Not Nick
I thought I was a bit of a Luddite about fancy, new bicycle equipment, but Nick Lubecki has me beat by many, many miles.
Lubecki writes about his style of bicycling touring in the April issue of Dirt Rag magazine. He tours on old bicycles, he makes his own panniers or simply straps a milk carton to a rear rack, and he feeds the machine on high-fat food that he often finds in dumpsters.
Don't spend thousands of dollars on a new bike and gear. Adjustments can probably be made to that bicycle you ride every day, and a lot of the gear you already have around the house, he writes.
Here's how he made panniers:
“I went to Goodwill and picked up a set of messenger-style bags for $4 and then rode to the hardware store and got four carabiners. I hooked the carabiners around the handles of the bags and then hooked that to my front rack.”
He's mounted a basic backpack on his rear bike rack with bungee cords he found at the side of the road.
As for biking nutrition, Lubecki recommends “eating like a fat person.” A person burns up carbs first, then goes after the fat. Unless you're trying to loss weight, eating a typical American high-fat content diet restores that weight.
So far, I'm right with Lubecki. I'd have to draw the line at his method of finding high-fat food.
“…America is blessed with a huge endowment of high-fat food, a large portion of which is available for free, if you know where to look. I start at the dumpster.
“Dumpster-diving for food is fairly straight-forward. Bakeries throw away doughnuts, bagels and pastries; pizza shops toss pizza; grocery store dumpsters have a little bit of everything ranging from fresh fruits and vegetables to pastries and even ice cream. It is possible, especially east of the Mississippi, to tour while eating entirely out of dumpsters.”
Maybe if you're selective, this can be perfectly safe. There are many articles online about dumpster diving and Freegans.
Lubecki has some other great ideas about bicycling touring. For instance, make your first bicycle tour an overnighter close to home. That way, if anything goes wrong, you don't have far to go. Also, go with a friend on bike tours longer than a week for “social stability.”
Dirt Rag also interviewed Lubecki for its online edition, and reports on his methods of collecting and preparing road kill. Dumpster diving suddenly sounds good.
Via Adventure Cycling Association “Bike Bits” newsletter (free sign-ups)
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