cycleforone

I am planning a bike tour from Rhode Island to Virginia via Atlantic Coast route to San Francisco via Trans America and Western Express. Looking for for anyone to join part of it, the whole thing, or connect on social media.. @cycleforone

Spread the Word! All connections are appreciated. Thank you!

morfeeis

that sounds epic, good luck to you...

philbob57

IIRC, East to West goes against prevailing winds. That could get old pretty quick, once you're over the Alleghenies (or whatever they're called in VA/WVa/Eastern Ohio. Of course, if you start in RI, you can't bicycle very far if you head East.... If you've pedaled mainly in the East, you're probably good with hills but may not realize how debilitating riding against the wind is, at least to many people. And hill training doesn't help with wind, IME.

How much time can you take? When do you start? What support will you have?

Sounds like a great trip in any case. Best of luck. I wish you light winds, pleasant temps, and rain only when you're sleeping.

Believe it or not, I used to ride all over the East Side of Providence, College Hill, Federal Hill, down to the Seekonk River, East Providence to Newport ... long time ago, though. When I walked around College Hill last year for a couple of days, my legs got sore. I can't do hills, now, but I can do (some) wind - hills are more fun.

bruce19

This. Everybody I know who has done this started in CA and headed east. There's a reason for that.

Here's a description on some site called Quora from a guy named Phillip Green who made the trip East to West:

"I rode a bicycle across the US, from Richmond, VA to Vallejo, CA. I'm not competitive.Written Nov 4, 2014

It depends how fast you go, how much you carry, where you stop and what route you take.

I went from East to West, starting in July. I took the route where instead of going north from Pueblo Colorado, I continued West through the Rockies, Utah, Nevada and the Sierras. I think that made the trip much faster than if I had ridden to Oregon. I took me a little less than two months but I would sometimes meet people coming the other way that were on pace to finish in one month."

MarioT

Quite the challenge! Good luck!!

I've never done it, but like others have mentioned, West to East seems to be the way to go. Trek Travel does it that way as well, in a scheduled 42 days.
https://trektravel.com/trip/cross-co...usa-bike-tour/

cycleforone

@morfeeis Really excited and a bit nervous!

@philbob57 Starting mid-May shortly after an East to West tour starts from Virginia with adventure cycling. Would be great to catch up with them but, I do plan on taking my time and have myself for support as well as several packages mailed to selected rest stops. Attached my route/ timeline.

Thank you for your well wishes and that is exactly where I have been riding around!

@bruce19 thanks for the quote...planning to ride a similar route.

@MarioT indeed a challenge. Thank you!

Seattle Forrest

Sounds like a fantastic trip! I hope you enjoy it and remember it fondly for the rest of your life.

jeffreythree

I just finished a ebook on an east to west trip ending in SF, Old Man on a Bicycle by Don Petterson. Interesting read, lots of headwinds, and he did it at the age of 72.

Homebrew01

Moved from General.

BigAura

This prevailing wind thing is over rated. The wind can come from virtually any direction at any given point. And it never goes in any single direction. Look at this wind map do you see any straight lines? BTW roads are aren't straight either.

Although few like headwinds it's part of the natural world that touring exposes you too. If you're presented with headwinds you can gear down or take a rest day if they are that debilitating. The worse thing you can do is let the wind get-in-your-head. For those who think-worry-plan The Wind, it's already in-their-head.

indyfabz

Against the upper atmosphere winds. Different story at ground level. I rode west to east on the Northern Tier route had hand plenty of days with headwinds. Someone once overlaid a map of the Trans Am route (which the OP is taking) with a prevailing surface winds map for July. Prevailing winds were out of the southeast, meaning a tailwind heading west.

philbob57

Another piece of folklore eats some dust.... Thanks, BigAura and indyfabz.

cycleforone

Thanks for the move, @Homebrew01
@Seattle Forest Thanks! Will be logging some time on @cycleforone social media platforms. Stay in touch!
@jeffreythree...definitely looking into Old Man on a Bicycle

Exactly my thoughts @BigAura
@indyfabz, Northern tier looks sweet too...hopefully someday I can compare
@philbob57 I guess we will see...I'll try to log the wind direction

alan s 

Not really. The prevailing wind in the US are westerly. Local conditions vary due to land formations and the location of high and low pressure systems.

stevepusser

During the summer, the prevailing surface winds are going to be southerly over most of the eastern and central part of the US. Once into the mountain West, the direction will be affected by topography, as they will generally blow up valleys during the day or flow strongly through passes, and the overall direction will shift depending on the location of the center of the summertime high pressure that sets up over the SW US. You can bet on getting a strong sea breeze as you approach San Francisco, though.

If you are feeling really up to an adventure, you can cross the Sierra on the next pass south of the Western Express's Carson Pass, which is Ebbetts Pass/ Pacific Grade on Hwy 4. The steepest section is the last part of the last climb to the Pacific Grade Summit, reaching up to 26% grade on the inside of the first switchback of that section. The straight parts are about 12-15%. I always like that route because it's remote, quiet, very narrow and winding, and with a spectacular approach to the passes up the West Carson and Silver Creek canyons. Another attraction is a couple of state parks along that route that had nice "informal" (camp in the picnic area) hike & bike policies at the time (don't know if they still do), Grover Hot Springs and Calaveras Big Trees, though it's a very tough sixty miles between the two if you want to do it in one day.

fork crown

Went cross country many years ago. Living on Long Island, NY we flew out to SF and biked back. Headwinds much of the way. Locals said "never seen anything like it this year winds don't normally travel east to west". Brutal. Also an overlooked factor...pyschologically it's much better to be riding "home" than some strange place and worrying about packing/travel and all that entails.

DXchulo

Depends on his timeline. A lot of the roads around here got pretty ****ed by this winter's snow fest. I got an email the other day that the Alta Alpina Challenge is cancelled.



I did a little driving around Tahoe last weekend and even the roads that are open are in pretty bad shape. Expect a lot of construction this year.

DXchulo

Re: direction- I went west to east in 2015 and had a lot of headwinds east of the Mississippi. I only remember one day of tailwinds on the western section. You just never know. More often than not you'll probably have crosswinds, though.

stevepusser

If travelling E-W, I was expecting the OP to hit the Sierra in mid-late summer. They don't try to plow Hwy 4 to keep it open in winter, so there shouldn't be a lot of that damage like on 88. I don't know if there's any bridge damage on 4, though.

DXchulo

I'm pretty sure this is all about 4 (AKA Ebbetts):


It's been a bad winter. Take Monitor Pass, for example. Its latest opening date since 2005 is April 27. As of today it's still closed, and I doubt it will be open by this time next week.


Going back to the same date, the latest opening for 4 is the first week of June. I'm guessing that record will be broken, as well. Doesn't seem impossible to me that it might not open until July. Trust me, I hope I'm wrong.

stevepusser

For what it's worth, they did manage to open the pass on June 30th: It's the latest since 1941 but Ebbetts Pass is open;

ironwood

I rode from MA to Oregon a long time ago, and I remember only two days with strong head winds. What I liked about going West was the idea of leaving the East with its congestion and cities, behind. In a way it retraces the route of the pioneers.

One favorite memory was when I was in Wyoming and came around a bend, and saw the Big Horns, with fresh snow, sparkling in the morning sun.

u235

Just my anecdotal 0.02. I hit the continental divide out of Cumberland towards Pittsburgh, based on all of my reading and physics, I was good to go for the slight down hill for 40-50 miles. There was a decent head wind blowing up the slope. I had an easier climb out of Cumberland than I had on the first 30-40 miles down hill after the divide. Even on relatively small divides, climbs, and descents with maps, historical data and averages, general trends etc.. Don't over anticipate any part of your trip or your day as being easier or harder, you may get a mental kick in the crotch when it's not as you had hoped and planned for. Riding 20 miles in a day into a strong head wind may be no more physically demanding then going 100 miles with a tail wind. Mentally it is a lot harder. People tend to want to reduce the mental frustration by working harder physically (or checking your brakes a few times to make sure they are not hanging up slowing you down, LOL). That may not end up well.

DXchulo

Yeah, I rode it on the 3rd. Not sure if/when the OP ever started his ride.

cycleforone

Thank you for everyone's suggestions. It was a successful tour to say the least...Made it to San Francisco about a week ago and continuing with updates on @cycleforone instagram and Cycle for One Planet facebook page. Please spread the sustainable mindset, my cyclist friends.