Bicycle Trips

[StetsTerhune]

In the last few years of my working full-time, I'm hoping to try out various (cost effective) hobbies for my retirement.  One idea that's intrigued me for a while is bicycle travel. It seems like a fun, healthy way to travel, and if I camped it could be incredibly cheap. Only problem: I haven't ridden a bike since I was 13, and don't know a thing about biking. I've tried googling to try to find some sort of guide to bike travel, but can't get past all the bike tour companies (which I have no interest in at all).

Anyone an expert, or know a good book or website to learn about bikes and bike travel?

How much money would I have to outlay to get started? I suppose I'd need a bike (what kind?), panniers, anything else?  Anyone have any good (and fairly short) beginner trips (preferably on a dedicated bike path in the midwest)?

[grantmeaname]

If I were you, I'd look into something like GOBA for your first trip. The cheapest organized tours are around $200 for a week, which gets you camping permission, mobile mechanics, SAG support, and a maps, and a giant rolling party with a ton of people. Any more than that price seems more dubious a value to me, but I think doing a week tour like that (or even a weekend planned ride like TOSRV, which is more expeensive per day but cheaper overall) is a good way to get a feel for it all.

As far as getting to the point where you can do those, I'd see if your city has a bike club that rides a few times a week (Cincinnati and Columbus have a few each, but I don't know how many you'll find in a little town of 30,000). If not, you could check if your bike shop could recommend a weekly ride for beginners in the area that a couple guys do on an informal basis.

Hope this helps.

[Jamesqf]

I'm far from an expert, but I've done a fair bit over the years, so here are a few suggestions for what they're worth.

1) Start riding locally and get in shape.  Don't underestimate this: I
"trained" for my first long tour (many years ago, when "10 speeds" were the epitome of bike tech) by riding up to 10 miles on flat land.  I discovered that this was woefully inadequate for riding through the Sierra Nevada.

1a) This applies to camping too.  Do you do backpacking or light car camping?  (That is, you carry a small tent, vs pulling a camping trailer.)  If not, start doing some.  It's always a good idea to start with something where getting in the car and driving home at 2 AM is an option.

2) You can probably get a good used bike for $200 or so.  I've done most of my trips on a light mountain bike (Specialized Hard Rock), as it give me flexibility to do dirt roads and moderate single-track, yet is ok on paved roads too.  This will of course depend on what sort of riding you want to do.  I wouldn't go touring on a road bike unless it was an organized group, with sag wagons &c.

[galaxie]

If you want to go more than a couple of miles and it's mostly on roads, get a "commuter" or "touring" focused road bike.  You will want to have more clearance in the forks for stuff like fenders and fatter tires (which can be more comfortable, and you can get them with nubs for traction in weather), and they usually have more places where you can attach stuff to the frame.  It's not hard to find older road bikes with these features -- they were pretty common on road bikes a while (10-20 years?) ago.

Panniers and a rack are very handy, and they are great for biking to work too.  I would start doing that so you can get in shape.

[skyrefuge]

Here's a good existing thread on this topic, with links to relevant sites: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/bike-around-america/msg11328/

My touring bike, plus panniers, racks, and million other specific components totals about $2000.  The camping gear adds probably another $1000.  That's all fairly high-end stuff though, and designed to cover just about anything the road can throw at me, so close to the maximum you could reasonably pay for a good loaded-touring set-up.  A true Mustachian using Craigslist could surely accumulate a reasonable touring setup over time for a fraction of that.

Once you get yourself in bike-riding shape (riding around town, commuting to work (touring bikes make great commuting bikes), etc.), and get familiar with your camping gear (if you aren't already), the first step of loaded bike touring is to find a campground a reasonable distance from your house (40-60 miles), and on a nice weekend, ride there, camp overnight, and then ride home.  From there, it's just a matter of stringing multiple days like that together.

1) Start riding locally and get in shape.  Don't underestimate this: I
"trained" for my first long tour (many years ago, when "10 speeds" were the epitome of bike tech) by riding up to 10 miles on flat land.  I discovered that this was woefully inadequate for riding through the Sierra Nevada.

ha, I just finished a month-long ride through the Sierras last week, and I don't think there's *any* riding you can do to fully prepare yourself for those mountains!  But yes, 10 flat miles is a particularly woeful amount of preparation.  :-)

As I noted in the above thread, my bike tours have never ended up being particularly inexpensive, and even though this was my first post-MMM tour, the expenses didn't change much.  $8 beer?  $17 for 3 slices of pizza?  Sure! But a lot of that is because I usually end up packing too much activity into a relatively-small 4-week window of vacation time, especially this one, so I quite frequently find myself willing to trade money for time; I could probably do a lot better on a post-retirement trip where I could afford to spend more time and energy to make more economical decisions.

[Jamesqf]

ha, I just finished a month-long ride through the Sierras last week, and I don't think there's *any* riding you can do to fully prepare yourself for those mountains!  But yes, 10 flat miles is a particularly woeful amount of preparation.  :-)

I guess you've never biked in Switzerland, then.  If the 18% grades don't kill you, the humiliation of being passed by old Swiss grannies with the week's grocery shopping will :-)

[Barry]

I spent $5000 riding across Europe for 4 months a few years ago.  That includes $1500 on flights, but not the bike, panniers, camping gear.  I ate and drank like a king, and saved money by rough-camping 3 nights out of 4.

My advice:
- Just go for it.  After 3 weeks of riding a few hours every day, it doesn't matter how out of shape you were when you started.  Accept that you may suffer for the first week.
- Don't set distance or destination goals.  Just plan on riding a few hours per day (start with 2.5, max at 5-6).  You end up where you end up.
- Learn how to sleep anywhere and just go for it.  If you can ride 20 miles, you can ride far enough to find a quiet place to sleep no matter where you start.  If you pitch at sunset, leave at sunrise, and leave no trace, you will bother nobody.
- Learn how to have a good wash and a clean shave with just a bike water bottle.  (The shave is important for the next item)
- Learn how present yourself well and politely ask strangers if you can sleep under their tree for the night.
- Learn how to navigate around cities rather than through them.

Bike touring solo is one of the most rewarding things you can do with your time, in my opinion.

Cheers,
- Barry

[travelbug]

There are many people out there doing this.
Here is an awesome travel blog on my favourite list that has links to other ones chocked full of information.
This family took their two children on an extended bike trip, it's awesome to read about.

http://familyonbikes.org/blog/2012/03/how-to-finance-long-term-travels-with-advice-from-many-bloggers/

This is the link to a finance post.

 

[zoltani]

These should help get you started:

http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php/47-Touring

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/?o=1

http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/touring/index.htm

[slugsworth]

Regarding Panniers, I was proud of a mini-DIY pannier project making my own bucket panniers. http://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/250784#bucket

As an FYI- if you have a hard time finding the parts and order a kit from PDX, each kit makes one pannier, so order two if you want to be symmetrical.

[JT]

Check out:

http://www.freeload.co.nz/pages/6/freeloaders

Not for the gear (although it's quite innovative) but for the adventures reported on the web site.

Get some practice in - make cycling a part of your daily life.  And practice sleeping under the stars (it's great!).

You'll need a bike, a repair kit, first aid kit, spare tubes, rear rack/front rack, panniers, bike tools, light cooking gear that packs down well, a camping cooker (those small ones that pack down), a torch/headtorch, a tent, sleeping bag and camping mattress (that rolls down quite small), town clothes, sunburn cream and insect repellant.  You might also like a water purifier, so you can purify any water you find.  Take a face washer for doing army style personal hygiene washes.

Then enjoy the freedom!  I've also known people who don't prepare physically for a cycling tour but get their fitness on the bike ride.  This can hurt for the first couple of weeks.  And you can end up walking funny!

Some people swear by a Brooks saddle.

Check out the Central Otago Rail Trail at:  http://www.otagocentralrailtrail.co.nz/

Try your local library for cycle touring books, or even just for local tracks.  (Do you have a Conservation Department that can provide this sort of thing?)

Go well!