I figured as much, I would just need a plan B if they decide to be sticklers. I waited too long to get my on-bike luggage game in order…
We took the Clipper to Victoria with our bikes for our honeymoon. Was pretty easy, but yeah bikes are on the deck. Not that a little salt spray should deter you.
My parents are going to Seattle in September to ride bikes to Vancouver
I told them I had some internet bros who could help with route
here’s what my mom wrote:
[quote]WE have 16 days total.
Fly into SEATAC, dump bike boxes and take light rail or ride into city. [which is best?]
no place to stay yet [any ideas of bike friendly neighborhoods or b&bs?].
spend 3-4 days in Seattle doing city touristy stuff and day rids [love tips on great day rides 40-60 milers] We are unlikely to have time to do a lot on Olympic Peninsula but a day ride would be fun.
Leave Seattle and take ferry from Anacortes to San Juan Islands [route to bike to Anacortes would be helpful - others we might do Amtrak to Mount Vernon, WA and bike 20 mi. to Anacortes] thoughts welcome…
from there we will be on San Juan Islands - pretty good on rides there - it does not look like a lot of options.
then to Vancouver Island. - [any suggested routes on the VI that takes us away from crowds and traffic welcome].
Final leg is Vancouver BC. If your folks know good bike shops, our last day will be finding cardboard bike boxes, plastic wrap, etc. and packing bikes. A friendly shop name would be helpful. Also, how to get to airport with bikes - ride or put on bus in boxes??
that’s the big picture. we’re open to local input. Thanks a lot.[/quote]
they’re 60+, on (non-yolo) road bikes
This is the route I would recommend for Seattle-Anacortes. I can vouch for all roads, they are good and the bad ones are brief. Overnight in Port Townsend, a charming little town I guarantee they will love.
As far as Vancouver Island, the Galloping Goose Trail is good. West Side Highway past Sooke was pretty, but quite stressful for my wife and me on a tandem. If they’re not afraid of hills, they should go north and ferry to the Gulf Islands. Salt Spring Island was pretty amazing.
[quote=Sneaky Viking]Final leg is Vancouver BC. If your folks know good bike shops, our last day will be finding cardboard bike boxes, plastic wrap, etc. and packing bikes. A friendly shop name would be helpful. Also, how to get to airport with bikes - ride or put on bus in boxes??
[/quote]
There’s a bunch of bike stores within a couple blocks of the Canada Line Skytrain station on Broadway and Cambie, which goes out to the airport. If they’re OK lugging the boxed bikes 2-4 blocks to the station they’d be set, and there’s luggage carriers waiting at the other end… Off the top of my head there’s La Bicicletta, Dunbar Cycles, The Bike Doctor, MEC… all just east of Cambie st. on Broadway…
Protip for lugging boxed bikes: get a piece of plastic from somewhere (like a plastic binder or somehting) and duct tape that shit to one of the bottom corners. Now your box slides kind of OK and isn’t ripping apart and neither are your arms.
Backing this. Put bikes on the Victoria Clipper, rode up and stayed at a little cabin on Salt Spring Island as part of our honeymoon.
Was nice. A little foolish on a singlespeed, but nice.
Yeah I didn’t do that and carried my boxed troll + overweight duffel bag over a half mile to the metro, through the station, out of the station to the airport shuttle to another terminal, then into said terminal. FUCKING SUCKED. Good workout though. Blew out all the box handles on the way. Towards the end I just threw the bike box on my shoulder like an XXXXXXL boom box. Don’t be like me.
Edit: Only reason I was able to shoulder the bike box is because I have long ass ape arms. Also was wearing just a tshirt and jeans in 20* weather in full sweat on walk to metro. I’m sure I looked totally ridiculous
Tried skateboard wheels. Need something stiff on the inside to get them to not make the box wander all over the place, and stiff things are generally also heavy (hey the wheels and trucks are heavy too. sheesh). Finding a piece of plastic and some duct tape is the easiest thing in the world.
DIDNT WORK
yeah that’s my fuckin custom yolobike upside down in a cardboard box.
Why not just one set of wheels as far back as possible and lift/drag from a duct tape “handle” at the front?
Hey Tarck
I need to ride from Portland to Trout Lake
Best way to get there?
that’s how i’d do it. the climb on panther creek road is tough but pretty. and you can stop at the waterfalls for a break.
Speaking of routes. It’s a lot harder to plan bike routes in the midwest. There are so many roads, everywhere, so you can’t know which roads are good just from looking at the map.
Speaking of routes. It’s a lot harder to plan bike routes in the midwest. There are so many roads, everywhere, so you can’t know which roads are good just from looking at the map.
Try Strava heatmaps until you figure out your favorites. That’s what I always do in a new area.
I just used google earth to find some unmarked double track roads. I thought that was pretty handy
Oh yeah, no shit. And Wesbarf figured out how to display heatmaps on Caltopo a while ago. I’m in for a fun night.
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/bike/maps/bikeMap_2015_lowRes.pdf
doesn’t appear to show roads smaller than county highways, but could be useful
The Wisconsin version of this is EXCELLENT. A 4 map series shows every road in the state - including all the little forest service roads - colored by rideability. Mine were covered with scribbled notes and every shade of highlighter by the time I moved.