Did I do what I set out to do? I say “yes.”
- Drove ~270 miles but did get rid of the car mid-trip
- Took two ~10-mile Lyft rides to/from Santa Barbara.
- Connected to and from Amtrak and across LA without a car of my own or a ride
- Did all trips to and from work, and to the airport, by foot and bike
- ~18 miles of biking, probably 1 or 2 of running/walking
What might I do differently next time?
- Have a little more confidence in my legs and tires–I was overly concerned about the bike (or me) crapping out riding around Santa Barbara but there was enough rest time and opportunity for me to fix the bike if I needed to. I’ve come off a rough stretch of flats lately, so I was extra cagey and really didn’t want to have a dead bike in LA since the point of the trip was to bike in LA. Still, I could have done this without the Lyfts.
- The B-bag seems like a decent way to protect the Brompton. I’ve often considered bringing it on board as detailed on the internet (examples here and here) but don’t mind checking it. Given the amount of stuff I’m traveling with, I would need to check something anyway. Open question on whether I’d feel better about bringing it on board for the trip out–driving happily avoided that question and the attendant worrying about whether the bike would be too broken to use upon arrival.
- Lashing the B-bag to the touring bag–I used a single bungee cord that I have laying around the house but I bet there’s a better way to do it.
- Rear rack on the Brompton? Definitely would have been nice if I could have wheeled it around in “luggage cart” mode with the giant load on the front. Still, I’ve gone 10 years without it so not sure if it would be worth the hassle. Thinking a frame bag or something tied to the bbbr platform would do the job just as well.
Zaiserama 