If I would of known earlier, and you needed a overnight place to stay, I had a nice bedroom down in my basement, with a shower and big room with a TV, a wood stove and a friendly dog.
Hey Bob, That sounds awesome. There really wasn't a way for you to have known we needed a place to stay. You are so kind to be willing to host us. Maybe next time! Thanks for following along our journey and thanks for the comment. We love the engagement. Enjoy the Ride
I'm so glad I found your channel! I have an Apollo and I'm tentatively planning a long bike tour to the west coast (from my home in eastern Kansas) next year or maybe the year after. Shortly after purchasing my Apollo, I began thinking about a long bike trip and when the idea struck me to use my Apollo for the trip, my very first thought was "This is gonna need some modification before I feel like climbing any hills on it!". What you've done to your bikes is almost exactly what I've been planning to do to mine. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought of turning this awesome gravel bike into my dream touring bike. But for now, I'm pleased with it as a gravel bike. I take it out in the hills to go fishing. It'll be all dusty when I get there, so I just roll it down to the beach and stick it in the water, let the waves clean the drivetrain. Something I'd never ever dream of doing to a bike with a chain!
Howdy and Welcome to BBB Adventures! We are glad you found us. It's great to hear you thinking about the Apollo touring bike versus the Apollo gravel bike. My belief was the Apollo would make an awesome touring bike and the Apollo Mission proved that to be absolutely true. Our Apollos performed awesome as touring bikes after the modifications and refinements we made. Lowering the gearing is key, as you mentioned. Other than adding accessories like racks and fenders, one of the biggest impactful things we did was have a professional bike fit at our local bike shop. This allowed us to change our riding position to be more upright which worked really well for touring. For us the Apollo is a near perfect touring bike and we are looking forward to our next big adventure. Hopefully you've had the chance or our currently watching the Apollo Mission episodes. Since you are planning a touring adventure on your Apollo, I'm sure you'd enjoy the series. Please let us know if you have any specific questions when you get ready to start the transformation from gravel to touring. Thanks for watching. Enjoy the Ride
Hey Randy, Thanks for the feedback on the content. It's super inspiring for us to hear that viewers are enjoying what we work hard to post. We are getting super excited about the upcoming adventure. 3 weeks to launch day!!! We're glad you'll be following along. We will also be trying to give more real-time updates on Instagram during the journey, so please consider following us @busesbikesbeers. We also want to plan a meet up or two during RAGBRAI for any BBB viewers on the ride. Are you staying with Pork Belly? Thanks for watching Enjoy the Ride
I have always wanted to do that trip, so have a great time and look forward to meeting you at Ragbrai this year. Your channel convinced my son and I to do Ragbrai for the first time this year.
Hey Rob, Thanks for watching and thanks for the comment. We are so happy to hear you and your son are doing RAGBRAI and pleased to know we had any part of you getting inspired to join the best week of the year. If you follow us on Instagram too @busesbikesbeers we will be giving real time updates on the Apollo Mission and arranging some meet ups during RAGBRAI. Thanks again for the comment. Enjoy the Ride
Yes, we love them. Gives us choices in how to engage with the bike. I tend to clip in and Mb tends to ride on the flat side. We put the same pedals on the Red Dragon (our co-motion tandem). We are planning riding the Red Dragon again on RAGBRAI 2023. Thanks for watching. Enjoy the Ride
Hey David, We've heard lots of great things about the GAP and C&O routes and are definitely interested in riding them one day. Maybe after we get our bus built we can find our way there. Thanks for watching and for the suggestion. Looking forward to seeing you at RAGBRAI. Enjoy the Ride
I love your planning! And I am excited to meet you guys in person! Let me know if you would like a (slower) biking buddy one weekend day. If not before your trip, I look forward to meeting you both at Ragbrai!
Hey Greer, Nice to hear from you. The end of the school year is near. We'd love to ride with you. I'll send you an email so we can try to coordinate something. Thanks for watching. Enjoy the Ride
Thank you Raymond. We really appreciate your support and we are super happy you'll be following along. I don't really know how often we'll be uploading episodes but we are targeting every 7 or 8 days. Episode postings won't be as regularly and as predictable as they have been. Enjoy the Ride
I love a good logistics planning project…but this is off the charts! If your plan completely derails and you end up in Minnesota- I’ll ride with you! But seeing as how that will probably be during RAGBRAI, I doubt that’ll happen.
Hi Matt, Thanks for the comment and the kind words about our planning. Since we weren't following one of the tried and true routes from Adventure Cycling I really wanted to do enough research that I could convince myself and Marybeth we had a legitimate route with place to camp at a reasonable interval. I certainly hope we don't end up in Minnesota, but if we do you'll let you know. :) Thanks again for watching and we hope you follow along with us on The Apollo Mission. Enjoy the Ride
You guys are going to have so much fun. Just remember, don't let mileage be your goal. Take it slow the first few days to adjust. We have enjoyed all are trips for very different reasons. I'm so jealous!
Hey Jerry, Thanks for watching BBB and thanks for the great advice. I really am going to try and not let mileage or anything else be our goal other than enjoying the adventure. We are definitely going to take it easy for the first part of this ride. At our age preventing injury is something that we have to be aware of. We're happy you'll be following along and encouraging us! Thanks for your support. Enjoy the Ride
Great Stuff 🚴♂️ Priority Apollo bike is sweet.. My buddy of 50 years & I are planning an Adventure Across USA 🇺🇸.. lots of great tips.. I’m designing a bike route & it’s very similar to mine.. is your route on Riding with GPS.. I would like to compare our bike routes.. Is it attached to any your videos.. I didn’t see it 🤷♂️ We are also planning on doing RAGBRAI.. I noticed you wearing Pork Belly Adventure T Shirt.. we’ve used them also.. great company.. it’s amazing watching them take tents down.. drive 75 miles and have tents up.. in a reasonable time!!
Howdy, First, thanks for watching and for the comment! We love our Apollo bikes and have many more adventures planned for them. It's exciting to hear you and your long time friend are planning a cross country adventure. The Apollo Mission was the best summer of our lives and we are anxious to do something like that again. We don't have our route on Riding with GPS. The closest thing we have is a spreadsheet I used to plan The Apollo Mission as well as daily tracking via Garmin/Strava. I had ambitions to put it all together on Google Maps or something similar but never got it done. :( Including RAGBRAI as part of The Apollo Mission worked out well for us. We had a friend that was also doing RAGBRAI bring us some duffle bags and we transferred all our stuff from the panniers into the duffle bags so Pork Belly could carry our stuff across Iowa. We also used the rental tents to get a break from setting up our tent every night. Worked out great. We also enjoyed ridding the bikes "naked" versus all bagged up. We did publish over 40 episodes of The Apollo Mission you could look through to learn about our route and experience, including the week of RAGBRAI. Also, since you mentioned Pork Belly's process, we did spend time documenting it. If you haven't seen those, he's a link to the them: ua-cam.com/video/moGhAGWTQcM/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/2Mu0j_1_iZc/v-deo.html Finally, we'd be happy to set up a call if you have any specific questions about our route or our experiences. Send us a DM on Instagram (@busesbikesbeers) and we can set something up. Enjoy the Ride
Thank you Rene. We are getting very exciting about getting started and I believe all the upgrades and modifications to the Apollo bikes make them ready for this big adventure. Thanks for watching, for the support and the comment. We also wish you a safe and awesome ride to Iowa. Looking forward to seeing you at RAGBRAI. Enjoy the Ride
Somewhat newer subscriber here but really enjoy everything I've seen from you. Will be watching along the way and there's a potential that I'll be traveling through Wyoming when you are. So if I by chance see you I'd love to stop, say a quick hi and support your journey if the trail magic works its way. Regardless best of luck with planning and your start to the trip. Cheers!
Hi Fiber, First, welcome to Buses Bikes and Beers, we're super happy to have you as part of the community. Second, thanks for the feedback on our content. It means the world to us that people are enjoying our adventures (big or small). It's cool you'll be traveling in WY at the same time we are. Will you be traveling by car? We'd love to connect if possible. We plan to give "real-time" updates on our progress via Instagram as well as uploading a BBB episode every 7 to 10 days. So when we get to WY, we could communicate via Instagram message to attempt to coordinate a connection in somewhere in WY....hopefully where they serve cold beer. :) Thanks for watching and for the comment. Enjoy the Ride
@@BBB_Adventures At least for now this time I'll be traveling by car. I'm from South Dakota and will be heading home from my own little adventure at that time visiting family. I'll keep my eyes peeled for you on Instagram and I'll be in touch if it all works out. It's funny how living right next to Iowa my whole life and I'd never heard of RAGBRAI until 5 years or so ago. I appreciate all the helpful information about it all and I'm hoping to do it next year when I can upgrade my bike a little with something more suitable. Safe travels and thanks for replying!
@@Fiberface It is interesting how you'd never heard of RAGBRAI, but we talk to a lot of cyclists that have also never heard of it. On the other hand, a cyclist from our home town of Idaho Falls found Buses Bikes and Beers and is planning on doing RAGBRAI this year. So yes, it's interesting how word about the ride spreads. The good news is you know about it know and you can participate. You won't be disappointed. Yes, look for updates on Instagram and maybe we can meet up in WY. Enjoy the Ride
Thanks for watching and for the comment. We are so happy you'll be following our adventure. Launch day is T minus 3 weeks!!! We'd love to connect at RAGBRAI. We are going to try to coordinate a meet up or two during the ride using Instagram @busesbikesbeers. I'd love for you to buy me a beer. Ha ha. :) Enjoy the Ride
Hey Jessie, It's good to have hopes and dreams and let those help and guide you as you work to achieve them and you can start bike touring with almost any bike. We really do appreciate you watching our adventures and giving us comments, feedback and encouragement, so thank you so much for watching and leaving a comment. Enjoy the Ride
Hello "Buses, Bikes & Beers", With some experience in riding the PCH and some rails to trails I would like to offer some input. Riding shoulders will take a toll on the tires. The debris that you won't see is the shreds of steel from steel belt auto tires. I changed the tires on my Apollo due to them not being thorn resistant and having multiple flats. I then went tubeless(with thorn resistant tires) for the Katy trail. Both tires punctured within a few feet of distance and it was a mess with sealant spraying everywhere including up into my face. I fought air leaks(including using "bacon strips") for two days and then put tubes in both tires and have not flatted since. If you do go tubeless be sure to carry enough sealant as any little leak allows for sealant to escape before stopping the leak. One other little tidbit-Do not run your tires at higher pressure in a tubeless situation. I want to thank you for the gearing input as I changed the rear gear on my Apollo and enjoy the set up so much more. Feel free to reach out with any questions. Enjoy the Ride!
Hello ChangeUpRider! First thanks for watching BBB and for the great comment. We really enjoy hearing and learning from our great viewers. After hearing multiple stories and doing some research on the WTB Byway tires, we've decided to change them out for more puncture resistant tires which are also tubeless ready. I've been pretty skeptical about tubeless and hearing stories like yours continues to fuel that skepticism. Not too long after getting our road bikes, which came with racing tires that had terrible life and puncture resistance, we put on Continental Gatorskin tires and I don't recall having a puncture. I've wore tires out and have had valve stems fail but they've been super reliable. That experience has also made we wonder if tubeless is better. But I also hear stories from folks that have run tubeless without any issues and swear by the setup. Do you currently run tubeless on any of your bikes? We also LOVE the 46/26 setup on our Apollos. For us it represents the right low and high end gears. We do more climbing than we do going fast. Thanks again for watching and for the input. We appreciate it. Enjoy the Ride
@@BBB_Adventures I am currently not running tubeless. But I do "Orange" sealant in my tubes on the Priority 600x. I do that because I enjoy the off road trails here in Arizona and those prickly little thorns are every where. I usually check my tire pressure by feel before every ride but only check it with a pump one a month. I am also thinking off a little generator to charge up power packs as I have not had much luck with solar. I am sending good vibes for you two and would love to join you at some point for a two or three day ride along. You are awesome!!
Hey Jessie, Thanks for watching Buses Bikes and Beers and for leaving a comment. We are so happy to have someone from the Philippines watching. Yes, the Apollo bikes are very nice bikes but you can easily bike tour with a much less expensive or a used bike. I'll bet there are some great bike touring routes in the Philippines, just like there are in Taiwan. Maybe someday we'll get a chance to visit and ride bikes there. Enjoy the Ride
Hey Craig, Your comment made me laugh out loud. I may have gone a bit overboard but that's what I needed to do to give myself the confidence I was wasn't taking on an adventure that would put Marybeth (or myself) in a extraordinary difficult situation. If we were following one of the "standard" routes like those from Adventure Cycling, it would have different but we had specific needs for the route including RAGBRAI. Thanks for watching and supporting BBB. Enjoy the Ride
@@BBB_Adventures Brently, I totally get it. Most of us are not Ryan Van Duzer and say to ourselves, "I think I'll ride this road." I like to know where I'm going too. I like hearing your planning process.
Hey Kevin, It's close but not exact. We consulted with Ryan about the Love Cycles route and also had our own requirements along the way such as stopping at our home in Idaho Falls. Love Cycles took a more northern route through that part of Idaho. Our route through Ontario was also different than Love Cycles. However, as you observed the route was generally the same since we also wanted to include RAGBRAI as part of The Apollo Mission. It's a great route for anyone that wants to do something similar. Thanks for watching and for the comment. Enjoy the Ride
Hi! We are working our way through your videos and have some questions. Later in the series (I came in late to the party and am working through the first half of your trip) we see that Mary Beth has a growler on her front fork. How did you attach that? Also, how did your front rack actually attach? We just bought our Apollos and finished our first bike packing trip yesterday with them. They did great, but we are looking to add to our setup. If this is covered in a different video and I missed it, I apologize. We thank you much and we love your videos!
What is the weight limit on your front and rear racks? Wasn't happy with the racks that priority bikes make for their bikes...weight load was too low. My current load wt is 47 lbs between 4 panniers.
Hey Steve, I actually don't know the weight limit on the racks themselves. I was more worried about the load and stress I was putting on the front fork and I did discuss this with the folks at Priority and decided that the weight I was putting on the front was OK and the spokes would be the weak link so we carried extra spokes but luckily never had one break. In this episode at 25:20 I review the weight of each of our panniers. Hope that helps. ua-cam.com/video/NMYjSculrPg/v-deo.html Please let me know if you have any other questions I might be able to answer as you work through your Apollo touring bike plan. Thanks for watching. Enjoy the Ride
Hey Mark, Thanks for watching and for the question. We used trail trails when they were available along our route and in fact in some cases adjusted the route to align with bike or rail trails. Most of that was east of Iowa. Not too many trails in the West. We did try the Cowboy trail in Nebraska but abandoned it due to goat heads and soft gravel/sand. Hopefully you'll get a chance to watch all 43 episodes of The Apollo Mission so you'll get to see in detail the conditions of our cross continent ride. We did a lot of road riding sharing the road with cars and trucks. Thanks again for the interest. Enjoy the Ride
Howdy and thanks for watching and for the question, and that's a good question. There are some fundamental differences between the 600X and the Apollo and the right choice depends on how you intended to use the bike. I'll give you might view of some of those differences. Weight The Apollo starts at 24 pounds and the 600X is a bit over 30 pounds depending on frame size. If weight is a big deal for you then the Apollo has a slight advantage. However, if you are going to set the bike up as a touring or bike packing rig, then this difference is probably less important. Gearing The Apollo with the Shimano Alfine 11 hub has a total gear range of 409% and the 600X has a 600% range with the Pinion transmission. That means lower gearing with the 600X without a big sacrifice in high gear. We changed the front and rear cogs on our Apollos in order to get the low gear low enough to reasonably get over high mountain passes full loaded with touring gear, but that also lowered the high gear but for us that was OK because we don't tend to ride super fast. Geometry The Apollo is closer to a road bike geometry and has drop handlebars, the 600X is more of a mountain bike (more upright riding position) and has straight handlebars. This again is a personal preference and also where bike usage comes in. If you are going to do more gravel and some single track riding, then the 600X is probably a better choice. If you are mostly on the paved road or gravel road with an occasional non-technical single track, then the Apollo works great. The 600X also has wider tires and front suspension, which is again good for more single track and more technical riding. These are both fantastic bikes, well designed with high quality components and a great build quality. The Gate Belt drivetrains are awesome and take some of hassle of bike ownership off the table. Hope this helps. And when you do decide to order your bike, if you sue the link in one of the descriptions of an Apollo Mission Episode it will help us. We are part of Priorities Affiliate Program and if you use our link it helps us and our relationship with the good folks at Priority. Thanks again for watching. Enjoy the Ride
Hey Phil, Sorry it's taken me a bit to respond. I got a bit behind on comments. We got those bags when we lived in Taiwan and used them on our road bikes when we did bike touring in Taiwan. They worked really well on the Apollo bikes as well and found the size and useability to be really good. They did break in Nebraska after being pounded by the crappy shoulders there but I was able to do a quick fix and they continue to work well. You can actually get them on Amazon here: www.amazon.com/Ibera-Handlebar-Equipment-Release-Bicycle/dp/B0097DUIOE/ref=sr_1_59_sspa?crid=1F1SZEZ8BTI2V&keywords=handle%2Bbar%2Bbag&qid=1677977798&sprefix=handle%2Bbar%2Bbag%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-59-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExMlVEME84WTQ1SzAyJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjg2NTYxV0RKNkw1VUVBMDBQJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA0NjI5NDQxUUdJRTVZMEVNVDdDJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfbXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1&psc=1 Thanks for watching. Enjoy the Ride
@@BBB_Adventures I do remember seeing where you had to repair the one. Thanks for getting back to me. Still working to get things together. Started my training last month getting a little over 100 miles in. Can’t wait until RAGBRAI!! 🇺🇸🚲🇺🇸🚲🇺🇸 #PedalingLifeForward
Hey Chris King....great name. Thanks for watching. That kick stand is a homemade version of a product called a Click Stand (www.click-stand.com/). I made mine out of some stuff I had laying around the shop and a tent pole I purchased for cheap at an Army Surplus store. I also used a small bungie cord to "lock" the brakes so the bike doesn't roll while using the stand. It worked pretty well. The tent pole needed to be stronger (bigger diameter) for it to work great. The one I used tended to bend/flex a bit too much unless the bike was fairly upright. When you get to Episode10 when we are in Wyoming you'll see we stayed behind an abandoned motel and in the chaos of that situation, I left that kick stand behind. :( Someday maybe I'll make a version 2.0. Thanks again for watching. Enjoy the Ride
Are you opting to do the Ragbrai gravel day route? Are there any worries about a carbon fork if the bike has a hard fall fully loaded? Tubeless that I tried was a nightmare. It was too much effort cycling. Instead I went for thorn resistant tires and tubes. I did more than the distance your doing without a tire issue. But when they die it's at the valve, so make sure the valve is solid and straight.
We haven't decided whether we'll do the gravel loop. This is the first time we've had gravel bikes on RAGBRAI so maybe we will. Depends on how we are feeling that day. I talked to Priority about the strength of the fork before I decided to load it up. I'm not putting anything heavy in the front panniers. All the heavy stuff is going in the rear. The rear spokes are also stronger because the large hub diameter of the Shimano Alfine gear hub makes the spokes pretty short. I'm hoping not to have a hard fall. :) The reason we haven't gone to tubeless yet is because we've had such great luck with Continental Gatorskin tires on our road bikes. I think the only failures we've had with the Gatorskins is when I let the tire get too old/worn and it failed. We've also had a few tubes fail at the valve. I hope we don't have a nightmare with tubeless. We will be carrying tubes in case it becomes a nightmare. Thanks for the watching and for the comment. Enjoy the Ride
@@BBB_Adventures Please test tubeless first, if that's what you're using before heading out. I think mine weighed more than the thorn resistant tubes that replaced them.
Thanks for watching and for the comment. Hopefully you get a chance to watch The Apollo Mission series we are in the middle of posting. We had such a great summer and we love sharing it with folks. Enjoy the Ride
Well...they worked pretty well actually. There performance was dependent on a couple of factors such as angle of the bike and ensuring the end on the ground was well secured. Unfortunately I set it down in Shoshoni, Wyoming during the goat head thorn disaster (Episode 10) and forgot to pick them up so I didn't have it for the rest of the summer. :( Thanks for watching. Enjoy the Ride
@BBB Adventures You did very well on showing the pain that occurred during the thorns on the ride. Love when the Engineer came out to try to solve the problems even with renting a U-haul. Be well and hope for a short winter.
Hey Kiara, Thanks for watching and for the question. We did a ton of research and thinking about the right bike for us. We definitely wanted the low maintenance drivetrain which meant the Gates carbon belt and some sort of transmission, so Priority was an obvious choice. We did consider the 600 for a long time before the Apollo was launched. For us the Apollo was the right bike for a few reasons. The biggest reason was geometry. The Apollo is designed as a gravel bike so it's closer to a road bike than the 600 which is a commuter bike. We like the drop handle bars and the 600 has straight/upright handle bars. The 600 does come with fenders and the front hub is a Dyno hub which runs lights and a USB charging port which is great. The Apollo is lighter out of the box but doesn't have lights and fenders. The Apollo has a little thinner tires but are still wide enough to worry less about cracks in the road. The 600 has a better gear range and we ended up changing the front and rear belt cogs on the Apollo to get the gearing low enough for the touring we wanted to do. In the end, I think it's a personal choice. Both bikes are awesome and either is a great choice. Hope this helps with whatever decision you might be trying to make. If you'd like to discuss our POV more, please reach out on email (busesbikesbeers@gmail.com) or DM is IG @busesbikesbeers. Thanks again for watching. Enjoy the Ride
Interesting. yeah when I tried to ride across the country a couple years ago, I ended up going with a salsa journeyman, which was a gravel bike with drop bars. but I don’t really like drop bars, I like straight bars because they remind me of when I used to be a kid riding BMX bikes, and I felt that they was more Comfortable. so I switched them out. Next time I decide to try this ride, looks like I’m either going to go with the priority bike or I might just end up getting an E bike through specialized.
Just came over from Duzer's latest video on his first day at this year's RAGBRAI. Is it safe to say that you created the map and spreadsheet on Google? Do you have a sharable link for them that you would be willing to.... share?🌯🌯
Yes. Not sure why that was necessary. I guess they didn't want anyone to get our Apollo Mission confused with NASA's. At least I don't have to worry about someone mistaking us for Astronauts. Enjoy the Ride
Thanks!! We are getting super excited to start The Apollo Mission. It will be totally different than riding around Taiwan but hopefully just as fun. Enjoy the Ride
@@TL243 I took the quiz. What a great way of communicating to both cyclist and maybe more importantly motorists about the law in regards to cyclists. Thanks for sharing.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
If I would of known earlier, and you needed a overnight place to stay, I had a nice bedroom down in my basement, with a shower and big room with a TV, a wood stove and a friendly dog.
Hey Bob,
That sounds awesome. There really wasn't a way for you to have known we needed a place to stay. You are so kind to be willing to host us. Maybe next time!
Thanks for following along our journey and thanks for the comment. We love the engagement.
Enjoy the Ride
I'm so glad I found your channel! I have an Apollo and I'm tentatively planning a long bike tour to the west coast (from my home in eastern Kansas) next year or maybe the year after. Shortly after purchasing my Apollo, I began thinking about a long bike trip and when the idea struck me to use my Apollo for the trip, my very first thought was "This is gonna need some modification before I feel like climbing any hills on it!". What you've done to your bikes is almost exactly what I've been planning to do to mine. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought of turning this awesome gravel bike into my dream touring bike.
But for now, I'm pleased with it as a gravel bike. I take it out in the hills to go fishing. It'll be all dusty when I get there, so I just roll it down to the beach and stick it in the water, let the waves clean the drivetrain. Something I'd never ever dream of doing to a bike with a chain!
Howdy and Welcome to BBB Adventures!
We are glad you found us. It's great to hear you thinking about the Apollo touring bike versus the Apollo gravel bike. My belief was the Apollo would make an awesome touring bike and the Apollo Mission proved that to be absolutely true. Our Apollos performed awesome as touring bikes after the modifications and refinements we made. Lowering the gearing is key, as you mentioned. Other than adding accessories like racks and fenders, one of the biggest impactful things we did was have a professional bike fit at our local bike shop. This allowed us to change our riding position to be more upright which worked really well for touring. For us the Apollo is a near perfect touring bike and we are looking forward to our next big adventure.
Hopefully you've had the chance or our currently watching the Apollo Mission episodes. Since you are planning a touring adventure on your Apollo, I'm sure you'd enjoy the series.
Please let us know if you have any specific questions when you get ready to start the transformation from gravel to touring.
Thanks for watching.
Enjoy the Ride
I enjoy your content, Keep it coming! Look forward to watching your adventure across the country. Maybe see you at Ragbrai!
Hey Randy,
Thanks for the feedback on the content. It's super inspiring for us to hear that viewers are enjoying what we work hard to post. We are getting super excited about the upcoming adventure. 3 weeks to launch day!!! We're glad you'll be following along. We will also be trying to give more real-time updates on Instagram during the journey, so please consider following us @busesbikesbeers. We also want to plan a meet up or two during RAGBRAI for any BBB viewers on the ride. Are you staying with Pork Belly?
Thanks for watching
Enjoy the Ride
I have always wanted to do that trip, so have a great time and look forward to meeting you at Ragbrai this year. Your channel convinced my son and I to do Ragbrai for the first time this year.
Hey Rob,
Thanks for watching and thanks for the comment. We are so happy to hear you and your son are doing RAGBRAI and pleased to know we had any part of you getting inspired to join the best week of the year.
If you follow us on Instagram too @busesbikesbeers we will be giving real time updates on the Apollo Mission and arranging some meet ups during RAGBRAI.
Thanks again for the comment.
Enjoy the Ride
Love the pedal with spd and flat pedals. Didn't know they existed.
Yes, we love them. Gives us choices in how to engage with the bike. I tend to clip in and Mb tends to ride on the flat side. We put the same pedals on the Red Dragon (our co-motion tandem). We are planning riding the Red Dragon again on RAGBRAI 2023.
Thanks for watching.
Enjoy the Ride
@BBB Adventures We will see if you trade in the red dragon for a newer bike. Saw the videos where your window shopping.
@@dfriz8513 Well...you never know. We are found of the Red Dragon but her brakes are not good. Would be nice to have one with modern disc brakes.
Looks like a great ride. I know it is not on your current route, but you should look up the GAP and C&O towpath. See you at RAGBRAI.
Hey David,
We've heard lots of great things about the GAP and C&O routes and are definitely interested in riding them one day. Maybe after we get our bus built we can find our way there.
Thanks for watching and for the suggestion.
Looking forward to seeing you at RAGBRAI.
Enjoy the Ride
I love your planning! And I am excited to meet you guys in person! Let me know if you would like a (slower) biking buddy one weekend day. If not before your trip, I look forward to meeting you both at Ragbrai!
Hey Greer,
Nice to hear from you. The end of the school year is near. We'd love to ride with you. I'll send you an email so we can try to coordinate something.
Thanks for watching.
Enjoy the Ride
What an epic journey this will be ,I will be watching this when you have uploaded your videos! Safe travels
Thank you Raymond. We really appreciate your support and we are super happy you'll be following along. I don't really know how often we'll be uploading episodes but we are targeting every 7 or 8 days. Episode postings won't be as regularly and as predictable as they have been.
Enjoy the Ride
I love a good logistics planning project…but this is off the charts! If your plan completely derails and you end up in Minnesota- I’ll ride with you! But seeing as how that will probably be during RAGBRAI, I doubt that’ll happen.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the comment and the kind words about our planning. Since we weren't following one of the tried and true routes from Adventure Cycling I really wanted to do enough research that I could convince myself and Marybeth we had a legitimate route with place to camp at a reasonable interval. I certainly hope we don't end up in Minnesota, but if we do you'll let you know. :)
Thanks again for watching and we hope you follow along with us on The Apollo Mission.
Enjoy the Ride
You guys are going to have so much fun. Just remember, don't let mileage be your goal. Take it slow the first few days to adjust. We have enjoyed all are trips for very different reasons. I'm so jealous!
Hey Jerry,
Thanks for watching BBB and thanks for the great advice. I really am going to try and not let mileage or anything else be our goal other than enjoying the adventure. We are definitely going to take it easy for the first part of this ride. At our age preventing injury is something that we have to be aware of.
We're happy you'll be following along and encouraging us!
Thanks for your support.
Enjoy the Ride
Great Stuff 🚴♂️ Priority Apollo bike is sweet.. My buddy of 50 years & I are planning an Adventure Across USA 🇺🇸..
lots of great tips.. I’m designing a bike route & it’s very similar to mine.. is your route on Riding with GPS.. I would like to compare our bike routes.. Is it attached to any your videos.. I didn’t see it 🤷♂️
We are also planning on doing RAGBRAI.. I noticed you wearing Pork Belly Adventure T Shirt.. we’ve used them also.. great company.. it’s amazing watching them take tents down.. drive 75 miles and have tents up.. in a reasonable time!!
Howdy,
First, thanks for watching and for the comment!
We love our Apollo bikes and have many more adventures planned for them. It's exciting to hear you and your long time friend are planning a cross country adventure. The Apollo Mission was the best summer of our lives and we are anxious to do something like that again.
We don't have our route on Riding with GPS. The closest thing we have is a spreadsheet I used to plan The Apollo Mission as well as daily tracking via Garmin/Strava. I had ambitions to put it all together on Google Maps or something similar but never got it done. :(
Including RAGBRAI as part of The Apollo Mission worked out well for us. We had a friend that was also doing RAGBRAI bring us some duffle bags and we transferred all our stuff from the panniers into the duffle bags so Pork Belly could carry our stuff across Iowa. We also used the rental tents to get a break from setting up our tent every night. Worked out great. We also enjoyed ridding the bikes "naked" versus all bagged up.
We did publish over 40 episodes of The Apollo Mission you could look through to learn about our route and experience, including the week of RAGBRAI.
Also, since you mentioned Pork Belly's process, we did spend time documenting it. If you haven't seen those, he's a link to the them:
ua-cam.com/video/moGhAGWTQcM/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/2Mu0j_1_iZc/v-deo.html
Finally, we'd be happy to set up a call if you have any specific questions about our route or our experiences. Send us a DM on Instagram (@busesbikesbeers) and we can set something up.
Enjoy the Ride
@ Thank You 🙂
Happy New Year 2025 💫🌟🇺🇸
Nice i love it is such a nice upgrade to the apollo i will be prying for you guys and your safety
Thank you Rene.
We are getting very exciting about getting started and I believe all the upgrades and modifications to the Apollo bikes make them ready for this big adventure.
Thanks for watching, for the support and the comment.
We also wish you a safe and awesome ride to Iowa.
Looking forward to seeing you at RAGBRAI.
Enjoy the Ride
Somewhat newer subscriber here but really enjoy everything I've seen from you. Will be watching along the way and there's a potential that I'll be traveling through Wyoming when you are. So if I by chance see you I'd love to stop, say a quick hi and support your journey if the trail magic works its way. Regardless best of luck with planning and your start to the trip. Cheers!
Hi Fiber,
First, welcome to Buses Bikes and Beers, we're super happy to have you as part of the community. Second, thanks for the feedback on our content. It means the world to us that people are enjoying our adventures (big or small).
It's cool you'll be traveling in WY at the same time we are. Will you be traveling by car? We'd love to connect if possible. We plan to give "real-time" updates on our progress via Instagram as well as uploading a BBB episode every 7 to 10 days. So when we get to WY, we could communicate via Instagram message to attempt to coordinate a connection in somewhere in WY....hopefully where they serve cold beer. :)
Thanks for watching and for the comment.
Enjoy the Ride
@@BBB_Adventures At least for now this time I'll be traveling by car. I'm from South Dakota and will be heading home from my own little adventure at that time visiting family. I'll keep my eyes peeled for you on Instagram and I'll be in touch if it all works out. It's funny how living right next to Iowa my whole life and I'd never heard of RAGBRAI until 5 years or so ago. I appreciate all the helpful information about it all and I'm hoping to do it next year when I can upgrade my bike a little with something more suitable. Safe travels and thanks for replying!
@@Fiberface It is interesting how you'd never heard of RAGBRAI, but we talk to a lot of cyclists that have also never heard of it. On the other hand, a cyclist from our home town of Idaho Falls found Buses Bikes and Beers and is planning on doing RAGBRAI this year. So yes, it's interesting how word about the ride spreads. The good news is you know about it know and you can participate. You won't be disappointed.
Yes, look for updates on Instagram and maybe we can meet up in WY.
Enjoy the Ride
cant wait to see your new adventure- maybe ill get to buy you a beer atRagbrai
Thanks for watching and for the comment. We are so happy you'll be following our adventure. Launch day is T minus 3 weeks!!!
We'd love to connect at RAGBRAI. We are going to try to coordinate a meet up or two during the ride using Instagram @busesbikesbeers. I'd love for you to buy me a beer. Ha ha. :)
Enjoy the Ride
I'll just keep watching on your bike vlog,I'm just only dreaming that I have a kind of bike like that an imagination
Hey Jessie,
It's good to have hopes and dreams and let those help and guide you as you work to achieve them and you can start bike touring with almost any bike.
We really do appreciate you watching our adventures and giving us comments, feedback and encouragement, so thank you so much for watching and leaving a comment.
Enjoy the Ride
Hello "Buses, Bikes & Beers",
With some experience in riding the PCH and some rails to trails I would like to offer some input. Riding shoulders will take a toll on the tires. The debris that you won't see is the shreds of steel from steel belt auto tires. I changed the tires on my Apollo due to them not being thorn resistant and having multiple flats. I then went tubeless(with thorn resistant tires) for the Katy trail. Both tires punctured within a few feet of distance and it was a mess with sealant spraying everywhere including up into my face. I fought air leaks(including using "bacon strips") for two days and then put tubes in both tires and have not flatted since. If you do go tubeless be sure to carry enough sealant as any little leak allows for sealant to escape before stopping the leak. One other little tidbit-Do not run your tires at higher pressure in a tubeless situation.
I want to thank you for the gearing input as I changed the rear gear on my Apollo and enjoy the set up so much more. Feel free to reach out with any questions. Enjoy the Ride!
Hello ChangeUpRider!
First thanks for watching BBB and for the great comment. We really enjoy hearing and learning from our great viewers. After hearing multiple stories and doing some research on the WTB Byway tires, we've decided to change them out for more puncture resistant tires which are also tubeless ready. I've been pretty skeptical about tubeless and hearing stories like yours continues to fuel that skepticism. Not too long after getting our road bikes, which came with racing tires that had terrible life and puncture resistance, we put on Continental Gatorskin tires and I don't recall having a puncture. I've wore tires out and have had valve stems fail but they've been super reliable. That experience has also made we wonder if tubeless is better. But I also hear stories from folks that have run tubeless without any issues and swear by the setup.
Do you currently run tubeless on any of your bikes?
We also LOVE the 46/26 setup on our Apollos. For us it represents the right low and high end gears. We do more climbing than we do going fast.
Thanks again for watching and for the input. We appreciate it.
Enjoy the Ride
@@BBB_Adventures I am currently not running tubeless. But I do "Orange" sealant in my tubes on the Priority 600x. I do that because I enjoy the off road trails here in Arizona and those prickly little thorns are every where. I usually check my tire pressure by feel before every ride but only check it with a pump one a month. I am also thinking off a little generator to charge up power packs as I have not had much luck with solar. I am sending good vibes for you two and would love to join you at some point for a two or three day ride along. You are awesome!!
I love bike touring,awesome bicycles,even I wish to have that bike but I can't afford 'coz im a poor man here in the Philippines,
Hey Jessie,
Thanks for watching Buses Bikes and Beers and for leaving a comment. We are so happy to have someone from the Philippines watching. Yes, the Apollo bikes are very nice bikes but you can easily bike tour with a much less expensive or a used bike. I'll bet there are some great bike touring routes in the Philippines, just like there are in Taiwan. Maybe someday we'll get a chance to visit and ride bikes there.
Enjoy the Ride
@@BBB_Adventures thanks sir I always keep watching on your vlog even I have no bike
@@jessiegonzales4840 Thanks you!! We really appreciate it.
Great video! I think you need to do more planning. LOL
Hey Craig,
Your comment made me laugh out loud. I may have gone a bit overboard but that's what I needed to do to give myself the confidence I was wasn't taking on an adventure that would put Marybeth (or myself) in a extraordinary difficult situation. If we were following one of the "standard" routes like those from Adventure Cycling, it would have different but we had specific needs for the route including RAGBRAI.
Thanks for watching and supporting BBB.
Enjoy the Ride
@@BBB_Adventures Brently, I totally get it. Most of us are not Ryan Van Duzer and say to ourselves, "I think I'll ride this road." I like to know where I'm going too. I like hearing your planning process.
That's literally the exact route Duzer took for LoveCycles
Hey Kevin,
It's close but not exact. We consulted with Ryan about the Love Cycles route and also had our own requirements along the way such as stopping at our home in Idaho Falls. Love Cycles took a more northern route through that part of Idaho. Our route through Ontario was also different than Love Cycles. However, as you observed the route was generally the same since we also wanted to include RAGBRAI as part of The Apollo Mission. It's a great route for anyone that wants to do something similar.
Thanks for watching and for the comment.
Enjoy the Ride
Hi! We are working our way through your videos and have some questions. Later in the series (I came in late to the party and am working through the first half of your trip) we see that Mary Beth has a growler on her front fork. How did you attach that? Also, how did your front rack actually attach? We just bought our Apollos and finished our first bike packing trip yesterday with them. They did great, but we are looking to add to our setup. If this is covered in a different video and I missed it, I apologize. We thank you much and we love your videos!
What is the weight limit on your front and rear racks? Wasn't happy with the racks that priority bikes make for their bikes...weight load was too low. My current load wt is 47 lbs between 4 panniers.
Hey Steve,
I actually don't know the weight limit on the racks themselves. I was more worried about the load and stress I was putting on the front fork and I did discuss this with the folks at Priority and decided that the weight I was putting on the front was OK and the spokes would be the weak link so we carried extra spokes but luckily never had one break.
In this episode at 25:20 I review the weight of each of our panniers. Hope that helps.
ua-cam.com/video/NMYjSculrPg/v-deo.html
Please let me know if you have any other questions I might be able to answer as you work through your Apollo touring bike plan.
Thanks for watching.
Enjoy the Ride
Curious if you are doing rail trails or just sharing the road with cars.
Hey Mark,
Thanks for watching and for the question. We used trail trails when they were available along our route and in fact in some cases adjusted the route to align with bike or rail trails. Most of that was east of Iowa. Not too many trails in the West. We did try the Cowboy trail in Nebraska but abandoned it due to goat heads and soft gravel/sand. Hopefully you'll get a chance to watch all 43 episodes of The Apollo Mission so you'll get to see in detail the conditions of our cross continent ride. We did a lot of road riding sharing the road with cars and trucks.
Thanks again for the interest.
Enjoy the Ride
One Country? Looked like two to me!
Technically that's true. But 2 Bikes 2 Countries doesn't sound as good. And someone put a little piece of Ontario in-between Michigan and New York.
Any recommendation for either the Apolla over the 600X?
Howdy and thanks for watching and for the question, and that's a good question.
There are some fundamental differences between the 600X and the Apollo and the right choice depends on how you intended to use the bike. I'll give you might view of some of those differences.
Weight
The Apollo starts at 24 pounds and the 600X is a bit over 30 pounds depending on frame size. If weight is a big deal for you then the Apollo has a slight advantage. However, if you are going to set the bike up as a touring or bike packing rig, then this difference is probably less important.
Gearing
The Apollo with the Shimano Alfine 11 hub has a total gear range of 409% and the 600X has a 600% range with the Pinion transmission. That means lower gearing with the 600X without a big sacrifice in high gear. We changed the front and rear cogs on our Apollos in order to get the low gear low enough to reasonably get over high mountain passes full loaded with touring gear, but that also lowered the high gear but for us that was OK because we don't tend to ride super fast.
Geometry
The Apollo is closer to a road bike geometry and has drop handlebars, the 600X is more of a mountain bike (more upright riding position) and has straight handlebars. This again is a personal preference and also where bike usage comes in. If you are going to do more gravel and some single track riding, then the 600X is probably a better choice. If you are mostly on the paved road or gravel road with an occasional non-technical single track, then the Apollo works great. The 600X also has wider tires and front suspension, which is again good for more single track and more technical riding.
These are both fantastic bikes, well designed with high quality components and a great build quality. The Gate Belt drivetrains are awesome and take some of hassle of bike ownership off the table.
Hope this helps. And when you do decide to order your bike, if you sue the link in one of the descriptions of an Apollo Mission Episode it will help us. We are part of Priorities Affiliate Program and if you use our link it helps us and our relationship with the good folks at Priority.
Thanks again for watching.
Enjoy the Ride
Can you please tell me what handlebar bag you used for this adventure and where you got it?
Hey Phil,
Sorry it's taken me a bit to respond. I got a bit behind on comments.
We got those bags when we lived in Taiwan and used them on our road bikes when we did bike touring in Taiwan. They worked really well on the Apollo bikes as well and found the size and useability to be really good. They did break in Nebraska after being pounded by the crappy shoulders there but I was able to do a quick fix and they continue to work well.
You can actually get them on Amazon here:
www.amazon.com/Ibera-Handlebar-Equipment-Release-Bicycle/dp/B0097DUIOE/ref=sr_1_59_sspa?crid=1F1SZEZ8BTI2V&keywords=handle%2Bbar%2Bbag&qid=1677977798&sprefix=handle%2Bbar%2Bbag%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-59-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExMlVEME84WTQ1SzAyJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjg2NTYxV0RKNkw1VUVBMDBQJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA0NjI5NDQxUUdJRTVZMEVNVDdDJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfbXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1&psc=1
Thanks for watching.
Enjoy the Ride
@@BBB_Adventures I do remember seeing where you had to repair the one. Thanks for getting back to me. Still working to get things together. Started my training last month getting a little over 100 miles in. Can’t wait until RAGBRAI!! 🇺🇸🚲🇺🇸🚲🇺🇸 #PedalingLifeForward
Dude! What are you using for a kickstand. It looks so cool.
Hey Chris King....great name.
Thanks for watching. That kick stand is a homemade version of a product called a Click Stand (www.click-stand.com/). I made mine out of some stuff I had laying around the shop and a tent pole I purchased for cheap at an Army Surplus store. I also used a small bungie cord to "lock" the brakes so the bike doesn't roll while using the stand. It worked pretty well. The tent pole needed to be stronger (bigger diameter) for it to work great. The one I used tended to bend/flex a bit too much unless the bike was fairly upright. When you get to Episode10 when we are in Wyoming you'll see we stayed behind an abandoned motel and in the chaos of that situation, I left that kick stand behind. :( Someday maybe I'll make a version 2.0.
Thanks again for watching.
Enjoy the Ride
Are you opting to do the Ragbrai gravel day route?
Are there any worries about a carbon fork if the bike has a hard fall fully loaded?
Tubeless that I tried was a nightmare. It was too much effort cycling. Instead I went for thorn resistant tires and tubes. I did more than the distance your doing without a tire issue. But when they die it's at the valve, so make sure the valve is solid and straight.
We haven't decided whether we'll do the gravel loop. This is the first time we've had gravel bikes on RAGBRAI so maybe we will. Depends on how we are feeling that day.
I talked to Priority about the strength of the fork before I decided to load it up. I'm not putting anything heavy in the front panniers. All the heavy stuff is going in the rear. The rear spokes are also stronger because the large hub diameter of the Shimano Alfine gear hub makes the spokes pretty short. I'm hoping not to have a hard fall. :)
The reason we haven't gone to tubeless yet is because we've had such great luck with Continental Gatorskin tires on our road bikes. I think the only failures we've had with the Gatorskins is when I let the tire get too old/worn and it failed. We've also had a few tubes fail at the valve.
I hope we don't have a nightmare with tubeless. We will be carrying tubes in case it becomes a nightmare.
Thanks for the watching and for the comment.
Enjoy the Ride
@@BBB_Adventures Please test tubeless first, if that's what you're using before heading out. I think mine weighed more than the thorn resistant tubes that replaced them.
🙌🏼
Thanks for watching and for the comment. Hopefully you get a chance to watch The Apollo Mission series we are in the middle of posting. We had such a great summer and we love sharing it with folks.
Enjoy the Ride
How did the tent pole bike stands work?
Well...they worked pretty well actually. There performance was dependent on a couple of factors such as angle of the bike and ensuring the end on the ground was well secured. Unfortunately I set it down in Shoshoni, Wyoming during the goat head thorn disaster (Episode 10) and forgot to pick them up so I didn't have it for the rest of the summer. :(
Thanks for watching.
Enjoy the Ride
@BBB Adventures You did very well on showing the pain that occurred during the thorns on the ride. Love when the Engineer came out to try to solve the problems even with renting a U-haul. Be well and hope for a short winter.
Any reason you didn’t go with the priority 600?
Hey Kiara,
Thanks for watching and for the question. We did a ton of research and thinking about the right bike for us. We definitely wanted the low maintenance drivetrain which meant the Gates carbon belt and some sort of transmission, so Priority was an obvious choice. We did consider the 600 for a long time before the Apollo was launched. For us the Apollo was the right bike for a few reasons. The biggest reason was geometry. The Apollo is designed as a gravel bike so it's closer to a road bike than the 600 which is a commuter bike. We like the drop handle bars and the 600 has straight/upright handle bars. The 600 does come with fenders and the front hub is a Dyno hub which runs lights and a USB charging port which is great. The Apollo is lighter out of the box but doesn't have lights and fenders. The Apollo has a little thinner tires but are still wide enough to worry less about cracks in the road. The 600 has a better gear range and we ended up changing the front and rear belt cogs on the Apollo to get the gearing low enough for the touring we wanted to do. In the end, I think it's a personal choice. Both bikes are awesome and either is a great choice. Hope this helps with whatever decision you might be trying to make. If you'd like to discuss our POV more, please reach out on email (busesbikesbeers@gmail.com) or DM is IG @busesbikesbeers.
Thanks again for watching.
Enjoy the Ride
Interesting. yeah when I tried to ride across the country a couple years ago, I ended up going with a salsa journeyman, which was a gravel bike with drop bars. but I don’t really like drop bars, I like straight bars because they remind me of when I used to be a kid riding BMX bikes, and I felt that they was more Comfortable. so I switched them out. Next time I decide to try this ride, looks like I’m either going to go with the priority bike or I might just end up getting an E bike through specialized.
Just came over from Duzer's latest video on his first day at this year's RAGBRAI. Is it safe to say that you created the map and spreadsheet on Google? Do you have a sharable link for them that you would be willing to.... share?🌯🌯
I like that youtube in their infinite wisdom decided to add a Apollo space mission context wiki. 🙄
Yes. Not sure why that was necessary. I guess they didn't want anyone to get our Apollo Mission confused with NASA's. At least I don't have to worry about someone mistaking us for Astronauts.
Enjoy the Ride
@@BBB_Adventures You really need astronaut costumes to ride in now!!!! 👨🚀👩🚀
@@lightdark00 That's actually a pretty good idea. :)
😎❤️🇹🇼and 🚍🚴🏽🍻‼️
Thanks!! We are getting super excited to start The Apollo Mission. It will be totally different than riding around Taiwan but hopefully just as fun.
Enjoy the Ride
@@BBB_Adventures hopefully you will check out BikeWalkNC’s bicycle safety quiz along the way.
@@TL243 I took the quiz. What a great way of communicating to both cyclist and maybe more importantly motorists about the law in regards to cyclists. Thanks for sharing.