Latest / Full Spectrum Cycling / Full Spectrum Cycling Podcast #16 – Talking Touring With Jeff

Transcript

Full Spectrum Cycling Podcast #16 – Talking Touring With Jeff · Full Spectrum Cycling

• 0:00
  [upbeat music] All right, ladies and gentlemen, you know what that catchy riff means.
• 0:18
  I just got a little dizzy- Must-... from dancing to it. [laughs] It must be 7:00 PM on every other Wednesday. Time for the Full Spectrum Cycling Podcast with JK. Hello, hello. Tony Burger. Hola. How's it going, Tony?
• 0:32
  And today, special guest Jeff is in the studio to talk about touring stuff in a little bit. Welcome, Jeff. Oh-ho. Welcome, guys. Going well. Got some weather out there that finally looks like cycling weather, don't we?
• 0:45
  Yeah. Fo- Yeah... about time. The, the, uh, natives have been bringing in their repairs and- Oh... some bikes have been going out the door. Yeah, nothing gets a job done better than the last minute.
• 0:58
  [laughs] That's for sure. So what happened since the last show? Seems like something must have happened, but I'll be darned if I know what it is. [laughs] Hmm. Yeah, just some random rides.
• 1:10
  Random cycling- Trying to find-... weekends... try- trying to find Owen... weeks... not finding Owen. I saw some guy build up a 29er Plus and rode it around quite a bit. Nice. Al? Well, Al built it. Oh, me?
• 1:24
  And Greg rode it. I built most of it. [laughs] He did dish the wheel nice for me, though. That was beautiful.
• 1:30
  Yep, Al's our in-shop, uh, repair guru if you need your stuff fixed here at the Everyday Cycle shop, he- he'll probably- Yeah... have a hand in it. I just rode by, uh, the old, uh, bike fixer, rest in peace- Yeah.
• 1:42
  Mm-hmm... and saw the, uh- Al sign? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Sign on the door, yeah. Oh, nice. I checked it yesterday too, just to make sure it's still there. Okay. If he's- Well, yeah, it was funny.
• 1:50
  I was, I, I was like, I, I heard reference of it. I had no idea but, until that, uh, dude walked in last show. If you have a chance to watch him work, he's pretty impressive. Hell yeah.
• 2:00
  Guy is, really knows his way around a bike, that's for sure. So since, uh, a lot of our rides are beer f- beer fueled, beer fueled, it only makes sense that our show is beer fueled. Yes. Oh, yeah.
• 2:10
  Tony brought a new beer today. Wolf. Wolf Pup Session IPA from Golden Road Brewing. I do not know said brewery. San Diego. Santiago. Los, Los Angeles. It says Los Angeles. Los Angeles. Los Angeles. Uh, yes.
• 2:25
  I, I recognize this zoo. It's San Diego. [laughs] I must apologize, though, because I forgot the meat.
• 2:33
  I was gonna bring in some Longjagers and some scorpion pepper jerky, and I got halfway here on foot- Well, thank you for the lateral-... and said, "I'm not turning around." Thank you for the lateral mission.
• 2:42
  [laughs] I already, I know I would be intrigued. Oh, it's delicious. I, I know. I'd be intrigued as hell, but I know I would pay. [laughs] There's a lesson. Do not, do not apologize for not bringing beef jerky. No.
• 2:54
  'Cause it's- We can always go to- If you don't say anything at all, you're better off... yeah. You're probably right there. I probably shouldn't have said, but I did mention it yesterday that I would.
• 3:02
  And I got this, uh- Well, we can always go to Foundation after and- We will go to Foundation after... get beef jerky there... it's, it's... I was there Monday night, and oddly enough, the jerky's delicious. Oh.
• 3:09
  Even Molly had some. Oddly enough. [laughs] My wife had some, and she's not much of a jerky fan, and she's like, "This is really good." Um, just a note when you're tour biking, drinking beer, and eating jerky,
• 3:19
  uh, make sure you're the lead dog. [laughs] That's- And play the wind. Yeah. [laughs] Exactly. Create wind. [laughs] That's, that's a, that's a good philosophy. A, a, yeah. [laughs] That could almost be tattoo worthy.
• 3:32
  You wanna be lead dog. [laughs] So the whole point of this show today basically is that, uh, Jeff has joined us, uh, to talk a little bit about touring.
• 3:43
  He's done 11 cross-country trips and numerous up and down and back and forthy ones- Right... and is going on his 12th, uh, across the continent trip coming up in June. And, uh, we wanna just to get his views on touring.
• 3:57
  And, um, on that note, he's gonna be here in the store three weeks from today, which is Wednesday, not Friday when you're listening to this, [laughs] but June 5th. Right.
• 4:07
  He's gonna do a demo of what he takes on a touring ride and how, what his philosophy is and stuff like that. Might get into philosophy a little today, but- Right...
• 4:16
  um, it would be a good opportunity for you to see somebody who's been there and done that, and what they take and why they take what they take. And, uh, think it'll be a good thing. June 5th, 7:00 PM,
• 4:28
  River West, Everyday Cycle shop- Right... Milwaukee, Wisconsin- Should we also-... United States, 'Merica, USA... should we also create a, uh, Facebook, uh, event for this, or is it not- Yeah, probably...
• 4:38
  you know, probably not a bad idea? Probably ought to do that. Beautiful River West, Wisconsin. And if, uh, if any of you freaks wanna call in, we still have that call in number. What's that number again? 717- 717...
• 4:48
  727- 727... 2453. 2453. Bike. That's 717- 727... bike. God, we were like Alice in Chains with that harmony. Right? [laughs] And Lane's the dead guy, right? Yeah, that's where- Oh...
• 5:04
  one foot- Let's see if we could do Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young real quick. Just kidding. [laughs] Can I be Young? I know I can't sound like him, but I can't, can I be him? I would like to be Young. Sure.
• 5:12
  I want his electric guit- I want his electric car. Electric car guitar. He's got a, he's built, he has the, the largest- Guitar... gas car ever built- Guitar... he made into a, an electric car.
• 5:23
  Yeah, I read something about that. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Oh. He also owns Lionel Trains, which I think is pretty cool. And married, uh, Daryl Hannah. Yeah? Uh, yeah, secretly, right?
• 5:31
  Right, and she has legs now, right? She doesn't have the fin anymore? Uh, yeah. Does it run on 9-volt? Yeah, right. [laughs] Uh, she actually, another fun fact we're not talking about that- No she does.
• 5:41
  [laughs] She runs on biodiesel, um, purchased from a buddy of mine out in Colorado by the name of Charles Ford. Right on. Fun facts, fun facts. Fun facts. So let's, uh, let's get Jeff in the conversation here. Sure.
• 5:54
  And, um, I met Jeff a f- quite a while back, and talked about touring a bit, and wanted to get him in the store here, and we're, we've got him on the mic today. So welcome, Jeff.
• 6:04
  Um, why don't you just give folks a little bit of a rundown on your experience and why we should listen to you about touring on your bicycle. Which, by the way, tell them what kind of bike you got even. Well, my...
• 6:14
  I'm riding my, my main steed for this is a '09 Cannondale T1. Uh, Cannondale made these, uh, specifically for touring. Uh, they're a little elongated.
• 6:28
  Um, the Mavic wheels on them have six extra spokes in the back, s- came right from Cannondale this way. Four extra in the front,
• 6:37
  um, because of course when you tour, um, you are carrying a lot more weight than you normally would. Uh, and yeah, it's a real comfortable ride. It's got Shimano, uh, Ultegra. Um, it's a 20... What is it?
• 6:53
  Uh, no, it's a 30-speed. Hm, very nice.
• 6:55
  And I got a, got a granny gear in it because, uh, you know, most of the people I tour with, well, I'm in my mid-50s now, and, uh, a lot of time, a lot of times I take college students with me, and you sh- see these, uh, youngsters, and boy, I'll tell you, they give me a...
• 7:10
  I always, I always laugh because they're, there's just so much energy when they first start out, you know? [laughs] They, they look at me and they say, "Are you gonna make it, prof? Are you gonna make it?"
• 7:20
  And I'm like, "Well, um, we'll see about that." And- [laughs]... and then, you know, uh, the 95% of the ride they can't keep up, you know. So it's... See, tour biking is not a, a day ride. It's not a week ride.
• 7:33
  It's- No sprinter, no sprinter... No, no, it's not. And, uh, and so yeah, this, this Cannondale, even though it's an aluminum frame, it, it actually is a very comfortable ride for me.
• 7:43
  And for me, I'm a, I'm a Clydesdale class rider, so I mean, if I was a, if I was 170 pounds, I can go with a nice c- chromoly frame, and they're even more comfortable. Sure, sure. But this thing here is great.
• 7:56
  It's been great. So you've done w- 11 trips across the country- Right... right? Mm-hmm. And, uh, those have run the gamut from the South to the Mid to the Northern Tier, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
• 8:09
  And the new one, the one coming up in June, is... T- tell us about that route.
• 8:12
  Well, I've done the northern route before across, like in and out of Canada, all the way across, across, um, northern Wisconsin up into Canada, uh, all the way, uh, to, uh, Montreal. We stopped in Montreal.
• 8:27
  This particular ride, we're gonna do it in the States, but we're going to leave from the Seattle, uh, area,
• 8:35
  and we're biking, we're staying in the States, and, uh, we're going to come to Wisconsin here, right in Milwaukee, then go around Lake Michigan, across Indiana, all the way along, uh, Lake Ontario, uh, f- Lake Erie, then Lake Ontario, across New York,
• 8:52
  uh, then Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and then up through New Brunswick, over down into, uh, N- uh, Nova Scotia. Right on. Our ride will end in Halifax. Uh, and you're, you're- How many people- Sorry. How many people?
• 9:06
  Just, just a friend of mine and I. This, this particular ride. Nice. We, we need to get away. It's a kind of a reset. Yeah. For me, it's... I sit in a classroom. Uh, we just got done grading papers here at- [laughs]...
• 9:18
  Marquette University, and I'm like, "Okay, now this is a, like, clear the mechanism kind of ride for me." [laughs] Yeah, right on. Yeah, yeah. And you s- you said you're starting in Seattle, right?
• 9:27
  Yeah, we're gonna start in, uh, yeah, in Seattle. So how do you, how do you pick a route once you've decided you're gonna do, say, the Northern Tier? Do you...
• 9:34
  What resources do you go, go to to make your route, um, t- friendly to bikes instead of cars- Right... for instance?
• 9:41
  Well, there's the most infamous of, of, of bike routing is from American Cycling Association, and they have put together, um, incredible, um, maps, map plans all the way across our country. It's just like a grid.
• 9:58
  And, and those are okay. Um, if you're only gonna do one in your lifetime, you might wanna ch- check one of those out because- Yeah...
• 10:05
  it, it, it navigates you through all kinds of s- uh, national forests, national parks, national monuments.
• 10:12
  But if you've done it and you've seen all that before, then we, we try to, we try to take routes that we haven't been on before, and it takes us through towns that...
• 10:22
  See, one of the things you have to decide on, what do you want out of your tour? Do you really wanna see a lot of n- uh, spectacular nature?
• 10:31
  And if you've seen it, and then, and if you've never done that, oh, by all means. That's like, that's like number one on the, uh, the starter list is to- Oh, for sure. You'd...
• 10:40
  So you'd recommend somebody that hasn't done it before to go with an established route and- Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, because not only that, but on that route, so many other people have taken it,
• 10:52
  that the folks that you... When you're biking through their town, oh, they've seen hundreds of you before. They're much more welcoming. They understand you.
• 11:00
  Local law enforcement, they don't kick you out of their parks or something like this. [laughs] I mean, they, they see you. I mean, [laughs] that kind of thing.
• 11:07
  Uh, but it can be s- a lot slower because you have to go off route to get to s- many of these locations. I mean, or, you know, it's... You have to go point to point to point.
• 11:18
  This particular route, we're, we're trying to do more of a bird's-eye view. We're trying to pick through a lot of the-
• 11:25
  Yeah, it sounds like your route is gonna be a lot less populated, and, uh, definitely not the touristy route that might be. Well, on the western part it will be. Okay.
• 11:36
  On the eastern part, it's just going to be different. We are purposely staying, um...
• 11:41
  If you've ever biked around Lake Michigan, which is a great ride by the way, even the, the time you go through Chicago, I mean, we stay right on Lake Michigan, and it is really cool. Hm.
• 11:51
  And, and we, we stay right on the lake, and then we'll stay right on, on Lake Erie all the way. There's a great bike trail that goes all the way along Lake Erie. Nice. Sounds awesome. Yeah. Yeah, that...
• 12:03
  W- well, when we were talking the other night, you'd mentioned that you stay in a lot of-... uh, unusual places, you don't usually take camping gear, right? No, I, we, we choose not to.
• 12:15
  Um, we, we do what's called, uh, um, minimalist riding. And so it, it helps because, uh, inevitably, uh, you think you're taking what you need. "Oh, the, I need this. Oh, I need this."
• 12:27
  And you go through, put all your gear out. Mm-hmm. And you swear you have to take a trailer with you. [laughs] Like, "Oh, I gotta take that." And you feel you're obligated to take the stuff.
• 12:37
  But then you get out there, and the very first thing you do the very first day, if you leave the West Coast, you have to deal with the Cascade Mountains, and you're going from sea level to 9,000 feet. Ooh.
• 12:47
  Like in the first day. Ooh. [laughs] Yeah, yeah. And you got- Hey, welcome to bike touring. Here you go. [laughs] There's a mountain for you. Yeah. Want to turn back now? Yeah.
• 12:55
  [laughs] And you've got all this extra crap, and you're like, "Oh, okay." You go. And, and, and it's, and, and, and really that's, it's part of the philosophy of touring.
• 13:03
  You really have to decide what you want out of your tour.
• 13:07
  If you really wanna do the parks and the nature and things like this, and you feel compelled to stay out in nature almost every night, then by all means bring a single-man tent, uh, bring your cookware, things like this.
• 13:22
  But then you have to force yourself to use it every day. Makes sense. [laughs] And honestly, no, it's a big deal because that means- Sure... you're getting to your location early in the evening to set your tent up.
• 13:35
  Once you're- And start a fire. Yeah. Yes. And cook your food. Yes. And- And then you're not leaving your tent, although somebody's gonna steal it from you, uh, perhaps. So then you're committed to staying there.
• 13:44
  Now, if you're not, if you stay in, um, well they have stealth places, we... I can t- talk a little bit about that. Sure.
• 13:51
  Or you stay other places, uh, then you can leave your bike, and you can go to a pub, and you can gorge yourself on, on food rather than having to cook everything.
• 14:03
  So you termed this minimalist, which I like, but it's not credit card. It's not like you're staying in a hotel every night, right? Oh, no. Not at all. Right.
• 14:10
  Um- Now tell us some of the places you've stayed, 'cause some of those sound pretty interesting. Okay.
• 14:14
  So, um, our main thing, uh, a lot of, 'cause of my occupation, uh, teaching theology and being involved in the church, is we have a lot of, uh, church folk that either invite us to stay in their local con- in the local worship center or even in their homes.
• 14:29
  And so we've, we've really had a good, uh, good luck on that.
• 14:34
  Then we're also members of Warm Showers and CouchSurfing, which is very easy because I have hosted many people here in Milwaukee biking through, hiking, uh, around the lake or something.
• 14:46
  Uh, a lot of people come to Summerfest, and they crash by my place right downtown in Milwaukee here. Right where the Milwaukee Bucks are, going for their first win against the Raptors tonight, folks. Yeah, I hope, yeah.
• 14:56
  [laughs] That's, that's always a good thing. And so, so then we'll call ahead, and, and we'll get like-minded people to just let us crash in their place.
• 15:05
  And in, in doing so, they wanna hear our story while they're cooking dinner for us. Okay. And a lot of that it's not... We don't even ex- Sounds pretty awesome... but we don't even expect that. We really don't expect it.
• 15:16
  And, uh, so, but, but the, that's the thing. The thing is there's something about minimalist riding that allows, uh, for the unknown to happen. You don't have to have everything micro-planned from the beginning.
• 15:32
  If you do that, I'm telling you now, it's just gonna be a disappoint from... 'Cause as soon as you miss day one or day two, it throws every other day off. Sure, I could s- Oh, yeah... I could see that. Yeah. Yeah.
• 15:43
  Yeah, what if you weren't feeling like riding 100 miles that day? Right.
• 15:45
  You only wanted to do 20, and now you're obligated to get the other 80 miles in because you're set up for a campsite that you booked months in advance. Exactly. Mm-hmm. Exactly. I kinda like this idea. Yeah.
• 15:55
  This bike touring thing might be pretty good. [laughs] I mean, I've, the most I've done is RAGBRAI, which is seven days, and that you are planned in sort because you know where the overnight towns are. Right.
• 16:06
  But that doesn't mean you stay in those overnight towns. We kinda do an alternate RAGBRAI, which usually follows the route about 10 miles off of it or something. [laughs] But, uh, you know, seven days is one thing.
• 16:16
  You're gonna be gone for six weeks on this one, right? Yeah, minimum of six because I, um, that would be actually 100 miles on the, on the, on the nose to get us across in six weeks.
• 16:29
  So your 4,100 miles on this one is- Is ru- roughly-... roughly... 4,100, yeah. Yeah. Wow. And so, but even, but, but it's not the same as RAGBRAI because in RAGBRAI you're not carrying all your gear. Right. True.
• 16:41
  Well, beer. I mean- [laughs]... carrying all your beer. [laughs] Yeah. That can, that can load your bike down pretty good. Yeah. That's like me right now. I'm carrying my winter with me until I lose it.
• 16:51
  [laughs] Until I lose my winter. [laughs] Well, my first RAGBRAI, I, uh, made the mistake of bringing a backpack and trying to wear that thing all day long every day. Oh, no. Wow, what a nightmare.
• 17:01
  Yeah, I, I mean, I- But, uh- You, I've learned a lot even with, with that. I mean, back in the day, I'd wear CamelBaks and things, and I shed that in like three days 'cause you had that bladder sitting in the hot sun.
• 17:13
  [laughs] I just, oh, no way. I'm not doing this. Oh, yes. Nice. Nice cold water to drink. It was hot. No, not water. No, no. And my innards- I know it's good for me. And, and it's- Yeah...
• 17:22
  and, and you can feel the wa- you know, sweat just pouring down off of you. It's like, no way. So water must be the, obviously the most important thing you can take. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
• 17:33
  What, what do you do to carry enough water? Well, um, th- okay, that goes along with route planning, okay?
• 17:39
  If you plan a good route, you're always going to be going, we're always going to be going through small towns where we can fill our water bottles.
• 17:47
  And so we'll, we'll take, um, you know, 28-ounce, two 28-ounce water bottles on our, in our water bottle cages. And then what we'll do is we will, um,
• 17:58
  when we get to places where we know there's gonna be no services for the next 30, 40, 50, 60 miles, sometimes even longer, then we actual buy like a gallon of, of water in a water jug, and then we'll just strap that on just for that time, and then we'll shed, we'll shed it as soon as we can.
• 18:17
  There's no reason to keep it. Well, I'm super curious when you come in three weeks to see, you know- Yeah... if you're gonna bring your, bring your setup like you're gonna tour and- For sure...
• 18:26
  and, uh, we'll, we'll put a Facebook, uh, what do you call that thing? Event up there. And people, Jeff's done this a lot. Oh, yeah.
• 18:34
  I think, uh, his insight has given me a little bit of a, a vision of touring that I didn't really have before. Because I'm always thinking long haul trucker loaded to the gills, you know? Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah.
• 18:44
  Maybe even pulling a Bob trailer. [laughs] Or, or worse, you could be Joshua and build a cargo bike, and then put way too much on it- Yeah...
• 18:51
  and try to ride across the country, and then get to San Francisco and say, "Screw it, I'm going home." Yeah. Yeah. Could do that. Yeah. Don't wanna. Might not have to now, though. Right.
• 19:00
  So, uh, okay, water's important, but that's something you can get on the way. Uh- Jerky... we talked a little bit [laughs] Yeah, jerky... talked a little bit about where you stay. You said places like- Well- Oh...
• 19:10
  like gazebos and post offices... watch the placement. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's a- You know, all sorts of- Yeah. Yeah, there's, there's, uh... One of my favorites is, um, yeah, post offices.
• 19:19
  When you ride into a town, and, uh, you have post office boxes who have, you know, you have to be able to let people get to their post office box. So there's an outside door, and that's never locked.
• 19:30
  And so if you, if you're really... If you get in late and you really don't wanna set anything up, and you really don't have a place to stay, you can stealth camp there.
• 19:38
  We've stealth camped in, um, community centers and a whole bunch of places. Nice. Uh, gazebos, parks, anywhere. Yeah. Dugouts, baseball dugouts. Oh, that's a good one. Oh, it's... Yeah, especially, we got, we got...
• 19:51
  It was horizontal rain one time. It was in Kansas or somewhere, and we s- snuck into a... Well, we went into a ballpark area, and we just crashed inside the dugout. Never, not a drop of water on us. Nice.
• 20:03
  It was fantastic. So you do take a sleeping bag? Yes. And, like, do you do a bivy sack or something that's waterproof? No. No, just, uh- Just, just that's where the roof comes in. Yeah.
• 20:12
  And then I have a Therm-a-Rest pad that I sleep on. Because whether we're inside or out, no matter what, you wanna get something. I mean, you're biking all day long.
• 20:21
  And, uh, you know, when you get to be our age, it's not easy just to crawl on, you know, just s- go to sleep on a concrete floor and, and wake up the next morning and go, "Oh, I'm so relaxed. Let's do it again."
• 20:32
  Oh, that sounds horrible. Yeah. You don't wanna stay in a room with Chad and Dave, and then have to sleep in the closet 'cause they're making too much racket. [laughs] Well, especially after beer and beef jerky. Yeah.
• 20:41
  Yeah. For sure. Don't know how come hotel rooms always get wrecked when those guys are- Or, or a pocket smoked pork chop. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Cool. Um, okay, so that's, uh, a little bit about that stuff.
• 20:51
  What about tools? Yeah. How do you, what do you do about repairs? You, you know, how many flats are you gonna get? Oh, yeah. Are you wearing tires out?
• 20:57
  Are you wearing, are you wearing stuff out on this trip, or are you mostly repairing as you go? All right. And that's, that's, that's another great question on, uh, route choice.
• 21:07
  Um, out west, uh, the, the, the, the highways out west. C- first of all, we're not, we're not on any major highways. We're always on, like, Chuck's Highway or Jim's Highway. [laughs] Random exit.
• 21:20
  Yeah, off the beaten path. [laughs] And so you never kinda know what you're gonna get.
• 21:24
  But because of this thing called Google Maps where you can drop that little guy down and you can take 360s no matter where, I do enough recon to find out that these highways we're on have a nice shoulder that we're ri- biking on.
• 21:38
  And so I'm, we're pretty confident that we're, we're gonna be okay. Now, typically in a 4,000 mile tour, I a- we average about six to seven flats. A lot of times they're just pinch flats.
• 21:51
  You come across uneven pavement and wham, you hit that, you hit something really hard, and poof, you know, it just pops, pops a tire. You just fix it and keep going.
• 22:01
  Uh, sometimes when you're around, uh, trucking areas, in- out west you get a lot of farming, and you have a lot of implements. You have a lot of gravel or something on the road.
• 22:11
  Uh, sometimes it's just you're, there's so much debris, you just can't, you can't avoid it. And, you know, ah, it sucks to be you. Stay away from- Yeah... recycling center- Oh, oh, that kind. Yeah. Yeah.
• 22:21
  I mean, just, we just, we just never go there. It's like, oh, everything is glass. You just never go. No. Okay. And so typically it's... Yeah. And we just repair them. You know, most, we...
• 22:29
  At most I take, uh, depends on how many riders we have. Uh, that's another good question. I'll segue into that. The, the tools we take,
• 22:38
  I just, we just make sure we have enough tools to repair the bikes that are on the tour. So a lot of times I liked, I liked having, uh, like-minded bikes so that everything's- Less tools... yeah, less tools. Right.
• 22:50
  Right, yeah. Exactly. One person carries a pump. One c- person carries some tubes. Precisely. One person carry- Precisely... right. So you get a- That makes sense... you get away from this, "Oh, you got Schrader valves."
• 22:58
  "Oh, I got Presta valves." Forget it. You know, we're just- [laughs]... we're doing, you know, this. This is what we're doing. And, and it all kinda works out.
• 23:04
  But I've got, yeah, I've got the patch kit and the cement, and the other guy's gonna bring... You know, we have, my, my buddy's got half. I'll have the other half.
• 23:11
  I noticed, uh, your bike is set up for traditional panniers on a rack. Yeah. Have you done any soft bag camping, like seat bag, frame bag, handlebar bag type stuff? Yeah.
• 23:22
  Or, or touring, I should say, not camping so much. No. No, I, no. I, I, uh... Yeah, locally I'll, I'll have a, um, like a, a rack on my back. I have s- a handlebar. I do have a handlebar pack that sits on the front.
• 23:35
  But because of those doggone, uh, the way the, uh, the cables are set up, they cross right from the beginning. Sure. You can't put nothing in the be- in between those handlebars. They're the traditional drop handlebars.
• 23:45
  Which you asked me for just the other night, why do I use those? I like the different hand positions.
• 23:52
  I l- I love having my hands l- um, my thumbs and my fingers moving forward rather than down towards the ground like this. Gotcha. That's just more comfortable for me. Yeah, you- I, I have a question. Yeah. Go ahead.
• 24:03
  Is that why a lot of touring bikes have, um, bar-con shifters? Because then you have that section in the middle free for bags. Wow. What are you some kind of big brain over there?
• 24:14
  [laughs] Well, I, I, I think bar cons are the most ridiculous thing in the world. Check out the big brain on Tony. So I'm always wondering why they have them. Yeah, yeah.
• 24:21
  You know, the last thing I wanna do as I'm riding my bike is reach my hand to the end of a drop bar to shift. Yeah, I know.
• 24:26
  It's- I figure it's 'cause touring guys are, you know, they just don't spend money on stuff and they still have friction shifters. Yeah. Mm-hmm. There's that too. Well, [laughs] I love friction shifters.
• 24:33
  [laughs] But, but then, but then again, this is funny. Uh, tour biking, you almost, you very seldom do change gears. I mean, you, you g- [laughs] Several people have told me that too. Oh. Oh, yeah.
• 24:42
  That it's just- Like, like brakes... apparently like, like single speed mentality. Yeah. Oh, yeah, like brakes. It was like, like riding 29er. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I was just like, "No, just think boom." Yeah.
• 24:51
  Just get to the comfy place- Yeah... and go. Yeah. Yeah, we, we, we are, we...
• 24:56
  You get proud when you're tour biking to see if you can go the whole day without pulling your brakes because it's just, you're just, you're just trucking right along, you know? For sure. Very, very seldom.
• 25:04
  We'll be right along in time, so have a good time and- [laughs] Well, I gotta- Welcome to Kermit the Frog. [laughs] So many songs, so many rambling- Wow...
• 25:13
  you mentioned, uh, when we were talking the other day about handlebar stuff, you use, um, some kind of padding on your bar- Oh, yeah... that you get from like Home Depot or somewhere. Yeah, yeah.
• 25:23
  It's called, um, jerry rigging 101. Um, I just go get this, uh, pipe insulation- [laughs]... that you buy at any place that's cut right down the middle. Mm-hmm.
• 25:34
  And I'll just cut like six-inch sections, and I'll tape it right on my handlebars because I'm a Clydesdale rider. I mean, I've got r- I have a
• 25:42
  l- large upper body, and that, when you're leaning forward in a good comfortable position on an aluminum bike with no shock absorption,
• 25:53
  your, my, my hands will [laughs] my hands and my upper body will start to fall asleep- Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. For sure I wondered, did it take you to come up with that as an idea? Oh, instantaneously. [laughs] Yeah, I bet.
• 26:03
  [laughs] Uh, he can bench 400 pounds by the way. Oh, yeah. Oof. [laughs] Oh, yeah. So, so it was, it was really, it was really helpful to do those things, and then the extra padding I take, I just put it right on my,
• 26:15
  on my bar and between- Top tube?... yeah, the top tube. And just if I need more, there's more there. I mean, it's- That's a great idea... doesn't, doesn't, doesn't weigh anything, so. Yeah, yeah.
• 26:24
  [laughs] This is like a podcast where we're gaining useful knowledge. What happened? Right? Yeah, I don't know. [laughs] We've almost wasted a whole half hour already, so. It's, it's incredible. Yeah.
• 26:32
  See how much we learn. It's awesome.
• 26:34
  Hey, again, just, uh, in case you all didn't hear it before, Jeff is going to join us on June 5th at the store here in River West, Everyday Cycles, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Locust Street.
• 26:45
  Harley's going by, you know, bumping stereos and whatnot, but we're gonna be in the shop talking about his, basically his setup, and then ask him any questions you want.
• 26:53
  If, if he hasn't seen it, I would be real surprised, so. Oh, yeah. Um, please join us. Ma- make comment on the podcast ahead of time so we can have a sheet of questions ready. Questions. Questions.
• 27:03
  Questions from the public. Yes. Hey, speaking of the public, you have a Facebook page too for your organization that does this touring thing. I, I- Yeah... it slips my mind what it's called. Uh, C2C, uh, Bike Tours.
• 27:14
  Okay. It's Coast to Coast. Yeah. Gotcha. We will put some, we'll put some of these links in the show notes there for you folks. Hey? Oh, sure. Awesome.
• 27:23
  Um, well, by cracky, I think we really did do a whole half hour already. So thanks everybody for listening, and, uh, thank you very much, Jeff, for coming in. Yeah, man. Yeah. No problem.
• 27:35
  And also joining us in a few weeks here to, uh, further the discussion in real time with real people in a real bike shop. Yeah. Stop in. Call in at [717] 727-2453. I guess we could open the phone lines that day too, huh?
• 27:50
  Well- That, it's not an actual podcast day, but- Yeah... whatever But it can be. Probably should be doing this every week. You call in, you can leave a message. It's, it's a podcast special.
• 27:58
  Podcast special on, on demand. We'll just have a omnidirectional mic listening in to all of- Well, I guess-... all of the, uh, we- Don't ever call me omnidirectional Mike. [laughs] I'm normally called occasional Mike.
• 28:10
  Well- 'Cause occasionally I'll have a pearl of wisdom that drops out. Omnidirectional Mike. [laughs] I'm occasional Mike, not omnidirectional. Come on, omnidirectional Mike.
• 28:21
  See, this is what happens when you, this is what happens when you don't wear your helmet. [laughs] Oh, yeah. Oh, we didn't even get into helmets versus no helmets, did we? Yeah. Oh, I know. I know. Oh, man.
• 28:29
  Yeah, these are free concussion Sunday. Yeah. [laughs] [laughs] Yeah, they are. All right, folks. And- Dig it... have a great night Bye bye.
• 28:42
  [upbeat music]