Pedal Push, an Account of Fixed Gear Touring

An account of fixie bike touring from Boston to Philly

Introduction

It was over a year ago, when I first stated to get into fixed gear biking. I accompanied a friend on part of his tour last year, meeting up in Washington DC and doing relaxed ride to Richmond Va. We toured very lightweight and did stealth camping along the way. After that trip I was more or less hooked.

This year I decided to do a week long solo trip from Boston to my place in Philadelphia. I went into the trip with the intentions of disconnecting, self reflection, and meeting folks outside of the normal context of my life. Now that I am back, and have an understanding of the value of this kind of touring, I have decided to write a bit of an account of how I went about this tour. Below is a break down of what I took and what I did.

Route I Took

Got on Megabus to Boston, with my bike and gear ($20 one way, could have got it for $10 if I'd booked earlier).

From Boston I took the Minuteman Bike Path towards Bedford. From there I followed the Adventure Cycling Association's Atlantic Coast's Route (Sections 1 and 2). The ACA's maps are kick ass and I had very little trouble following them as I headed towards Philly. These maps tend to avoid busy roads and highways like the plague, taking you on back country roads and past parks and campgrounds (awesome for finding spots to pitch a tent). ACA's maps also roll through enough towns, that finding supplies/food was normally not a problem. Finally at Conshohocken, I followed the Schuylkill River Trail into the Philly.

Shit I took

The Bike

Old 1960 or so Schwinn steelie frame.
the bike

Bike Gear

tools

Ultralight Camping Gear

the camp

Personal Shit

personal gear

  • One pair synthetic briefs
  • One pair synthetic socks
  • Lightweight short sleeve EMS shirt
  • Lightweight long sleeve EMS shirt
  • 3/4 length cycling shorts
  • EMS shorts
  • Field Note Book
  • Fisher Pen
  • Book
  • Cell Phone
  • My Pentax K100D Super DSLR Camera

Trip Specs

  • Section 1 map mileage: 137
  • Section 2 map mileage: 308

  • Total Mileage: 445

  • Avg Mileage per day: 74

  • Top Mileage day: 95

  • Lowest Mileage day: 53

  • Gear weight: 16 - 17 lbs

  • Bike weight: 29 lbs
  • Total weight: 45 - 46 lbs

Other Field Notes

First off stealth camping, was fucking awesome. It is bad ass, cheap as shit, and very flexible. My approach was to start looking for a spot about a hour before it gets dark. As a rule I stick to state parks, bike trails, or any other remote un-posted forests. When I find a spot, I am as quite and discrete as possible, staying completely out of sight from any roads or paths. It's also good to cover up bike reflectors as well as have a natural colored tent / hammock. When the sun comes up, pack up and leave. It's simple, stay out of sight and out of posted property. On of my best spots was in Massachusetts, where camped in state forest, with a giant lake I could swim in. I admit there were two nights on this trip where I stayed in a hotel, since it was down pouring rain or I hadn't started looking for a camp site soon enough and got caught in the dark.

An alternative to stealth camping or something to that could be used injunction, is Coach Surfing. I didn't do any on this trip, but hope to try it sometime.

Dealing with the mountain hills in CT, was a bitch. The first day, I hammered up and down them all morning. In the next town, I almost threw up from exhaustion. Basically, what I had to do was find a good pace. This meant braking more down hills and learning to hop off to push my bike up steep hills. Those days with a lot of hills, I did around 60 mile days. A big advantage of pushing your shit up hills is, it kills any roadie ego in you or any other ego.

Over all it was a really awesome trip. For all those wondering, I did come back with sore knees, but it wasn't really too bad. Most days I spent about 10-11 hours on my bike, it was good to pedal and simply let my mind wonder. I meet some good people on the way, and some folks I could bike with too. I have a few picture from this trip, that I'll add in blog post later. I intentionally made page to be somewhat of technical account of what when into this trip. I know there are other people out there interested in fixed gear touring, and I hope this page can prove to be resource for them. If there is anything you think I missed or have questions about please contact me, dean@realityrevision.com.