Cyclocaching Or Cyclecaching

[Mr. Big]

I wouldn't sweat brands -- shop for the component group and the frame material you favor, and listen to the folks at your local bike shop. I ride a high-end road bike (gave away the beater mountain bike this weekend), with a frame that's hand built of titanium tubing in Tennessee. The brand is Litespeed. My last road bike was steel, custom brazed by Tom Ritchey.

 

Frame materials: steel used to be it. It's durable, has a nice lively ride feel, and with care can be light. Aluminum is light. Its biggest drawback is its tendency to telegraph lots of vibration through the frame and into you, which can be fatiguing. Titanium soaks up high frequency vibration, it's light, strong and lively feeling if its done correctly. The drawback is cost. Replacement cost of my ride is over $3 k. There are carbon fiber and composite frames out there as well. Some people find them to feel "dead." My wife rides a carbon frame by Specialized, and she likes it fine.

 

At your price range, you should get a fine bike, and your choices are likely to be dominated by aluminum frames. Don't worry overmuch about vibration and the like. Ride before buying, and buy what you like.

 

As far as bikable caches, Henry Coe State Park in Santa Clara County, CA, is loaded with them, and it's also mountain bike heaven, I'm told. (Gave the mountain bike away, remember?)

[+Chuy!]

I wouldn't sweat brands -- shop for the component group and the frame material you favor, and listen to the folks at your local bike shop...

 

I would pay some attention to brands and where they are made. Of the big name bike companies, Trek, and Specialize use Asian companies to produce some of their bikes.

Giant and Schwinn rely exclusively Asian made bikes. Giant, however, is proud of their Asian ties. Their Asian-made bikes were the first used at the Tour de France (ONCE team), and it appears Jan Ullrich will be riding a Giant bicycle at the Tour this year.

 

With the exception of Giant, most Asian-made bikes are lower in quality as they are mass produced, even if they have quality components. I just hate it when US companies go Asian (Schwinn, Raleigh). For now, Cannondale has not jumped the bandwagon, but economics may affect them someday as well. No doubt Asian-made bicycles are increasing in quality, but I generally avoid them if I can. I will say no more.

 

I ride a 1988 Bianchi hybrid bike and a 1987 Nishiki road bike. (I'm hoping one will break down soon so I can justify a new-bike purchase.) I am new to caching and have yet to find a cache on either bike. No doubt I will soon as I have found many caches along my commuting route. I hid a cache, GCHNGR along a popular bike event in Baja California enjoyed mostly by Southern Californians, Rosarito to Ensenada; I hope some of you will make it out here someday.

[+1NatureMom]

I plan on taking my new brite red Christmas Mongoose out when this snow melts & the mud is kinda gone~gotta keep the scaring down this year! lol. Then I have to figure out how to ride & check GPS at the same time~still working on that gum-chewing-walking-thing.

 

I'M WAITING FOR THE PADDLING-CACHING DAYS TO START!!!

 

MTB & Kayak Icons would be great! Conn. cachers have been good about stating if their cache is MTB/Kayak friendly!

 

Leslie

[+gbod]

Cyclocaching Or Cyclecaching

 

Of the two choices, it would be cyclecaching, as cyclocaching would be caching in a circle.

 

cyclo–

VARIANT FORMS: cycl–

PREFIX: 1. Circle; cycle: cyclorama.

2. A cyclic compound: cyclohexane.

ETYMOLOGY: Greek kuklo-, from kuklos, circle. See kwel-1 in Appendix I.

 

cycle

SYLLABICATION: cy·cle

PRONUNCIATION: AUDIO: skl KEY

NOUN: 1. An interval of time during which a characteristic, often regularly repeated event or sequence of events occurs: Sunspots increase and decrease in intensity in an 11-year cycle.

2a. A single complete execution of a periodically repeated phenomenon: A year constitutes a cycle of the seasons. b. A periodically repeated sequence of events: the cycle of birth, growth, and death; a cycle of reprisal and retaliation.

3. The orbit of a celestial body.

4. A long period of time; an age.

5a. The aggregate of traditional poems or stories organized around a central theme or hero: the Arthurian cycle. b. A series of poems or songs on the same theme: Schubert's song cycles.

6. A bicycle, motorcycle, or similar vehicle.

7. Botany A circular or whorled arrangement of flower parts such as those of petals or sepals.

8. Linguistics In generative grammar, the principle that allows an ordered set of linguistic rules or operations to apply repeatedly to successive stages of a derivation. Often used with the.

VERB: Inflected forms: cy·cled, cy·cling, cy·cles

 

INTRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To occur in or pass through a cycle.

2. To move in or as if in a cycle.

3. To ride a bicycle, motorcycle, or similar vehicle.

TRANSITIVE VERB: To use in or put through a cycle: cycled the heavily soiled laundry twice; cycling the recruits through eight weeks of basic training.

ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Late Latin cyclus, from Greek kuklos, circle. See kwel-1 in Appendix I.

OTHER FORMS: cycler —NOUN

[+veloreb]

Well, I would but some nature preserves here in FL, they prohibit bike riding, only walking is allowed.

I guess they're afraid you'll startle the gators.

[+veloreb]

I'll be starting to "cyclecache" now that the weather has gotten warmer. I just need a handlebar mount for my GPSr.

[Mr.Yuck]

Now there's a zombie bump, last posted to in early 2004. That was before rails to trails power trails, methinks. That being said, I did a 13 mile round trip bike ride on a rails to trails "power trail" with 5 other cachers shortly after power trails were permitted, and in the last 2 Summers, about 7 or 8 mile round trips on different ones solo. By the way, the original intent of the thread, I vote for Cyclecaching.

[+Corfman Clan]

Yep, that's quite the bump!

 

I've always called it geocycling.

[team tisri]

Curious to know if there are many that mountain bike or road bike it to most of their cache finds. I'm new, but I make it a habit of doing all caches by bike. I think it makes it much more interesting, environmentally freindly and adds a sense of adventure a car just doesn't give me. It feels more basic. Anyone have any thoughts? And we need a bicycle emoticon too!

 

Eric, Avid Cyclist

 

<- That's what I look like in the winter commuting to work via bike.

 

I started cycling as a way to strike out further to find more geocaches without having to either drive (parking is a real drag around here) or walk ever-increasing distances. A mountain bike goes just about anywhere (certainly anywhere I could hope to take it), but now I've cleared out so many caches near home the ones that have any interest for me are far enough away that I'd rather not be riding the mountain bike to get to them. The more road-friendly bike is great for getting there faster but not much good off-road.

 

Sometimes I'll still stop to find a cache or two but for the most part these days I can't be bothered to interrupt a good ride in order to try and look inconspicuous while hunting a film pot behind a sign. And a lot of the cache trails I'd like to do are along footpaths so cycling isn't allowed.

[+gpsblake]

I like to do a lot of them by bicycle. Adds to the fun and exercise. You can park closer to the caches then with a car. And if you are doing something like a power trail or shopping center run, it can be quicker to find caches via bike. Parking issues are usually not a problem when cycling to cache. A couple of weeks ago, I was doing a mini power run with a car at the same time and it was a dead heat who got the caches and the car had a driver and a cacher who got out of the passenger seat. He wore me eventually but I did about 30 of them neck and neck with them.

 

My dream which I doubt if I will do, would be to do the E.T. Power trail on a bike, I might try Pennsylvania's L.O.S.T trail or Delaware's canal path this June on bicycle, close to 200 caches I think on each one.

Edited March 30, 2014 by gpsblake

[+.Flo.]

I know several cachers who do almost all of their caching tours by bike. Here in Germany quite a few people don't possess a car, and the roads are very bicycle-friendly (bike paths almost everywhere).

 

I did one tour with a friend a bit further away to a rural area where there's a high cache density with top-notch caches (sort of a high quality power trail). We loaded the bikes onto his car and slept in a tent for two nights. This way we could find as many of those cool caches during that time as possible. It was a great tour except for hundreds of mosquito bites, two ticks, and a bleeding elbow.

 

But I do most of my tours by going somewhere by car and then walking to several caches from where I park. Unfortunately my bike doesn't fit into my small car!

Edited April 5, 2014 by FloGH12

[+Dread_Pirate_Bruce]

II have found more than 1,000 caches while bike-caching on my mountain bike. While many of these are on trails, they are not give-me hides like E.T. You actually have to look for most of them, even if not too terribly hard.

 

My bike-caching is about evenly split between on-road and off-road. I like the bike for off-road because it (1) is fun to ride off-road, and (2) it gets me from cache to cache faster. I like caching while riding because here in Southern California a lot of the trails entail brutal climbs and looking for a cache gives me a rest. I like the bike for urban caching because (1) it minimizes parking problems and (2) the bike provides a "prop" to disguise the fact I'm looking for a cache; I can mess with the tires or the chain and I can always lock it to a post or newspaper machine.

 

Anyone who wants to go bike-caching in SoCal, let me know.