The bicycle you ride on a tour doesn’t have to be a high-end titanium model tricked out with aerodynamic wheels and the latest in carbon-fiber accessories. As veterans of such events know, you can get along with a mountain bike or even, theoretically, a vintage 10-speed.
What’s important, nearly everyone agrees, is that your two-wheeler fit your body well and that it be a multigeared model with two or three chain rings at the front and six to 10 cogs in the rear.
“If you’re contemplating buying a road bike, go ahead and get it now. But if this is the only thing you’ll ever use it for, don’t do it. Just put some slick tires and bar ends on your mountain bike and accept the fact that you’re going to be a little slower. Who cares?” says Ride the Rockies director Paul Balaguer.
“If you don’t know if your gearing is sufficient,” he suggests, “park your car at the Morrison exit off I-70 and ride up old U.S. 40 to the buffalo overlook. That’s 5 miles at about a 6 percent grade. If you can ride it sitting down with some getting up, you’re good.”
As for the fit, personal trainer Kate Mackey says paying a qualified professional to measure your physique and “tweak” your current bike may make more sense than buying a new one.
“In an hour, you do about 4,000 pedal strokes,” she notes. “If you have something a little bit wrong – a seat that’s too high or low, or handlebars too far forward or back – after an hour or two hours or three hours, that’s really going to show up in your knees or arms or shoulders. It can make a potentially lovely ride miserable.”
Regarding other necessary equipment, Balaguer lists a helmet (now required on all organized rides), cycling shoes with clip-in pedals, riding gloves and riding shorts. At a bare minimum, he estimates, expect to pay about $800 for a bike and $300 for the additional gear.
One accessory Balaguer would forgo is a handlebar bag, which he says can obscure a rider’s view of the road and affect the bike’s handling on downhill runs. He recommends instead a bag that fits under the seat.
In contrast, one item that every rider should take on a tour is rain gear, insists Kent Powell, director of the Bicycle Tour of Colorado.
“Full waterproof. We stress that,” he says. “We took 1,200 people off Red Mountain Pass in 1999, and it was strictly because of rain. We had 300 who made it, all of them kind of bragging, and we asked them, ‘What’s the secret?’ Real rain gear. If you can keep your upper core warm, you’ll be OK. But once you get wet, you’re going to freeze, and those stupid wind jackets are not going to cut it.”
-Jack Cox
