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Originally I had not expected to have time this summer for bicycle touring, but the severance package I got from Raychem changed things.

Charles coasts the Pacific

Dave Hood
2004-02-22 18:01:43

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Foreword

Originally I had not expected to have time this summer for bicycle touring, but the severance package I got from Raychem changed things. Nephew number four was Charles; he was in summer school in June, so we negotiated an August tour.

He stands 6'0 (or 6'3, depending on whom you ask), weighs 215. That means two things.

We’ll need to find a loaner/renter bike for him.
And rather than expecting him to hoist all that weight up the Sierra, I thought the coastal tour might be a bit less brutal.
I thought I might be able to borrow the same bike James used a few years ago, but Bob D seems to have moved away from the area. I tried an email plea, got three offers. Robert N’s offer seemed like the best one, so I picked up the bike. It was fairly beat-up, the survivor of a Backroads career. Well, the cosmetics don’t matter. But there were difficulties. It had 27-inch wheels and Schräder-valve tubes and no pump. The brakes were worn. The front quick-release didn’t have a positive overlock feel, which made me uncomfortable. And as I mounted Jacky’s set of low-riders, I discovered that the headset was badly pitted. A show-stopper – that can be unsafe at high speed. Went to the Bicycle Outfitter, where they rent Bianchi Eros sport-touring bikes, reserved one for August. Money solves a lot of problems.

Roger kindly offered to drive us to Eureka. I had originally been thinking of using Wednesday for getting everything checked out, but we have something like four hundred miles to ride, and it might be a good idea to have a full week for it. If we have extra time at the back end, there are other ways to use it.

And then there was no certainty about the size of the bike Charles needed. He insists he has a 56-cm road bike that fits him just fine. If he really stands 6'3", 63 or 64 cm is more likely. So I want to take him to the Outfitter in person, to make sure we really ...