Homer to the Sea

[Andy Smitty Schmidt]

I went on my first bike "tour" this past weekend. "Mini-tour" is probably more accurate as it was only 3.5 days/ 3 nights. I did ride in 6 counties though, which makes it sound like I went further than I did.  The route began and ended on the light rail to bypass riding through 20 miles of suburbs. From there my pedaling route was a loop out to the northern Oregon coast.  

This was a group ride that was organized by Portland bike camping denizens, Cycle Wild. There were 11 of us on the trip but for one reason or another I rode most of the first 2.5 days solo.  

The route through the coast range was bucolic and largely uneventful. I saw a deer crossing a river but the highlight was stumbling on to the lunch stop for a home-brewed bicycle event called 'Couve to Coast. The CtoC started a couple years ago as a family ride (they're a big bicycling family) but now includes friends and co-workers. They were talking about making a web site for next year and opening it up as a public event. They invited me to share their impressive spread of food. Their generosity and company was a nice slice of humanity of a day that was largely just me on the bike pedaling through the countryside.  

Tat evening the group re-grouped at Kate's house in the small town of Wheeler, OR. Kate is a friend of some of the Cycle Wild regulars. Her house was a perfect place for nearly a dozen road weary cyclists to shower, eat pizza and stay up too late socializing. 

I had only been on the coast highway a few minutes when I ran into my first "real" bike tourist. She was a bubbly girl, probably in her early 20s headed from Vancouver, Canada to San Diego, CA. She was riding a non-branded lugged steel mixte that was probably older than her. She said that other than the new tires/tubes the bike was as she bought it a couple years ago for $100. 

Once on the coast I went into "tourist mode"… stopping at nearly every beach, overlook and landmark. My average speed dropped to something like 5mph. There's some beautiful coastline out there. 

  

We camped the last night at the hiker/biker site at Cape Lookout State Park.  It was everything good I imagine camping with an 11 person group tour like this could be… fire, stories, cards, and one of the women whipped up some muffins cooked over the fire inside of orange skins. 

The final day started early. The short mileage and gallivanting for a full day on the coast was the reward, and we paid for it on the final day. 90-miles and 6000ft of climbing later I was home and headed to the shower.   

graphic evidence here

[Manuel Acosta]

Sounds good. first "real" bike tour seemed like a success! Where and when is the next one and when am I invited?

[charlie]

Looks like a groovy trip.....while looking at your photos I was wondering why I don't know any cool people locally who like doing this.... : (  I love conversing with like minded folks, campfires, good food, maybe a little live music, all that good stuff eludes me these days.

[C.J. Filip]

Looks like you had a great trip.

Could you give a little info about your bike/gear setup? Curious to
hear how your Homer handled as what looks to be, a loaded touring
bike.

> > graphic evidence here<http://www.flickr.com/photos/15966859@N07/sets/72157631414832594/>

[Andy Smitty Schmidt]

In short, Homer did great! 

I never weighed the set-up but I made no effort to keep it light. I packed to be self sufficient for 4 days... food, tools, lock, kitchen, rain gear, etc. I've talked to people who've said their Homer gets flexy with a full load, but that wasn't my experience. Maybe it's a 2TT thing? About 15 miles were on gravel and much more than that was on bad asphalt. The bike seemed to handle it all fine. 

The racks are Tubus. I forget the model names but they're the cheaper ones. They seem durable and strong. The front Tubus is a bit lower and holds the bag further aft (closer to the rider) than my Jandd lowrider. The Tubus Lowrider is my wife's. I borrowed it for this trip just to see the difference. Not sure I notice a handling difference between the different carrying positions of the Jandd and the Tubus. The Jandd was certainly cheaper (about half) but the Tubus is a little more solid. 

The bags are Arkel. They're the basic "Touring" model. They also have a bigger + more deluxe "Grand Touring" model too, but these aren't those.  This was my first time using all 4 bags so I didn't really have a system when I started the trip. I started out doing a lot of searching through all the different pockets for things. By the 3rd day a system was coming together and the pockets had become helpful for organizing rather than frustrating for losing things.   

As a side note regarding carrying loads on a Homer... I transport my 45-pound 4-year-old on my Nitto Big Back Rack all the time. The bike seems to do fine and nothing's broken yet. 

Back to the trip... the only place Homer fell short was that 40mm tires are too skinny to ride on the sand. I knew I shoulda got a Bombadil. :-)

--Andy

[Allan in Portland]

Congrats Andy. BTW, this past weekend Cody and I finally did an S24O to the secret location.

If you end up doing it yourself, bring DEET. We cowboy camped, which was a big mistake as Cody got bit by mosquitoes in easily over a dozen (I can't bring myself to count exactly) times around his cheeks, eyes, and forehead. He was badly swollen for three days, went to the Dr over it, and even missed the first day of school yesterday. Somehow I slept through it all without even a single bite to myself.

Graphic evidence isn't all that interesting, sorry. :)

-Allan

[dougP]

I've ridden the Oregon coast several times & never tire of the
scenery. The further south you get, the fewer people, less traffic,
etc. It just gets better. Great photos!

Four bags fairly well filled is probably well over 30 lbs in total.
Each bag usually weighs at least 2-3 lbs by itself. Sounds like Homer
handled it well. Maybe the 2TT has its place?

If you were trying to ride on deep beach sand, tire width has to get
seriously huge to do so. Even 50 mm tires bog down on the beach. I
find 40 mm to be OK on anything coarser such as river sand, gravel,
etc.

dougP

On Sep 6, 9:18 am, Andy Smitty Schmidt <54ca...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In short, Homer did great!
>
> I never weighed the set-up but I made no effort to keep it light. I packed
> to be self sufficient for 4 days... food, tools, lock, kitchen, rain gear,
> etc. I've talked to people who've said their Homer gets flexy with a full
> load, but that wasn't my experience. Maybe it's a 2TT thing? About 15 miles
> were on gravel and much more than that was on bad asphalt. The bike seemed
> to handle it all fine.
>
> The racks are Tubus. I forget the model names but they're the cheaper ones.
> They seem durable and strong. The front Tubus is a bit lower and holds the
> bag further aft (closer to the rider) than my Jandd lowrider. The Tubus
> Lowrider is my wife's. I borrowed it for this trip just to see the
> difference. Not sure I notice a handling difference between the different
> carrying positions of the Jandd and the Tubus. The Jandd was certainly
> cheaper (about half) but the Tubus is a little more solid.
>
> The bags are Arkel. They're the basic "Touring" model. They also have a
> bigger + more deluxe "Grand Touring" model too, but these aren't those.
>  This was my first time using all 4 bags so I didn't really have a system
> when I started the trip. I started out doing a lot of searching through all
> the different pockets for things. By the 3rd day a system was coming
> together and the pockets had become helpful for organizing rather than
> frustrating for losing things.
>
> As a side note regarding carrying loads on a Homer... I transport my

> 45-pound 4-year-old on my Nitto Big Back Rack<http://www.flickr.com/photos/15966859@N07/7819918606/>all the time. The bike seems to do fine and nothing's broken yet.

> >http://www.flickr.com/photos/15966859@N07/sets/72157631414832594/>- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -