Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
Have a spare set of brake pads in your spares kit. There are lots of hills that are about 8 percent grade. Not that tall but every river that is flowing into the ocean will take you down to lower elevations.
I can't see if that is a double or triple crank. If your gearing is good for an 8 percent grade, you should be good. There were a few 12 percent grade hills in Oregon where the Oregon DOT suggested route left the main coast road. I walked up some of the 12 percent ones.
Good point. I was surprised by how much climbing and descending there was. I guess I pictured a flatter route and the amount of steep climbing was a surprise.
On a similar note there is some pretty remote country and longish distances between some services at times. At one point there were even cattle guards and free range cattle on the road.
You mention staying in "hotels, Inns and B&Bs". That should be doable, but I do have a few caveats.
First, you will miss out on what i found to be one of the really great things about the coast, staying in the hiker/biker sites and rubbing elbows with the other cyclists on the route. The advantages of that include frequent nicely spaced stops at a great price and great company. I met a lot of nice folks and wound up meeting a group that stayed together each night. A few people would come and go here and there, but we became good friends. Mostly we didn't ride together, but we did enjoy each other's company in camp. Staying in rooms will insulate you from that kind interacting with the other riders on the route.
Second, rooms on the coast can be reasonable and conveniently located in some places, but not in others. I figured I'd maybe get a room here and there on my coast ride. I found an inexpensive room in Astoria when I was tired and decided to stay in town. Later when I wanted to stay in a touristy town I was shocked by the $$$$ rates and gave up on staying there. I pressed on and camped somewhere down the road missing out on spending the rest of the day there. I am a bit of a cheapskate, but that room rate was about equal to what I averaged for two weeks on the road expenses on the Trans America. Also there will be times when the spacing of stops won't be ideal and you will need to go farther or less far than you want and/or stay somewhere that doesn't meet you ideal criteria. That will be somewhat true for camping too though.
It depends on what you expect from the trip and what you are willing to spend, so my caveats may not be a problem for you, but they are things that you should at least be aware of.