{"id":628,"date":"2012-09-06T21:43:16","date_gmt":"2012-09-07T02:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bikeacrossusa.com\/blog\/?p=628"},"modified":"2012-09-06T21:43:16","modified_gmt":"2012-09-07T02:43:16","slug":"what-items-did-you-carry-coast-to-coast-and-not-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bikeacrossusa.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/what-items-did-you-carry-coast-to-coast-and-not-use\/","title":{"rendered":"What Items Did You Carry Coast-to-Coast and Not Use"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Items<\/a>

Unused Items Carried Coast-to-Coast<\/p><\/div>\n

I was asked if I carried anything coast-to-coast on my bicycle ride across America, that I did not use. Above the photo shows most of the items I did not use. The long sleve shirt was to have gone with a pair of khakis that I left at home during my rest days in July. I also left a pair of jeans, my rain coat, a long sleeve jersey and light weight cycling tights home at that time. Early on I mailed about 6 pounds of gear home from Columbia Falls, Montana, including a cotton polo shirt, a metal pot for cooking, a long sleeve jersey and a small duffle bag.<\/p>\n

Out of curiosity, I weighed each item not used. Long sleeve cotton shirt: 240g; Kleenex: 20g; wrenches (for brakes) 180g; tube2: 120g each; patch kit: 20g; tube for B.O.B trailer: 110g. Not included in the list is a small box of Park self-adhesive patches and another tube carried in an under-seat bag. The total is 1040 grams or 2.3 pounds.<\/p>\n

This was my first loaded bicycle tour. Next time I will be more selective about what I carry. Some of you may be thinking, what difference will a couple of pounds make. I was told there was more than 50,000 feet of climbing from Ticonderoga, New York to Bar Harbor, Maine. A rider has to lift all of that weight. That means an additional 115,000 foot-pounds of work for that portion of the ride.<\/p>\n

I read a book early this year in which a mountain climber that had been to the summit of Mt. Everest cut the handle off his toothbrush, even on less challenging climbs. Later I read of a cycling tourist that does the same thing. I’m not sure I will go that far. On this bicycle tour the weight of my gear, trailer, bicycle and 3 full water bottles totaled 60% of my body weight. My goal for the next tour is to reduce that ratio substantially.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was asked if I carried anything coast-to-coast on my bicycle ride across America, that I did not use. Above the photo shows most of the items I did not use. The long sleve shirt was to have gone with a pair of khakis that I left at home during my rest days in July. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bikeacrossusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bikeacrossusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bikeacrossusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bikeacrossusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bikeacrossusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.bikeacrossusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":632,"href":"http:\/\/www.bikeacrossusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions\/632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bikeacrossusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bikeacrossusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bikeacrossusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}