Some Figures

Hi everyone,

This is the last picture I took with my phone on the trip.

So the trip is over, and it's been an adjustment getting back to work.  Pros: indoors, air conditioning, constant access to cold water, comfy seat, I can even out my tan, and I love my job.  Cons: I can't see a window from my seat, I have "real world" responsibilities now, and my mind was still in a go-go-go gear.  But it had to happen sometime!

I haven't conducted a full analysis of the trip yet, but here are some initial top-level figures for you:




Financial

This entire trip cost me $5044.37, which is a necessarily complex figure, but it essentially calculates the exact amount that my bank account was affected.  Some key assumptions:

• it includes the Fuji bike I bought before the Marin sponsorship
• it includes the bike maintenance sponsorship from Allan at Drift
• it includes an equipment redistribution mechanism.  The three of us met to internally auction our common equipment.  Highlights - I took the Garmin and pots, Tyler got the stove, and Kyle got the Vaseline.  We chose not to divide the tent.  

So for $5000, I came away with a bike, a bunch of cycling equipment, one-third of a tent, a Garmin 800, and all expenses along the way.  Factors not included is the monthly food/entertainment/gas that I otherwise would have purchased had I not been cycling, and also the opportunity cost of taking four weeks of unpaid leave.

We went to the Duke the next night, where we celebrated like champions.

It is difficult to estimate, but we would put our Royal Distributing/Marin Bikes/Drift/Holeshot sponsorship at upwards of $2000 each, which included the use of the Lombards, as well as great discounts on lots of the gear, free clothes, expertise, and video and video promotion services.  The key factor in determining the value of the sponsorship is the cost is the bike: we now own bikes that we purchased, but didn't use.  If we continue to ride our bikes, we will realize this full value, but if we don't, then we will have wasted a rusting $1300 investment.

A full breakdown of cost by category is below: as you can see, the bike and it's maintenance are over 40% of the total, and the other equipment (tent, Garmin, clothes, bags, repair equipment) is almost 30%.  Food is prepared food service, and groceries are food we prepared ourselves, including snacks and Gatorade.  Accommodation is largely motels, and transportation was one-third of what we would have otherwise expected, because our St. John's-Vancouver flight was sponsored.  Miscellaneous includes laundry, showers, fees, and recorded but otherwise mysterious expenses.

Bike Stats

I'll upload the full set soon, but here are the big figures:

• Distance: 6813.27km (includes all necessary diversions, but not side trips)
• Average distance: 131km (including rest days), 149km (not including rest days)
• Ascent: 36.6km (796m per day)
• Max daily ascent: 1867m (between Nipigon and Marathon, ON)
• Max daily ascent (per km): 15.4m/1km (Coquihalla)
• Min daily ascent (per km): 0.78m (between Brandon and Winnipeg) 
• Max speed: 69.8km/hr (northwest of Thunder Bay.  Tyler would have broken 70km/hr)
• Average speed: 25.0km/hr (no corrections-total long term average)
• Max daily avg speed: 30.2km/hr without panniers (between Thunder Bay and Nipigon), 30.1km/hr with panniers (from Regina to Whitewood, big tailwind)
• Calories: 213,731 (if you include the BMR, then we are just past 300K)

Health/Energy/Weight

Strictly from the 300,000 calories metric, we could have eaten 8 Big Macs per day for the entire trip.  Or 1.2kg of trail mix per day.  Either way.

Kyle gained 10lbs over the trip, and Tyler also gained a few.  I did not notice a change in weight.  There are a few speculative explanations, including that I ate the least.


Map 

I will follow up with a detailed map of highlights, stops, and pictures, but in the mean-time, here is our exact route.  Again, the Fredericton-Moncton day was lost, but the Baumans can vouch for us, that we did it!

Click here for the interactive version.

The main route considerations:

• You can't take the Trans Canada in much of lower mainland BC, so we had to detour through Chilliwack.  If you zoom in on that region, you will see the moment we decided to turn around.  It was a brief moment of conflict within the group, but we quickly moved past it.  
• We took the 5 from Hope to Merritt.  There are three difficult ways to reach the Rockies, and this was the Coquihalla route.  
• From Merritt to Kamloops, we opted for the 5A.
• Trans Canada pretty much all the way from Kamloops BC to Espanola ON.  Notes:
• We took the 1A from Banff to Calgary - highly recommended.
• We went through Regina, not Saskatoon
• In Kenora, we decided to take the northern TransCan route through Dryden (Hwy 11)
• We chose not to avoid the big hills near Sault Ste-Marie, which was an option.
• Once we left the Trans Canada in Espanola, we took Hwy 6 south through Manitoulin Island, across the Chi-Cheemaun, and past Tobermory.  
• We diverted to the 10 to stop near Flesherton, and followed the 6 to Guelph.  We took the Maryhill backroads to get to Waterloo.  

More soon!