Touring on a Giant Road-E

[michael mcvey]

Just completed a 5 day multi day trip on the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Mission Viejo Ca. 530 miles. This is my 10th time doing this trip but the first on an E-Bike.

The Giant Road-E is set up with Brooks B17 saddle, Cane Creek thud buster seat post, Arkel handlebar bag, tail bag, rear rack and 2 Arkel lightweight panniers. Tires are Schwalbe marathon plus HS 440 700/38. This set up yields a very comfortable ride, the best I have come up with in all my years of riding.

I usually do this trip in 6 days, doing 75-100 miles a day, camping at night with an occasional hotel. My previous kit included 4 panniers, fully loaded with cloths, food, tent, sleeping bag, camping gear, electronics, tools for a total (bike and kit) of 75 pounds.

This time I carried much less as I did not camp, but rather stayed in hotels every night. Partly because I needed a place to charge the batteries and partly cause I wanted the comfy bed.

The kit included a second 500 watt battery (carried in the Arkel tail bag) plus cloths, electronics, water and tools. This added ~30 pounds to the already heavy E-Bike.

The previous trips with the regular bike carrying the heavy load were very hard. Long days usually 12-14 hours in the saddle, averaging 8 mph for the day. The hardest day was always Big Sur to Cambria with all the mountains.

With the e-bike, the trip was easy in comparison. 8-9 hours in the saddle vs 12-14 with an overall average of 14 mph for the trip. Days 1-4 were roughly 100 miles each and day 5 was 130 miles.

The shorter 100 mile days required 1 battery and 15-25% of second battery. The 130 mile day used 1 battery and 50% of second. Overall it was enjoyable with a lot less recovery time each evening. I do miss the camping as I always met other interesting people traveling by bike. You don’t get that in the hotels.

The E-bike, with a light load and staying in hotels may be my preferred mode from now on. It would be nice if E-Bike charging stations were placed at strategic places like campgrounds but I don’t think that will happen any time soon.

The attached pics are just a few of the breathtaking views along this magnificent coast. This ride should be on everyones bucket list.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Sounds like a fun trip.

Yes, e-bike touring and camping still is kind of a confounding challenge.

A lot of well-developed campgrounds in WA, OR, and BC have picnic shelters with outlets that are a great place to recharge.

Some hiker-biker campsites at Oregon State Parks have "hiker boxes" which are small lockers with an outlet that can be used to charge e-bike batteries. Although some of those use solar power and aren't much good for charging anything but a phone. I know of no directory that says which state parks have these hiker boxes.

In general private campgrounds are a pretty good bet to have a place to charge your bike.

 

[DaveMatthews]

Great write up, and awesome scenery! Is yours the pro motor, or the sport?
That's a lot of riding. Hopefully I'll be in that shape again by next year.

 

[Saratoga Dave]

It is fun touring on one of these, ain't it? Nice story, very good looking setup on that bike. Love the look of the Brooks saddle as it breaks in.

Hopefully more people will start touring these and telling the stories. Thanks, excellent post

 

[michael mcvey]

Dave
the motor is the Yamaha 250 watt Syncdrive sport. This system has the 3 modes, Eco, Normal and Power. I never use the power mode, spend as much time as I can in Eco and use Normal sparingly.

 

[indianajo]

Oh wow. I can't imagine doing this the self powered way. I finished my 30 mile 4 hour commute today, 8 mph headwind (fall only usually) and my pulse was 180 bpm. No way a cruiser posture rider could have ever done 100 mile days, even if they weren't wimpy me. (No electric drive yet, having to order XT60 connectors from out of state)
Electrically, this sounds really fun. I would never have done this on a motorcycle/scooter, they are too loud and heavy. Car, you can't really look at scenery, too fast and dangerous to rubberneck. We're planning a California trip next year, this route was never on the car tour list. E-bike, you get the best of all worlds. Now if Amtrak or Greyhound develops a way to get my bike out there and back. Or if a rental e-bike agency accomodates short legged people (not likely).

 

[Mr. Coffee]

O...Now if Amtrak or Greyhound develops a way to get my bike out there and back. Or if a rental e-bike agency accomodates short legged people (not likely).

My understanding is that if you box your bike and it weighs less than fifty pounds (and most e-bikes will weigh less than that if you remove the battery, or batteries) you can check it as baggage on most Amtrak routes.

Still another option is bikeflights.com, which can ship class I e-bikes.

What I do to get my e-bike to the start or end of a bike tour is rent a minivan or pickup to haul the bike. It requires a little extra planning and spending a few dollars but is quite manageable.

 

[michael mcvey]

Mr Coffee, I also do the rental car route. I rent a compact SUV (one way) drive me and the bike to the stating point, drop off the car and begin the ride.
The cost of this is unpredictable, sometimes its cheap as the rental agency may need cars delivered to the area I'm going, but sometimes not.

For my overnite routes from my home to San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara, I'm able to take the bike as is and roll it onto the Amtrak, and it cost nothing. Years ago, I did planes, which required the bike to be disassemble and fit in a certain size box. I have been seeing ads for the Bikeflights.com, I might give that a try. It appears that Amtrak is getting better at bike accommodations, atlleast in Southern California.

 

[larry-new]

Looks like a great ride...hope you stopped at Nepenthe!

 

[ebikemom]

It would be nice if E-Bike charging stations were placed at strategic places like campgrounds but I don’t think that will happen any time soon.

Campground bathrooms often have plugs, so I could imagine stopping for a bit of a picnic and sitting near the restroom while giving the battery an hour of charging time ...

 

[LuisaMay]

Just completed a 5 day multi day trip on the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Mission Viejo Ca. 530 miles. This is my 10th time doing this trip but the first on an E-Bike.

The Giant Road-E is set up with Brooks B17 saddle, Cane Creek thud buster seat post, Arkel handlebar bag, tail bag, rear rack and 2 Arkel lightweight panniers. Tires are Schwalbe marathon plus HS 440 700/38. This set up yields a very comfortable ride, the best I have come up with in all my years of riding.

I usually do this trip in 6 days, doing 75-100 miles a day, camping at night with an occasional hotel. My previous kit included 4 panniers, fully loaded with cloths, food, tent, sleeping bag, camping gear, electronics, tools for a total (bike and kit) of 75 pounds.

This time I carried much less as I did not camp, but rather stayed in hotels every night. Partly because I needed a place to charge the batteries and partly cause I wanted the comfy bed.

The kit included a second 500 watt battery (carried in the Arkel tail bag) plus cloths, electronics, water and tools. This added ~30 pounds to the already heavy E-Bike.

The previous trips with the regular bike carrying the heavy load were very hard. Long days usually 12-14 hours in the saddle, averaging 8 mph for the day. The hardest day was always Big Sur to Cambria with all the mountains.

With the e-bike, the trip was easy in comparison. 8-9 hours in the saddle vs 12-14 with an overall average of 14 mph for the trip. Days 1-4 were roughly 100 miles each and day 5 was 130 miles.

The shorter 100 mile days required 1 battery and 15-25% of second battery. The 130 mile day used 1 battery and 50% of second. Overall it was enjoyable with a lot less recovery time each evening. I do miss the camping as I always met other interesting people traveling by bike. You don’t get that in the hotels.

The E-bike, with a light load and staying in hotels may be my preferred mode from now on. It would be nice if E-Bike charging stations were placed at strategic places like campgrounds but I don’t think that will happen any time soon.

The attached pics are just a few of the breathtaking views along this magnificent coast. This ride should be on everyones bucket list.

I also really like to ride a bike. It was no longer a hobby, but a duty. And recently, my friends and I went on a tour of Europe on bicycles. They were in Poland, Germany, Ukraine and several other countries. So many beauties have seen, but I personally remember very much the hotel in which we stayed Premier Hotels and Resorts. A very cozy and beautiful place, there is a parking lot for bicycles. Therefore, we were not even afraid for their integrity and safety.