bike and paddle

[Clark Fitzgerald]

TLDR: Paddling is fun exercise, and strapping a bike to a paddle board can make for fun one way paddling trips.

Biking is my main form of exercise. Over the years I've noticed my legs stay strong, while my upper body becomes skinnier and weaker. I started swimming again, and that's been a wonderful upper body workout. But I can't swim anymore with the COVID restrictions.

I bought a stand up paddleboard (SUP) to take on the river near my house and I love it! It provides many of the same joys as biking- exploring nature, solitude, a sensation of speed, the challenge of navigating terrain. Unlike cycling, it's a great full body workout- most of the power in the stroke comes from twisting your torso.

It's much more fun to go downriver than upriver, so I bought a bike to pull the board upriver, then strap on the board and float/paddle downriver. This makes logistics much easier compared to having someone drop me off. The bike is a $100 used bike from Craigslist, a Public single speed, which I actually like a lot. It's probably as close to a Rivendell as you'll get for $100. I'm not going to risk dunking my Rivendell :)

Paddling with the bike strapped on the board worked much better than I thought it would. There's no difference in balance or my paddle stroke. The only difference I can tell is that I stand more forward on the board to offset the weight in the back. I switched the direction of the bike from the image below, so that I could sit down on the board and lean my back against the top tube to drink coffee from a Thermos. It was the most scenic cup of coffee I've ever had, just floating through the gently rippling water, watching the fish swim underneath me.

I considered a kayak or a canoe, but I'm glad I chose the paddleboard for strapping the bike. Compared to other choices, the paddle board provides a wide, stable platform to strap down a full size bike. Two straps makes the load solid. I didn't have to remove or adjust a single component on the bike, which makes it easier to sneak in a quick trip before the kids wake up. The paddleboard weighs 22 lbs, which makes it easier to tow on a bike than the other heavier options. I did get stuck on a rock while floating through a small rapid- the water was flowing over the bike and the board- this could have swamped a different boat, but I was able to pull the board away without much trouble.

[ANDREW ERMAN]

Clark,

Super creative.  I am impressed.  

Andy

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[Patrick Moore]

That's very clever and very interesting. I should try that myself, since I live less than 1/2 mile in straight-line distance west of the Rio Grande, with several convenient entry points at trailheads roughly every couple of miles northwards -- the river flows N-S.

My next door neighbor to the west will a few times a year pack his inflatable 2-person kayak and organize a trip with his wife and one of their matching Priuses to take the boat north, float down as a pair, bail adjacent to our neighborhood, walk home, then drive back with spouse to pick up northward-parked Prius. Pretty complicated. He has done the bike-and-float thing, but not recently, and I'd guess that a paddleboard is a lot lighter than a rolled, heavy vinyl, 2-person kayak.

If they only made styrofoam paddleboards that fold.

Incidentally, with the Covid 19 situation, I've seen many more groups of river floaters and waders in the area; at this time of year much of the adjacent river can't be more than 12 or 18 inches deep.

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

[Rick Thompson]

Ha, very cool. I have a rowboat for the upper body work. It's much too big to tow far by bike, but I can carry a bike on the boat. That works for the kind of trip where a body of water is connected by a road or path, I can row one way and bike back to my car. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ricks_boats/5583772740/in/dateposted-public/

[E. Ricky Creek]

I have a cheap inflatable kayak and a cheap folding bike that I use to ride up river and float down. The folded up bike without wheels attaches to the back and the wheels stow on the front. It works fine but a little bit of a pain. I am planning on adding a tube into the mix to put the folder in and tow with the kayak. My river is slow and wide so I'm not worried about rapids or anything. My old river was small, shallow, and was only passable when the water was high. 

I have never tried paddle boarding but I hear it is fun. Thanks for the cool idea! 

[Clark Fitzgerald]

Yeah, I think a folding bike would be nice.

[Heather Hayes]

This is amazing!! Biking and paddling are my two favorite activities, and I've often joked about how to possibly combine the two. Now I know it is indeed possible!