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Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options
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I am looking at new job opportunities and most of them have roughly 50-75% travel time and I need bike options. The swim and run are easier to fit in during work travel, but hotel gym bikes are not a viable option. What are my options for an easy to check (read: no bike box) bike frame? I see that the Ritchey Breakaway is a viable option and I like the custom case they have but what other options do I have? S&S couplers are out due to the cost and time it would take to get a custom frame made.
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [ironcode] [ In reply to ]
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [ironcode] [ In reply to ]
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First off 50-75% is a huge difference and in my experience companies/recruiters typically undershoot the travel number. With that said I was doing 50-60% and realized biking while traveling is just not feasible so i would do bulk of biking Fri-Mon and maybe hit a spin bike at the gym during the week. If you are going to the same place all the time you could buy and extra bike and have your company or a hotel store it for you.

Truthfully thought if you are doing this for the money.....dont it is not worth it on many levels but that is coming from a person who has discovered I despise travel and have a family.

Good luck to you and I wish you the best.
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [ironcode] [ In reply to ]
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Is the 50-75% all requiring flights? Consider assembly and disassembly/packing will likely take up an hour or so. Also, consider the time to find routes near where your lodging is, and the daylight left, depending on the daily work schedule. I speak from limited travel, but they are long days when I do for tradeshows or otherwise. That said, I have frame going off for powdercoating that just had couplers installed. I found a used steel frame for cheap. Total cost with all new components, couplers, and frame will be ~$1500.

One other option might be just pick up a hen house, deal with the checked bag charge, since the company covers travel, and move on. Without having to deal with the couplers, you would save a bit a time as well.
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [fat] [ In reply to ]
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Yes, there is a lot of travel, I currently have done it in the past but I wasn't riding during that time. Are Hen House bags that good?
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [ironcode] [ In reply to ]
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Keep in mind the hen house bags are soft cases, be it with plastic framing. they have worked for me so far.

There will be wear, depending on how much you load them, how many connections you have, etc. The biggest hassle with the hen house is (IMO), the level of disassembly required - dropping the fork, having to adjust the headset, along with removing the rear d hanger, pedals, seatpost, and stem/handlebars.

I think I've used my hen house for 2 trips with my road bike, and 2 vacation trips with my fatbike. Note, if you are thinking about using a hen house for a fatbike frame, 170 rear spacing may be the limit, and also, the smaller the frame, the better.
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [ironcode] [ In reply to ]
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I have a hen house that I am very happy with. I typically fedex it though because dragging it through an airport is a real pain but if I have to I have no qualms about flying with it.

Will you be traveling to the same destinations over and over again? That makes things a lot easier. Personally I would

1) Buy Powertap P1/s pedals
2) Find a gym/hotel gym that has high quality bikes (and put the pedals on)
3) Rent a bike if I had a half day or was staying over the weekend and use the powertap pedals
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [ironcode] [ In reply to ]
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Surprised Dev hasn't chimed in yet. He must be traveling at the moment.
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [ironcode] [ In reply to ]
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I have a Dahon, but I may get one of these. My Dahon is a great ride, and I assume the Bike Friday would be as well.

https://www.bikefriday.com/...bikes/pocket-rocket/
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [ironcode] [ In reply to ]
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Get yourself a Brompton. Those fold up nice and each and fit into a backpack and ride surprisingly well.
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [ironcode] [ In reply to ]
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I had a Bike Friday Pocket Rocket some years ago for exactly this purpose. Was very happy with the bike, could replicate my road position on it, and it rode decently well. It only took me 10 minutes each to unpack/assemble or disassemble/pack, and the included hardshell travel case was both durable and small enough so as to not incur extra fees. The company was great to deal with as well, I'd buy another if I still had to travel extensively for work.
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [ironcode] [ In reply to ]
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My job required travel, and I built a bike just for that. I got the Ritchey BreakAway frame set and built it. Comes with dedicated luggage and padding. Worked well for me... never had to pay bike fees from airlines, and allowed me to have a real road bike that I could trust when travelling.

If you build it with a SRAM ETAP groupset, setup would be even faster than my rig (cable couplers... often need small tweaks after building the bike.

---------------------------------
T. Guertin / Spocket
Last edited by: spocket: Mar 18, 17 15:07
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [spocket] [ In reply to ]
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Google S and S couplers. I had the exact same set up, new job lots of travel, so I had a buddy build a custom Merlin frame up with couplers and for me and it all fits in a nice box that is under the air line limit so I never pay fee's. Worked great, cable spliters (which could go wireless now) and the ride is a normal ti frame with normal wheels. No compromise. 20-30 minutes to tear down and build up. That was then, I stopped traveling and still ride the machine but am selling it now as I run more then ride. Travel safe.
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [hueby416] [ In reply to ]
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hueby416 wrote:
First off 50-75% is a huge difference and in my experience companies/recruiters typically undershoot the travel number. With that said I was doing 50-60% and realized biking while traveling is just not feasible so i would do bulk of biking Fri-Mon and maybe hit a spin bike at the gym during the week. If you are going to the same place all the time you could buy and extra bike and have your company or a hotel store it for you.

Truthfully thought if you are doing this for the money.....dont it is not worth it on many levels but that is coming from a person who has discovered I despise travel and have a family.

Good luck to you and I wish you the best.

I did 20-35 weeks of travel per year for 10+ years in my last job. All the travel was either to Europe, or Asia or West Coast from my East Coast base. So almost all long haul. For the first few years it was interesting, but I have to say that you should not do it for the money. Do it only if the specific work travel interests you in terms of cultural exposure or other professional challenges that you want to achieve in your career. Being away from family and friends for that much time truly sucks and I'd have to say that I had the routine down as good as any biz traveller, I qualified for Kona 3x during this period and did a lot of racing. I got used to it and had some phenomenal business experience as well as cultural ones. I would not trade 4 of those years for anything. The other 6-7 were just like being on a treadmill at 10+ mph trying to stay on the deck and not get spit out of the back. Now that I am in something different, only now do I really appreciate how awesome it is to be in a job where you "get" to be home most of the time....and if you want to travel, just spend your money and do what you want, not be forced to do other stuff just because of work.

OK having cleared all that up, I would say Mon-Fri, focus on bike-bike-bike and as much swimming as you can can. If you can delay your travel on Monday morning (no one "really" knows when you travel and if you are a road warrior don't worry about work hours because no one knows when you are working, they are just checking your results) and can leave early afternoon for your destination, that opens up more swim-bike time. On the road, run as much as you can. Ask the guys here at ST about which pools to use where you go. ST is an amazing resource for good pools. You'll get the dirt on all the logistics of the pools and then try to book a hotel close to the best pools that are not far from where you have to go to work and then for business if you can, don't book any meetings till after 10 am. Honestly if you have to see customers or partners, no one wants to see you at 8 am or 9 am as they are just getting to work. After 10 am is fine. Then whatever time zone you are in, wake up at 5 am no matter how jetlagged and get your coffee and oatmeal in and hit the training hard. You get a 6- 9 am block and then 1 hour to change and commute to your first meeting and if you can leave after 9 am, traffic is better....you already devoted a ton of personal time commuting away from home....don't be a martyr and enter the commuter traffic at your destination.
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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I would add that running steep 15% grade slow speed treamill hills are an awesome stand in for no biking on the road. I'd run some of those every day on the road at the hotel gyms and bike would always be strong even if I lost 2 full weeks on the bike. I would also add 20 min on hotel gym bike if reasonable....5 min warmup then 15x(45 seconds super hard-15 second cruise). Between treadmill hills and short hotel bike intensity workouts, you can maintain a lot of bike fitness.
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [ironcode] [ In reply to ]
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Agree with loading up when home. I travel 35-40 weeks/yr for work. Not international, but fly out Monday, fly back thrs pm.

For me, this means stacking bike work Friday/ Saturday/ Sunday. I move my long runs to midweek when I am onsite for work, either hotel or outside. The logistics of bringing a bike and finding time to ride during limited daylight after time onsite with customer make it not worth the hassle. You can pile on a pretty big bike block over 3/4 days when you are home.

But the actual difference between moving to a midweek long run at 2 hours vs :45 or 1:00 for a standard tues or wed run is minimally disruptive while traveling and frees up your weekend to bike long back-to-back.

It also means that weeks where I don't travel become big bike weeks where I will ride 5 or 6 times to give a big boost. Am I biking as well as if I could evenly space my bikes throughout the week? Probably not. But you should operate in terms of what is possible/sustainable.

I have a rotation of 3 or 4 cities I travel to, so storing a bike is not an option. I have P1s and will sometimes rent a bike if I stay the weekend in a place like California or Arizona during the winter. Good luck with the job, OP!
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [ironcode] [ In reply to ]
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If you will consistently not be able to find nice pools, pick up one of these guys (https://www.kiefer.com/...-374.php?page_id=237). It's like a dreadmill for swimming. Best done wih paddles and a buoy to keep sane. If you have a garmin or simple timex im watch, set intervals and do your swims that way. It's so much different than pool swimming, but I reckon it's good practice for OWS (no walls).

You can certainly travel with a bike, but I guarantee you will absolutely get sick of building/tearing it down and (worse yet) standing in line to check it and doing your best to disguise it as "not a bike". Focus on running and gym-work when you travel, along with stationary swimming, and hit the bike at home. Sure, you might lose some power and speed on the bike, but when compared to swimming, you don't lose nearly as much when you go 3-5 days between sessions.

What airline will you be flying? If this is a driving job, everything changes.

"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [boobooaboo] [ In reply to ]
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Also, don't underestimate trying to find USMS teams and run clubs when you're away.

"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5
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Re: Possible new jobs, lots of travel, bike options [robin, run] [ In reply to ]
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I do exactly that. Find a hotel with a gym that would allow me to swap their pedals for my P1s (some gyms are kinda dicks about it). Works fairly well, I usually get 1-2 1 hr spins per day. Spin studios also work but are more expensive and often have more a douchey clientele.

Next races on the schedule: none at the moment
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