Every man needs a vehicle for those times in which a fast getaway is one's most urgent requirement.

You may not often need to utilize your escape pod, but there's comefort in knowing it's there. The question remains, what form should that take? Every year I change my mind about that. It's gaudy to have escape pods in all their forms. I've thought about buying––and sometimes gone ahead and purchased––travel trailers, camper shells, RVs, and fifth-wheelers. You can't have all of these. Well, you can, but you leave yourself open to ridicule.

All my purchases were conceived out of obedience to the same axiom: At this particular moment the riding (or perhaps running) is better somewhere else (i.e., other than one's home turf).

It's a little known offshoot of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. You're the object, and we can't know your exact position and exact momentum at the same time. We can't know your position because you don't want us to know (that's part of escaping). We can't know your momentum because we can't find you to ask you.

My generation succinctly reduced all these words of explanation into two: Road Trip!

This year I've determined that my newsest escape pod ought to take its most elemental form: the bike itself. My wife is on my case right now about the number of bikes in the garage. I shall fix that. I'll hide a few of them. Out of sight, out of mind. The straw that broke the camel's back was this most recent one. My custom-built steel Della Santa (1985ish) was hanging––frame only––from a hook in the garage. Very inefficient use of that frame, I thought. Besides, I needed the hook for something else.

So I called up Roland Della Santa (this is the guy who'd made a good deal of LeMond's frames throughout LeMond's career) and got a new set of decals. I gave the frame and decals to Mandaric for a repaint. I called up Glenn Spiller of Sinclair Imports––the U.S. distributor for Carnac, who also sells Campy––and got myself a Daytona 10sp kit (for the dual purpose of finishing off my Campy v Shimano shootout and for outfitting my latest sled).

When I had Mandaric repaint the frame I had him make a specific adjustment to this frame's capabilities: He drilled the fork blades and inserted a fixture for a Blackburn Lowrider rack, and installed braze-ons at the fork ends. Of course you can mount one of these racks without a fork with the features I wanted, but for me it's about elegance and show. I've got to have the thing done right. Plus, the rack weighs nothing. And the bike is fast. So, if I find that I happen to be fit enough to be ornery at any particular point in time I can take this bike––rack and all––to the local group ride and make a nuisance of myself.

I might've made a tactical mistake. I got Campy's 12-25 cassette, paired with a 39/53 chainring set. I'll be adding 10-12 pounds of payload to this bike, which is already 7 pounds heavier than my usual bike. That means I'll be riding with 15-20 pounds more than normal. In retrospect I ought to have gotten the medium-cage derailleur and a 13-29 cassette. (I explain all this in my Record v Dura Ace review). But I thought I'd be better off getting the exact same cogset than I've got on my Record bike, so that if anything goes haywire with one of these wheels I can slap the other on and not skip a beat. I'm just being a wimp right now, worrying whether 25 teeth will get me up whatever I'm climbing, which is totally out of the spirit of road tripping. You can't overthink it or you'll kill it before you get started. What's the worst thing that can happen to me? The hill's too steep, and I walk. It turns out you spend a good deal of time you your feet when you tour, for one reason or another. So I outfitted this bike with Shimano's SPD pedals, and I'll tour with my MTB shoes.

I've toured with this set-up before, and it works quite well. This Blackburn rack puts the panniers close to the ground. The weight of you baggage is centered right at your front axle. Your steering is a little slower, but in general it feels pretty natural. I like the weight in front, not in the back. I don't have any packs on the rear at all. I don't expect to be gone for months, only a few days at a time at most. Carrying only this much means I've got a couple of changes of clothing, some clothes for inclement weather, and a second set of shoes to walk around in.

The other way I've toured is by carrying a credit card only, and letting UPS ride sag. I box up one day's set of clothes, and a bit of packing tape, and send it off to a motel along the route I intend to ride. If there are a few of us riding, we all throw our clothes into the box. We might have 2 or 3 motels that receive a package, depending on the length of the tour. (You can use U.S. mail instead if you want. Just enclose postage. Stamps.com makes that pretty easy nowadays).

You show up at the motel, take your new clothes out, throw your old clothes in, repackage the box with the tape you threw in the box when you shipped the box out. You either send a UPS call tag when you get back, or if you do U.S. mail just restamp the box with the postage you enclosed when you sent the box out and you don't have to worry about the call tag.

The only problem with the UPS tour is that you're locked into whatever route and motel you've chosen. My new Escape Pod allows me to make up the ride as I go along.

When will I use my new sled for its intended purpose? Who knows. But the comfort in knowing it's cocked and ready means it's already fulfilling half its intended purpose.