Awesome, René! I did the ACA tour leader training and I found it to be a lot of fun. The leaders were very knowledgeable, yet humble, and I really enjoyed learning more about the ACA.
As a counterpoint to Kelly, I think the most important thing is to pack light. To me, the extra comforts mean that I might think twice about enticing side roads or stopping at a fruit stand to stock up on the way to camp. Everything I pack fits inside my Ortlieb front and rear panniers. I don't usually have anything on top of my racks and I don't often use a handlebar bag. Your rack set up seems fine to me. Unless you already have them, the Arkel panniers you mention are heavy and a little complex for my tastes - to each his own. It seems that whenever I see someone with that particular pannier set, they are carrying far more than I would. As for training, go with your body. Ride as much as possible, but not to the point of pain. The ACA folks are used to dealing with middle- aged folks who aren't super athletes - you'll do fine if you just ride as much as possible. In prepping for a tour, I seldom have the time to ride as much as I'd like, so I substitute fast commuting with the occasional long, slow ride to add mileage and time in the saddle. Funny, I've never, ever trained with my panniers on before any tour - that seems like a good idea, but my butt is always the limiting factor at the beginning of a tour, not my endurance. Dave (also 51) On Feb 24, 3:22 pm, Rene Sterental <orthie...@gmail.com> wrote: > I have signed up with the Adventure Cycling Association to do their > Introduction to Bike Touring course in May in Eugene, > OR.http://www.adventurecycling.org/tours/tourdetail.cfm?t=EDU11&id=249&p=1 > > I am going to do it on my Atlantis, so it's Riv related, and thought that > there might perhaps be some other people in this group who would be > interested in joining. Not that you can't just do it on your own, but I > figured it would be worth for me to get some formal education/training and > support to go on this adventure. I also got my wife in a "weak" moment to > agree that this was going to be my 51st birthday present. Birthday was in > January, and I'm really looking forward to this experience. > > Any advise or suggestions from the touring experts in this group regarding > stuff to take/leave, packing suggestions, etc., will be much appreciated. > For now, my plan is to use the Nitto Big Rear Rack and my Tubus Nova low > rider that allows me to keep the Nitto Mini front rack on the Atlantis. I > also have a Nitto Big Front rack, but am not sure it would be superior to > the Mini/Nova combo. A set of rear GT-54 and front GT-42 would complete the > setup, in addition to the Acorn Boxy Rando Bag on the Nitto Mini. > > The area where I'm mostly clueless about, but will learn during this course, > is how much clothes, bike shorts, underwear, etc. to bring. I know it's very > easy to overpack. > > I've started training for this event where I'll be biking about 50 miles per > day for four consecutive days. At this time my longest rides have been 20 > milers since my body ailments result in pain that doesn't allow me to ride > for longer. Still, I'm pushing slowly and trying to get those problems fixed > with fit tweaks and chiropractic work. I'm basically trying to design daily > commutes via Caltrain and bike to accomodate this training plan, but there > are always business trips and other issues that disrupt it. If anyone has > any good suggestions for a structured training plan to reach my goal of > being able to do the four day 50 mile rides, I'd be interested. As it > currently stands, my average speed with my commuting load is around 10 mph. > With the fully loaded bike, I don't even want to know yet. All I do is > figure that I'll have to be on the saddle for about 6 hours every day for > four days... and my body starts hurting! Yet, I remain very optimistic and > my new diet plan has been working so I've been losing some weight. I believe > that my best chances to improve are tied to how much weight I can lose > before the tour starts, as that will allow me to ride faster (less saddle > hours) and also fit better on the bike. > > René -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
