[HN Gopher] Logistics of biking 9833 miles in 409 days
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       Logistics of biking 9833 miles in 409 days
        
       Author : the_cat_kittles
       Score  : 66 points
       Date   : 2022-11-14 21:28 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.peterispedaling.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.peterispedaling.com)
        
       | insane_dreamer wrote:
       | > I had a month where I sent only one email. All month.
       | 
       | this might be the best line in the article :)
        
       | ericmcer wrote:
       | I think you mean 9833km? South America is not that long unless he
       | was riding in circles around it or something.
        
       | hnthrowaway0315 wrote:
       | Just curious. For a similar bit shorter travel across Canada from
       | east to west during summer, is there any recommended commercial
       | bike? (commercial bike means can buy in Costco/Canadian
       | Tire/individual bike shops and not too expensive, say under 3000
       | CAD)
        
         | newsclues wrote:
         | a touring bike is what you want, lots of brands make them, find
         | a local shop and try a few to see what you like.
        
         | calt wrote:
         | The Surly Long Haul Trucker is a favorite base bike.
         | 
         | Getting the bags and racks etc won't be included. A good local
         | bike shop would be my bet.
        
         | wiredfool wrote:
         | The Surly he was riding isn't a bad choice. They're pretty
         | stout, and have all the necessary braze ons for racks and
         | fenders. You're going to need panniers and/or frame bags,
         | though current style is to put a bit more weight on the front
         | than he seemed to have.
        
       | matsemann wrote:
       | How would a different kind of bike setup fare? Like tubeless, or
       | belt-driven etc, any gains doing untraditional things? Of course,
       | one value in doing it plain is it's easy to fix and get parts
       | anywhere.
        
         | flylikeabanana wrote:
         | > one value in doing it plain is it's easy to fix and get parts
         | anywhere
         | 
         | That's probably the main value. In the article it says he
         | waited three days for a bike chain - I imagine it would have
         | been even longer waiting for a belt. Belts also limit you to
         | single-sprocket rear wheels since they don't work with
         | derailers - hub gears can be reliable (see the legendary
         | Rohloff hubs) but they're expensive and add another difficult-
         | to-source part to the build in case something goes wrong.
         | 
         | There's even something of a cult myth in touring that steel
         | frames are superior since they could be theoretically fixed by
         | anyone with a welder. I'm not sure if I've ever heard of this
         | in practice, though.
        
           | pixelbreaker wrote:
           | I have a pinion gearboxed mountain bike with belt drive,
           | 10000km and going strong, same belt.
        
             | bwb wrote:
             | Same here, I am at half that on a touring bike. Belts are
             | amazing!
             | 
             | I do carry a spare on tours
        
             | danw1979 wrote:
             | wouldn't a spare belt be quite light to pack anyway ?
        
         | wl wrote:
         | Tubeless is probably the least problematic of the newfangled
         | bike tech when it comes to bike touring in remote areas. You
         | get the benefit that most punctures will seal themselves. If
         | the puncture is too severe for the sealant to work, you can
         | easily convert to a conventional setup with a tube.
        
         | loeg wrote:
         | This isn't a ton of miles for the period of time; the main
         | complication is that he's doing it in rural areas, carrying a
         | bunch of gear, in a foreign country. Given that scenario, bike
         | tourers frequently opt for the equipment most likely to have
         | replacement parts available. Which means boring, conventional
         | stuff.
        
         | dheera wrote:
         | I've done long distance rides in Asia and I'd strongly suggest
         | using as standard parts as possible, for exactly that reason:
         | the bike shop in some middle-of-nowhere village will likely
         | have something you can use.
         | 
         | When long distance touring you're also usually pulling around a
         | fair amount of baggage, so don't bother trying to save a few
         | hundred grams here and there on bike components if it isn't
         | standard stuff.
        
       | rubyn00bie wrote:
       | The title on HN seems to deviate from the one on the page. I say
       | that because that's only 24 miles a day, and I've known plenty of
       | people who bike commute and do _at least_ that. The article
       | itself, IMHO, is also more interesting than the amount of miles
       | biked.
        
         | mikepurvis wrote:
         | Riding 24mi (39km) a day for a few weeks is one thing, but
         | sustaining that for over a year, including making up for days
         | off due to weather, mechanical trouble, whatever is what makes
         | this interesting IMO.
        
           | soperj wrote:
           | There was a guy in Canada (Al Howie) who RAN about two and a
           | half times (105km) that far every day for two and a half
           | months(72 days, 10 hours). 2 weeks after he finished he set a
           | world record in a 1300 mile race.
        
         | loeg wrote:
         | Yeah. It's not a lot of miles per day "in civilization."
        
         | s1mon wrote:
         | Agreed. When I first glanced at the title, I was thinking about
         | the RAAM (Race Across America), where the winners do roughly
         | ~3000 miles in ~9 days (depending on course and year).[0] The
         | actual logistics of this trip North/South along the western
         | side of South America [1] are much different, and glancing at
         | some of the blog entries and photos, very interesting. There's
         | also YouTube videos. [2]
         | 
         | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_Across_America
         | 
         | [1] https://www.peterispedaling.com/the-ride
         | 
         | [2] https://www.youtube.com/user/pdbennett8/videos
        
       | the_cat_kittles wrote:
       | this is a really entertaining and descriptive summary of the nuts
       | and bolts of bike touring through south america written by a
       | friend of mine. i recommend the whole blog!
        
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       (page generated 2022-11-14 23:00 UTC)