Finances

Ok, so I'm going to talk about my budget:

Using my ride as the example, I'm going to work through how I've figured out how much to save, and how much to spend each day and how to know i'm going to be able to afford not working for 3.5 months and going on a bike tour.

When I make a budget, I always do it in a numbers/excel/google spread sheet.

One column is current money held, + any income expected while on the ride

And the other column is know expenses before the ride
And the last column is known/expected expenses during the ride
The other important thing to know is the number or days you will be riding.

I've got about $4000 saved. I hope to spend less than this because at my current living standard, I spend about $1300 per month just being me in portland. I think life is cheaper when you're on bike tour.  Your rent is the camp sites or occasional motel. We're going to use warm showers whenever we can and sleep in people's back yards and in random places in the forest. When we do pay for a camp site, it will be spilt between 4 people and from my research, camps sites go from a high of $30 to a low of $12, with hiker biker sites at $4. I think I will certainly spend less that $5 a day on average for accommodation.

Food, food's weird. I'm assuming there will be 15 days where I am fed by other people/means. Maybe I'm cutting it too close, maybe I should just budget for the whole time. It's just that I know there are at least 15 days, where I will be fed without having to shell out cash. There's bikebike which I've already paid for, family which will feed me, and I've still got a lot of food in portland that I plan on eating and or shipping to myself along the way (see general mail post). I'm assuming I will spend $10 a day on food. It doesn't really allow for eating out, or $10 breakfasts which are so much fun. But this is about what I average in Portland, and I drink a lot of coffee here and eat out at least 3 times a week. I can't imagine doing that much while riding through the Yukon. The last month of the tour will be the place where I spend the most on food, we'll probably start dipping into other funds if they look like they have extra.

The things I have to buy before I go are pretty obvious and clear. Although, given how close my expected expenses are to my income, with only $324 as the difference. I really wonder about the $175 bike fitting... Of course, what will really make me more happy, 100 days of riding in just the right position, or 3 nights out of drinking and dinner... (or other means of measuring the pleasure of $175...)

Either way, it's nice to have the numbers to show me where I'm at. Many of the "expenses" are guesses and for safe measure. There is always the possibility of falling behind schedule, and needing to take a bus or other transportation to make up time. And there is bike repair, which, so far, knock on wood, I've never needed while on bike tour. But knocking on wood doesn't really work so maybe this tour will be the one. Yet I've already bought extra tubes, chain, break pads, extra spokes, cables and duct tape... I think i'm ok, so long as my de-railer doesn't bust.

And of course there is always the "unknown unknown" which has, without fail, always come up on a bike tour. All in all, I have about $500 of my budget, or 20% of expected expenses, is for emergency. I feel good about this. And i've even budgeted for a bit of fun and alcohol!

The interesting thing for me will be to see how closely I stick to this budget, and seeing where I mess up. Previous experience has taught me to put in the emergency funding for transportation and accommodation. And when I look at it, I've budgeted for $23 per day. That's totally doable. I was touring in Japan for $25/day and that shits expensive. Of course, I didn't really do anything but ride my bike and eat and sleep in the woods, but, this tour won't be too different.

hmm. Last thing, keeping score.
It's important to track of your spending. This is the only way to stay on budget.
I tend to cary around a small little book of paper, and I write down everything I spend. It not only helps with budget but it's also a great way to remember what you did on a given day.

Here's a sample, (not from a cheap trip :(
But a fun one!

anyhow, keeping track is one of the most important things for budgeting. If you've set a reasonable budget, and you don't seem to be able to keep with it. It means two possible things, you made a bad budget, which you should learn from and fix, and find more money or shorten your trip. or you are spending too much, and you need to reign yourself in.

I'll let you know how I go in the end.

general mail

So I discovered the other day "General Mail"

This is where one can mail the post office a box, put general mail on it, and then the post office will hold it there for 30 days!

So, I can send myself boxes and care packages to Anchorage, Fair banks, and even tiny towns like Tok.

Apparently this is how the PCT people do it (Pacific Crest Trail).

I'm so excited.  This is a glorious service that the post office gives that speaks to an older time, with a smaller population.  If more people used this, it wouldn't be possible.  And in other ways it reminds me of the library.  the Library has a lot of awesome possibilities, and I think it currently give great services.  It's likes a free university.  It's sad that it's not more used.  And also, libraries should lend out more than just books.

There's a lot of potential there.  Bike collectives remind me of libraries.  And it's funny that there are now web starts ups that pop up and enable sharing, and lending, and the reality is that they are fulling the role of the library.  Why is the library failing to do these things.  To re-invent itself.

If I become a philanthropies.  I will work on reinventing libraries.

Plans are just directional suggestions

I made plans three years ago,

to ride my bike from Anchorage Alaska, down to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.  My plans have since changed...

Eh, there's a lot of things that happen in three years.  But I'm still going to ride, to LA.

I had hoped to tour all the bicycle collectives along the west coast, teaching and learning, and finding out what makes bike collectives so interesting.  I still plan on doing this.  But since then, I've found and participated in this cool little thing called BikeBike! and I realize that this conference does more then I could have hoped to do.  And rather than try to reinvent/recreate what bikebike does, I'd rather just build upon bikebike.  I'm going this year to bikebike in Vancouver, and I'm tasking myself with the job of documenting it.  So that all that is taught and learned, is not forgotten.

But i'm still going to go on this ride, and I'm still going to visit a lot of bike collectives,

So this time, I'm still going to teach and learn, but not in the same way i was originally thinking.  This new plan is to re-teach some of the lessons I have learned at bikebike, and also, to teach bike collectives about bikebike, and all the many resources that are available them.  And if I happen upon a collective which is well aware of all the resources, then I will take it as an opportunity to learn.  

It's not too much of a variation from the original plan, but it's a lot more focused.

    

I haven't written for a while,

I'm hung over now, which is usually a good time for me to ruminate about life.  there is a long lis of things i'm supposed to do, but on that list is also to write about this process.

But everything feels dead today and lethargic.  It's not the write time i know.

anyhow, two weeks
This is my calendar so far:

it's a good list and i'm happy about it.  I believe I will get it all done.

oh man, i've got to go now.

First Touring Set up

On my first tour i rode 450 miles around italy, france and the netherlands.  I took trains and bus to get from country to country and road between cities for a few days at a time.  I did this on a 10 speed shwinn 

here's the probable route from Portland to Seattle

Seattle to Portland Bicycle ClassicShare your bike routes @ Bikely.com

I leave from Portland June 14th. I arrive in Seattle June 16th, I stay there for a day or so collecting more riders and then head up to Vancouver. I haven't figured out the route but it's at least 350 miles which I plan on doing over about 5 days. If this feels like too many miles, we'll leave on the 13th and bump everything forward. I leave from alaska on the 1st of july, up through Fairbanks, and then down to TOK and then through canada. I plan on being in Portland late August or early september, and then I bike down to LA as fast as I can, cause i'll be leaving to go back to Australia at the end of September/early October.