Apr 28, 2016
Back from my Brompton California bike tour, I share my thoughts on the adventure!
The Pedalshift Project 048: A Brompton California Bike Tour (mp3)
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The Journal
A Brompton California bike tour...
The Ride
- MJ is a great riding companion
- Pearl rode like a champ although it took a couple of days to get the hang of touring on it.
- Weather was largely outstanding with one exception
- If you like coastline, do yourself a giant favor and ride this section (and add on the section from Leggett Hill south to SF too while you're at it)
- If you don't like minimal shoulders and proximity to cars, skip this one.
Highlights
- Succeeding on a tour with a Brompton - I'm far from ththe first, but I realized I picked a challenging ride for a first one!
- Hanging with MJ again
- Meeting Tim of north 2 north
- Plaskett Creek to Morro Bay -- best day of riding ever? Plus TAILWINDS!
- Zero mile day in Big Sur
- The views
Lowlights
- Losing a day of riding due to rain (but also a highlight)
- The Bonk
- Breaking in the Brooks on a tour
- Blowing a gig of data on GoT ep 1. C'mon! ;)
- Having to gatecheck Pearl on the return flight
Lessons
- Glad I brought the minimal stove... Will always bring something for coffee because I like having the option every morning.
- Rain gear... Forget forecasts beyond a few days as they're for entertainment purposes only. Be prepared - we had light wiNdbreakers only and were fortunate not to have been caught in the heavy cold rain like others were. Bring it every time there's a chance for rain on your tour, and that's most of the time for most tours!
- Offline maps - particularly like MapOut on iOS - added in the route and had the sliver of maps in my phone for those sections I had no signal. Worked great.
Next tour
Doing the far end of the C&O next weekend... No Tour Journals for this one since it's on the shorter side but I'll be taking pics and working on some cool upcoming things for Pedalshift Plus. Speaking of...
Pedalshift Plus + Pedalshift Society
Pedalshift Plus
- All back episodes of Pedalshift Tour Journals from 5-$10 each
- THIS tour (Volume 5) will be available Sunday, May 1st
- Future plans include Pedalshift audio tour guides of routes near and dear to me...
- Learn more at pedalshift.net/plus
Pedalshift Society
- Help the show with monthly recurring support... just a buck or two is amazing... and you and every other merry member of the Pedalshift Society gets a shout out right before Jason Kent brings the closing credits. So you can always say, "hey... I opened for Jason Kent on a podcast once... sort of."
- Learn more and join at pedalshift.net/society
- THANK YOU to the inaugural Pedalshift Society members for
helping to support the show!
- Ethan Georgi
- Matt Buker
- Kimberly Wilson
Music
The Pedalshift Project theme is America courtesy of Jason Kent off his self-titled solo album. Check out his band Sunfields' album, Habitat, wherever cool music resides. I heard Jason's new album in January and it is AWESOME. More info when that drops this spring!