11. Lessons from our van trip

We're home after our two week van trip - but there is no rest for the weary! Before we put up our feet and unpack the van,  we discuss our trip, including how we travel with our dog, meal prep when the fridge is broken, working through bad wifi and other frequently asked questions.

We also share details details about our self-built Sprinter van – a 2021 160 High Roof – including why she is lighter than your average Sprinter build out (but certainly not light), what we have planned and why the “side wind assist” was incredibly helpful on the trip home.

We wrap up with our “Seen While Scrolling” segment with Steve sharing the potential of Intense’s “Frame First” program.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:04

This is Kristen.

SPEAKER_00: 0:06

And this is Steve, and you were listening to Cycling Together, a show about all things bikes, riding, and riding together.

SPEAKER_01: 0:12

And we're home.

SPEAKER_00: 0:14

We are back from the trip.

SPEAKER_01: 0:16

Two-week road trip done. We've been home for a couple of hours, and I, being the taskmaster that I am, just dragged your tired butt off the off the couch to get some content.

SPEAKER_00: 0:29

Yes. Come on, let's go to the podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 0:31

Two things. I want to get the content. Well, it's fresh, right? Before we decommission the van, if I need any pictures, but also it's like fresh in our heads. Yeah. That's the biggest. It's fresh in our heads. So um since the last episode, we actually didn't most of the activity of our trip was really the first week.

SPEAKER_00: 0:52

Yeah, so this was, I mean, we're we're gonna kind of talk here about the second part of our our trip, which does not actually include a lot of riding, but um I think there's interest in there's also of course there's interest in in vans and van trips and and ours and our mountain our our our our bike-centric van that we have built, right?

SPEAKER_01: 1:11

So this show is gonna be mostly about the van. For the second week, our trip was largely heading back home, right? So we turnaround from South Carolina, we went to Raleigh where your family lives, um, had some really good days there where you could help your mom with a bunch of stuff, we could visit your sister, so that was really good. Yep. Um, and then and we only got one ride in, unfortunately, but yeah, with but they have such a lovely trail there.

SPEAKER_00: 1:40

Um Yeah, I really wanted to do a ride, uh a gravel ride at Olmsted Um Park. Um and I think the day we had to do that, it ended up being a really lousy day. Um with with um oh thunderstorms and uh tornado watches and so forth. But okay.

SPEAKER_01: 1:56

So yeah, so then we started heading home on Thursday from Raleigh, stopped in Washington, outside of Washington, the Adulles for the Air and Space Museum they have there. Yep, totally recommend. I want to get that right, but uh free to get in, not free to park, so that's how they get you on that one. Yeah, um, but so cool. They had a full-on Concord in there, they had a space shuttle in there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:30

The SR71 Blackbird.

SPEAKER_01: 2:31

They had the Enola Gay in there, which apparently your fa your grandfather was was a navigator on rotated through a crew. He had actually flown that plane, but not on the flights, not on the mission, on the mission, but that was very cool for you to see. I'm still uh astounded by any of these like original planes, spaceships that anyone thought it was a good idea to get in them. And then we started heading home. That is about what did we say? That was about eight hours from Dulles to our house, would have been eight hours. Yes. And so we faced that tricky moment of do you push through?

SPEAKER_00: 3:10

After driving four and a half, five to get there.

SPEAKER_01: 3:14

Yeah, yeah. Do you push through? And you were like, what do you want to do? I'm like, dude, I I'm just sitting here. Like, I I don't really feel like I have an opinion on this one. But then as we started driving, we were gonna get home around midnight. It was so windy.

SPEAKER_00: 3:30

The whole trip. So if like the I think if you live on the East Coast these past couple days, yeah, uh, Wednesday or Thursday and today, Friday, just crazy wind.

SPEAKER_01: 3:41

Wind advisory is the the the big rigs were getting blown all about, and so we did finally we made the call to spend one more night on the road. I feel like this is a checkoff that you gotta do as a van lifer. We slept in the parking lot of a cracker barrel.

SPEAKER_00: 3:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 3:57

You gotta do it.

SPEAKER_00: 3:59

And and I saying that again, I would do it again. Like a similar situation where you're like, yeah, let's just stop for the night and continue the next day.

unknown: 4:07

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01: 4:07

They had dedicated see again, thing I did not even realize. They had dedicated parking in the back for RVs. There was an RV there, another van pulled up during the night. So um, who knew? It was great. And then we had breakfast the next morning before hit at Cracker Bell before hitting the road again. Um, so talk you want to talk about that wind? Talk about that wind. There was a wind advisory.

SPEAKER_00: 4:33

Yeah, it was like 20 to 30 miles per hour with 50 mile per hour gusts. Yes. And so, I mean, it was it was a situation where driving there would be the I don't say there would be times. It was almost seemed like the entire time where if I just wanted to take one hand off the wheel and take a sip of a drink, you you couldn't, you didn't even feel like you could do that. Right. You didn't feel like you could take both hands off the wheel. Right. Because you're gonna get a s like a sudden gust and you're gonna get pushed off the road. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 5:05

And the and the van has crosswind assist technology in it to help. We actually found a video, I'll put a link in the show notes, that showed a sprinter with crosswind assist and without, and without the van got knocked into the next one.

SPEAKER_00: 5:23

Yeah, it basically it it pops the brakes on the side to to to pull the van back towards the side of the wind. Right. So if you get if a if you have a uh whi wind coming from the left and it pushes you right, it will break the left to pull the van back into the lane. And it and it was firing off. It it must have fired off 200 times on the way home. I mean, nonstop.

SPEAKER_01: 5:49

And there was the the moment we drove through a section, it said high wind area, and we were like, no.

SPEAKER_00: 5:54

Oh yeah, and those so but with the high winds, and then you get to a high wind area, and that was even worse. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 6:00

It was really and that's why we decided to stop Thursday night, because you I could tell you were fatigued. It you know, you could depend on it. It takes a toll. You were turning your wrist, you were yeah, it and I just had a bad feeling that was high concentration driving. Yeah, and I had a bad feeling if we didn't stop just a couple of hours later, you would have deep regrets about that versus like let's find a spot, let's let's snuggle in. I mean, it it has it it had its challenges that stop, and we will get to it. But let's um let's actually share some stats on the van, some info on the van. Okay. Um, and for the record, for anyone, we do have when we're we've been building out this van, we do have some videos we call STBG van antics on YouTube. We'll link to them. But this is uh 2021.

SPEAKER_00: 6:45

2021.

SPEAKER_01: 6:46

Yep. Sprinter.

SPEAKER_00: 6:47

Sprinter 170 wheelbase. Okay. Um, not the they make a 170 extended. Yes. That's not the extended, those are fairly rare.

SPEAKER_01: 6:56

But she big. Yeah, but she's big, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:58

So it's a long it is the longer wheelbase. Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 7:00

High roof.

SPEAKER_00: 7:01

High roof.

SPEAKER_01: 7:01

Yep. So that we can stand inside because you are 6'1 and that would have been icky. And she is not diesel. She's a four-cylinder gas engine.

SPEAKER_00: 7:11

It is a four-cylinder gas engine, which they have discontinued now. Okay. Came out in 2019. I I have a feeling that dealers didn't order the gas engine. There was only sort of fleet vehicles, and we did get this from a company that did fleet. Yes. Um, and that when people, and I think maybe when people heard four-cylinder gas in such a large vehicle, they said, Well, that's that's ridiculous. I'm not getting that.

SPEAKER_01: 7:37

I don't think people even knew. I mean, when people ask us about this if it's diesel, and you say gas, they they look genuinely surprised.

SPEAKER_00: 7:43

Yeah, because most sprinters are diesel. Yeah. Um, even though they were four or six-cylinder diesel, so they did have a four, and they still have and that's what all they have now is a four-cylinder diesel. Oh, okay. Um, but it's got a higher output. Um, but we did drive both. We've drove a V6 diesel, and then we drove this, and once we drove this, it was it was wow, this does not feel any less powerful than that V6 diesel. And in fact, it has the exact same horsepower, it has less torque. Um but it's um it is it is plenty torque enough.

SPEAKER_01: 8:19

So and when we got it, it was it was bare, no, no windows. No, no, no, no, no. Just a bare cargo van. Um, so it's been it's been built out. So we talked about the challenge of we'll even say the first night and the last night. So when we were building out, we kept talking about whether or not it needed a heater, diesel heater, or any heater in it. And I think we kind of were like, oh, we'll see. We'll s I think we've decided it needs a heater.

SPEAKER_00: 8:44

We have. We definitely had more of this. It's a fair weather travel vehicle. Yes. And not, you know, so it that was sort of lower on the list to put a heater in.

SPEAKER_01: 8:55

And we didn't get to it before this.

SPEAKER_00: 8:57

Oh, and I and I actually bought the heater and then I had some reluctancy and some decision making on on what kind of heater, and then so if you have a diesel engine sprinter, it comes with a a secondary tap, fuel tap on the gas tank, on the fuel fuel tank. Yeah. So that you can put in a heater and just tap right into the to the main tank.

SPEAKER_01: 9:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 9:24

The gas ones don't have that. And you can you can do that. You can get a gas, a gas uh heater and and tap into the fuel tank, but I decided I decided to go with a diesel heater. They're a little safer in Comregards. And the gas ones are really expensive. If we were to get, we got a fairly inexpensive diesel heater, and the gas ones um are you you need to get a really good one, one of the German ones. And um, and they are definitely more expensive. But um then I then I just was trying to decide where to put the separate diesel tank. Yeah. And um I finally came up with a solution, which we'll do when we install it. But but the winter has been so cold. I was waiting, I had to drill holes to the bottom of the van for the for the ports, and I need to paint those, and I was just hoping for a couple days of 45 degree weather, which we would normally had, and it never came this winter.

SPEAKER_01: 10:17

Exactly. So I mean we may do. So when we had shore power, which means we could plug into an outside outlet outlet, um, you had bought a little heater.

SPEAKER_00: 10:29

I just bought a little space heater.

SPEAKER_01: 10:30

Yeah, a little space heater, worked great. Worked it has a thermostat, so it would turn on and off. There were times literally where I was so hot. Like I was like, he's never turning that off. What is going on? And I think you said it was because it was angled in a way that we were warm, but the front of the van was cool, so the thermostat in it thought it was still cold.

SPEAKER_00: 10:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 10:51

So it kept I was like, I'm dying back here.

SPEAKER_00: 10:54

The back of the van in our elevated bed area sort of trapped, it's it's very well insulated and it sort of trapped all the heat that it generated. Yep. And just and then sort of we could have baked up there if it was set at two too high.

SPEAKER_01: 11:07

But that thing is a power hog. So when we on the first night and the last night, when we were boondocking and we didn't have outside power, we couldn't use it. And this is where I'm gonna give you credit for the most brilliant idea. We would only do it in two hours, which was an electric blanket with a cart.

SPEAKER_00: 11:25

A twelve actually we got a twelve volt electric blanket. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 11:28

And then you plugged it, we have a second battery power station, you just plugged it into that, and that was just the right amount of warmth on top of us. Not the most comfortable night. I mean, Daisy in particular was a little chilly. But we got it through. We didn't freeze. We didn't turn into popsicles.

SPEAKER_00: 11:46

So I thought that was well, we were warm enough under the blankets. Your hands.

SPEAKER_01: 11:49

I was very cozy. You could wear a hat. It's a blanket for your head.

SPEAKER_00: 11:53

Yeah, I but I actually slept pretty well.

SPEAKER_01: 11:55

I slept great. Daisy, as I said, Daisy, who's not under the blankets, she had the most I think she was the most uncomfortable. Unsettled. Unsettled. She was just up about a lot.

SPEAKER_00: 12:06

But yeah, she was probably hot on one side on top of the electric blanket and freezing on the other side. I don't understand what I let's face it, she's a pampered dog.

SPEAKER_01: 12:15

So But now we understand. And she's old. Uh now we understand. Now we we've definitively excited to get that heater in. Yes. I think that's a good one.

SPEAKER_00: 12:23

Yes, the heater is going in.

SPEAKER_01: 12:25

Awesome. Let's talk about food.

SPEAKER_00: 12:28

Mmm.

SPEAKER_01: 12:28

So we lost our we didn't have a fridge.

SPEAKER_00: 12:32

We didn't. So we have a fridge. I we hadn't run the fridge since I think October. Yeah. And so we have an Indel B Cruise 86 fridge, and we hadn't run it since October. And when we when we left the house, it was probably 20 degrees here. And it had been in the tw no look higher than the 20s. So it was cold in the fridge. Two months. So it was cold in the fridge.

SPEAKER_01: 12:55

And turned on the fridge, fridge is cold.

SPEAKER_00: 12:57

Yep. Yep. Turned on the fridge, put up packed it full of food, and left on our trip. And sort of every that that fridge, because it's insulated, and because we weren't yet out of the full cold as we headed down south, it just got a little warmer each day, but not like you but I think by day two, you're kind of like, hmm. I don't know. And then by three, day three, you're like, yeah, okay, this is not something's wrong.

SPEAKER_01: 13:23

If anything, there were moments where it was colder in this banquet. Like if I had put milk in the banquet, yeah, like the lower drawers in the cabin.

SPEAKER_00: 13:34

All everything low in the van was colder.

SPEAKER_01: 13:36

Fridge. Like the fridge was warm. And I was like, we should just start storing stuff out. I mean the only bummer of that was not the so the plan, the reason we wanted to bummer. It is a bummer. It's a bummer. Um the cost justification is we're not gonna eat out, right? We're gonna bring our food and we're gonna and we still did. We still cooked a lot, both because a lot of the food we brought was shelf stable. Like I brought pasta and um, you know, a jar of spaghetti sauce, and I could make that in one pot. Right. And then we had a couple things we had. The biggest challenge was our spoiled dog who has fresh food.

SPEAKER_00: 14:14

We sort of have a uh a rice and vegetable um dish that we do, and then we were able to do that.

SPEAKER_01: 14:18

Yeah, so just more trips to the grocery store. Yeah, just more trips to the grocery store. A couple of things for dinner each night, so still less expensive. We use, for those who are interested, we have two cooking options. We have a single burner induction cooktop that plugs in, so it's not not in the counter. I have seen people who put it in the counter. I think that's a terrible idea because it's glass and so ours comes in and out. And then for outside cooking, we have a collect camping. Yeah, cold and two burner two burner propane. That's just nice to have two burners.

SPEAKER_00: 14:51

Yeah, and that's and that's slim and light, and um that works really well at the campsite.

SPEAKER_01: 14:56

Yeah. And then from a from a just you said it at one point, you're like, these pots are great. I bought pots that have the clip-on um handles so that they stack and they so we'll put links to all of these things, but I think the the pots are fantastic. They're fantastic, for you know, and and they're nonstick ceramic, so they're easier to clean, which is also good when you have limited water or that water is cold. So it's nice to just wipe them out.

SPEAKER_00: 15:25

Yeah, so we also had an issue with the water. Yes, we're right. So since I wasn't able to turn on the water because it was so cold, yeah. We we filled up the tank like literally two minutes before we left for the trip. I was like, okay, let's throw water in the tank from I I turned on the outdoor faucets, we put water in the tank, then turn the outdoor faucets back off from the inside. Yep. And and then we didn't want to run the water pump until we got out of the freezing weather. Yeah. Because the the the water in the in the tank is not gonna freeze that fast. It's a it's a mass of water. But now you run it through all these small lines, and then that could freeze um that first one or two nights when we were still below freezing. So we didn't want to turn the water on. And we did a couple like two days later, we turned the water on and we got just a trickle coming out of it.

SPEAKER_01: 16:15

And you went, that didn't sound right.

SPEAKER_00: 16:17

And uh the pump was clearly trying to run, but we just couldn't get water to come out. Yeah. So then we stopped at a lows, and I and I was gonna bypass, well, we were trying to figure out what froze. Yeah, obviously, something had froze. I had blown out the lines before the winter, but something froze.

SPEAKER_02: 16:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 16:36

And I didn't take out the water filter, and then a little bit of diagnostics figured out the water just wasn't getting past the water filter. We stopped at a lows. I got a new water filter, and then we had water back. Yeah. Yep. So that was fine.

SPEAKER_01: 16:48

It's good to have a handyman around. It's good when you've built your own van so you know exactly what all the parts are that you have used and what you need to place. Not to say that everybody can do that. Speaking of building things, we're sitting on the newest feature of the van, which is the banquet seat. I adore this little seat.

SPEAKER_00: 17:08

Having the side-by-side seat, so yeah, it's been really nice. We have the lagoon table that that swings over, which the camera is on now.

SPEAKER_01: 17:15

Which actually is a lagoon table mount. You gotta put something on top of that.

unknown: 17:20

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 17:21

I just I know, but whatever I heard lagoon table. It's like lagoon table legs. Like it's not when you buy a table, it does it, it's just not the bottom bracket, it's the whole table. So when we first got it, I was like, oh, you have to decide. Yeah, what do you want for a tabletop? Yeah, no, it makes sense. It's like why bikes don't come with pedals now. I get it. It just was confusing.

SPEAKER_00: 17:42

Yeah, and this this bankette uh bolts into the van, and then we can unbolt it, take it out, and put in our two side-by-side captain's chairs if we want to carry four people.

SPEAKER_01: 17:52

But this was really good from the standpoint of it's out of the way, it was very usable, um, a lot of storage space underneath, probably too shallow, so it is gonna get an expansion.

SPEAKER_00: 18:04

Yeah, I'm just gonna expand, I'm just gonna extend the back just a little bit. Yeah. And then um, and then yeah, we're gonna make it about three inches deeper.

SPEAKER_01: 18:13

Because I could sit like, you know, with my back to to to this wall, but it's ever so slightly that if you were just a little bit too much one way, you were falling off. Like it's just that just that little bit too narrow. Exactly. Um, but great for storage. Also made me feel really secure to put stuff in there when we were gone, and then I would put like blankets on top of it, and then Daisy discovered the joys of the banquet when we were out of the van. Yep. So um that does mean I have to I have to make a new uh cushion for it.

SPEAKER_00: 18:47

You'll have to make a new cushion. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 18:48

But that's okay because as we've talked about, the first time you make one, you you you do all your learnings and then you don't get to make it again. So I get to make it again. Make it better.

unknown: 18:58

Make it better.

SPEAKER_01: 18:58

Speaking of Daisy, let's talk about traveling with Daisy.

SPEAKER_00: 19:02

She does great. She does. She is a 50-pound dog.

SPEAKER_01: 19:05

Yes. Mixed breed.

SPEAKER_00: 19:08

Yep, she is old, so she does prefer to lounge.

SPEAKER_01: 19:12

Yeah, you get her to walk like a mile and a half, and she is out for the rest of the day. Oh, yeah. That is great.

SPEAKER_00: 19:17

That's like she's done for the day. That is her that is her day. Yep. Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 19:21

Um, so how does she travel? That's the question we get, first of all. So she has a um uh travel harness that she wears, and then she's clipped into the L track in the floor behind us, and then we put a little mat between our she just wants to be as close to us as possible at all times. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 19:40

Which makes her so there's a her mat sits between the two front seats and she can just lie there between us.

SPEAKER_01: 19:45

But then she won't fling get flung through.

SPEAKER_00: 19:48

No, but she's actually when she's on that mat, she's about the limit of her um tether to the floor.

SPEAKER_01: 19:54

Exactly. And then she sleeps on our bed. One of the questions. Again, is how does she get up on the bed? And at first we were lifting her up. Right. But she is 50 pounds.

SPEAKER_00: 20:08

She is. And because it's kind of narrow in the galley, you keep it's it's a little more awkward to not use your back too much.

SPEAKER_01: 20:15

Yeah, which you're at. And we are in our fifties.

SPEAKER_00: 20:18

So um so we'd got these set of collapsible folding stairs that we can then um it like just scissors open and we pop it into two holes I I put into the the bed frame. Yep. And she can just walk up and down that.

SPEAKER_01: 20:34

It's a little, it's I think it is at the it's at the limit of its height. It it cannot, you know, it's as high. It's one of those you would use to get them on a truck bed or you know, it's at the limit of its height. It's a little steep. She's very good, but she's very good. She's in fact, she's more comfortable going down than she is going up, which I think is really funny because I feel like going down is a lot scarier. Yeah, like to her head. But she's she does get the so it's just remembering after a couple of days, I was like, what are we doing? Like picking her up. We have the technology. So she does really well, and then she's I don't want to call her our security system because she's just the biggest ding gong on the planet, but we do have now on the window at the door beware dog.

SPEAKER_00: 21:20

Yeah, but but that's in part so it's just she sounds like Cujo if you're if if yes, if you're a stranger in her personal space. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 21:30

Yeah, and so we have on the door beware dog, and it also says climate controlled, because it is, it's very comfortable in here, and I just don't need anybody telling me that I'm gonna cook my dog's brain. Right. I'm not, there's a vent, and we have it's I have gotten into this on 90 degree days, not when she's in here, with all of that running. It's been out in the sun all day, and it's super comfortable in here. So I really don't worry about her, but people have opinions. Um so we say climate controlled. But there's a dog inside, so she's kind of our really a security system. Yeah, she's using it.

SPEAKER_00: 22:09

Yeah, if you wonder, like we when we go into the museum or we go in to eat or whatever, she just hangs out in the van. Yeah. Yeah, not tethered, but no, not tethered.

SPEAKER_01: 22:17

She's got her water, she's got her at some point I'd like to get it where those stairs are um more secure because we kind of hold them in when she goes up and down. Yeah, I can just put it in so they stay in. Yeah, so that way she could actually get up on our bed if she wanted to, because I think she would want to. Let's talk about packing. I pack too much.

SPEAKER_00: 22:34

Way too much. Oh my god, I pack so much. We were able to do laundry at my mother's house.

SPEAKER_01: 22:40

And we were able to do laundry at the campground where the washers and dryers were outside.

SPEAKER_00: 22:44

Yes, we were able So I we did not even think about doing laundry along the way. And we and I think that in the future we'll actually plan for a midway laundry stop and then just not carry as much.

SPEAKER_01: 22:58

I mean, the funny thing is I brought detergent. So I clearly thought about it, but then I didn't It's also when you're camping, like you you go to bed at night in like maybe you put on a clean long sleeve shirt and the next morning you just put on pants. You're just wearing the clean long sleeve shirt that you were wearing. So it's yeah, and I mean certainly jeans.

SPEAKER_00: 23:17

I mean, you're gonna wear you're gonna wear your jeans over and over, right? And then eventually you may maybe you want to wash those.

SPEAKER_01: 23:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 23:23

Um, same thing with a lot of my shorts.

SPEAKER_01: 23:26

Yep. Um yeah, I didn't use I mean, some of it we didn't do as many rides as well.

SPEAKER_00: 23:30

So I brought a lot of socks and I brought a lot of underwear.

SPEAKER_01: 23:33

Always a good idea.

SPEAKER_00: 23:34

Right? But um but then I brought way too many like t-shirts and cycling clothes.

SPEAKER_01: 23:40

I brought way too many cycling clothes. I brought way too many, yeah, way too many t-shirts. Um so we had set it up originally where we were using pannier, penny, how do you say pannier bags on each side for each of us? Um you still have those. Yep, I love them. I find them annoying. Partially because because Daisy's on my side of the bed, I end up taking all those bags down every night because it's kind of claustrophobic. Yeah. With bags on both sides. Um, I also can ever remember what bag is got what in it. So I finally just decided a duffel bag. Well, I wrote on the clip.

SPEAKER_00: 24:25

So this time I wrote on the clips so I knew what was in each bag.

SPEAKER_01: 24:28

Yeah, so you never took your bags down this time, but I never had bags up, and that ended up being a big bag.

SPEAKER_00: 24:33

Yeah, so one side of bags did not feel claustrophobic. When we had the two both sides, it was too much.

SPEAKER_01: 24:39

That's too much. And so now I'm obsessed with getting myself that that tote bag that I keep seeing on Instagram that has the dividers.

SPEAKER_00: 24:48

The dividers.

SPEAKER_01: 24:49

Because I used packing cubes, which worked out really well. But then just at night I would take the bag down and put the bag up. I think that's my I think I think that's what it is. I think just one side of bags perfect. Two side of bags. Just a little just a little too tight. Um but yeah, way, way overpacked. I I will also realize that like I could put my mountain bike stuff or my bike clothing in the banquette. I didn't need access to it every day because we weren't riding every day.

SPEAKER_00: 25:19

Yeah, I think ideally, I think the banquette will as we as we sort of I by redo or make the extension and we put a new cushion on and so forth, maybe we'll look at using this more as a dresser.

SPEAKER_01: 25:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 25:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 25:32

Yeah, because I have a bag, like I have extra sheets in there, I have extra, yeah. I think just extra. Just the stuff you need you don't need every day, but you need access to.

SPEAKER_00: 25:41

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 25:42

A garage.

SPEAKER_00: 25:43

The bike garage. The bike garage. That's the big thing, right?

SPEAKER_01: 25:46

I that's the thing that when we would talk to people about a van, people who knew vans or were asking us questions, and you would say, We can get four bikes back there. They'd be like, What? And you did. You got four two mountain bikes, two gravel bikes.

SPEAKER_00: 26:00

Yeah, it's the you know, it's I'm certainly not the first one to do this, but I would say the whole the whole the whole build started with the garage. Yeah. Like everything was based around around a bike garage for four bikes. Yep. So with a slide out pull-out tray. Yep. Okay, the four bikes had to fit in, the four bikes and their wheels had to fit in that tray with with room on one side for all of the um electrical battery systems and other extra storage. Yep. And then on the other side, more storage plus the uh 33-gallon water tank. Yeah. So it it's it is not as wide as the back of the van, it is narrower. And so I had to design it for both fitting four bikes as narrow as possible, plus making it just the right height for the under the bed. Right. So that the biggest bike we could conceive of would fit and no more, because we wanted to save every little bit of head height above the bed for what we want, you know, that we wanted.

SPEAKER_01: 27:06

Yeah, and so like the gravel bikes, our saddles come out. We just pull those out.

SPEAKER_00: 27:12

Yeah, so the on on the front wheels come off, so the rear wheels stay on. Clamp down. And then, yep, clamp down. Um, and the on the mountain bikes, we just push on the droppers. Yeah. But on gravel bikes, when you have the front wheel off and sort of the bike tilted down like that and mount it by the fork, the saddle stick up way higher. Yeah. So we do have to just un we have to uh take the saddles out, the seat posts out.

SPEAKER_01: 27:35

Yeah. But you can also, the other thing is I usually use one of those um Maxis drawstring bags that we have a gazillion of, and I'll put gloves and our shoes, and I hang those from the bags. Oh from the bikes, right? The bikes should carry some of their own stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 27:51

So there's a lot of water bottles.

SPEAKER_01: 27:53

We put water bottles, like you need water bottles, put them in the cages of the gravel bikes. Um, you need shoes, put them under the on the tray. On the tray. Right? So you can put a lot of your bike-related gear with the bikes.

SPEAKER_00: 28:08

Yeah, and and the the front wheels of the bikes are in wheel bags. Okay. So they're in uh individual wheel bags, um, because there's not a lot of room between each bike. And they because they make like two, three wide wheel bags, but those would be two wide. Yeah. And so by putting them in padded wheel bags, we can then put those wheel bags between the bikes, yeah, and then that creates this sort of padding situation between them. So they don't really shift around, but it does it does help in any circumstances in which like pedals hitting the burp.

SPEAKER_01: 28:40

Whatever. Do you take off one of the pedals?

SPEAKER_00: 28:42

So, in order to make them as narrow as I did, yeah. Outside, so what we have is the mountain bikes go on the outside.

SPEAKER_02: 28:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 28:49

Okay, in opposite directions. Yep. And then the gravel bikes go on the on the inside in opposite directions. Okay. And the the outside pedals of the two mountain bikes, those pedals come off to make it just a little bit narrower.

SPEAKER_01: 29:04

For the water tank and the power and the power.

SPEAKER_00: 29:06

And the power cabinet. Okay. Yep. And that's why and that's how I was able to get it so narrow. It's awesome. Yeah. The bed above it, we used aluminum loading ramps. Yes. Just designed to put, say, on the back of a pickup truck so you could drive up a lawn tractor or a four-wheeler or something like that. And they're really quite thin. They're only a couple inches thick, and they hold, I think, 1,500 pounds each. And we used four of those. Yep. And they were a little pricey, but really worth it. Because they weigh they weighed nothing. I I mean, like shockingly lightweight for the load carrying capacity, and they just span the whole back. So you have no middle support or anything. They just span it from wall to wall.

SPEAKER_02: 29:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 29:50

Um, and that, and again, we were looking for as thin as possible on the bed frame, yep. So that one, we could get a thicker mattress and we have a five-inch mattress. We probably could have gone with a four-inch foam mattress, and um, and that gives us nice headroom in a nice uh place in the bed.

SPEAKER_01: 30:08

Yeah. Well, that actually brings us us to a good topic, which is we weighed her.

SPEAKER_00: 30:14

Oh, yeah, yeah. We finally got to a uh a truck scale so we could weigh the whole van.

SPEAKER_01: 30:19

Whenever we watch those videos that are like our biggest mistakes when building our van or the 10 mistakes we made, I feel like mistake number one always is shavy. Too heavy. She's too overweight.

SPEAKER_00: 30:31

And we've seen a lot of builds done by individuals, not by companies, but I'll get to that. Um, where they're like, yeah, we we weighed it and we're we're overweight. Right? We're over the max capacity that this van is supposed to hold, or the max capacity that in some places the road like you're allowed on the roads. And we have we have obviously seen professional builds too, that you're like, there's there's just no way they're they're not overweight. Yeah. I mean, just they threw every single thing you could possibly put in this van, and everything was was really well built, but overbuilt. Right. And um, and you like you're like, there's just no way this is not overweight.

SPEAKER_01: 31:15

Because like, okay, so this van started at in its naked form, it was had a curb weight of five thousand two hundred and fourteen pounds. We think that's right. We there were a lot of different resources. Like as we looked it up.

SPEAKER_00: 31:32

Yeah, it should be on the door frame, but it only tells us how much we can hold.

SPEAKER_01: 31:35

Yes, exactly. So um, when we weighed it, she measured in. Now keep in mind, she measured in, she had four bikes in her.

SPEAKER_00: 31:45

She had four uh four bikes, a burly trailer to hold a dog, all of our food, all of our appliances, all of our clothes, a full tank of gas, both of us and the dog. Yep. Oh, and about uh at the time of weighing, maybe fifteen to twenty gallons of water as well.

SPEAKER_01: 32:02

And she weighed in at seven thousand four hundred and eighty pounds, which is slim and trim. It is slim and trim for one of these. What does this max out at? Like what's nine?

SPEAKER_00: 32:14

I think ninety one hundred-ish or so is what we have.

SPEAKER_01: 32:17

It gives us a lot of extra. Not that we're gonna be packing in more stuff, because actually she's we're gonna talk in a second about what is next for the van, but I feel like there's nothing big major like we had the big stuff in.

SPEAKER_00: 32:31

We probably only have in terms of what needs to be done, yeah. 20 to 30 pounds is left.

SPEAKER_01: 32:37

Exactly. So and if you go to STBG Van Antics, I believe we talked about this. We talked about how you didn't you you used very little wood. And that seems to be one of the big things that at least the DIYers is they frame it up like it's a house.

SPEAKER_00: 32:54

They frame it up like it's a house. They frame the walls like it's a house, and the ceiling like it's a house. Yes. And we um we did something actually unique that I really don't see at all. I mean as much as I followed a lot of other YouTubers' um ideas and and build um topics and how they did things, yeah. What I did with the walls, I I have not seen anybody do. And I used the st the van itself is a structure, and I used the structure of the van. It's a structure full of holes.

SPEAKER_01: 33:29

It already you were not afraid to put holes in her, but she has deliberate holes.

SPEAKER_00: 33:34

So these holes were placed uh symmetrically and in many cases the exact distance apart. And I took pictures of both walls, the ceiling, and then on that photo I mapped out the distance in millimeters between each hole. So then I then I put riv nuts into each of these holes. Yep. Um, and then and then we s we just basically skimmed the walls with corrugated plastic, which is nothing, and it's also insulating because it's uh because it's corrugated and hollow. And then I was able to find like I didn't have to worry about where the holes were because all I had to do was start at the edge, and when I started with the edge with one hole, I could then I had knew exactly where every other hole was because of my mapping. You are so sexy. So the walls were cool were super light.

SPEAKER_01: 34:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 34:29

Um the entire ceiling weighs the entire ceiling, all of the sheeting, all of the hardware weighs 16 pounds.

SPEAKER_02: 34:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 34:37

So we thought about doing one of those really cool wood slat ceilings you see, and they look really nice. But they also they also meant make the ceiling seem yes, you know, uh low. Lower. It is low, but it makes it seem like it's right on top of your head. But those also, those, those kind of ceilings weigh 60, 70, 80 pounds.

SPEAKER_01: 34:56

It all adds up. Yep. You know, so yeah, she's she's she is light, light and bright. Is there anything before we get to the next thing that you didn't bring with you on this trip that you wish you had? Could be a little thing. I'll tell you mine.

SPEAKER_00: 35:11

The only thing is I didn't bring my crocs, which are basically the sort of the van slippers. The van slippers, right? Oh, I need to, you know, oh, I need to run out with the dog and get her to go potty. Yeah. You you you know, you already have your shoes off, right? You just want to step into a pair of shoes and walk outside. Yeah. I forgot those. I have. And that's actually like really needed.

SPEAKER_01: 35:33

It really I'd be inconvenient not to have those. I used them all the time because to your point, it was first of all, they're warmer than my regular sneakers. So even when we were driving, I was like, I'm gonna put my slippers on. And yeah, you just want to step out, you just want to slip into something. I didn't bring, I couldn't even believe it, my my heated vest.

SPEAKER_00: 35:59

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 36:00

Because I think I was like, I actually had it in my packed, like pile and in my final edit. I was like, I don't need this, we're going south.

SPEAKER_00: 36:10

Well, so the first two days we had the polar vortex come down. So it was cold in the outer banks, and it was it was cold basically the first two days. Yeah. And then and then we were in glorious mid-70s for a week. Just just nothing but sun, no clouds, uh 70s for a week.

SPEAKER_01: 36:30

But you know, it gets to that, like it's night, it's night-ish.

SPEAKER_00: 36:33

But nights were still cold because it is February.

SPEAKER_01: 36:36

And so sitting out, we didn't start we didn't start fires. I'm not really we didn't really burn anything. Um and you're sitting out and you're like, I'm just a little chilly, but I'm not ready to go into the van yet. That's when I wish I had had it. So that's when I will definitely cut down on all the extra t-shirts, bring the heated vest. No reason not to. Okay, so what's next for the van? We talked about probably our biggest challenge from a just working was data. So on my list is definitely to research if we need a separate device or something so that we just have regular cell. Like there were a couple of days where I could use the internet, but there was no more bandwidth to have, so you didn't have any bandwidth, so you couldn't get work done. We have a Wii Boost to do.

SPEAKER_00: 37:23

And the Wii boost actually worked quite well at one of the campgrounds.

SPEAKER_01: 37:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 37:27

Um, surprisingly, because we were this was the most remote campground.

SPEAKER_01: 37:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 37:32

And then other places you would think it would do something, and it just didn't seem to.

SPEAKER_01: 37:37

It was surprising the places where we had good data, great data. Like we watched that one you're just talking about, when we drove in, we had zero. We got to our campground. You were already like we're driving to a campground, you were already like, we're gonna have to move. We can't we can't stay here. You can't work. Turned out that turned out to have the best.

SPEAKER_00: 37:55

I had no data, but you did on ATT.

SPEAKER_01: 37:57

On ATT with the Wii Boost, turned out to be the best.

SPEAKER_00: 38:00

Place we went that had included Wi-Fi was probably basically in a in a suburban urban setting.

SPEAKER_01: 38:09

Right. I would say had the worst. Had the worst, the worst, ironically. So we do need to figure that out if we're gonna go longer places. I think we're gonna get a TV or something. We said we weren't going to be. I know.

SPEAKER_00: 38:22

So it turned out we really liked watching a show or a movie at night.

SPEAKER_01: 38:26

We go to bed at 7 4.

SPEAKER_00: 38:27

And it does get it is February and March, so it does get dark quite early. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 38:31

Um and it's tiring. You're just inside all day.

SPEAKER_00: 38:35

So we were doing everything on the iPad, which is set up at the very end of the bed, and it's just that tiny bit too small. Like there, like on um White Lotus, right? There's a lot of subtitles, and we're like, we have to be like, what is that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 38:50

We're like leaning in. Yeah, so I do think we're gonna get, but we were so adamant when we were building out, we were looking at other people's vans. They were like, oh my gosh, can you believe they have a TV? I can't believe they have a TV. We're gonna have to get, we're gonna get, or a smart tablet.

SPEAKER_00: 39:03

I think we're gonna get a large tablet.

SPEAKER_01: 39:06

Yeah. And just mount it somewhere in the bed area.

SPEAKER_00: 39:10

That'll be a large cheap Android tablet.

SPEAKER_01: 39:13

We would get into bed at like 8 15, we'd watch a show, we'd be out by 9 30.

SPEAKER_00: 39:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 39:18

Like, but that was that was so I definitely that what else what else is on the list for the van?

SPEAKER_00: 39:25

Oh, the engine charging. So right now our battery bank is is um recharged by solar on the roof, and we have a 550 watt solar panel on the roof, which you're never gonna really see 550 watts, but we'll we'll see the maximum on a under perfect conditions, maybe 450 ish. But I at least I've seen um when I've looked.

SPEAKER_01: 39:48

Kind of gray.

SPEAKER_00: 39:49

And then we're so we're gonna do engine charging. And I actually have the engine chart the engine charger system that I was waiting for, then was back ordered and took forever to ship. Arrived, I think, at like 8 p.m. the night before we left.

SPEAKER_01: 40:04

Install it, get it going. Bring it with us.

SPEAKER_00: 40:07

Yeah. And there was a thought I could install it on the road. But we were at a lot of campgrounds with shore power, and we just and didn't need it. We just didn't need it.

SPEAKER_01: 40:16

We had shore power every day except the first night at the rest area and the last night at Crafter Barrel.

SPEAKER_00: 40:22

Right. And we had full batteries at both of those. But it was just really For heat. For right. If we had had heat, we wouldn't even have needed, then we wouldn't have to worry about it. That's true. But but those little ceramics plug-in space heaters, those are they to hold Yeah, those are power hollows.

SPEAKER_01: 40:38

They would have like killed our battery in like an hour and a half.

SPEAKER_00: 40:41

Yeah, I I had about three hours worth of it.

SPEAKER_01: 40:44

Got it. Alright. So engine charging. So what that means is when the charge when the engine is running.

SPEAKER_00: 40:50

Yeah, when the engine's running, it's gonna it's gonna convert.

SPEAKER_01: 40:53

Send a little bit of energy back to the battery.

SPEAKER_00: 40:55

Yes. Yeah, it's gonna charge the battery bank. I love that.

SPEAKER_01: 40:59

We talked about a new bankhead. And then really just little just a lot of trim. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 41:04

Just pieces of trim here and there to finish off.

SPEAKER_01: 41:09

In a mirror. At one point, I'm like, I walked out of the van and I walked into like the bathroom, and my hair was just crazy. And I was like, I cannot believe I walked out this way. That Steve wasn't like, here, honey, let me just kind of pat that down a little bit. Nope. He just let me go. So we need a mirror. We need some reading lights in the back.

SPEAKER_00: 41:36

Actually, so we have USB plugs in the back on the on the pillars next to the bed. Yes. And so what I have are these sort of uh adjustable gooseneck reading lights that just plug into the USBs.

SPEAKER_01: 41:49

So that's perfect. And we also just need a um, I tend to like to keep my phone near me because of the kids. And right now it's like in I wake up in the morning and it's like somewhere in the bed is my phone.

SPEAKER_00: 42:01

And I have to, but you don't also want it right next to your head.

SPEAKER_01: 42:04

I have a fear of a like a butt dial or a yeah, exactly. So we're gonna build some space in the back door that I can just lodge it. So yeah, I think um, all in all, huge success. Two weeks on the road. You know, we spend a lot of time together, and um, we have spent a lot of time in very close quarters, and I still like you. We should do it again. Great. Where are we going next?

SPEAKER_00: 42:35

I don't know, I'll plan it. Yeah, yeah, half the fun's planning the trip, right?

SPEAKER_01: 42:38

Oh, you hate it. I can see it. I have to look at more maps. You have to look at more maps. I know. We would walk into the aeronautics museums or the battleship, and you'd be like, maps, please hold on. I'm gonna go look at these maps. That map is a hundred years old, but sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 42:54

Oh, and I I want to add one I want to add in one interesting driving tidbit that I saw.

SPEAKER_01: 43:01

Is this about people who would jump in front of a sprinter like there was no they weren't gonna get killed?

SPEAKER_00: 43:08

No, you know what this is broken down cars on the side of the road.

SPEAKER_01: 43:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 43:13

So you know, it's not that we don't see them here, it's just that when we started driving down south, and we've taken road trips before, but it it really struck me, why are there so many cars along the side of the road? And the map system, you know, Miss Google there is saying, you know, there's a there's a uh a car on the side of the road, you know, the watch out. There's a car on the side of the road, and there were so many. So on the way back today, oh yeah, as we're driving through Connecticut, I decided I'm gonna count. I'm gonna count how many cars there are just stopped, broken down, whatever on the side of the road. Not construction, not sleeping semi-trucks or whatever. Yes, right? So in the 110 miles of Connecticut Highway, there were 14 broken down cars. Really? So, and then I was like, okay, now we're gonna drive half that distance in Massachusetts, but let's see how many are in mass.

SPEAKER_02: 44:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 44:05

None. Really? So I was like, yeah, this validates the fact that I don't you don't really see that in Massachusetts that much occasionally, but it because it struck me when we were driving on this trip why there were so many. So I, you know what, I looked something up. Oh, okay. And in mass, we have an annual inspection, which includes a safety inspection. Okay. And if your tires are, say, bald, you don't pass. Yes. Right? And you have to then get a red sticker and then you have to fix that, and then you have two weeks and so forth. Well, Connecticut has no safety inspection. What? They have emissions inspections, and I would bet that South Carolina and Virginia, they have no safety inside. I don't know, but I would bet they have no safety inspections and there because there were a lot of flats. And I bet people are driving on bad bald tires and they're blowing out on the highway and all this other stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 44:56

It was it's it's interesting.

SPEAKER_00: 44:58

And you have to you have to wonder if that is why you just don't see broken down cars on the side of the road here. Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 45:04

I will say one, I will say one other thing, and I just alluded to it. Um, I am astounded by the number of tr people who dodge their car, just dodge right in front of us, a very large vehicle, very closely, right? And then stop. And then it like you're in traffic and they're swerving around. We are a very large vehicle. And and there, I the number of times I was like and you you always handled it. We didn't knock on what we didn't hit anybody, but I really was like, people, you have got to stop. I now understand. Like, I remember hearing stories of like truck drivers would be like, for the love of you know, please do not dodge in front of a a truck, or I get it now. I totally get it. Like, please think about the vehicle that you are going in front of, you're going in front of, and whether or not it has the stopping capacity that you think it does. Because we are huge. I just, I just it scares the poop poop out of me. Okay. Anyway, that's my that's my PSA for today. Drive careful, people. We got one comment on our last episode about clipless. Actually, we got two. Um, our friend Brian, who I talked about him servicing his flats, um, he actually sent me a picture of the finished product, and he was very proud of them, and they looked beautiful. He replaced the pins. Yes, he repainted them.

SPEAKER_00: 46:40

He repainted those because they not only did it service them, he repainted them.

SPEAKER_01: 46:42

Oh, yeah, no, he said, he goes, you know, I thought about you'll appreciate this. I thought about repla about buying new ones, but you know, why why replace when I can reuse when I could rehab, and I absolutely love it. They were gorgeous. So good job, Brian. And our friend Jeff said, Um, if clipless is cheating, so is using suspension.

SPEAKER_00: 47:00

Yeah, you can't argue with that.

SPEAKER_01: 47:01

You really can't. So thank you, Brian and Jeff, for your comments. All right, we're gonna um wrap up with a scene while scrolling. What do you have for us today?

SPEAKER_00: 47:11

I have this new program by Intense Cycles. So Intense, they make mountain bikes. Okay, and they're starting to roll out this um this new program where basically um they're going to uh sell frames, framed by themselves, okay, to to dealers. Okay. All right, to shop. It's not a D to C thing. It's a and then basically then the dealer goes to QBP, which is the largest distributor of bike parts, and basically s kind of selects the parts package for these things and then to build them up. It it's it's something, it's a program, and it's just rolling out, so I'll I'll look into it further. But it's a program I thought that a lot of brands maybe should do a little more of is sort of this um there's so much more desire for customization and at the same time um you know, a lot of a lot of bikes come from the factory not so great. I mean, I'm one of the shops who wishes I could assemble a little bit more just because there's uh issues sometimes from when they come out of the box from the factory. Well, it's funny And this is this is typically on nicer bikes. Yeah, no, but it's funny you say that because in terms of wanting to do better.

SPEAKER_01: 48:40

One of the social media posts I was planning was some close-up pictures of my mountain bike that basically were like where I was basically gonna say it's rare that a a bike leaves Steve the bike guy exactly as it would have come out of the box. Whether that's pretty things, like you want different colors, or whether that's um aesthetics is what I would say.

SPEAKER_00: 49:07

Or aesthetics, a lot of it's cables and houses.

SPEAKER_01: 49:09

Some of it's aesthetics, some of its um functional stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 49:13

Dropper post heights.

SPEAKER_01: 49:14

Yeah, functional stuff, even just like what my grips are. Like my grips are shaped to help my wrist issues, right? Like it was gonna be a like, yes, you buy a you buy a bike, but when you buy a bike from Steve the bike guy, it does it rarely comes out of the shop looking exactly like it was would have come straight out of the box. So, what this is giving you is a lot more flexibility to to work with a client to say, here's here's your base frame, and here are your kind of different options and you can build from there.

SPEAKER_00: 49:47

Right, and and mountain bikes are getting really expensive, they really are. And so that's a that's an issue to address, but at the same time, it's very expensive for bike shops to buy these bikes and have them sitting on the floor. Yes, and so this allows the shops to not have to do that as much.

SPEAKER_02: 50:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 50:08

Um, so that's also good. And uh of course, bike companies don't necessarily want to do this because they make money maybe make more money by selling the full bicycle with the parts.

SPEAKER_01: 50:18

Um, and there's efficiencies for them where it's like we're just gonna send out this is the model. Right. Right? Right. And you as a bike shop buy the model, and you don't have a situation where like, okay, you want this genius with this part package, this genius with this part package. Like, that's harder for them. It's more labor for them. No, no, they can't do that. They can't do it. No.

SPEAKER_00: 50:38

So anyway, so it'll be interesting to see how this um this goes and so forth, but it's something I'm watching.

SPEAKER_01: 50:45

All right.

SPEAKER_00: 50:46

Well, we'll and I'll be I'll be likely doing it.

SPEAKER_01: 50:49

You'll be reporting back to us on your discoveries. All right. Well, I think that is it for this episode. Anything else we want to talk about?

SPEAKER_00: 51:00

I don't think so. All right.

SPEAKER_01: 51:02

Well, let's wrap this up. Cycling together with Kristen and Steve is a production of Steve the Bike Guy, an independent bicycle shop in eastern Massachusetts and Sundon Marketing.

SPEAKER_00: 51:11

Uh, if you like the show, please leave a review or share with a friend. And for show notes, links, or to leave a comment, question, or topic suggestion, visit cycling together.bike. Um, and you can follow the shop on Facebook, Instagram, and on YouTube at Steve the Bike Guy.

SPEAKER_01: 51:25

Thank you for joining the ride.

SPEAKER_00: 51:26

Okay, see you next time.