5 Day Mini-Tour

Day 1 - To Reading (110 km)

The weather was perfect as I set off on my 5 day mini-tour with virtually full Canada kit; beautiful spring sunshine, temperature just right and a very light tailwind! I made good progress heading towards the Chilterns.

Narrow boats at Marsworth

At Marsworth I stopped at the canal bridge and admired the colourful narrow boats moored into the distance. Soon after, I took lunch at the garden centre cafe in nearby Wilstone. Great food to refuel with and time to rest and soak up the sun!

Under the canal bridge

After lunch, I rode parallel to the Chiltern escarpment, before finally climbing steeply at Kingston Blount. Crawler gear 1 was engaged for the first time since getting the Nomad last year. Then again, it's the first 17% gradient I've attempted with a bike weighing nearly 40kg! I made it up easily enough.

Good refuelling is essential...

I needed more food after that and sat just off the fairway at Nuffield's golf course. This was not the smartest move, as the golfers were terrible! Slices and hooks galore, huge divots flying everywhere, golf balls clattering in trees, shouts of "fore", protracted searching in bushes and hedges. I moved on.

...so is resting after lunch

The landscape was wonderfully wooded and tranquil as I rode down the Chiltern "dip slope" - a mostly gentle downhill for the next 10km - until the final steep drop down to Pangbourne and the River Thames. Not too far to go now and I soon arrived at my aunt and uncle's house.

Christmas Common in the Chilterns

Day 2 - To Chandler's Ford (90 km)

Another perfect day weatherwise. Clear blue skies again! Today I headed south from Reading towards my sister's house in Chandler's Ford. I cycled on many little lanes throughout the day, the sun lighting up the new leaved trees and casting intricate shadows onto the road.

Climbing up Watership Down

The morning's highlight was climbing Watership Down (the rabbit's destination in the famous book by Richard Adams). After a brief but tough climb, I was treated to a long descent towards Whitchurch.

At the top of Watership Down

At Whitchurch I had a quick photo stop at the Silk Mill, before pressing on for lunch at the White Lion in Wherwell. As yesterday, I had a fine lunch followed by a fine soak in the sun. (You've got to make the most of the sun in the UK).

Silk Mill, Whitchurch

When I finally got back on the road, I continued riding through the very pictureseque Test Valley with it's multitude of gentle slow flowing rivers and very pretty "chocolate box" villages.

River in the Test Valley

Reluctantly turning away from the valley, the run in to Chandler's Ford was tiring over the hills, but I twiddled away in a low gear and savoured the scenery and sun, before finally arriving at my sister's house mid-afternoon.

Very calming...

Day 3 - Day Off

Well I don't want to start off too heavily, do I? Anyway, I was quite worn out by two nephews aged 4 and 2...

Day 4 - Back to Reading (90 km)

The day dawned a bit rainy, but it was clearing up when I left. The air was damp and muggy as a climbed a number of short sharp hills heading east of Winchester. After an hour, I crossed the River Itchen at Ovington and entered New Alresford. I had planned to drop into the Watercress Line station to use the cafe, but there was an even more enticing bakery open on the approach road!

Church of St Mary the Virgin, Preston Candover

After tea and cakes (plural), I turned north and rode through the lovely rolling farmland of the Candovers and Axford, before arriving at Oakley where very good friends of mine live. As hospitable as always, Ken and Barbara plied me with fine food and drink as we caught up with each other's recent happenings and future plans.

Rape field.  Aitchoo...

Good luck with your Magnificat Sportive (sponsored by Verenti) on the 13th June. Sorry I won't be around to drive the van this year!

From Oakley, it was a short ride back to Reading on very familiar roads. A bit of a tail-wind helped with the average speed again.

Day 5 - Back home (110 km)

One more day to go on my first mini-tour with full luggage! I mostly retraced my outward route, which meant a long climb back to Christmas Common at the top of the Chilterns. Just before, at Nuffield, I checked out the golfing action again to see if they'd improved at all. Nope.

Cray's Pond

The hill I'd crawled up in first gear a couple of days ago now provided a thrilling descent. Now I know why heavy riders enjoy downhills so much. Saying that, on that hill even with the extra ballast, the Nomad was still not as fast as a racing bike.

Beacon Hill, Ivinghoe

Just to add a bit of spice to the return journey, I did a few miles off-road on a mixture of a rutted bye-way and some field margin. It was a bit bumpy because I didn't bother reducing my tyre pressures but it was enjoyable to be completely away from the traffic. I might have to explore this off-road business a bit more some day...

Bumpy field margin

I made it home safely and I was pretty satisfied with my first trial tour. The Nomad was faultless. My pannier packing needs some refinement to stop me hunting for things, but I'll soon nail that down. I found the riding (about 400km @ 21km/h) straightforward fitness-wise, but I still have minor issues with my saddle occasionally (and randomly) bruising my sit-bones and some mild hot spots from my shoes, although this has improved greatly since I changed to another pair that are stiffer soled.

Some more off-road. Hardcore!

So then, I'm happy and confident about the Canada trip from a cycling point of view. The next task is a camping trip where I can test my tent erecting skills, my one pot calorie replenishment skills, my amusing myself in the evening in a field skills and my ability to survive a couple of days possibly without a shower or electricity.

Nomad Fully Loaded!

I went for my first ride today with the Nomad fully loaded! After spending an hour fitting the racks and panniers, I spent another hour fettling the setup to eliminate all the annoying rattles...

Nomad with nearly all of the Canada luggage

Then I loaded up! The contents of my panniers were 20 volumes of the beautifully illustrated TimeLife Books: "Voyage Through The Universe". Each volume weighed a very healthy 800g. I also strapped my tent to the rack top for good measure. I weighed the bike and it came to 40kg! Hopefully, this is representative of my 'riding weight' as it's matched to the Draft Kit List I made a while back.

I attempted to wheel the bike out of my house. I could hardly lift it over the front step it was so heavy! (I only weigh 68kg and I have a typical 'racing snake' build; strong legs, strong core, pathetic upper body strength). With some trepidation, I climbed aboard and wobbled off down the road...

Ortlieb Roller Plus panniers front and back...

To be fair, it didn't take very long to get used to the new handling characteristics. The Nomad was designed specifically for this task and it was still a very stable bike to ride even loaded up like this. Apart from the slower steering, which made me watch the road a little more carefully to plan ahead for pothole avoidance (you can't really 'flick' the steering to avoid things at close range), it was pretty much the same as when unloaded: rock solid and undramatic.

I was slower climbing hills, of course, but I was repeatedly amazed at the mechanical advanatge of bicycle gearing which allowed me to pedal to the top of each hill, with moderate effort, a bike I could hardly lift off the ground! I might have been slower up the hills, but the extra ballast provided faster downhills in compensation! I was especially impressed with the stopping power of the Shimano XTR V-Brake / Swissstop Blue pad / Rigida CSS rim combination. The braking was immense, reliable and dependable.

...and a 22L compression dry sac containing my tent

I wrote a post (It's Harder Riding a Touring Bike) in which I calculated some travelling speeds for my Seven racing bike, the Nomad unloaded and the Nomad loaded for my estimated average sustainable power output. I predicted that I could ride the Nomad (40kg version) at about 21 km/h average. No fibbing, my average for the 70 klicks trip today (reasonable pace on rural roads with some rolling hills but nothing steep or nasty) was 20.8 km/h. I love it when a plan comes together.

All in all, an excellent first test ride fully loaded! The Nomad was great. I'm going to ride to my sister's house next weekend. This will be a four day trip and my first mini-tour!

Canada By Bicycle

A couple of people, including the site's author, have recently sent me a link to www.canadabybicycle.com.

Canada by Bicycle by Steve Langston

Canada by Bicycle is a free website resource detailing a 72 day paved-road cycle route across Canada, based (I presume) on the experiences of it's author Steve Langston.

It takes the form of a tourist guide and is nicely laid out. Each day has a detailed turn-by-turn route card, map and elevation profile. There's an accompanying writeup of the day's highlights, including the local sites, culture and heritage. Usefully, it includes services in towns en route, as well as campsites for each night. The website also has some basic information on cycle touring and camping.

The website offers cyclists a near 'turnkey' solution for crossing Canada. Of course, it's also pretty useful for anybody in the midst of planning their crossing of Canada for background information, routing ideas and inspiration. Good one, Steve!

An accompanying book, Canada By Bicycle (ISBN: 9780981242811), is available via the website for 20$ (CAD).

It's Harder Riding a Touring Bike

Before purchasing the Raven Nomad, I'd previously only ridden light-weight racing bikes. On my Seven Axiom Ti I have years of speed averages around the 27-30 km/h mark. I was a bit shocked when I rode the Nomad for the first few times and could only manage 22-23 km/h!

This average speed reduction is due to a number of factors including an increase in bicycle mass, a more upright riding position and increased rolling resistance from running lower pressured tyres.

I've yet to ride the Nomad in full touring trim, as I'm still researching and purchasing equipment, but I wondered how much more average speed I would lose when the Nomad was loaded up with panniers and 24 kg of luggage? I thought I'd do some maths...

The Equations

There are two major components of resistance to overcome when riding a bicycle. One is air resistance and the other is road resistance (a combination of friction and gravity). The power (in Watts) required to overcome these resistances can be represented approximately as the sum of equations (1) & (2) below:

       P_air = ½ρ(v_c+v_wind)²C_wA_fv_c   (1)

where ρ = Air density = 1.293 kg/m³, v_c = speed of cyclist (m/s), v_wind = wind speed (m/s), C_w = Drag Coefficient, A_f = frontal area of bike and cyclist (m²)

       P_road = gmv_c(C_r+s)          (2)

where g = gravity = 9.81 m/s², m = mass of cyclist and bike (kg), v_c = speed of cyclist (m/s), Cr = Combined Frictional Coefficient (mostly tyres, but also chain, hubs etc.), s = grade (slope) (E.g. 8% = 0.08)

The Assumptions

I've made some assumptions for the constants C_w A_f and C_r based on information available here. I weigh about 72 kg in my cycling kit. Mass below is for the bike and rider combined.

Bicycle	Mass (kg)	Cw (-)	Af (m2)	Cr (-)
Seven Axiom Ti	81.5	0.9	0.45	0.003
Raven Nomad (Unloaded)	88	1.0	0.60	0.007
Raven Nomad (Loaded)	112	1.0	0.70	0.007

I've also made the assumption that I have a sustainable upper power output of around 230 Watts. I don't own a power meter, but I've reached this figure based on some test numbers I've calculated whereby I matched power output to speeds and conditions I was familiar with for both the Seven and the Nomad (unloaded).

Cycling along the flat

In the case of cycling along the flat with no headwind, grade (s) and V_wind are both 0. From the two power figures it can be seen that much more power is required to combat air resistance than road resistance. Speeds for a power output of around 230 Watts range from 33 km/h (9.3 m/s) for the Seven, down to 26 km/h (7.3 m/s) for the loaded Nomad.

Bicycle	Pair (W)	Proad (W)	vwind (m/s)	grade (m/m)	vc (m/s)	kmhc (km/h)	Diffseven (%)
Seven	207	22	0	0	9.3	33.3
Nomad (U)	183	47	0	0	7.8	28.0	0.84
Nomad (L)	174	56	0	0	7.3	26.2	0.79

Cycling up a hill

In the case of cycling up a 8% hill, grade (s) is 0.08. This time, much more power is required to combat road resistance (chiefly gravity) than air resistance. Speeds for a power output of around 230 Watts range from 12 km/h for the Seven, down to 8.5 km/h for the loaded Nomad.

Bicycle	Pair (W)	Proad (W)	vwind (m/s)	grade (m/m)	vc (m/s)	kmhc (km/h)	Diffseven (%)
Seven	10	221	0	0.08	3.3	12.0
Nomad (U)	10	221	0	0.08	2.9	10.6	0.88
Nomad (L)	6	226	0	0.08	2.4	8.5	0.71

Cycling into a headwind

In the case of cycling into a 20km/h headwind, V_wind is 5.6 m/s. An even greater proportion of power is required to combat air resistance as would be expected. Speeds for a power output of around 230 Watts range from 22 km/h for the Seven, down to 16 km/h for the loaded Nomad.

Bicycle	Pair (W)	Proad (W)	vwind (m/s)	grade (m/m)	vc (m/s)	kmhc (km/h)	Diffseven (%)
Seven	218	15	5.6	0	6.1	22.0
Nomad (U)	202	29	5.6	0	4.8	17.4	0.79
Nomad (L)	199	34	5.6	0	4.4	15.9	0.72

Cycling into a headwind up a hill

Probably the worst situation in cycling! Again cycling into a 20km/h headwind, this time on a 3% slope. Now it's pretty much an even split between power required to combat air resistance and power required to combat road resistance.

Bicycle	Pair (W)	Proad (W)	vwind (m/s)	grade (m/m)	vc (m/s)	kmhc (km/h)	Diffseven (%)
Seven	114	116	5.6	0.03	4.4	15.8
Nomad (U)	114	114	5.6	0.03	3.6	12.8	0.81
Nomad (L)	104	125	5.6	0.03	3.1	11.1	0.70

Coasting down a hill

No effort is required here! Assuming the hill is long enough, the bike and rider will reach a terminal velocity when P_air and P_road cancel each other out. The slope is -8% and assume no wind. For the first time, the loaded Nomad is not the slowest! It's extra mass triumphs, but it's not enough to beat the Seven's better aerodynamics and frictional properties.

Bicycle	Pair (W)	Proad (W)	vwind (m/s)	grade (m/m)	vc (m/s)	kmhc (km/h)	Diffseven (%)
Seven	943	-943	0	-0.08	15.3	55.2
Nomad (U)	803	-803	0	-0.08	12.8	45.9	0.83
Nomad (L)	1066	-1066	0	-0.08	13.3	47.9	0.87

Average Speed for the Loaded Nomad

For the test cases, a rider capable of generating 230 Watts should be able to propel the Unloaded Nomad between 79%-88% of the speed of the Seven and the Loaded Nomad between 70%-87% the speed of the Seven.

I can make this (very crude) deduction for myself. If I can manage 28 km/h average for the Seven, I should be able to average about 83% of that on the Nomad Unloaded and 76% of that on the Nomad Loaded. This equates to about 23 km/h for the Unloaded Nomad (which agrees with my recorded averages) and 21 km/h for the Loaded Nomad (as yet untested).

I've scheduled my trip at a leisurely 18-20 km/h average, so I hope my rather assumptive mathematics is reasonably valid!

References:
[1] Cycling Speed Maths and Ruminations
[2] Bicycle Performance
[3] Coefficients of friction. Rolling Resistance, Air resistance, Aerodynamics
[4] Energy consumption during cycling

The Cross Canada Project

I've just watched Mike Beauchamp's brilliant DVD - The Cross Canada Project. Mike used an improvised camera rig fixed to his bike frame to ingeniously film himself while riding along on his 7292km journey from Vancouver, BC to Halifax, NS in 2005.

The resulting 2009 documentary is very professionally edited and produced. At an hour long, it has plenty of time to convey the length and sheer enormity of his marathon ride. The "director's commentary" is particularly fine. Nice one Mike!

The 7 minute trailer is a good appetiser. Go on, press the play button...

Trailer for The Cross Canada Project: Documenting a Bicycle Tour Across Canada. from mike beauchamp on Vimeo.

Mike Beauchamp's DVD Cover

(You can see the camera arm sticking out in the cover photo)

Truly Inspriational

A lot of people have crossed Canada on a bicycle over the years. Quite a few of them have written about their experiences and posted their accounts to the web for others to read. I've read a fair number of them myself and a few of them I have found truly inspirational. Some of my personal favourites are below. Have a read...

Mike's Bicycle Across Canada
Mike Vermeulen's web site contains an account of a ride of 9,700 km, even longer than the one I will be attempting. He started in Fairbanks in Alaska and cycled the Alaska Highway and the YellowHead Highway through the prairie states of Saskatchewan and Manitoba before joining the Trans-Canada Highway in Ontario and continuing to St. John's. His account happens to be the first one I ever read (quite a few years ago).

Biking Across Canada
The "Lone Biker" Erik Straarup is a Danish rider with a reputation for fast solo rides, racking up huge daily distances. His journal is a truly startling account of a "fast" crossing of Canada in 1999 from Vancouver to St. John's. Amazingly, he completed the ride in just 27 days (and 5 hours and 30 minutes)! It's the sheer relentlessness of this guy that impresses me the most; 240km, 280 km, even 320 km, day after day after day and loaded up with camping gear. His account of a record ride around Australia is equally mind-blowing.

I received over Internet some daily emails which described 2 Canadians trip across Canada as they were traveling .They had 2 cars to support them and they only had to bike, therefore I was not so impressed of their average of 250 k pr day and thought that maybe I could do the trip faster, alone and with a tent...

Erik Straarup

From Sea to Sea - An Exploration of Canada by Bike
This one is a highly personal account from a guy called Trevor Hennessey. He really lays himself bare and narrates in graphic detail the various trials and tribulations (there were many), both mental and physical that affected his crossing. He had some fantastic moments as well, but it's his emotional writing that dominates and makes for fascinating reading. Trevor's journal is also the longest and most detailed I've ever read and you can immerse yourself in his writings for days.

The Beetles Cross Canada Bike Trip 2001
Another person who triumphs over adversity is Kirk Nangreaves. Then in his early twenties, he set out to cross Canada with two buddies, Mike and Geoff. Mike seemed not to have enjoyed the experience one bit and quit after a month. A week later and rather out of the blue, Geoff decided to abandon Kirk as well. Kirk, who was not even half way at this point, was clearly devastated, but decided to continue on his own and showing great character and resolve completed his journey solo in 80 days.

After lunch, we stopped at a gas station to refill water. When I came out of the bathroom, there was a pile of food on the ground, along with the tent and Geoff said (paraphrasing): “I don’t mind waiting for you to fix your bike, write your journal or do your push-ups, but I didn’t want to wait for you to look at tourist attractions, so I’ve made a decision: I’m leaving!” And, as I stood there stunned, he took off on his own. I continued to sit there stunned for about an hour, contemplating what to do.

Kirk Nangreaves

Across Canada by Bicycle - Through the North
Most cyclists who cross Canada, my planned adventure included, tend to hug the southern extremities of this vast country. For most people, northern Canada is just too remote and too inhospitable. Tom, a solo traveller from Germany, disagrees and chose a different route, covering some very challenging highways, often unpaved, in more northerly regions. These included the Cassiar Highway, Campbell Highway, the famous Dempster Highway which crosses into the Arctic Circle, the Red-Earth-Road (Highway 88), Route du Nord and Trans-Labrador Highway. These are true wilderness roads for the experienced adventure traveller only. As the author states himself - "No Newbies"!

The Great Canadian Bike Trek
With a similar contempt for convention, Mark Tanner chose to ride while the harsh Canadian winter was still in full swing, setting out from Vancouver in early February! He crossed the snowbound Rockies and then rode across the frozen prairies, facing considerable hardship in the numbing cold on a daily basis until spring finally broke towards the end of his journey.

My mouth is burning dry, I reach for my water bottle and press the mouthpiece against my blistering, dry lips, but alas, the fluid is frozen in its canister.  The bitter cold has taken its toll, I cannot feel my fingers or toes, I'm tired and my bottom hurts, I have been riding up the steep mountain since sunrise.

Mark Tanner

Trans Canada Trail
Tom Couture spent 128 days crossing Canada and covered 10,000 km in the process. What was unusual about Tom's trip was the fact that it was off-road, making extensive use of completed parts of the Trans Canada Trail. Tom kept a GPS record of his journey, in addition to daily altitudinal and distance readings. The data was subsequently used to help produce accurate mapping. When completed, the trail will be 18,000 km in length and the longest recreational trail in the world.

If anybody knows of any other great journals of crossing Canada by bike, please let me know!