Road Id

Road Id Elite

If you watched the Tour de France this year you saw all of the announcers wearing the new Road Id Elite bracelets. I thought they looked great. I have always liked the idea of wearing something with contact information in case of an accident. But just didn’t like the looks of the original Road Id so I put an orange tag on my bike with contact information.

My wife gave me a new yellow Road Id Elite for my birthday and I love it.

Posting fron the Road

Checking out the new Word Press iPhone / iPod Touch app. This is my first on the road post from my iPod Touch.

I carried a laptop a few times on tours and hated it. In Croatia I tried posting at Internet Cafes but the different keyboard set up drove me crazy.

Posting from the iPod Touch isn’t as easy as my iMac but a lot nicer than carrying a laptop. This is hard to beat  for bike tours, a lot nicer than a netbook if you can find a WiFi connection. I love my iPod Touch my all time favorite computer.

In Boston maybe the worst bicycling city in the USA

Crossing the Canadian Border on a Bicycle

The Route I have been laying out crosses the border from the US into Canada and returns. So what do I need to do to be prepared for that crossing?

Planning your own Bicycle Tour – Part 6 – First Route Map

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Note: Revised 2/23/08 – Start Point moved to North Hero State Park from Rouses Point, NY

We have a route concept and rough idea where we would like to spend the nights, Chambly and Saint Jean sur Richelieu. Using the Lake Champlain Bikeways Maps and Cycling in Quebec, I have laid out a preliminary one way route using Google Maps. This first cut at a route has some problems:

Planning your own Bicycle Tour – Part 5 – The Process

So we have our trip concept set, a week long ride from Vermont to Montreal and back. An evening in Chambly is desired and days should be around 40 miles to make the ride enjoyable for my wife.

Information has arrived, maps of the bicycle routes in Vermont and Quebec, a Vermont Camping Guide, “Cycling in Quebec” from Velo Magazine, and a Vermont Vacation Guide.

From this point on the process becomes recursive with each decision interacting and affecting previous decisions. However, we won’t let this process go on too long .

Planning your own Bicycle Tour – Part 4 – Information Found

So I have a trip concept ride the Richelieu River from Vermont to Montreal with an aside to Chambly possible. I did my web search for trip information and here is what I found:

Planning your own Bicycle Tour – Part 3 – Route Information Sources

Before I dig into how to gather information for your trip, a few tips on evaluating information on bicycling that you will find and receive from people you talk with.

Planning your own Bicycle Tour – Part 2 – Trip Concept

I am going to use my own planning for this summer as an example. Since I haven’t work out all the details yet, I am not quite sure where this will take me but I expect it to be fun and a clarifying process.

PLanning your own Bicycle Tour – Part 1 – First Thoughts and Tips

I am starting my planning for a bicycle tour with my wife in June or July and thought writing about the process might be interesting. I am going to aim this discussion at less experienced Bicycle Tourist, the experienced tourist have their own system already.