A beginner’s guide to cycle touring?

I have a lot of posts about cycle touring, but thought it’d be helpful to have a Beginner’s Guide To Cycle Touring. Specifically, a sensible guide, that ordinary people (like me) can follow to help them start bicycle touring. Bike touring is for everyone, and I’d be delighted if my guide helped you to start cycle touring!

What  is  cycle  touring?

Essentially, if you go cycling from one place to another, just to see what there is to see, and your ride means you overnight at least one night, then you’re cycle touring. Equally, if you go cycle around the world, you’re bike touring, too. This is the beauty of bicycle touring: there isn’t just one way to do it. You can camp overnight, or stay in a five-star hotel. Cook your own food, or eat in restaurants. Go far, or only short distances. It’s entirely up to you to decide. That’s the freedom of bicycle touring, and few cyclists would deny that!

Cycle touring means freedom. As a cycle tourist, you will experience the landscape one pedal stroke at a time. That’s true for any adventure cycling, whether it’s long distance cycling adventures, or just a short cycle tour. Cycle tourists see more, because bicycle travel is travelling at a human pace. A bike trip remains the best way to experience the great outdoors.

The touring bicycle

You cannot go bicycle touring without a bike, but there’s no limit on what that bike might be. There really is no such thing as the right bike – any bike can be the right bike. Sure, you can go splash out on a belt-drive, Rohloff hub gear equipped dedicated touring bicycle, which offers all the benefits – if I could justify the expense, I’d own something like that myself.

Equally, you can probably start bike touring on the bike you have right now. A friend of mine goes bike touring on his 3-speed Brompton. I’ve gone cycle touring on a road bike before, with 700c x 25 tyres. My touring bike is actually a gravel bike, with some modifications. Equally, you can start bike touring on a mountain bike.

Things to consider

There are some things to consider though: when bicycle touring, you’re likely to carry a load on the bike. First of all, that means you will have extra weight to drag up hills, so ideally you want a bike with low gearing, to make the hills easier. I once went so slowly up a hill that I was overtaken by two joggers! And speaking of carrying a load, you’ll want to be able to carry luggage on your bike.

An ideal touring bicycle is a bike with chunkier tyres (ideally road tyres, as you’re likely to be doing most of your cycle touring on fairly decent surfaces) a sturdy frame, that can handle bumps in the road, and as simplified as you can get away with, to make by-the-roadside maintenance easier. This posts delves deeper into what a good touring bicycle looks like.

You

Remember, you are the engine that propels your touring bike, and all the luggage you have on it, so it would help if you were in shape for whatever tour you’re planning. No, you don’t have to be lean and hyper-fit. Instead, simply plan around your current capabilities, or look at a training programme to gradually prepare for a cycle tour.

Carrying luggage

Even if you’ll be staying in hotels and eating in restaurants, you will still need to carry some things on your bike. For example, you wouldn’t want to walk into the five-star hotel’s dining room dressed in sweaty Lycra.

You will need at least a change of clothes, and that means you want some way to carry it on your bike. Now bicycle touring means you’ll be exposed to the elements, and that includes rain. You need to ensure your luggage system keeps the contents dry.

Keeping your stuff protected from rain

By far the simplest would be to put everything inside a bin bag, inside a backpack, but unless you’ll only be cycling very short distances, that’s not a good idea. For starters, you will end up with a very sweaty back. On a hot day that will rapidly become unpleasant! A backpack will also place additional strain on your back, and arms. Especially your wrists can end up suffering as a result. This simply means that backpacks are really not a good way of carrying luggage on a bike.

Where to start from

You can set off from your front door, or catch the train somewhere to remote places to start new adventures. To cycle tour means to have the freedom to choose where to start from – it’s all personal preference.

Panniers or bikepacking bags?

Usually, cycle tourers use either panniers, or frame-bags and seat packs. What’s the difference? Well, both options attach to the bike, rather than to you. Both options also lower your centre of gravity (compared to a backpack). You can (usually) also carry more with either option, but that’s where the similarity ends.

Panniers are roughly backpack shaped, and some even have back-pack straps, for use off the bike. They clip onto a rear rack, and you can also get front panniers that clip onto a dedicated front rack.

Frame/bikepacking  bags

Frame bags secure in the front triangle of the frame, in what’s normally empty space. Often, though not always, they would be accompanied by a seat pack, which extends behind the seat like a butterfly’s body.

Seat packs are secured to the seat and seat tube. Finally, many cycle tourers will also use bar-bags. As the name suggests, these attach to the bike’s handlebars, typically via some quick-release mechanism.. Bar bags offer storage for things you may want closer to hand.

Not all bikes have mounting points for racks to take panniers, and not all bicycle frames are suitable for using frame bags, so your choice of luggage system will often be heavily influenced by your bike’s frame.

Keep your kit dry

Regardless of what system you use, ensure your kit remains dry. You can pack it in rubble bags, or dedicated dry-bags, inside your luggage. If you’ve ever tried to sleep in a wet sleeping bag, you’ll appreciate the value of dry kit! Even if everything else gets wet, do whatever you can to keep your sleeping bag dry. Also, you will want to develop a method for packing your panniers, or other luggage.

You also need to consider your strategy for camping when it rains. Sooner or later, it’s bound to start raining while you’re on tour.

Hygiene

Even if only staying in posh hotels, you will sweat a lot while out on the road. Also, you might even need to fix a puncture, or touch an oily chain that came off. One way or another, you will end up wanting to clean yourself up.

When cycle camping, which is my preferred way of cycle touring, you won’t have the option of a luxurious shower, as you would in a hotel, and basic hygiene becomes even more important.

The easiest way keeping clean is a packet of wet wipes, but if you’re going down that route, please ensure they’re at very least biodegradable? A better option is a damp flannel, kept inside a zip-lock plastic bag, and you can wash it out as many times as needed.

If only cycle touring for a day or two, it’s easiest to simply carry spare clothes, and change into that each day. On longer tours, you will sooner or later run out of clean clothes, and have to wash clothes along the way. Do try not to wash clothes directly in streams or rivers. Sadly, in England and Wales, there’s not a single river that isn’t polluted, and some of them have harmful levels of pollution. Though my personal preference is for wild-camping, there’s value in at least every so often staying at a formal camp site, where you can wash laundry and use the showers.

Overnight

You will inevitably need to overnight somewhere, but you’re obviously free to choose where that is. Some people want the luxury of a hot shower, and a soft bed to sleep in and carry as little as possible, doing what’s known as credit card touring. That’s perfectly fine. Some people prefer to pitch a tent at camp sites. That’s fine, too. Other people (I’m in this group) prefer to wild-camp, and that’s fine, too.

If you really wanted to, you could even call on the kindness of strangers, via the superb Warm Showers site. There’s no right or wrong here, but you will need to make a decision, one way or the other.

If camping, it automatically follows that you will be carrying your camping gear on the bike. You will undoubtedly find it very helpful to also prepare your own cycle touring packing list.

Believe me, as a man who once forgot to take his water bottles on a tour, don’t underestimate the value of such a list! In my Adventure Journal I include several copies of a removable packing kit list, in a pocket at the rear.

Food

Food will come in two options: food you can carry with you, and food that you can’t. Oh, and you will probably find you start looking at food differently, and start seeing it more as fuel.

Cycle touring can involve burning serious amounts of calories. I’ve had days where I burned over 7 500 calories for the day, and you need to replace those. In most of the UK you’ll never be particularly far from a shop.

However, even if you’re “just” 5 miles from a shop, and you’ve depleted your body’s blood sugar levels, leading to the dreaded bonk (what runners call hitting the wall) those five miles may as well be 50 miles!

Emergency rations

When cycle touring, it’s vital to carry emergency rations with you at all times. To me, that means energy gels. You may differ, as many people don’t get on with those. Some people swear by peanut-butter sandwiches, others by jelly babies.

It doesn’t matter which you choose. Just ensure you test it out before going on a cycle tour. You really don’t want to discover your chosen emergency ration gives you a runny tummy, in the middle of nowhere!

Double up the emergency rations you carry, as you never know what awaits you, and it’s far better to have too much food, than not enough.

Mechanical  issues

A bicycle is a mechanical device, and the one guarantee you have with any mechanical device is that sooner or later it will break. It really is that simple. Good and regular maintenance will vastly reduce the likelihood of anything breaking while you’re cycling, but even then, it helps to be prepared. Good preparation will help keep your cycling adventure on track.

Nobody likes a flat tyre, but as a minimum, you should know how to replace an inner tube by the roadside. Oh, and be able to reinflate the wheels. It certainly won’t hurt to carry a spare brake and gear cable. If your bike uses disk brakes, also carry a spare set of brake pads. After all, being able to stop in a hurry is a rather nifty feature to have on a bike!

On longer bike tours, especially foreign bike tours, it’s a good idea to also carry spare spokes for your bike. This is true even if you don’t know how to replace them. You’re more likely to find a competent bike mechanic, who can fit the spokes you’re carrying, than a competent bike mechanic with the correct spokes in stock.

Time

This is a hugely important point! The purpose of cycle touring is not to see how fast you can go, or how far you can ride in a day. Oh no, racing the clock is a sure-fire way to ruin what otherwise would have been a great cycle tour!

The Oxford Dictionary defines a “tourist” as someone who is travelling or visiting a place for pleasure. When you go cycle touring, you are a tourist. You will be depriving yourself of so much if speed is all you’re focusing on. Besides, did you know there are rules for being a tourist? When you select your route, look at what your average leisurely pace is.

Next, use that average to calculate how many days you would need to ride the entire route. If that time is longer that what you have available, then cut the distance shorter, instead of speeding up.

Also, if you have to cover long distances, consider riding for longer, rather than riding faster. If you’re going to go through the effort of cycling through a landscape, you might as well take the time to see what there is to see, wouldn’t you say?

Security

Is cycle touring safe? How do you keep yourself and your kit safe, while cycle touring? These are genuine questions, but if you clicked the preceding links, you’ll see I have solid answers to allay your fears. Just don’t forget about your digital security, too! The short answer is cycle touring is very safe. People just like you go off on incredible cycling touring adventures all the time, and return with smiles on their faces.

The  route

Choosing a good route is important, but never overlook routes in your immediate area. We can so easily become so jaded that we miss the wonder right under our noses. Especially when you start bicycle touring, it makes sense to keep it fairly local for you for your first bike tour.

There are a myriad of routes to choose from, or you can design your own route from scratch. Especially when new to cycle touring, consider following a known route, such as my Somerset Circle, or Kennet And Avon Canal cycling routes. I have more routes available, too. When we talk of routes, we automatically have to consider navigation, especially in areas you don’t know.

Distance

Most  Beginners guide to cycle touring  articles talk about cycling the world, or similar long tours. Let’s be honest here: most people will never have the opportunity of cycling around the world.

Frankly, I find the suggestion that cycle touring is the reserve of hardy adventurers who spend three or more years doing so is rather elitist. If you can go on such cycling adventures, then that’s wonderful. However, cycle touring can be just as enjoyable even when you only do short tours. An epic bike adventure doesn’t have to be thousands of miles long!

More importantly, if you’re new to cycle touring, you might well be nervous, and far shorter, gentler introductions to cycle touring will make far more sense. For your first cycle tour, my advice is simple: start with a short bicycle tour that has you sleeping away from home for just one night. Even if you’re an experienced cycle tourer you will find a smaller adventure like that far easier to fit into your hectic lifestyle.

When  things  go  wrong

In a perfect world, everything works out just the way we want. Sadly, reality can rudely intrude, and sometimes things do go wrong. It’s important to factor that into your planning, as that means you’ll be better prepared. And being better prepared could mean the difference between a still-enjoyable bike tour, or a disastrous one! Equally, it means you’ll be mentally prepared to see off any hardships or challenges you might encounter.

Finally

Slow down, stop often, take oodles of pics, and whenever you can, talk to people. Especially talk to other cyclists, with bonus points if they’re cycle tourists coming from where you’re going. Just remember, if speaking to other cyclists heading in the direction you just came from, good etiquette dictates that you downplay the severity of the hills!

Enjoy the experience, and squeeze every last drop of adventure from it. You will LOVE it!