Mini Scorch : NJ->Liberty Bell : Part 1 - Plannin and preppin

ring my liberty bell

I've ridden all over Staten Island and Brooklyn and last year I even put in a 30miler in Jacksonville, but I have yet to ride in NJ, the Garden state, let alone Pennsylvania even though I am bicycle crazy, been living here all my life and a quick bridge ride away. I honestly don't know why I haven't thought of it before! Originally I had a thought about doing a Staten Island to the end of NJ cycle down the Jersey coast which would be about 150miles or so and then take a rented car back up. It would turn in to a 2 or 3 nighter, probably a 3 day weekend, but my bicyclists in arms dont have those days to take. My wife and bro/sis in law had shorter plans in mind, so my initial plan was scrapped and a new one was born!

The new plan is to drive to Colonial park in NJ and ride down the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park Trail for about 45% of the ride and then NJ/PA streets to the Liberty Bell and some smooth cheese steaks. A link to the  http://www.dandrcanal.com. You can also find a lot of info on the canal and other links on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_and_Raritan_Canal

Here is version 6 or 7 of the route to the right. I have been tweaking it every day. Trimming the miles,

Plotaroute version: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/369821

ronnies bike - currently outfitted with 26x1.5s

So now that the route is pretty much set, I bought a new bike for my wife, well an old trek i need to clean/grease and spruce up with new bars, we have the hotel prep, some site seeing to plan out and the actual cycle training to work on!

With the 2 day total being 110 or so miles, the canal ride is a bit offroad/soil/grass and the remainder is streets, im going to see if we can get 1.5" width tires on the bikes for a bit more speed. I road 1.95" in India and I think a 1.5 would have been ok and reduced the overall effort. The roads in India were quite good, and I am hoping the garden state can measure up, but it is NJ so you never know :)

I am going to need to work on the packing of the bikes as well. Again it is only an overnight trip, so the packing is going to be extremely light and i am going to try as minimalist as possible approach. The plan is to carry mine and Veronica's packs on my rear rack, tools and stuff in the toptube pack and nothing on the handlebars, i hate it because i have cantelever brakes and it rubs on the center pull brake line. The top tube frame bag will be one of my next projects, which i hope is completed before the trip. Will have two compartments to segregate to hold tools, cameras, snacks and some misc items. I will do a post on the creation of my first pack.

The dates are for the end of June. Lets do this NJ/PA!! :)