The so-called paleo diet or caveman diet is a low carb high protein diet claimed by some to be a good way to lose weight. It has some proponents in the bicycling world too. One needs to be careful when considering extreme changes in their diet or just extremes in general. Bike touring is very demanding and your body is another piece of equipment you need to depend on. I was reading this thread on Bike Forums this morning. Try to ignore the name calling from the original poster and read the rest of the posts. Interesting stuff.
Gary Taubes is the latest proponent of a high protein low carb diet. From his blog: “My message and the message of Why We Get Fat was not that we should all be eating nothing but animal products–…… but that carbohydrate-rich foods are inherently fattening, some more so than others, and that those of us predisposed to put on fat do so because of the carbs in the diet“. (emphasis added). Mostly he is talking to obese or overweight people or people with that metabolic tendency and it might be easy to see him as a person feeding on people’s desire for a quick and easy way to lose weight.
I wonder if anyone has personal experience with a high protein low carb diet and bike touring? We’d love to hear about it!
What are the basic essential articles of clothing needed for a successful bike tour? Obviously it depends on the season and local climate. My last three trips have been in late winter in the southern and southwestern US. Still, it can get cold…down to 25 degrees in Marathon Texas last year. And rain and even snow are always possibilities. So I carry what I consider to be the bare necessities for comfort without going overboard and bringing too much.
Clothing for a Bike Tour
At the top I have long johns and a long sleeve polypropylene t-shirt. The long johns and sometimes the long sleeve t for sleeping on the cold night. I have a Woolistic brand wool trainer, a rain jacket, this happens to be a Bellwether, a long sleeve cotton t-shirt and some Endura Humvee pants made out of nylon.
On the floor, wool leg and arm warmers and a pair of knee warmers, a Club Ride jersey and a Surly wool jersey, riding shorts (yes, I prefer bibs), flip flops, for the inevitable gross showers and for hanging out, socks, (I carry 2 or 3 pairs of undershorts too), a wool cap and gloves. When I’m riding I, of course, wear my helmet and bike shoes.
Every two or three days I can hit a laundromat and wash everything. In a pinch I can wash the basics in the shower at night and hang them to dry. Even though my trips of late have been shorter than 3 weeks, I don’t think I would need to carry much more even if I were going for 3 months.
Every person has different specific nutritional needs. Some basic ideas about fuel for muscles during and after exercise cannot be easily disregarded. There is some noise being made in the cycling world about the so called paleo diet which poo poos the need for carbohydrates in the form of grains and potatoes. This may be OK for the relatively sedentary person whose physiology makes it easy for them to put on pounds. But for the person pedaling a loaded touring bike for several hours each day complex and simple carbohydrates are essential. Carbohydrates provide the fuel your muscles will need in order to fire hour after hour. No carbohydrates, no fuel and no pedals going round. The purpose of protein is to rebuild the muscle tissue being torn down by the exercise. This happens after you stop exercising. The body human is amazingly adaptive to training, and the muscles will be rebuilt stronger than before and with a greater ability to use oxygen and thus greater endurance. I’m no expert or professional in medicine or nutrition but I suggest being careful with fads. Watch this series of videos if you are interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdBDQdOKbJQ
When I’m touring I like to carry enough food to last for about 36 hours. Because you never know when you might be able to buy groceries again. And I have a fear of getting stranded in the middle of nowhere without enough fuel to get to the next store or restaurant. Even in what one might think are relatively populated areas there might not be anyplace to get decent food. If you are lucky, maybe you can survive and thrive on hot dogs and chocolate milk and cupcakes from convenience stores, and there never seems to be a shortage of those.
Cheese, dense bread, and peanut butter (without hydrogenated oil) = Fat, protein and complex carbohydrates. Your body needs all of those.This doesn't look too good in the photo, but at 3 PM with 30 miles to go on the day, cheese and tomato on a piece of bread is heaven.A nut, dried fruit and seed mix with dark chocolate. This will make a new person out of you at the end of a long day!
I will also take pasta in the form of quick cooking thin spaghetti. Throw in a few veggies when it is almost cooked and voila, pasta primavera. That works out most of the time, unless there happen to be some ghosts who don’t appreciate your presence as happened to me recently in Merryville, LA. With this result:
This had nothing to do with my own clumsiness. It was ghosts.
I also take powdered milk and muesli. Great for breakfast or emergency meals. Dried soup (I like the Nile Spice brand) can be taken out of the container and carried in zip lock bags. Light, easy to pack, carry and to cook. Lastly, at least one emergency ration of a freeze dried meal or a meal in a boil and eat package.
Basically, I try to bring food that packs the most punch for the pound and that is easy to prepare. Fresh fruits and vegetables are a bonus but they’re hard to carry, so when I find them I buy what I can eat on the spot, or if I am at the day’s stop, what I need for dinner.
At the Winn-Dixie in New Orleans. It was a long ride through Louisiana without fruits and vegetables. I got a little carried away.
While much of our time in Austin was spent inside at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, we did get out and about a bit. Most of these photo’s were taken with my phone but thought it would be fun to give you a little view of some of the things we saw.
I must confess, on day one, we observed a gentleman riding his bicycle wearing nothing but a G-string, way too much information for us. Needless to say we decided no one else needed to be exposed to that either.
Ironwork Arch in East Austin
As a bit of a history nut, I imagine this Arch as an entrance to East Austin that the community installed to declare a neighborhood existence beyond downtown Austin. Now somewhat drawfed by I35 it still stands with pride.
Also in East Austin was this funky neighbor music venue and some interesting tiled mosaic murals.
Neighborhood music venuetile mosaic mural
Eating at Scholz Garten, was a treat, Only a few blocks from the stadium where the Texas Longhorns play basketball, the place was packed with people wearing orange t-shirts with longhorns but cleared out quickly once the game commenced. Scholz was established in 1866 and prides itself in serving German Food but they also make a pretty decent pulled pork sandwich!
iThe Bar At Scholz Garten, serving beer and German Food since 1866
Our “go to” beer in Austin quickly became the Live Oak Big Bark, interesting taste, not real hoppy and a bit of blend between a black IPA and a Red Ale. Of course Jim could probably go into way more detail, but I just drink them.
The Live Oak Big Bark quickly became our beer of choice (sorry Lone Star)
Mellow Johnny’s was a big supported of the North American Handmade Bicycle show. They hosted a huge party Friday night but didn’t have honky tonk so we cruised the shop and then departed. We are happy to say they are a dealer for Zimbale North America and had the bags displayed beautifully. To bad this photo doesn’t do justice to this bike. Similar to the Surly Big Dummy and Mellow Johnny’s decked it out with propane hot plate and mixing bowls – was pretty entertaining. The panniers are Giant – could probably stuff two kids, all the groceries and the kitchen sink.
Treks extended bicycle
The Bike Hermit has the highest metabolism of anyone I know so finding Whole Foods was on the top of the list. The Austin store is the flag ship and a must visit for anyone who goes to Austin. I thought this “desert” stream in their landscaping was quite pleasant and deserving of a photo.
When at the Austin Whole Foods, be sure to admire the desert stream.
As I failed to do much research prior to our trip regarding bike rental options, I was the queen of walking. BUT just so you know, Austin Bike Tours and Rentals not only rents bikes they deliver and pick them up when you are done – DANG
I walked past this very clever bike rack, if you have any old frames in your garage, just weld them together!
While the Bike Hermit is exploring Texas and Louisiana, he is journaling on Crazy Guy on A Bike. Here are a few photos and the link to his Journal
Chief - aka A. Homer Hilson loaded and ready to rollthe Bike Hermit, happy to be wearing his new jersey by Club RideThree nice pockets and comfortable pleating on this Club Ride JerseyThe Bike Hermit rolling out of the Sheraton Hotel, Downtown AustinThe first of many routes to New Orleans
They are in the middle of an “open ended journey” and they are doing it on bicycles. When we saw them they had their Brompton folding bikes with them preparing to ride the Adventure Cycling Northern Tier route. I wish them luck and will be following their adventures.
The bike hermit is only interested in useful bikes. Randonneuring, commuting and touring bikes with racks or at least eyelets and with fenders are the only bikes that make sense. And the only ones that look proper. Ellis Cycles’ owner Dave Wages has a resume that includes stints with Ben Serotta, Dave Kirk and Waterford. Pretty good resume. And it shows in the details.
Ellis Cycles cool touring bike
Custom fender stay bolts
Cable hanger. Stout
Custom rear tail light, wired inside fender.
Another view of Ellis Cycles touring bike
And I’ve decided what a crummy photographer I am. The pictures of the light wiring inside the front rack and the custom brake cable hangers and the engraved head tube logo were not done justice in the photos I did take. This bike ended up with the Best Of Show award and it was well deserved. Everything well thought out designed, built and integrated into a seamless whole. Making simple look easy.
Tim had this bike painted twice and still was not completely happy. Looked pretty good to me!
As promised, here is a pic of Tim O’Donell’s fillet brazed road bike. We are right next to YiPsan Bicycles‘ booth. Renold has some good ideas. Especially the porteur/low rider front rack. The two side platforms on the front rack come off and attach to the lower stays to support panniers. A really clever solution and one that I’m sure will be reproduced in a production way by somebody judging from the number of photos taken during the day. When you see it, know where it came from.
The YiPsan transformer rack. The right side of the platform has been removed and attached to the right stays to support a low rider pannier.The YiPsan transformer front rack.YiPsan transformer rack. This is the right side platform attached to the side for a front low rider pannier
I remember riding through downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada on my first self supported bike tour with homemade rear panniers which, when the bike hit a rough patch, bounced around and came un-hooked from the rack. Luckily they didn’t fall completely off because the gang of homeless men accosting me from a vacant lot as I rode past would have been happy to relieve me from my load and probably my bike if I had stopped. Needless to say, since that tour I am a little more finicky about my equipment.
On my up-coming tour I am using front and rear racks made by Nitto in Tokyo, Japan. These are made of nickel plated, tubular Chrome-moly steel with simple and solid attachment hardware.
The Nitto Campee front rack sans the low rider attachments.Highly adjustable aluminum struts allow for a custom fit.The lower leg of the Campee rack has an integral spacer to clear the fork blade.Daruma bolt Daruma bolt attached to rack and strut.
The Nitto Campee front rack comes with detachable low-rider panels for attaching panniers. I have removed those, because I don’t have low rider panniers. The panniers and bags I willbe using are the subject of another post. The aluminum struts attaching the rack to the fork eyelets in these photos are sold as separate accessories. The struts which come with the rack are made to attach to cantilever brake posts.
This seems like as good a time as any to look at a couple different fork blade/eyelet/brake combinations. Eyelets are the small, threaded holes drilled into the sides of the fork or into tabs which are then welded onto the dropout (the piece on the end of the fork blade…where the wheel axle attaches). Some bikes have one eyelet on the fork dropout and some have two. There is only one on each dropout on my bike, so the rack and the fender strut clamps will share the same hole. A bike with two dropout eyelets allows a little more flexibility in attaching racks and fenders.
A fork blade dropout(from a Surly Long Haul Trucker) with two eyelets
Not all bikes have eyelets on the forks. What? How can that be? Well, some people don’t want to carry stuff on their bikes, believe it or not. For the person who actually uses their bike, however, the more eyelets the better. OK so how about the mid-fork eyelets? On most touring bikes these are located to facilitate “low rider” racks such as the Tubus Tara or the Tubus Duo. And on really well designed touring bikes, like Surly’s Long Haul Trucker, there are two mid-fork eyelets on each fork blade…one on the outside and one on the inside. The Tubus Duo was actually made with that bike in mind. On some bikes, like my Rivendell, the eyelets are located higher on the fork, and these will not work with low-rider only racks. Bikes such as Rivendell, with higher fork mount braze-on eyelets seem to work best with the Nitto type hardware and designs.
The fork on the left has inner and outer eyelets in the fork blade. The other fork blade has braze-on eyelets mounted higher.
Many touring bikes will also be designed for cantilever style brakes. These brakes are mounted on special posts which are welded on to the fork blades. Some racks like Old Man Mountain brand Cold Springs and Ultimate Low Rider models attach directly to these posts with provided replacement bolts. Others, like some Nitto models attach to these posts with a special, double ended brake bolt or stud.
The fork in the foreground has posts for cantilever style brakes. The brakes on the other fork are center mount, sidepulls. The Nitto Campee rack on a bike with cantilever brakes. The struts would bolt on to a stud (pictured below) which replaces the brake bolt.This is the stud which replaces the cantilever brake bolt.The struts are adjusted to line up with the brake bolt, which would be replaced with the double ended stud.
I got a little carried away and off topic with this post, but it felt like a good time to get into some rack details. Hopefully it might give you, good readers, some things on which to cogitate. In the next post I talk about my dual Schmidt E6 headlight setup, about which I am unnaturally excited.
I leave in one week so I am focusing on those items on the critical path. Items without which the tour cannot be accomplished and which have longer lead times.
Item number one is a box to ship the bike. Rather than a softsided or other airplane friendly case I ordered a re-usable cardboard box like the one I used on the last two tours which is pretty ratty now and besides, I used it to ship a bicycle back to Rivendell last year. I should receive it on Friday. That will leave the weekend to unbuild the bike and pack it so that I can take it to FedEx on Monday. I will send it to the motel in Austin where we are staying. I suppose I could do the same with a conventional, and more durable bicycle case but those all cost more than I want to spend. I can do a dozen tours using 3 or 4 of the cardboard boxes and still be ahead.
Item number next is ordering a map of section 5 of the Southern Tier from Adventure Cycling Association. These maps are so detailed and so refined over the years they have been in use that I get a little nervous when I need to detour from them. It’s also comforting to think of all the other bike tourists who have been along these same routes if only because of the assumption that local motorists might be more aware of bicyclers.
I also plot the route on Google Maps.
View Austin to New Orleans in a larger map
This is not the exact route but for some reason Google Maps would quit letting me make changes after some amount of time or changes.
Since the Southern Tier route only goes to St. Francisville, LA I had to find a way to get through Baton Rouge and into New Orleans. I have been spending some time on the bikeforums.net touring forum and I thought I would put the question to that group. I did a quick search of the forum for routes in New Orleans and was directed to several threads, and I found out about the Mississippi River Trail. From their website:
The Mississippi River Trail, coursing along America’s backbone, the Mississippi River, from its headwaters in Itasca, Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, offers approximately 3,000 miles of on-road bikeways and pedestrian and bicycle pathways for the recreational enjoyment, health, conservation and tourism development of river communities, river states, and the nation.
I was able to plot a route, which I’m hoping is pretty decent for cycling, from St. Francisville into New Orleans.
So now I can use my maps to figure out the best places to end up each day. Since I want to go as inexpensively as possible I will be looking for KOA campgrounds and state parks with showers, and I am going to register on the warm showers website to see if I can score some free overnight stays.
