Chestertown, MD to Newark,DE bike ride
I’m on the east coast visiting my family this week. My mom and I enjoyed a nice mother’s day weekend on the Eastern Shore (of the Cheasapeake) andtoday I headed up to my dad’s house outside of Philadelphia.
I flew out here with my folding bike (Bike Friday Tikit). The $15 bag checking fee ($30 round trip) is annoying, but still cheaper and more enjoyable than renting a car. My clothing suitcase is a small carry-on bag from RickSteves that fits nicely on the front porteur rack. Ithelda few days worth of clothing, my laptop, camera, and other stuff.I had a saddlebag for tools and a few other items. My mom is driving up this way in a few days and will bring my bike suitcase along. I love the Tikit and it’s great for this type of trip. The i-Motion 9 that I put on there is working very nicely too.
The ride was an enjoyable route mostly on small 2-lane roads through farms. I didn’t hit any traffic until getting within spitting distance of Newark. At Newark I hopped on Septa (Philadelphia’s regional rail system) and took the train up to my dad’s house. The riding was about 60 miles and pretty flat. I think over here these would be called rolling hills, but in Seattle this would be called flat.
Thanks to Frank from bikede.org for helping me with the route. He suggested about 70% of what I rode and his suggestions were spot on.
All photos (most of them are on here already).
Notes from my previous similar trip. I took a different route, but the scenery is similar.
I’ll come back later and link to the route on Bikely.
three years ago i took a combined bike/train touring trip through europe. After the experience of hauling my full-size touring bike through the french train system, i told myself that if i ever did this trip again i”d do it with a folding bike. It looks like you have achieved my ideal.
This setup works great for that. In a normal touring situation I”d carry less clothes and use a smaller bag. In this case I need a larger mix of clothes (bike plus not bike, plus nicer clothing for a special event) and that occupies more space.
For a cross country trip, or something that is mostly cycling, I”d bring my best full size bike. For mixed modal travel the folder is fantastic. I use it on the Seattle->Portland Amtrak a few times a year too.
When I worked for Bike Friday I totally drank the Kool-Aid and it’’s taken a while to get more balanced view of folding bikes. That said, trips like yours are the precise reason for owning a nicer folding bike.
When Mitzi and I lived in Belgium we only had our BFs for that year and did everything with them. It was great to be able to jump on a train in the morning and ride home in the afternoon. They held up to everything we threw at them, though the wheel sucking gaps between cobblestones sometimes made things tense.
I think a good folder is a must in every bike nut’’s collection.
Looks like a great trip!
Did you check the bike in the BF case, and then leave it at the airport? Or did you just check it in the slip cover? Doesn”t look like you were carrying anything else that you might have packed the bike in…
BTW – is the RickSteves bag relatively waterproof?
My mom is coming up here in a few days for a family event and is carrying the suitcase in her car. The only real way to carry the bike suitcase otherwise would be with a trailer kit. I don”t mind trailers, but I”d rather not drag one 60 miles if I don”t need to.
The Rick Steves bag isn”t meant to be water proof and would probably leak pretty well in a major rain. I”d just stick the whole thing in a trash bag if that occured. This is the bag:
http://travelstore.ricksteves.com/catalog/index.cfm?fuseaction=product&theParentId=8&id=346
What I like about the bag is that it is light, it holds a lot while still being a legal carry-on, and it is comfortable to carry as a backpack or suitcase. It is a nice bonus that it fits well onto my front rack if I keep it 2/3rds full or less.
“I think over here these would be called rolling hills, but in Seattle this would be called flat.”
LOL
Alex, thank you for your post. I have some questions about your experience with SEPTA regional rail. Your picture seems to show you sitting in the “priority seating” area — is this correct? Did you travel on a weekend, weekday “off-peak,” or during a “peak” time? Was there anything noteworthy about your experience with the train conductors? Also, a component question: Do you happen to know if Jtek plans to offer a bar-end shifter for the Sram i-Motion 9? Justin
Justin — Septa was easy. I was sitting in those 4 top seats most of the time, but if the train was full I”d just sit in a 2 person bench with the bike next to me. Nobody ever said anything, and the schedules say that folding bikes are allowed at any time. I took peak hour trains two or three times with the bike.
JTek says that their current design won”t work that well with the I9 because the I9 requires so much cable pull. I”m hoping that they come up with another solution. For now the shifter is working pretty well for me.