I already have everything I need already and this isn't my first long distance trip. I will be strictly wild camping. I expect it to take 90-120 days. I'm able to do most repairs myself.
by darthrevan22633
I already have everything I need already and this isn't my first long distance trip. I will be strictly wild camping. I expect it to take 90-120 days. I'm able to do most repairs myself.
by darthrevan22633
3 Comments
On a trip this long I would personally want to factor in a few hotel days just in case there’s severe weather, you feel sick, or just to get a good shower. You’ll also need to factor in 2-3 sets of tires and other consumables like a chains and cassette. Price on those depends on what bike you are ridding but could be a few hundred bucks.
At a max you are looking at $25-$34 a day probably less after the hotels and consumables. You could do it but you will be eating mostly budget grocery store food, limited hot out dinners, and have a limited budget for any off bike adventures.
Call it ~75 days of riding so maybe 85-90 days door to door. That’s a budget of $30/day with a $300 buffer for unforseens. You’re probably going to want to sleep in a hotel once a week to clean yourself up and unspool a little?
Look, probably not, especially if you’re wanting to do fun/interesting stuff outside of just the touring.
I budgeted about 1k a month in the mid 2000’s and even then I was occasionally over budget due to emergency repairs, emergency nights in hotels in heavy weather/illness/injury, and I was dumpster diving and guerilla camping whenever I could. On a long tour like this, you want to be eating at least 4000 calories a day with a lot of protein, which can be surprisingly expensive, especially in the middle of nowhere without easy access to grocery stores.
That said, there are big chunks of this ride where housing costs can be free (churches in the east, BLM land in the west) and if you’re scrappy and smart about your meal planning you can probably get away with it barring serious mechanical failure. I personally would want to have more cushion for comfort in case of emergency.