North American Epilogue

The extent of my original route planning, I largely stuck to it!

 
So after cycling over and around North America, I can now step back and think a little about what I've learnt:
I love riding my bike

• The wind in your face
• The satisfaction of covering the miles
• The challenge, the routine, the simplicity of just getting up in the morning and riding
• That "you must be mad" look people give you when you say you're on a push bike
• The things you see along the way that you'd miss in a car
• The sounds and smell of the open road and the places you travel through
• It forces you to stop in places you would otherwise skip and meet genuine people who don't expect visitors

Good times!

Strangers can be incredibly friendly and accommodating:

• People I never knew before happily put me up in their house and fed me
• Strangers in bars bought me drinks
• Scary bikers offered me a spare bed
• Invariably when I needed company I found it, though not necessarily where I was expecting to

Warmshowers: great for a place to stay and a friendly face

When you let things happen whilst knowing your ultimate options, if you keep an eye out for opportunities, things tend to work out well in the end

• Whenever I had nowhere to stay, something, or someone turned up
• Whenever I was hungry or thirsty I managed to get somewhere where I could get food or water

Steve and the team at South Shore Cyclery literally picked me up off the street and gave me a place to stay

I can ride a lot further than I thought I could

• When all you've got to do all day is ride your bike, you can cover a hell of a lot of miles
• So long as I gave my body food, any food – even greasy burgers, it was happy to ride on
• Hills and mountains slow you down, but you can just rind it out and you'll get there eventually
• Gatorade is like cycling fuel!
• But a 10 mile detour is still too far when you have to ride the same road back again

Back-to-back 100+ mile days over the Rockies

America is a vast and diverse place

• From the big bustling cities to the small mid-western frontier settlements
• Flat open prairie to the vast, open rocky mountains
• Misty, winding coastal roads to mile after mile of dead straight roads through fields of corn
• The dry sandy beauty of the Badlands vs. the lush green scenery of the North Cascades
• The guy working hard to make a living in the Black Hills who just wants to be left alone vs. the dreamer on the coast who can tell you what's happening all over the world
• America is opening up to cycling, many roads have wide shoulders that are perfect for riding, and in other areas old rail lines have been turned into beautiful, flat trails that wind through open country

Just one of the many stunning views, this time descending the Big Horn Mountains

The wind can be your best friend or your worst enemy

• At you're back it'll push you all the way, helping you easily cover the miles
• In your face it'll stop your every pedal stroke, make even a short day hard work and prevent your hearing what's coming up behind you

Happy to have made it to the Pacific and to still have several weeks of riding in front of me

Surprising, after all those miles, I haven't had enough – immediately on finishing I missed riding my bike. So basically, it doesn't stop here, I'll take whatever opportunity I get in New Zealand & Australia to throw my things back on the bike and hit the road again, before I take on South East Asia for a month in the middle of the year. You'll hear more from Big Red as I find the time to write up my subsequent adventures.




Some Statistics from North America:
Distance Travelled: 5838 miles
238,000 ft climbed
8 punctures
4 rear tyres
2 front tyres
3 chains (1 snapped!)
1 new Bottom Bracket
2 falls (both at a standstill)
Top temperature 40 Degrees Celsius (Wisconsin & 100% humidity)
Low Temperature: 2 Degrees Celsius (Montana)
Highest Pass: Big Horn Mountains at 9,015ft
Biggest Climb: 4,500ft in 14 miles (Big Horn Mountains)
Biggest Descent: 5,000ft in 18 miles (Big Horn Mountains)
Most Climbing in a day: 8,100ft in 98 miles across NE Pennsylvania (also hardest day)
Biggest Day: 139 miles into Missoula, Montana
Longest Day: 9 hours 21 minutes riding to Badlands National Park, SD (129 miles)
Fastest Day: 17mph into Missoula, Montana
Maximum Speed: 50.0mph descending into Victoria City, Montana
Slowest Day: 11.2mph through Black Hills, SD to Rockford
Pair of Sunglasses lost / broken: 6
Weight at start: 109kg (17st 2lb)
Weight at end: 100kg (15st 10lb)
Most fun state: Iowa – RAGBRAI is Crazy
Most Fun City: Chicago, great times with great friends
Most beautiful national park: North Cascades, Washington – green forests, snowy mountain passes and deep blue lakes
Toughest guy I met: Sirius, walking my route in reverse!
Cheapest Pint: $0.75 Budweiser during happy hour in Cody, WY