the ultimate challange??

abi26

Route 66 anyone?
2295 miles of rolling road
i really want to do it but not on my own.......
is this not a cyclists dream....?

JamesB

Personally have my thoughts on GCDR. ..Canada> Mexico OFF road down the Rockies; 2500 miles and 220 000 ft ascent....but not for a few years as it takes three months to ride

Crapaud

Personally, my thoughts are on either the Tour D'Afrique (11 000km Cairo - Capetown) and a combination of the Orient Express (Paris - Istanbul) and the Silk Road (Istanbul to Beijing) back to back. Both options depend a lot on money, so not likely to happen any time soon.

JamesBwmb wrote:

Personally have my thoughts on GCDR. ..Canada> Mexico OFF road down the Rockies; 2500 miles and 220 000 ft ascent....but not for a few years as it takes three months to ride

That sounds like a cracker! Tell us more. Like what does 'GCDR' stand for?

JamesB

great continental divide route, as seen in Adventure Cycle Touring Book.invented by Adventure Cycling Assocn it is actually correctly known as Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. quote `ACA sell books that make this trip a doddle`!!!!!....indeed ??? :shock:

anyway three months to spare is a lot of time; and on this route it seems to be all camping as remote areas

andrew_s

JamesBwmb wrote:

Personally have my thoughts on GCDR. ..Canada> Mexico OFF road down the Rockies; 2500 miles and 220 000 ft ascent....but not for a few years as it takes three months to ride

I did a chunk out of the middle of this route once, from Denver to Albuquerque, approx. You don't necessarily have to do the whole lot in one go. If you are really keen, there's an extension north of the Canadian border.

It's mostly on unsurfaced gravel roads rather than properly off road. Camping is required as you could be 2 or 3 days with no other option available within striking distance of the route. Similarly you could be a couple or 3 days between shops, and at one point I had to carry a day and a half's worth of water, which is quite a bit in hot weather.

Jolly good fun, and lots of wildlife.

Eurostar

abi26 wrote:

Route 66 anyone?
2295 miles of rolling road
i really want to do it but not on my own.......
is this not a cyclists dream....?

Do it on your own. Americans are very hospitable - you'll talk to them much more than you would if you were with another cyclist. Take an MP3 player/radio for the dull stretches and a book for the evenings. Works for me.

Eurostar

abi26 wrote:

Route 66 anyone?
2295 miles of rolling road
i really want to do it but not on my own.......
is this not a cyclists dream....?

Do it on your own. Americans are very hospitable - you'll talk to them much more than you would if you were with another cyclist. Take an MP3 player/radio for the dull stretches and a book for the evenings. Works for me.

abi26

Eurostar wrote:

Do it on your own. Americans are very hospitable - you'll talk to them much more than you would if you were with another cyclist. Take an MP3 player/radio for the dull stretches and a book for the evenings. Works for me.

yea, i dont really like being alone and im not that strong willed it would end up at like 10 miles a day. :oops: i like riding but im a defetist.

Eurostar

Oh dear! There are lots of organised tours in the US - I don't know if they have one along Route 66 though. Here are some: http://www.adv-cycling.org/tours/index.cfm. You can also advertise for riding buddies on that site

Hang on, here's one http://www.pactour.com/route66.htm. Pactour are very hard core though.

I did Vancouver to San Francisco in 2004 and met lots of people doing group tours with trucks to carry their bags and people to provide a picnic lunch in a field every day. They did about 60 miles a day but they made such a meal of it - they all had to get up at 6.30 ish to put their bags in the truck! Then they had group briefings and whatnot. I used to have a lie in and set off about 11.30 and overtake them all by about teatime.

I'll be doing the US next year, so maybe our paths will cross. Hoping to go to central America in January-ish then come up through Mexico by about spring, then explore the US in a fairly haphazard way. Haven't planned a route, but 66 looks quite useful, especially the western half.

P.S. How many miles a day do you do when you're with someone?

john74

when are you thinking?