Long bike ride attempt.

I cycled 104 km ( 64.6 mi) today. Here are a few signs where "Old West Coast Rd." meets up with motorway 73. The yellow ones say "Christchurch 56km" and "Arthurs Pass 97 km".


I've been inspired to try to do a bit of cycle touring on this hunk of junk bike I have here. That's right, the 50 NZ dollar one. Many think it's a dumb idea and I'll admit it would be a much nicer to tour on a better cycle, and a little bit safer. I certainly would not tour on the bike without testing it out and making necessary adjustments to ensure that it is about as safe as a brand new bicycle, and having pushed it an estimated 300 km now I have some confidence.

Most cycle tourists wear at most a camel back or a bladder of sorts on their backs when they ride, the rest of their gear in pouches or strapped to a rack on the front or back of the cycle. I wanted to have saddlebags, but of course, I wanted to do it cheap.

Here's a look at the modifications I made:


First, I borrowed and installed a rusty old metal rack from Dale's womens' cycle he bought for when his girlfriend came to visit. Second, I took a small pizza box and a box of cornflakes, cut each of them into two pieces and glued the halves together to create pretty stable "mud guards". I say "mud guards" because they serve the purpose of keeping mud off the saddlebags only as a secondary function. Their primary function is keeping the flimsy and free "Ilam life" bags that each Ilam Apartments student received when checking in for his room. The "mud guards" are tied to the rack and the frame of the bike to keep them from flapping around in the wind. The messenger bags' straps were cut and tied to the rack. This setup ultimately cost me two NZ dollars for the glue for the cardboard (nobody had any to lend me).


Here's a picture of the bike and my gear just prior to setting out:


I packed my bags with lots of tasty fruits, veggies, and nuts (I've been eating like a paleolithic man for a week now as an experiment), tools, and clothes for added weight because I wanted to simulate a proper tour. Strapped to the rack is my sleeping bag. I said before that cycle tourists do not typically wear backpacks. I wore one today because I have this dream of biking to places where I can do some good tramping which would definitely require a pack.

It looked like rain so I had a go at waterproofing my gear. My first plan was pretty dumb, involving safety pins and a plastic bag that was ripped down the sides and draped over the bag. It was plenty waterproof but having to undo and redo the safety pins each time I needed to get something out of the bag would be frustrating. The other way was much better:


I took a typical grocery store bag and cut the handles. I shimmied the plastic up around the pack and twisted it around so that I had four flaps that I could wrap over and scotch tape down. This worked really well. I openned and closed the plastic four or five times during the day and each attachment adhered each time, and didn't come up despite the wind it would experience.

I got the bike out the door and headed out.

The first leg I biked 75 minutes and took these:


I wanted to get the progression of the size of the mountains as I was riding due West to them. After another hour and a bit:


And after 52km, just another half hour:


I stopped for a ten minute break first, then a thirty minute break, and at the end I rested twenty minutes before coming back. I took similarly long breaks on the way back. I was on the road from 9:40 to 4:40. My average speed was just over 20km/hr.

Two of the fingers on my left hand did not have feeling for three hours after and, to keep this G rated, let's just say I will definitely be getting cycle shorts before doing a ride this long again.