I’m spending two weeks in Hawaii this summer on a giant family vacation/family wedding. Most of my time is going to be spent with my sister and her boyfriend. He’s a cyclist, she’s just starting. He has always wanted to do a 3-4 day bike tour around the Big Island. I want to start planning now.
Has anyone here done this or know anyone that has? Any info I find online always ends up being some shitty tour guide company that does a max of like 80 miles a day with a full support car. Has anyone done this or been to hawaii before and brought their bike? There’s so much fucking info online about Hawaii but most of it is corporate shit.
Adventure Cycling? They do all the maps that show the popular routes across the U.S. (actually, just looked and they don’t have anything published, but it might be worth it to get in touch with them). How about the touring forum on BF? Always seemed to be a lot of information in there.
I went to the big island for a week a few years back. Did not bring a bike but wish I had. The northern side of the island is beautiful. Lots of winding roads and not much traffic. Eastern part is pretty similar. The only part that really sucks is the stretch from the Kona area heading east towards Hilo. It’s basically just one big fast moving 2/4 lane road through mostly lava fields.
The Kona area is pretty shitty and touristy as a whole but once you get away from that its’s 99% beautiful and uncrowded.
Is it not pretty obvious where to go just by looking at a good map? Maybe something with topo? I think my ideas of the size of these islands is skewed. Does it take 4 days just to ride around the big island?
I have a feeling not but to be honest, if I’m in hawaii I’m going to be cruising it pretty slow.
I think my roommate Jake is going with me and we’re staying on Kauai. Our tentative plan is to cruise it 30-40 miles a day then find a chill place to camp, kinda trying to take it really easy and see everything. He’s flying out of Kauai to Warsaw for the CMWC though so restricting ourselves to low mileage might be extremely difficult.
I’m going there at the end of February to do a week of training/hellish bike riding. If I remember this thread afterwards I may be able to give suggestions.
I’ll be there around May this year. On my ship so transporting bieks is no problem. A few mates and I are going to ride wherever we can. Should be ace.
I didn’t ride it, but I planned it out from what I saw,
South end of the big island is sparse for resources. South of Hookena is a lot of national park land, and from what I remember, there’s one or two main stops where water is obvious. That could be a day or more where you’re out there more on your own. I read that most people use catching systems for their homes.
Hilo and the surrounding areas sounds amazing. 180 inches of rain a year? Lava flows, a crusty city and food carts.
I did the west side of the island on a scooter, shoulders were massive, drivers were patient. I liked captain cook and the city of refuge. Heading south, the road between the two, Napoopoo(sp) road is a stimulating descent with 1 or 2 viewpoints worth stopping at. the Highway is lined with small production coffee huts.
I’m planning to live in Hilo for a few months, work remote. Possibly starting in March. If that happens, I’ll have my bike and will be able to give some tips on the east side of the island.