[Blork]

Well, I have several questions to ask of you guys

1. For my senior project in High School I am looking to organize a bike trip for myself and 3 friends from Philadelphia, PA to the Great Smokey Mt. Ntnl. Park. If anyone has ever run a trip like this I would love some advice and a copy of your itinerary. Infact any kind of advice would be great b/c I have never tried something like this. Also, any additional resourses to use for planning a trip would be extremely appreciated.

2. Equipment! What am I going to need for a trip like this, I am a fairly vetran backpacker, but have never bike toured before. Any reccomendations would be greatly appreciated.

3. I'm going to need a new bike for this trip. My budget will probably be around 600 dollars. This bikes primary use after this trip will be road biking around the town of Amherst where I have just been accepted to college. Therefore the bike should be able to stand up to this trip, but the primary criteron in my purchase should be for college biking. I am not intrested in bike racing at all or using a bike for fitness, more as a convinent way to transport myself about and a toy for joy rides. Oh yeah, I'm pretty short(5'5) so the bike should be able to fit my efficent frame

Thanks a ton

 

[biggins]

are you gonna be riding the bike on dirt or asphalt?

 

[Blork]

Asphault 90% of the time

 

[Repack]

How long is the trip going to be? If close to 1,000 miles, I would look at a nicer bike. But in general (regardless of duration) ~$1,000 gets you a bike that you can count on lasting for a while. Look at Shimano 105 (Road equiv of LX) equiped bikes. 105= inexpensive, durable, works well.

I would look at the Trek touring bike. It is about $1000 though, but worth it. It comes with v-brakes and other nice accessories. There are probobly more recent bikes out there. Like I am sure that by now someone makes a touring bike with the Avid road discs.

Sorry for not having specific bike recomendations. Just some tidbits from working as a mechanic.

 

[Dirty]

specialized sirrus is a nice option. at about $500 its within your budget.
Its basically a road bike with a straight handle bar instead of the traditional drops....

 

[Repack]

Originally posted by Dirty
specialized sirrus is a nice option. at about $500 its within your budget.
Its basically a road bike with a straight handle bar instead of the traditional drops....

Yes, a good bike, but make sure that they have solved the spoke issues. I am guessing that they have.
Trek also has a similar line called the FX serries. Both have 700c wheels, but I think that the Trek may come with slightly fatter tires and lower gearing.

Whatever you get, make sure you put a couple hundred miles minimum on it before you leave. Bikes have a break-in period and any good shop will offer you some sort of adjustment plan to compensate.

 

[Dirty]

what spoke issue are you talking about?

 

[Repack]

Originally posted by Dirty
what spoke issue are you talking about?

A couple of years ago, a generic spoke manufacturer was producing inexpensive black spokes. Specialized seemed to get most of them, but Cannondale and I am sure other companies were affected. I am guessing that the issues have been taken care of. Regardless, I would ask for some extra spokes. If you have never broken a spoke on a ride, it can be far worse than breaking even a derr or chain. Once a spoke breaks, the tension goes off, and the wheel can be ruined. Sorry to scare you.
This happened over the course of 2 model years. The spokes were like a plague, but I think that they have finally gone away. I think it was 2 model years ago. I worked for a shop at the time and it was very frustrating. Stainless spokes are the strongest.

Stuff like this is part of the reason you should ride whatever you end up with many, many time before you start your trip.

 

[RaID]

Originally posted by Blork
Well, I have several questions to ask of you guys

1. For my senior project in High School I am looking to organize a bike trip for myself and 3 friends from Philadelphia, PA to the Great Smokey Mt. Ntnl. Park. If anyone has ever run a trip like this I would love some advice and a copy of your itinerary. Infact any kind of advice would be great b/c I have never tried something like this. Also, any additional resourses to use for planning a trip would be extremely appreciated.

2. Equipment! What am I going to need for a trip like this, I am a fairly vetran backpacker, but have never bike toured before. Any reccomendations would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks a ton

Depends how much gear you really want to be carrying is whether you need front and rear pannier racks

dunno what conditions youre going in but this what i took for a 1600km Trip around Tasmania in Australia, Rear Pannier Rack and Rear Pannier Bags

3/4 selfinflating Sleeping Mat
Beevie Bag (small 1 man tent went down to about a 30cm sized cylinder)
Sleeping Bag
Trangia Alcohol Cooker
Food for 2 day max (we travelled through towns on a daily basis)
4L of water (2 water bottles on bike frame + 2L Camelback)
Rainjacket
Riding Specific Clothes jersey, knicks and shorts
Clipless is a must
Windstopper Vest was gold, would have like a full windstopper jacket aswell

as least clothes as possible except don cut down on socks take at least 6 pairs of underwear
1st Aid Kit

Bike Tools
Allen Keys
Spoke Tensioner
Gear and Brake Cables
Pliers
2 Chains
Chainbreaker
2 Tubes
Tube Patch Kit
Pump
Shifting Spanner
Electrical Tape, Zip Ties


- Carry plenty of museli type bars in pocket to eat during rides
- Gatorade style drinks are farkin excellent to pick up some energy when
youre down
- Bring spare bolts for the pannier racks youre gonna loos plenty of those



A guide of the roads youre gonna be riding can be very usefull ie where what climbs are so you can plan it out nicely
We roughly did 70km a day and that was pretty sweet a couple of 100km day in the hills took it out of us

We did it on a tight budget, so i used a my old 6 Yr mtn bike with Alivio gearing just serviced it well for the trip and it worked a treat no major hassels, it problems mainly start to occur on bumpy roads and firetracks. That was the only touring ive done and it was great
We had a day off/ very short day of riding about once a week.

Hope that helps any other questions PM me

 

[Blork]

great info. Thanks