when travelling, do you guys pack a cover or tarp to put over your bike? i just got my first bike, and i might be babying it, but ive put a bike cover on my pack list for an upcoming trip and, except for a tent, its probably one of the bulkiest items im dragging along. is it worth it?

On longer rides, I will limit myself to about 500 miles in a day. After that, fatigue and dehydration take their toll and dull the senses sufficiently enough to make it worth the stop.

I will keep my legs to approximately 1 tank of gas.  When I need to fill up, I take a 15 min. stretch break along with it.  Get a gatorade and some pretzels, bathroom break then back in the saddle.

When I stop, I want a bed.  I carry a tent, but rarely use it.  I'd rather soak in a hot tub of water with a cold beer in my hand.  Works the kinks out real good..

I do between 150-500 miles a day, 5 days a week.  It's gotten to the point that one day is as good as another.

I do my eating on the road as opposed to cooking at a camp site. I also carry trail mix, beef jerky and sandwich stuff. When I'm doing a long trip I use the camp site as a sleeping spot and that's about it. You don't cook in a motel room as a rule so why not carry that over to trip camping? Then you treat yourself to food in sit-down establishments.

My tent has the clip to the external poles design and goes up in about four minutes and it's roomy enough for two comfortably if needed. The thermo-rest pads come in different sizes. At our house we have two sizes since she's considerably shorter than me. When I do the bike trips I use hers. This time of the year you can get by with a full sheet for under you and folded over you and a warm blanket in case it gets chilly. Although a good medium low temp sleeping bag compresses pretty small.

As for covering the bike, I use the cheapo I've had for two and a half years. I don't take everything off the bike so I go for the keeping the stuff on it dry.

I've never felt insecure in a camp site myself. If you start looking for a camp early enough you have some choices. You don't need upscale, but you do want clean and tidy. And if they do RVs that's a plus. When you've got retired folks in mobile houses you've got folks to yell to if there's a problem. I carry one of those cheapy air horn things. You star blasting away with one of those in a camp ground and you'll get attention, not to mention probably a urine puddle from whoever's trying to get at you. With my luck if I had a gun the bad guy would just take it away from me. Or worse sue me if I used it on him.

I probably shouldn't say this and risk corrupting the yout' of America but . . .

On my really long days (those coming up on 700 miles) I often don't hit a camp ground until long after dark and after the office is closed, coast into an empty site, set up the tent, crawl in and go to sleep. I don't sleep as long as I do at home so I'm up around sun-up or earlier. Since I have a minimum of set-up and tear-down chores I'm often out before the office opens. If you have less than 100% of your scruples you can have slept for free. If you're honorable you put money in the slot as you leave. Just an observation.

Jack

ps.
A good number of small towns actually do allow camping in their city parks. I did a 600 mile bicycle trip one summer from where I live to Wall, S. Dakota. Any nights I camped I did for free. You don't get the amenities but you do get to save money. Ask at a couple of places in the town to see if there's public camping. Even if there's a charge it's almost always way less than a KOA type place.

Like the 'bigfoot' they found out in your neck of the woods, kirk?

What a laugh.  All that commotion over a rubber gorilla suit in a freezer!

I'm more worried about pitching my tent over a den of copperheads than I am bigfoot.

Guess I need some pratice on setting up camp. I used a Wenzel two man tent on the Dragon trip which was easy enough to set up and take down. New tent, zipper broke the second day and duct tape doesn't work on wet nylon in the rain. And you know goats at 2:00 in the morning sound like people talking off in the distance, well at least they did to me. The good news is Wenzel has a 10 year warrenty which I am hoping they will support. Anyways getting back to breakdown time, I look at it as get up and put the coffee water on, eat something, hit the head, drop the tent and pack the bike. I think that would take a good hour unless you want to leave your gear flying in the wind while traveling. He!! it takes me a good hour to loosen up in the morning and that is after the coffee. Honesty anything over 450 miles a day gets tiring. Guess it all depends on how you plan and prepare for the trip.

The tent rolls up and packs into a duffle that's about 18 inches long and 8 inches across. I think it weighs in at eight pounds complete with poles and a tent fly, if you go to the Wenzel web site it was simular to a Pinion model.