First supported tour next week. Eire Canal trail

[K PierreR]

I have not had my trawler in the water for 11 years. My nephew and his wife are going to captain the boat through the canal, and I am going to ride. I need to average about 6 mph. That is about what the boat will do when taking bridges and locks into consideration. I will not have to carry anything except the dog. Everything else will be on the boat.
My nephew really wants the boat. I built it 25 years ago to do America's Great Loop trip. I will keep it if my wife can get on board the boat okay. If not, I will sell it to my nephew and buy something my wife can board. I could get spoiled with a supported trip. We will see.

 

[6zfshdb]

I navigated the Erie Canal several times aboard my father's 40' trawler back in the 1970's & 80's. That was well before the Erie Canal Trail was established but I would occasionally "shadow" the trawler on my 10 speed conventional bike. There were sections where the old towpath was rideable and I also used parallel paved roads as well. Back then, the locks were on a schedule so I had no trouble keeping up with the boat. The locks were also a great place to load & unload the bike. It was a lot of fun!

Thanks for your post. It brought back some fond memories!

 

[Roamers]

There is an annual Erie Canal ride roughly from Buffalo to Albany. A few years ago we did as far as Rome. Fun ride.

 

[K PierreR]

Getting ready to leave tomorrow.

 

[K PierreR]

Had a great time riding along the Erie Canal. Here is a picture of my bike, my riding buddy poodle and my boat in the background. It doesn't get better than this. I have agreed to sell my boat to my nephew who is operating the boat in this picture.

 

[Taylor57]

Had a great time riding along the Erie Canal. Here is a picture of my bike, my riding buddy poodle and my boat in the background. It doesn't get better than this. I have agreed to sell my boat to my nephew who is operating the boat in this picture. View attachment 136514

How far is the ride?

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Albany to Buffalo on the Erie Canal trail is about 340 terrific miles. Did it in 2017, would love to go again. We live right along the canal in Saratoga County, right above where the canal leaves the Mohawk go down the flight of locks and meet the Hudson. I don’t know anyone who ever did this ride and didn’t love it!

 

[opimax]

Normally I would use the word envious but it just isn’t strong enough , I hope you took many pictures for many memories, it sounds like trip of a lifetime to me

 

[K PierreR]

The trip is actually over. The boat was the sag wagon, the nightly accommodations and the bail for rain. We were out only a week. We launched in Tonawanda and went just west of Rochester and returned along the same route. I sold the boat to my nephew at the conclusion of the trip. I am going to look at a Hatteras 42 next week as a replacement. I built the boat in 2000-2003. Our trip was just over 200 miles and we burned 12 gallons of diesel.

 

[Taylor57]

The trip is actually over. The boat was the sag wagon, the nightly accommodations and the bail for rain. We were out only a week. We launched in Tonawanda and went just west of Rochester and returned along the same route. I sold the boat to my nephew at the conclusion of the trip. I am going to look at a Hatteras 42 next week as a replacement. I built the boat in 2000-2003. Our trip was just over 200 miles and we burned 12 gallons of diesel. View attachment 136562View attachment 136564View attachment 136565View attachment 136566View attachment 136568

What a trip! Paul Bunyun dug the Erie Canal I'm pretty sure!

 

[opimax]

I am curious on how the 2 batteries feel on the front fork. I carry similar in 2 panniers on the rear rack. The weight in the rear is noticeable to handling and adds to bike flex. My bike is titanium which also adds to the flex and it seems to feel light ( can’t say really why but does ) in the front end

Does it make the steering feel different ? Probably so but by how much. . Does it make hard to recover from an over steer ? Is it heifer all the time . If your bike was balanced enough to go no handed for a distance does it affect this?

Hoping specific questions are helpful and not trying to be a real pain

Thanks

 

[dodgeman]

Looks like fun. One nice thing about riding along a canal is that there are almost no hills.

 

[K PierreR]

Looks like fun. One nice thing about riding along a canal is that there are almost no hills.

Better yet, the boat can get close enough to the side of the canal for someone to throw you and ice-cold water

I am curious on how the 2 batteries feel on the front fork. I carry similar in 2 panniers on the rear rack. The weight in the rear is noticeable to handling and adds to bike flex. My bike is titanium which also adds to the flex and it seems to feel light ( can’t say really why but does ) in the front end

Does it make the steering feel different ? Probably so but by how much. . Does it make hard to recover from an over steer ? Is it heifer all the time . If your bike was balanced enough to go no handed for a distance does it affect this?

Hoping specific questions are helpful and not trying to be a real pain

Thanks

My frame is also titanium and is a bit flexible. This is a fat bike frame with 100mm/197mm through axle spacing. The fork is a pretty flexible RockShox Bluto. Those batteries are 13.5 Ah each. Notice how the batteries are rotated towards the back. When they were right opposed to the fork the stability for shimmy was not great. Rolling them back greatly increase the stability of the system. The red cages around the battery protect the batteries if the bike gets dumped over and have worked well for that purpose.
When the bike was less complicated this bike was not great at no hands riding. That is typical for an off-road fat bike and did not change much after the batteries were rotated rearward. Overall, I like the balance of the four-battery setup and it balances loads on the back much better. the dog is only 4 pounds and rides in a backpack so that does not affect things much either. I may go to an Old Man Mountain rack and see if I can get more capacity for carrying that way. This is my touring bike at 2.540 Whr capacity. I also have a set of 26" X4.8" tires and wheels for it. I hope this helps to answer your questions