I originally planned to ride a Cannondale T2000 Touring Bicycle over the route, but found that riding this type of bike for prolonged periods of time bothered my right arm and my neck with significant pain. It was sufficiently painful that I decided to investigate other bikes to do my touring. After much research I chose an Easy Racers Gold Rush recumbent bicycle shown below. A recumbent provides the rider with the most comfortable ride possible on a bicycle. If a person is comfortable driving a car for many hours at a time they can be comfortable driving a recumbent many hours at a time.
On the W&OD Trail.
In addition to being an extremely comfortable bike the recumbent is an extremely fast bike. One of the reasons this is true is the fact that it presents less frontal area for wind resistance. While upright bikes strive mightly to reduce their weight and 15 pound bikes are available for a price. Recumbent bikes are much heavier and weigh in at 30 pounds and heavier. I carry a fairing on the front of my bike, which improves the aerodynamics of the bike and allows for increased speed. These bikes are so fast that they have been banned from racing with normal upright bikes. The current speed record on a recumbent was set in 2002 by Sam Whittingham of Canada as he acclerated a recumbent with a full fairing like that shown below to the speed of 80.55 mph.
As a warmup to the 2009 Cross Country Bike Trip I went on Pedal Pennsylvania's Penn Central bike tour in 2004, which went from Pittsburgh to Easton, PA near the border between PA and NJ. This was a week long tour covering 450 miles of back road Pennsylvania. Shown below is a photo of me when we were getting ready to move out early one morning.
