USA tour

[mr riff raff]

This is a long term plan for summer 2022, so feel free to add any comments up until then.

I'm going to ride West coast to East coast. Probably, due to prevailing winds.

Start and finish points will depend on flight deals nearer the actual date, so that's a bit hazy at the moment. San Francisco/Seattle to Boston are leading candidates, but as I said that's a bit fluid.

I'm thinking it'll probably be around 6 to 8 weeks. I'm not going to slum it by camping, so it's motels etc and I might have got the guts by then to sign up to Warmshowers, but maybe not. I'm not what you'd call a social animal and I'm happy with my own company. I'll probably box my bike up and dump it when I get there, then assist a local shop with their recycling at the finish for the return.

Has anyone got anything to add? Practical advice? Places to avoid? Websites to visit with hints and tips?

[scottg]

Practical, you'll want camping gear.
Unlike GB, the USA has no pubs with rooms.
Small town mostly don't have hotels/inns
Laundromats are as in GB good places to meet the locals.

Good news, there are now craft brew pubs every 20km

[mr riff raff]

Not camping. 100%. I know the States is a big place, but there must be accommodation at least every 60-80 miles or so.

I've been to Death Valley so no need to see that!

[simonhill]

Make sure your chosen airline takes bikes before you book. I have seen plenty of people who go for cost or convenience and then find they are stuffed re taking a bike.

Enjoy the planning, but remain flexible.

[irc]

I'd consider carrying backup camping gear. 600g down bag, bivvy bag, and 3/4 mat.

It is possible to ride the USA coast to coast without camping but it's easy to get a headwind day that means you won't make your planned distance. Riding W-E has the advantage that the big open spaces come first and you can ditch/post home your camping gear once you get past them.

Look at weather climate. Going E from San Diego? Los Angeles it's too hot after March. From San Francisco before June the passes in the Sierras are snowbound.

Washington DC is a nice start/finish point. You can ride off road for the first few hundred miles to Pitsburgh PA via the C&O Canal and GAP Trail (old raillway bed). Good surfaces. 700x32 tyres are plenty.

[Richard Fairhurst]

Not camping. 100%. I know the States is a big place, but there must be accommodation at least every 60-80 miles or so.

Depends on your route - there are certainly feasible routes that have 60-mile stretches without a motel/hotel. So it'll dictate your choice of route, and that means you'll have to be a bit clever with the advance planning. You can probably do this with a bit of Google StreetView and judicious use of your favourite route-planner (cycle.travel has a 'find accommodation' button and no doubt other planners do too!).

[Galloper]

Your first port of call should be: https://forums.adventurecycling.org/

Adventure Cycling is an organisation which, like Sustrans, is developing a wide range of cycle routes.

There are three main trans-America routes, the Northern Tier, the Trans-America and the Southern Tier. Adventure Cycling produce comprehensive map sets for each route which provide information about the route itself and the services available in each town. You can use these to plan your days ride but in my experience, it will not always be possible to find hotel/motel accommodation.

There are very few dedicated cycle tracks so for much of the journey you will be riding normal roads where cyclists are expected to use the hard shoulder. It's a good idea to have top notch puncture protection because there can be a lot of debris on the shoulder.

In addition to the cross country routes there are a number of others which might be of interest, the Pacific Coastal and the Atlantic Coastal come to mind. For example, you could fly into any of the main West Coast airports and then pick up the coastal route to link to your cross route. Likewise on the return.

You will find, if you decide to use one of the main cross routes, that fellow travellers coming the other way are generally happy to stop and chat and share information about good stopping places or any route problems.

I had a Garmin with their US map set and found it useful for finding motels and other services off the main route.

Bike shops will happily provide a box if asked.

Have fun!

[irc]

Not camping. 100%. I know the States is a big place, but there must be accommodation at least every 60-80 miles or so.

Not everywhere. Crossing Nevada last year I went over a stretch of desert of 125 miles with no towns and no definite water supplies.

On one of the Aventure Cycling Assoc cross country routes - The Western Express there is a section in Utah between Blanding and Hanksville of 128 miles with no accommodation though there is a shop with limited hours halfway.

But it can be done. By choosing your route carefully. For a San Francisco to Boston tour have a look at the journals of Mike Noonan. He's done it 3 times without, as far as I remember camping at all.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?doc_id=2522

Edit

No, he didn't take camping gear the first time. The next time he did even tough he would not use it often. Just gives more options.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?page_id=190598

From Mike Noonan's journal. Crossing the Sierras, first week in June.

[mr riff raff]

5 hours and all this info.

You lot are brilliant.

And I'm really not going to camp anywhere, honest. I spent 2 nights in a tent when I was about 10. It rained all the time and decided there and then I'd never do it, ever. That was 40 years ago, and I'm not changing my mind now!!

[Cyril Haearn]

Try searching these fora for more info, you may find answers to questions you had never thought of have already been posted

[mr riff raff]

Try searching these fora for more info, you may find answers to questions you had never thought of have already been posted

I did try a search, but it wasn't happy with US or USA. A bit too generic.

[mr riff raff]

Make sure your chosen airline takes bikes before you book. I have seen plenty of people who go for cost or convenience and then find they are stuffed re taking a bike.

Enjoy the planning, but remain flexible.

I'll almost certainly go for a recognised leading brand on that front.

[crazydave789]

This is a long term plan for summer 2022, so feel free to add any comments up until then.

I'm going to ride West coast to East coast. Probably, due to prevailing winds.

Start and finish points will depend on flight deals nearer the actual date, so that's a bit hazy at the moment. San Francisco/Seattle to Boston are leading candidates, but as I said that's a bit fluid.

I'm thinking it'll probably be around 6 to 8 weeks. I'm not going to slum it by camping, so it's motels etc and I might have got the guts by then to sign up to Warmshowers, but maybe not. I'm not what you'd call a social animal and I'm happy with my own company. I'll probably box my bike up and dump it when I get there, then assist a local shop with their recycling at the finish for the return.

Has anyone got anything to add? Practical advice? Places to avoid? Websites to visit with hints and tips?

crazyguyonabike - is probably the best source of info.

[irc]

I've found British Airways good for bikes and prices are OK. Their website isn't as good for searching as Skyscanner though. I search on Skyscanner then book direct via BA. Cuts out any middleman if there is any problems. On economy fares you get one hold case free up to 23kg. Unless you are travelling very light you will need a hold case and a bike box in which case the bike box gets charged as if it was a second hold case. Approx £45 each way.

Prices? Vary according to season of course. Going W - E from San Francisco or further north you should be starting from early June to late July.

When searching for flights be flexible on dates/times . Last year I halved the cost of my Glasgow - LHR - San Francisco and San Diego - LHR - Glasgow return by leaving Glasgow a few hours later. £349 return. That was booked about 6 months ahead. And was for late August to early October. Midsummer flights will be more.

And avoid USA based international airlines. They have huge bike charges.

[MrsHJ]

Follow the adventure cycling website and crazy guy on a bike website (many journals from people doing a similar route to you).

No tent is doable but you have to be prepared to put some distances in.

The route you are proposing from San Francisco is classically followed using the adventure cycling western express route from San Francisco to pueblo, Colorado and from there either following the classic transam to Yorktown Virginia or using that route to eureka, Kansas and then the eastern express link to Washington DC. Seattle to Bostonish is closer to the Northern tier route. Obviously you can pick any route you choose-it's just that these routes are well established and mapped.

https://www.easternexpressroute.com

I am planning/hoping on cycling east to west from Washington to DC to Portland Oregon next summer. I'm plannning on varying from these routes but broadly using them to Montrose Colorado and then cutting up through Moab, Salt Lake City and Boise Idaho to Portland. I like camping and hotels every night would blow the budget and might stop me riding it next year and so I am planning a mostly camping based route especially in Colorado, Utah etc. I'm thinking of mixing in some air conditioned hotels for some of the hottest nights in Kansas. I'm a warm showers host so some of that in the more urban areas.

I'm fiddling with the route ATM. Here are my working versions. https://cycle.travel/by/kate_culley/journeys?group=717