Pretty impressive for someone without any training!
I really enjoyed following your adventure and admire you for taking on the challenge.
Now my questions. How do you have the time and money for all these adventures? Maybe you’ve addressed this before in your blog.
The average person just can’t afford some of these thigs and be able to take those type of vacations, have those many days. So what is the secret formula? Whatever it is, I’m envious.
One of these I plan to do a long distance tour, might be next year, but I’ll need to retire first ;)
Thanks for making me envious and inspiring me to take that challenge.
Hey Richard, thanks for following along with our tour. We really appreciate your feedback. As far as the time/money goes, Will is taking some time off from work as he’s entering grad school this fall. As for me, I make a living maintaining this website and writing about my travels. I also do other things on the side to make some extra cash from time to time.
I agree, the average person can’t afford doing every single thing that I do but the point is that I travel around the world in search of adventure in hopes to inspire you (the reader) to get out and DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT this year. It’s not that I want you to follow my exact footsteps, it’s more about providing ideas for trips and adventure activities that you might not have heard of or even knew existed. In conclusion, there is no secret formula! It’s all about you following your dreams.
I highly recommend you take a long distance tour of your own if you have yet to do so. Next year is fine, but don’t put it off any longer. My motto is that I live today because I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow. Truth!
Keep in touch and come say Hi to us over on Facebook (if you have it) at: http://www.facebook.com/pausethemoment
Congratulations guys!!! You did it. I don’t know what is more impressive: the number of miles riden or the number of peanut butter and jelly sandwiched consumed. Waiting gor your next great idea.
Thanks Ruth! Yes, we DID do it. Haha! Needless to say, I haven’t had too many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches since I returned home.
Congratulations, Ryan and Will! I’ve really enjoyed reading about your adventure. (And I can’t believe you went in with ZERO training!!)
How did this race change you? Did it give you any long-term (or hopefully long-term) changes, physically or mentally?
PS — I’ll be in Boston until late Augustish, so let me know if you’re around!
Thanks Kate. Well, it wasn’t a race it was more of a personal trip for us. We didn’t ride for any reason other than to prove that it can be done with no training and with two $250 1980-something bicycles from Craigslist. It’s funny because we met so many people along the way that were all decked out from head to toe in “aerodynamic” lycra gear and $5,000 bikes. Did they have an easier time completing the trip? For sure, but worth $5K? I’m not so sure.
As for the changes, I’ve always been into fitness (just never really rode bicycles) so I probably stayed just as fit as I was prior to the trip. The problem is that we weren’t doing any upper body workouts so when I returned and got back to the gym it took me a week or two before I got my body back in order. My legs on the other hand have grown tremendously and they are stronger than ever. On the mental side of things, I learned to push through pain. I know, it doesn’t sound right but I thought I might have to cut the trip short about half way into the trip due to the issues I had with my knee. Looking back I’m so glad that I slapped ICY HOT on my knee multiple times per day and took 800mg of ibuprofen every day for a few weeks. It really got me through the trip and in the end all my knee needed was for me to get off of my bike. Now it’s back to normal and I have nightmares of those nights where I would be in tent grimacing in pain as I tried to stretch my leg out. I wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone!
No way? Interesting! I’m headed out on a 7-day road trip in the Southwest next week and then a 10-day road trip through Southern Florida 8/5-8/14. I’ll be home on the 15th of August. I’ll keep you posted. Maybe we can meet up in town or something.
Hi Ryan,
It occurred to me when I saw this video of two cyclists in Berkely, CA getting hit by a “black car” that it may have been the same guy that hit you in San Francisco. What do you think?
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/tiny-bicycle-camera-helps-solve-hit-run-113440864–abc-news-topstories.html
Any more bike tours in your future???
Sue
Hi Sue,
Thanks for the heads up. The car in that video was an Acura by the looks of it. The one that cut me off was a BMW. I’m glad they caught that guy though! No bike tours in the immediate future but I’ll never say never!
Hi there,
Congratulations on completing an awesome trip!
It’s people such as yourself that have inspired me to do the same trip this summer, especially seeing as you went to so much trouble to blog it all too!
I also have a knee problem so am wondering what you would do differently to avoid it in the first place, and what else you did other than icy hot and ibuprofen to help?
Here’s hoping I can learn from your pain!
Keep up the good works!
Rob
Dublin, Ireland
Hey Rob! Great to hear from you. Thank you for the feedback on the trip. I’m so glad to have inspired you to do this same trip and I’m really excited for you because you’re going to have the time of your life!
As for the knee issue, unlike yourself, I had no issues with my knees pre-trip. If I could do it all over again, the number one thing I would do is get my seat height adjusted to the “perfect spot”. There is such a thing, believe it or not! This is crucial on a trip of this length, especially if you’re planning on pumping out big mileage. I made a few mistakes the day I hurt my knee. Not only was my seat too low, but I was trying my hardest to push through the end of the day when I was absolutely exhausted. It was what, day three or four of the trip at the time? My adrenaline was still pumping and there wasn’t a soul in the world that could tell me to pull over and take a break. Looking back, I think the seat height was the biggest issue followed by mashing on the pedals up big hills at the end of the day. Not a good combination by any means!
To be honest, I had no clue how to treat such an injury at the time. I was in excruciating pain. I’m talking I would wake up in the middle of the night, teeth clenched, nursing my leg back into a straightened position and wondering if I would be able to ride the following day. When we finally arrived that first evening in Astoria, Oregon, I thought that taking a day or two off for rest would solve the issue. I was having trouble walking, never mind pedaling a bicycle another 50-something miles.
I had to train myself to sleep on my back in order to keep my leg completely straight through out the night. After a week or two, I was able to sleep completely through the night without waking up. I popped 800mg of Ibuprofen every morning and every afternoon. It wasn’t until we got to the Redwood National Forest that I met a guy at a campground that told me I should keep applying icy hot on my leg throughout the day and I’d be able to push through it. Turns out, he was right about pushing through, but was it smart? Probably not. I was using so much icy hot every day that I started to become immune to it. LOL. I would put it on and not feel any cooling/heat sensation.
The problem never really went away. To this day, my left it band gets tight when I sit down for long periods of time and when I go to stand up it feels like it’s going to take a few seconds to fully stretch out. It’s even more prevalent in a cold climate. I’m currently living in Chiang Mai, Thailand as we speak so the warm weather has me forgetting about the injury. I own a bicycle here and I cruise around the city all day with no issues at all. That being said, I still have something going on down there I just haven’t had the medical insurance to get it checked out properly.
The moral of the story is that you need to listen to your body. I failed to listen to mine when it needed a break and it almost sabotaged my trip. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was so determined to finish, I would have flew home after day 5.
I’ve been meaning to write more posts about things I’ve learned on the trip, what I packed, what I left behind, and so on but I still haven’t got around to it. One of these days you’ll catch a new post about my trip. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact me. If you decide to blog about it, please send me your URL!
P.S. – My mother was born in Dublin, I’ve been a trillion times and it’s still one of my favorite cities in the world.
Hey Ryan,
Wow, it sounds like you were going through hell! It shows some balls to have kept going. Thanks a mil for the wise words, I’ll definitely get the saddle right, take it easy and not push too hard – now I can blame you for my trip taking me six months ;-)
Sounds like you’re on another adventure entirely in Thailand – enjoy and I’ll look forward to future posts, I hope!
ps I’m trying to choose a tent and have no real idea what to buy – Am starting off in Vancouver end of August so any advice on that (and anything else that springs to mind!) would be greatly appreciated.
Let me know if you’re ever in Dublin again and I’ll buy you a real pint!
thanks a mil
Rob
Hey Rob. Damn right! ;-) Seriously, good luck on your trip. I would love to hear more about it once you get started. As for the tent, I would recommend checking out a store called MEC, it’s basically Canada’s version of my favorite store on earth, REI (rei.com). Here’s the link for MEC in Vancouver: http://www.mec.ca/AST/ContentPrimary/Services/Stores/Vancouver.jsp . Those guys should be able to get you sorted out with a tent. We went with the REI Quarterdome T2 tent, something like this: http://www.rei.com/product/827787/rei-quarter-dome-t2-plus-tent . Again, be sure to contact me if you have any other questions.
I’ll take you up on that offer the next time I’m in your city!
Thanks again Ryan, you’re a gentleman.
Congrats on your accomplishment. I enjoyed reading your great posts. I did a Cali bike tour last Sept SF to LA (7 days with 1 day off) and still haven’t finished updating my posts. I can’t believe you did it without training. I was on my bike about 5 days a week for a few months prior to my trip. Sounds like you learned the hard way about proper bike fit. It is worth it to be properly fit and be safe ($150 – $300). Hope you are still riding. Congrats again!
Thanks Rachel. SF to LA sounds like a cool little tour. While I did learn the hard way when it comes to the proper fit, I also learned that you do not need to train in order to accomplish a long distance bike tour. The injury sucked, but the trip rocked! I’ve been riding leisurely here in Thailand for the last 5 months but I’m definitely interested in doing another bike tour in the future. Thanks for stopping by!