Since a few people along my ride have asked, maybe it’s worth giving an answer to this question. This may be of interest to other touring cyclists who battle some of the same physical problems. The short answer to how I feel is “surprisingly good”.

My neck and shoulders, which sometimes have bothered me on longer rides, have felt fine.  I attribute this to handlebar extensions that I added so I could sit in a more upright position when I wanted to.  There are surprisingly no extensions available for the drop handlebars used on most road bikes.  I adapted mine from ones manufactured for trail bikes.  I drilled them out to the correct size for drop handlebars (yes they differ from straight bars), and have them pointing backwards instead of forwards.  I ended up using these about 3/4 of the time, though I employ each of the other three traditional hand positions at least some of the time.  The extensions are the silver bars in the image below.  They stick straight back and are level (not pointing up or down).

I’ve been blessed with almost no back problems over the years, despite decades of jarring running and other abuse.  That situation hasn’t changed on this ride, again perhaps because of my more upright posture most of the time.

My hands tend to get a little numb as I ride, but I alleviate this by switching hand positions frequently.

The troubles I had with connective tissues (bursitis and tendonitis), which I thought might be trip-ending early on, went away completely.  Part of this was icing and stretching and a topical analgesic, Voltaren, but I believe the key factor was discontinuing the use of toe clips (external cages on the pedals) and allowing my foot to assume whatever position it wanted.  This ended up being significantly different (more forward and more to the outside) from where the cages would hold my feet.  To forgo clips eliminates the possibility of using your legs to pull up on the pedals rather than just pushing down.  But I’ve come to believe that pulling never happens (at least when touring and not sprinting).  I quickly found after I stopped using the cages that I couldn’t tell whether my feet were in them or not.  (I just used the “bottom” of the pedals rather than removing the clips, so once in a while a foot did accidentally slip into one.)   My feet never came off the pedals, which should have happened if I were ever pulling upward.  Using so-called clipless pedals and connected shoes would have been worse.  They lock your foot into position with NO opportunity for even minor repositioning.  They also, in my view, have the disadvantage of requiring separate shoes when off the bike.

I bought the softest saddle I could find for this trip.  It worked great, avoiding the pain I had experienced on all previous bike tours.  The brand is Selle Royal, and the model is the Lookin Moderate.  Hunting online, I was amazed by the number of different saddle options that exist, and how expensive some of them are.

Finally, my legs were never sore.  On the contrary, in the beginning of the trip all my muscles had a wonderful tingle at the end of the day, telling me that they had been well used, but not abused.  I know Frank felt this way, and he mentioned it almost every day of the trip.  Sadly, this sensation went away in the later part of the trip, except after the longest rides or hardest climbs.  Similarly, in the morning my legs would feel a little fatigued in the early days, but this was gone completely by the end of the trip.  It may sound unbelievable, but at the end of eac day, after 70 miles and 6 hours on the bike, I did not feel at all tired or sore.  I attribute this to maintaining a truly sustainable pace, and the body’s ability (or even preference) to work pretty hard.