Initial Touring Setup

                                                                                                                                        May 14, 2017

I've had some questions from others as to the type of bike that I will be riding on the SF-Pueblo tour and how it will be outfitted to carry all my gear.

Last fall when this tour was in its initial planning stages, my plan was that I ride my mountain bike (MTB) and pull a trailer, in which would be all of my gear. This was a simple solution, as I already had both the trailer and MTB. I would change out my knobby tires for something slicker with less rolling resistance and add handlebar grips with more padding and additional hand positions. My MTB was definitely geared low enough for hauling the heavy loads up the long climbs along the route. It has double chainrings up front, the smallest one being a granny gear for steep trails. If anything, it did not have a big enough gear for the fast downhills. The MTB was also plenty durable, with a strong aluminum frame and wheels, as it was designed for rough off-road use. Besides it would not be carrying any real added weight, as my gear would all be in the trailer. The trailer is a Nomad, which is well designed and built by Burley.

Originally planned touring setup: MTB with Nomad trailer

Back last Nov. 2016, Tom and I did a test run overnight up to Huntsville State Park, which is about 40 miles from home. During that test ride I used my planned setup of MTB and trailer, and it worked well. It was faster than I expected it to be and pulled easily. The trailer was filled with about 3/4's of the gear that I would bring along on the SF-Pueblo ride. The bike-trailer setup felt very stable, with no side to side wobble, but I did notice minor vertical movements as it went over bumps. After a while, I almost forgot that I was pulling a trailer. This was both good, and bad. The bad being that at one of our stops at a convenience store, as I slowed to stop and position my bike, I unknowingly bumped the trailer up against a big metal pole. I had forgotten that I was pulling it. Luckily, no damage occurred. I suspect that after using it more and getting used to it, that this would not happen again. Based upon this Huntsville trial run, the MTB-trailer combo was a go.

However, two other big concerns about pulling a trailer were not really addressed by our Huntsville trip; 1) how would the bike and trailer combo handle at fast downhill speeds (25-30+ mph), and in particular 2) how would I be able to ride on roads with rumble strips?

Our test run did not encounter roads with significant rumble strips, but any rider can tell you that they are jarring enough that they must be avoided. Rumble strips are placed along the shoulder of the road to alert car drivers when they have wandered off the traffic main lane. They are now also placing center line rumble strips on many roads. They are put there for safety and have probably saved many lives. I won't get into the many cycling related issues with rumble strips, which are often made worse by improper placement along the road shoulder. If interested, The "League of American Bicyclists" has put out the following fact sheet about rumble strips as they affect cyclists.

http://www.advocacyadvance.org/docs/rumble_strips.pdf

Rumble strips: showing an adequate width shoulder for cyclists

The main problem with rumble strips is that they remove part of the road shoulder from use by cyclists. If there is not enough space between the rumble strip and the edge of the road, then the cyclist is forced to ride to the left of the rumble strip, which is where the cars are located. This is not a good situation. With a single bike, the front and rear wheels track each other. In such a case, a 2-foot space between rumble strip and edge of road is roughly a minimum comfortable width to ride. However, when pulling a trailer, the spacing of the trailer wheels (about 22 inches) fills up this entire 2-feet, and so even this space would require the bike-trailer combo to ride in the traffic lane. This was a big safety concern for me, as rumble strips are common on many roads now.

Additionally, the more that I read online about people doing long tours like the one we are planning, I find that almost nobody has posted experiences of pulling a two-wheeled trailer. There are more postings from people using one-wheeled trailers, which handle better off road. It is not obvious why people are not touring with trailers, but I suspect it may be due to similar concerns that I have. The bottom line is that most people still seem to tour the old fashion way, with a heavy steel frame bike and panniers (mounted bags) to carry their gear.

Next time I will show you what I have ended up with as my touring bike setup.

Mike