FAQ

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Q: Why are you carrying everything but the kitchen sink on your bike? Greg: It certainly appears that I am a glutton for punishment with all the gear loaded in panniers on the bike. There will always be items you can do without and some items you wish you had never left behind or shipped home. When you subtract the weight of the bike (about 20 kilos or 45 pounds, including racks, water bottle mounts and other add-ons like handlebar pack mount, cyclo-computer, heavier duty frame, wheels and tires) the load is going to be about as much as a traveler takes on a weekend trip! Bulky tents, pads and sleeping bags with unsightly dirty laundry hanging off the back gives passer-bys the impression that we don’t know how to pack. I like to tell curious folk that I meet that I have my entire house on wheels. I am carrying my bed-room, bathroom, kitchen, pantry, office, tool shed, closet, and hamper. Q: How much traffic do you encounter on a typical self-supported bicycle tour? Greg: The busiest highways might have up to up to 100,000 cars or more per day. I’ve bicycled through most of the capitals in Latin America, the toughest probably my ride to downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina from their international airport. The quietest highways might see 200 cars per day and rural routes in remote wilderness areas less than 30/day. An average on a busy route is probably around 5-10 cars per minute or 300—600 cars per hour in both directions. On a two-lane highway, that has relevance because of potential cars passing into your lane from the other side of the highway, an unexpected and potentially dangerous situation. 10 cars per minute = 600 cars per hour. Q: Bicycling appears to be a dangerous sport. How can you survive out there on such narrow roads? Greg: It’s all a matter of perception. You can make an argument that being inside a car is just as dangerous because of all the distracted driving that takes place. Studies show that drivers using cell phones are as dangerous as an intoxicated driver. Whenever I get in a car after spending all day on the trail or on a bicycle, my perception changes to the point of being scared at moving inside a hunk of metal at 30 mph! One thing that I know for certain is that I am an expert at what I do. I am not a beginner going out on a family ride around the block, swerving across the centerline or riding completely oblivious to the traffic around me. I’ve cycled over 15,000 miles on logging roads in Humboldt County in Northern California. From experince, I’ve determined that loggers and the majority of truckers are safer than car drivers. They are experts, road warriors like myself, traveling long distances down the highway for a determined distance and time. When I hear a truck (hearing is an important sense that is highly diminished inside a motorized vehicle) coming on a winding road with little visibility, I have to make a quick decision. Hurry up, slow down, dart to the other side or pull off the side of the road. The latter two options are really a last resort. I try to be visible and let the driver know I see them with a wave of my arm telling them it is O.K. to pass and that I see them. Which brings me to my last point, one that I have been making for years. Unlike the majority of bicyclists in the world, I use a rear-view mirror and have been using one for over 30 years. I’d like to ask you a question. Imagine going into a boxing ring. The only chance you have of surviving is if you can see the punches coming your way, right? What do you think your chances would be if you went up against your opponent blindfolded? Not too good, right? Imagine driving a car without using your rear view or side-view mirrors. Not too smart, right? Now why would you want to get on a bicycle without a mirror? For each car coming behind me, I look at it a couple of times. If 5 cars pass me going my direction, I might look through my rear view mirror 10 times in a minute, so that’s 600 glances per hour. A normal 5 hour day with helmet and mirror equals 3000 looks per day. I can tell which drivers are good. They can tell if I am good. On a bicycle, it’s not always easy to hold a strait line, as you need to maintain speed, a certain cadence, and most definitely a steady supply of high energy foods to keep the brain alert. One word that comes up often in my journals is the word vigilance. It’s what keeps me from getting killed. See one of my journal entries on vigilance HERE. Q: How much food and water do you consume in a day? Greg: It depends a lot on the weather, road surface condition, terrain and state of mind. For a sampling, please read my JOURNAL ENTRY on that subject. Q: How do you deal with winds? Greg: When I was younger and cycling into a headwind, I would often curse or yell at the top of my lungs. This seemed to be the only way to let go of the tension that builds up inside. I’ve since learned that this is a big waste of energy. The worst head and side winds imaginable are in Patagonia. The incessant wind has broken me down mentally a time or two. Doing a couple of adventure cycling tours down in that part of South America has taught me a lot about patience and energy expenditure. The first tour taught me that in order to proceed in life against all the odds, you had to have an inner peace. That’s the only way you could “win the (wind) battle”. The best analogy I can come up with is Scuba diving. I’ve led and watched hundreds of divers on underwater forays seeking wildlife. The only way to stay down longer--enjoying the sublime—is to minimize the amount of extraneous movement. Each superfluous movement of the hand or foot sucks oxygen out of your tank. The same thing happens on the bike. Every ounce of superfluous action fighting the wind is ultimately a wasted effort.