2016 West Coast Bike Tour Vlog!

[Matt Derrick]

Hey folks, as some of you might know, I've been making plans to do a bike tour down the west coast via the 101 highway. My goal is to bike from Astoria, Oregon to Slab City, California and arrive in time for StP's Dirty Scouts Jamboree in October.

I've done a few small bike tours before, but most were over a decade ago and none were anywhere near as intense as what's facing me in the coming weeks.

The idea of biking this kind of distance is pretty daunting, but I'm going to do my best and try to have as much fun with it as I can.

I've decided to do a video blog of my journey and I'll be updating this thread with each new video as I plod along.

That said, here's the first video in this series. It's a little slap dash, but I'm still ironing out all the kinks in my video work flow so future videos should be a lot better.



Of course I'm always open to suggestions or questions, so feel free to post them in this thread.

Of course if you want to subscribe to my channel or post a comment directly on the video, you can do so here:

http://youtube.com/squattheplanet

 

[Brother X]

Mind the fires in Big Sur and HAVE FUN!

 

[autumn]

Loved the gear breakdown and I know what it's like to have way too much stuff! Seems like you've got it under control now though. Have fun!

Suggestion: I want to see some stabilized gopro footage!

Question: How are your legs not super sore? Is there a secret to cycling I'm missing?

 

[MilkaNoobie]

Personally I'm no professional just biked most of America But shouldn't you go with a hybrid bike and not a racing bike?

 

[Matt Derrick]

well, i'm a little embarrassed to admit that i vastly miscalculated how difficult the terrain of coastal oregon would be to bike across.

i basically had to call off the journey at the end of the first day, my body was so completely wrecked.

it started off great, i mean, super fun. i did 33 miles in 2.5 hours, moderate terrain, one huge hill that i had to take a break on, but nothing that i didn't eventually conquer. i was feeling so good about myself after i got to cannon beach (from astoria) that i decided to continue to the next town, and that's when shit went seriously uphill.

looking back on it now, i'm actually really surprised that no one mentioned how intense the hills are in oregon... i'm totally guessing here, but i'd say the roads were about 2.5-3% incline, which isn't terrible, but when you literally stretch that incline out for 4-5 miles at a time, with no breaks, well, it becomes rather hellish.

another thing that i didn't really account on was how much of a factor my being overweight would be. i'm about 260 lbs, and with about 30 lbs of gear, that's almost 300 lbs of shit to push uphill. i don't know for certain, but i do feel like that played a factor in how difficult it was to bike uphill for extended periods of time.

long story short, i was reduced to walking after the first 4 miles or so, and by the time i reached the last five miles to the next town i could barely even push my bike up the hill. for reference, the first 33 miles took me about 2.5 hours, whereas the last 15 took me around 4 fairly excruciating hours.

looking at my cycling maps (which include elevation) i had approximately 2 weeks of this kind of misery ahead of me. it's difficult to put into words the state i was in at the time; i was soaked head to toe in my own sweat, pushed beyond any physical limit I'd previously known, and most importantly, completely miserable and not having any fun at all. considering that i had weeks of this crap ahead of me, i knew there was no possible way i could continue.

i considered skipping ahead, maybe to someplace with less hills (socal) but in the end it proved to be logistically impossible without blowing the majority of money in my pocket.

so, i've decided to head back to my family's house in washington. this will give me a little bit of time to work and recover some of the money i lost on this excursion, and also give me a chance to focus more on the upcoming jamboree, which i will still see you all at

i guess to anyone reading, this should probably serve as a warning to both do your research before going on something like this, and make sure you've done the proper amount of physical training beforehand.

 

[MilkaNoobie]

Portland Oregon to John day Oregon was hellish once ... Did not expect it to be that bad but I thought you had all that elevation stuff figured out.

One thing I would like to point out is I was 270lbs with 0 training when I biked 1/3rd of America ...still a fat ass at the end of it but I like to eat

 

[IntrovertMatt]

At least you tried man. I hope you give it another shot again one day. I'm planning on doing one but I have a few years of cycling under my belt, just without all the gear.

 

[Matt Derrick]

At least you tried man. I hope you give it another shot again one day. I'm planning on doing one but I have a few years of cycling under my belt, just without all the gear.

i will likely do that, i just gotta train more and get in better shape.

 

[MilkaNoobie]

Exercise bikes are cheap if you have a place to put it And some of them come with tension devices that make it harder peddle as if under load ...ex wife spent 150€ for hers

 

[Matt Derrick]

I don't have a home to put one in nor $150, so I'll just use my own bike and bike outdoors like a normal person.

 

[Gypsybones]

You just gotta push brother, the first few days are hard with the first being hell, but it does get easier.
Next time try riding at least 100 a week around town and loading down with books n shit. I'm in the middle of a on a whim tour that I decided to do when shit didn't work out in Charlotte. I decided to ride to Philly on a Bianchi Eros with road rims and a compact crank, and I decided it was a good idea to start this in August, in the south.

Well I made it to Philly, now I'm headed to Pittsburgh. I figured if I can make the Appalachian mountains, I can make it all the way back to nola.

Its really just about pushing yourself, don't worry how many miles your making or what gear you're in, stop when you feel like it, and feed like a beast.

You can do this! I live in a flat land, so when I started (still) the hills were kicking my ass, but I pushed 120 on the day I arrived in Philly. It was fucking rough, but I did it. so can you