I am in training and shopping mode, any words of wisdom, I have several lists from those of you who were kind enough to offfer but, but last minute peices of advice would be helpful.........
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I am in training and shopping mode, any words of wisdom, I have several lists from those of you who were kind enough to offfer but, but last minute peices of advice would be helpful.........
ACG,
I knew you were training for this ride but I'm forgetting when it is????
Tracy
June 4 to June 10! 15 days
Whoo Hooo!!!! I know from your posts that you've been training hard for this ride! I will look forward to hearing ALL about it!!!
Tracy
ACG and all Congrats!! The hard part's done, you've trained, you did the fundraising, now you're in for a great ride. Have fun, drink before you're thirsty, eat before you're hungry and pee before ...well.
Shopping mode? I'd say last year I brought no street clothes. I posted this to the lifecycle board yesterday in answer to Shadons question there:
the 'bag o' the day" packin method work well for me. I noticed that BG packs by category ie: bag of socks, bag of jerseys, bag of shorts....whatever way you feel organised you don't want to waste time in the morning hunting for stuff.
each bag had socks, shorts, jersey, bra.... everything's there.
I also packed one bag marked "cold" with long sleeve jersey, full finger gloves and undershirt, wool socks. considering this weekend prediction...you may need it.
Another bag was for red dress day, another bag had no jersey, why? I planed to buy a Lifecycle jersey on the ride. Another way to save space. The other 4 bags pretty normal bike outfit.
I bring 2 large plastic garbage bags.
Routine is arrive in camp, park bike, eat dinner first! I learned that here and from kathy my tentmate on 3, then put up tent (or find that kindly and super ultra fast tentmate had done that already-thanks BG, thanks Kathy from ALC 3 if you're lurking) drag luggage to tent, grab sweatshirt and sweat pants and shower stuff, toddle off to enjoy toasty warm clean shower, once clean and changed to clean sweats toddle back to tent and toss sweaty smelly toxic waste bike clothes into garbage bag. :)
Spend rest of time in camp in clean, warm and comfy sweats 8-)
you will find that crumbled up bike clothes take less room, bag kinda compacts on itself. i brought no street clothes last year, BG & I both flew back in bike duds 8-)
what do you have to light your tent and light your way back to it? I also brought some little things to wear each day, paper leis, toy neclaces to give to the kids who come to the towns of like Bradley where they hold a BBQ for us. The kids and parents apreciated that, something from the riders.
Wow Trek420, you clearly have an excellent grip on all of this! I wasn't here last time anyone did this ride but I sure hope you all take pictures and tell us all about it!
Trac'
:p :D well, my first AIDS ride I was lucky to be matched with a tentmate who'd done at least 6 of these rides, in the weeks before she taught me everything I know.
If you're lurking Kathy, hi! And I learned a lot here.
If you can't ride without it-bring two
If you can do without it, don't bring it :p
ACG, does your luggage have wheels?
Yes my luggage has wheels, but it is like regular luggage, does that work? Luggage is expensive, how big do I need it to be? There are so many sizes, this is my dilmena
When I said shoping, I'm mean bike stuff ofcourse! My daughters were teasing me that I wouldn't blink an eye when spending $100 on bike shoes but would never spend $100 on heels!
Thanks for the tips!
Similar to what Trek says. I packed each day's "outfit" in 2 gallon zip lock bags. I would repack the stinky toxic waste bike clothes back into the same zipper bag and stash it on the bottom of my duffel bag.
ACG "Yes my luggage has wheels, but it is like regular luggage, does that work? Luggage is expensive, how big do I need it to be? There are so many sizes, this is my dilmena"
I used a duffle bag with wheels, not a regular case. Also good to find a way to make it stand out of the sea of black wheeled duffle bags.
BG had a back pack, another way to go. I'd help her get it to her back and then she just walks it to the luggage truck. That's not always going to be real close to your tent.
"I'm mean bike stuff ofcourse!"
Like what bike stuff?
I carried little individual Purell wipes in my bike bag, for cleaning up my hands.
More to come as I think of them....