Hey! My friend is getting married in CT, I thought it would be nicer to rent a bicycle instead of a car for the trip. I found the East Coast Greenway and her wedding venue is on the route! It's perfect so now I'm getting really excited about this idea. I hope you guys don't mind me leaning into you for help with trip planning, this snowball of a whim is sort of last minute.
My general idea right now is to fly into boston, and take the ferry to Cape Code because I want to ride a boat. I'll use the cape as my start point because I really want to get some time near the ocean. From there I'm thinking of riding the greenway route to New Haven (with the wedding mid route) and then taking the train back to Boston, because trains are neat.
https://map.greenway.org/?loc=7,42.22287,-71.52158&route=41.79660,-69.98801,41.31133,-72.92229
Currently I'm trying to figure out how many days my trip will be and how to best divide each day. I'm confident on a bicycle but I haven't done too much long distant riding. Turning this wedding visit into a bicycle tour is a sort of last minute whim, so I don't have a huge amount of time to train in advance. I'm thinking of doing 20-40 mile days? At least to start? Is that a good milage goal? Am I over or under estimating milage difficulty? How many rest days would be good to sprinkle in? I could probably do more, I'm in ok shape, but I'm not just trying to get from A to B. I want to enjoy being there and mosey.
I live in the southwest and my favorite thing about places like New England are all the availability of natural outdoor swim spots. I want to plan my trip around bicycling to swimming holes and beaches. Wouldn't it be so lovely to get hot and sweaty on a bike then jump in a pond and float around, and then just keep repeating that with beer and icecream mixed in along the way?
I've been putting off buying the plane ticket because I'm struggling to figure out the pacing for this trip. Do you have any advice on that? How many days will this take? I'm at a cross roads in life right now and there istn't anything back home giving me time constraints for this trip. That's part of why I'm doing this, I'm hoping some time on a bike will get me past some mental blocks and a depressive pit I've been stuck in. I'm also looking to sprinkle in fun things to do along the way, especially track down lots of swim spots. Any ideas of fun things to do, especially water related, would be appreciated.
Also, do people generally wear those spandex outfits that I see racers wear, when touring? I've been biking since I was a kid, and I've always just worn my normal clothes. Is it better when touring to have the special bicycle outfit? Also I heard that when doing a long distance bike ride it's good to eat a little bit every 2 hours. Does that advice also apply to someone a little overweight? The guy in the video who said that was skinny with an athletic build, and I'm not that.
I have these nice wide paddle peddles with grip spikes in them and a good bicycle seat on my home bike. Would it be worth it to bring and install them on my tour bike, or would that be overkill?
I bet I'll find something with a bit of googling, but does anyone in Boston have advice on where to get a bicycle? I'm torn between renting or just buying a used bike while there? Is there a nonprofit that fixes up old bikes that you love? We've got a place like that where I live and I love supporting them.
THANKS!
by CommonGoat9530
1 Comment
Couple of important things.
When is it?
How long do you have to train?
20-40 miles is pretty easy. East coat green way is mostly paved/crushed gravel from my understandin. (Have ridden sections, but not the entirety) Rolling hills but mostly flat.
That’s like 2-4 hours of riding a day. Ez pz. You’ll have the ability to stop and get food or snacks at basically any point.
I did a tour last year that started with me able to ride 20 miles of hilly road. I did 30 flat, and increased by a minimum of 5-10 miles a day till I hit 55-60 mile days. Gives you time to stop, eat breakfasts at a diner, take pics, talk with locals a bit, and find a place to camp/set up camp. Listen to your body, take it easy when your sore, take a rest day if your hurting. For me I was exhausted the first 4 days. Day 4 I collapsed in an Airbnb and slept for 13 hours. Day 5 I felt great and I was basically not fighting muscle fatigue at all. Although I was fighting knee soreness. So I iced when I could.
Swim spot question?
Whatever lakes or ponds you find, google ahead of time along the route and check safety levels. I get warnings for bacteria contaminations all the time. Don’t dive into grossness that jacks up the tour/wedding.
Spandex question?
Above 30 miles id suggest riding padded. Multiple days of 30+ miles and it’s kinda a requirement. You’ll find people that swear off them. But…idk, here’s what I had I wore padded bike shorts, thin comfy breathable shorts over top and a tee shirt/sweater. I have hybrid clip in pedals and cycling shoes that were probably passable as regular shoes. I was pretty comfortable and didn’t feel like I stood out any more then someone kinda smelly on a bike would haha
On top of the spandex, good butt chaffing butter, and slather that shit on. I forgot to bring my lube, small bike shops along the way didn’t stock em and I paid for it. SLATHER that shit on cause if you don’t, it’s terrible. Nothing worse than being surrounded by cool shit and just having a chaffed taint.
Food question?
Yea, so my favorite part of the tour is the food. As long as you’re riding you can basically eat anything and still be dropping lbs as you go.
I ate 2-3 meals at breakfast, would eat m&ms, oatmeal packets and beef jerky as I rode. Lunch at places that do the local foods (pizza in your case probably), M&m, oats. Bakery I rode past to grab some treats to eat in the tent before bed.
Water non stop. You don’t want to run out of fuel. And that’s what food is when you’re riding.
Overweight smovereight. As long as your bike can handle you and the equipment, you’re fine. Your muscles are the engine and your on wheels, so joints don’t take a beating. I went from 260 to 210 from cycling.
In terms of bike rental vs buy used, couldnt tell ya haven’t had to do that research myself yet. But there’s plenty of bike shops around. Call around and I’m sure someone will help you out.
If your seat works, your seat works. Just let whoever hooks you up with the bike know.