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This was our first long cycling trip. For those that are considering a cycling trip for the first time this is what we discovered. We would love to here from people with there feedback on these topics (we'll post your comments). To send a comment, email rcortesi@mit.edu.
The Massachusetts Bike map published by ****. This is an excellent map. It is actually a set of two or three. We just used the one for Eastern Massachusetts. It color codes the road based on how bicycle friendly they are and shows the locations of bike shops and ice cream parlors. This definitely enabled us to bike a very pleasant route through Massachusetts. Well worth the $4.75.
The Rhode Island bike map. This map is not as good as the Massachusetts one because it does not show may of the smaller streets. However, it is published by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation so it is free. This was useful in ploting our route across Rhode Island.
Before starting the trip I (Roger) had an Avocet 45 trip computer on his bike. The mounting bracket had to be replaced and getting the correct parts from Avocet was a little bit of a pain. When they finally did send me the correct mounting bracket, actually attaching it to the bike in a robust manor was very difficult (I couldn't do it after messing with it for quite some time). So I switched over the the Cateye Mity 3. This computer has a much better mounting system (i.e. simpler). It also had a number of nice features that the Avocet did not. These were:
- The clock only measure the time wheels are actually turning.
- It can store two different wheel sizes and is very easy to toggle between them. I found this useful, as I have a set of road and mountain bike tires for my bike.
- The two different distance measurements are nice (there are three if you count the total computer odometer). Distance #1 was used to measure the total distance traveled in a day, and distance #2 was used to measure the total trip distance.
We used Microsoft Streets and Trips 2000 to plan our trip and found it to be completely satisfactory. The trick to getting it to generate bicycle reasonable routes is to set the speed on the interstates to 0mph and on all the other road types to whatever you think you average speed will be. It also shows all sorts hotels, motels, restaurants, etc. near your route. This is very useful for figuring out which areas it will be reasonable to stop for the evening at. Also being able to zoom from the big picture down to the small street level is very nice in helping visualize how the whole route will fit together. We did print out a whole bunch of maps for our route, and then promptly forgot them in Boston. In retrospect the only really useful ones would have been the detailed ones for figuring out the approaches into and out of the major cities. Even so we found that are actual route deviated enough from our planned route (due to poor signage or us just missing turns) that these detailed level maps would have to cover a lot of area and printing them on an 8.5" x 11" would just used up gobs of paper.
So the software summary is as follows. Is it grate for planning out the trip ahead of time. But during the execution of the trip it is not a good substitute for detailed folder out maps. If people have had other experience (good or bad) we would be very interested in hearing about them.
These ROCKED!!! We found these to be critical. There are a number of other companies besides Camelback that make similar products. We tried the Camelback Classic and Camelback Lobo. The Lobo is superior to the classic in two main ways. 1) is has small pocked on the back which is good for storing a wallet, some keys and some sunglasses. This was really nice when you just wanted to run into a convenience store without to dig through your bags. 2) The shoulder straps on the Classic are inferior to those on the Lobo. The Classic straps are made of a thin mesh which is uncomfortable on the bare skin and gets twisted easily.
We found that fighing the erge to just keep pedaling and take an hour break twice a day really extended our range.
Send your comments on these topics to rcortesi@mit.edu