Trip Preparations

How much preparation is enough for a bike tour? We've been reviewing routes, assembling a tool kit, tuning up the trikes, selecting quick-drying clothes, and doing some test rides. We still have more than a month to get everything ready, but previous rides have taught us that a little extra planning can save a lot of trouble on the road. (Having the right size inner tubes, for instance.)

Today's project was to hitch everything up, load the luggage, and make sure it all fits, and that nothing interferes with turning. So far, so good. The Igloo cooler holds three luggage organizers, a large bag for tools and spare tires, and a small packet for electronics. A Velo-Case and a Lone Peak seat-back bag will both fit on the rear trike, while the front trike can carry a Radical Design large seat-back bag.

There was time for some photos by Lake Harriet. I just hope the weather is this nice during the ride!

Green Travels

We are planning a greener vacation this summer, in recognition of the harm done by unlimited oil consumption, but also for the pure adventure of two 60-somethings setting out to bike a thousand miles -- from our front door to Wisconsin, joining up with the SAGBRAW group ride there, then riding to the Hostel Shoppe Recumbent Rally and home again.

We signed up for the events, reserved rooms in hotels along the way, and uploaded maps of the routes to our GPS. The next step was to get our Greenspeed Anura trikes set up so that either one could serve as the lead trike or the one pulling the trailer. We added a Weber hitch to the fork-grabber at the back of each trike.

In past years we rode a Hase Kettwiesel and an Anura linked together, but that required two sets of spare tires and tubes. Not fun when you are looking for the right one in the rain.

We're also exploring how to post to this blog from a mobile device, but getting photos to upload is proving challenging.

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Fourth of July

We're just back from a 534-mile ride on a 2-trike tandem. We started in northeastern Wisconsin, up by the Michigan border, and rode with the GRABAAWR group along the Wisconsin River as far as Baraboo. At that point, we broke off and followed the 400, Elroy-Sparta, and LaCrosse River trails to LaCrosse, on the Minnesota border.

Today was the Fourth of July, and I rode a 5-trike tandem in the Edina Fourth of July Parade. Two of the other riders couldn't have participated without an option like this -- one was blind, and the other is in her 80's. The other rider carried a puppy on his lap -- not something you could do on a regular bike!

The title bar links to a video clip of several kids taking a ride after the parade.

More about biking Wisconsin

Bike route 65811 - powered by Bikemap 

The first day of our trip to Wisconsin started with the ride from Minneapolis to Stillwater that is seen in the previous post. We stopped for a picnic lunch beside the Stillwater lift bridge, which had just come back into service a couple days earlier. After a long wait for a boat to pass under the bridge, we crossed in slow and heavy traffic. Most of the cars went up the main road, but we took the very steep route up County Road E and then continued quite straight across St. Croix County. After the first big hill, there were a few moderate hills, but nothing really difficult. We would have continued much further east before turning south, but a detour on County Road E led us to change our plans. A small but intense thunderstorm had overtaken us, and we didn't want to explore a detour of unknown length going away from our planned direction of travel, so we changed course. We didn't know where to stay in the little towns north of Interstate 94, but a friendly local cyclist directed us to a pleasant little motel in Woodville, where we could lock the trikes under an overhang directly outside our door. A disadvantage of traveling the quiet country roads in Wisconsin is that there are very few places to eat or sleep along the way. We had packed enough food and drinks, so we didn't go hungry, but we had some worried moments before we located a room for the night.