Mr. Coffee
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- A Demented Corner of the North Cascades
I think a major challenge to someone wanting to bike tour, especially with an e-bike, is figuring out where to stay. This can be especially difficult if you are planning a very long trip to an area you aren't very familiar with, where you can't precisely plan your itinerary (which you can't anyway!), and where you lack the experience and judgement to determine what a reasonable days' ride will be.
A lot of states have state parks with hiker-biker facilities. These usually are quite reasonably priced ($5-$10 per person per night is common) and provide facilities that range somewhere between primitive and luxurious. My own personal experiences have been with Washington, Oregon, and BC parks and they all do a pretty good job. Generally at nearly all such parks you can find an outlet and charge your bike, and Oregon state parks often have 'hiker boxes' where you can securely keep your food from feeding the raccoons and they have outlets that you can use to charge your e-bike batteries and other electronics. A lot of these hiker-biker camps will have a basic work stand and a pump and sometimes other bike tools as well. Some states (Washington is one) have a "no turn-away" policy where they will always make room for a biker or two who show up at sunset, which can be very nice when plans go haywire.
More primitive campgrounds (e.g. most USFS and BLM campgrounds, as well as any stealth camping) can be challenging because there is unlikely to be any place to charge your bike. Depending on the nature of your trip and your equipment choices that may or may not be a problem.
Depending on where you are, some private campgrounds are very open to bike tourists and might provide very nice facilities.
Hotels and motels can be kind of a mixed bag. On or near popular cycling routes you generally won't have much problem finding a hotel that will let you keep your (hopefully pretty clean) bike in your room, that have ground floor rooms so you don't need to cram your bike into a tiny elevator or drag it up steep, narrow staircases. Often times the more bike-friendly hotels will have a hose available to clean your bike (and possibly you), will give you rags on request to clean your bike, and in some cases might provide access to more bike tools or even a bike mechanic.
There isn't really a "tripadvisor" for the bike tourist yet, some sites are trying to get there but for the time being it is kind of the wild west out there. You'll need to do some research and homework before and during your trip to find the best places to stay. Calling ahead never hurts.
Resources:
A lot of states have state parks with hiker-biker facilities. These usually are quite reasonably priced ($5-$10 per person per night is common) and provide facilities that range somewhere between primitive and luxurious. My own personal experiences have been with Washington, Oregon, and BC parks and they all do a pretty good job. Generally at nearly all such parks you can find an outlet and charge your bike, and Oregon state parks often have 'hiker boxes' where you can securely keep your food from feeding the raccoons and they have outlets that you can use to charge your e-bike batteries and other electronics. A lot of these hiker-biker camps will have a basic work stand and a pump and sometimes other bike tools as well. Some states (Washington is one) have a "no turn-away" policy where they will always make room for a biker or two who show up at sunset, which can be very nice when plans go haywire.
More primitive campgrounds (e.g. most USFS and BLM campgrounds, as well as any stealth camping) can be challenging because there is unlikely to be any place to charge your bike. Depending on the nature of your trip and your equipment choices that may or may not be a problem.
Depending on where you are, some private campgrounds are very open to bike tourists and might provide very nice facilities.
Hotels and motels can be kind of a mixed bag. On or near popular cycling routes you generally won't have much problem finding a hotel that will let you keep your (hopefully pretty clean) bike in your room, that have ground floor rooms so you don't need to cram your bike into a tiny elevator or drag it up steep, narrow staircases. Often times the more bike-friendly hotels will have a hose available to clean your bike (and possibly you), will give you rags on request to clean your bike, and in some cases might provide access to more bike tools or even a bike mechanic.
There isn't really a "tripadvisor" for the bike tourist yet, some sites are trying to get there but for the time being it is kind of the wild west out there. You'll need to do some research and homework before and during your trip to find the best places to stay. Calling ahead never hurts.
Resources:
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I use motels/hotels/B&B's/campgrounds when I need to fully clean and reset everything for the next leg. I also seldom plan out my trip, worry about elevation gain, or worry if I can find a place to pay to sleep somewhere.
