Reasons to tour by bicycle
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kk.org
If you only ever travelled long distances by highway/rail/air it could be hard to appreciate how much richer the world feels travelling by bicycle. Instead of a dreary bubble between generic transportation hubs you are generally travelling along the old routes that connect all the places where life has been for millennia, the amount of history (in Europe at least), scenery and humanity you stumble across just in the course of a typical day covering maybe 50 miles is huge.
The typical question people ask is "how long did it take?" but the experience itself is more fulfilling, this is very much not what it's about (and you can speed up with trains etc. if you really need to get somewhere). It's one of the only ways I manage to properly disconnect from the ongoing background stress weight of running a startup. I'll eat 5 meals a day, everything tastes amazing and come back healthier and lighter (in more ways than one). I'll be living cheap (though the large amount of food can start to add up) and free under my own power and direction and carrying everything I need to stay so along with me. I'll be meeting people along the way and connecting with their humanity and kindness in a way that just doesn't seem to happen quite the same when you aren't travelling by bicycle.
It may not be for everyone but I want to live in a world where that experience feels accessible to as many as possible.
That doesn’t get to you?
I can't speak for everywhere but in Europe (where most of my experience is) I think you would be able to find plenty of routes without much traffic (checkout places like https://www.opencyclemap.org/ ) and ironically those routes would probably have much more to see on them than the routes that did have the cars and trucks on.
Another point - directly breathing all fumes from thousands of cars every day, lorries, buses and other diesel marvels. More than compensating a healthy activity with equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes.
Fanatics always propagate their sports/activity as next coming of jesus, but as with everything there are pros and cons. Biking on standard roads has massive cons.
Agrigultural roads that you'd never bother (or even want) to take your car down. Residential streets that only the residents would drive on.
I'd guess that on the average 5 day cycling tour in the UK and Europe, I'd see less than 1000 cars total, and often go for many hours without seeing any. Its glorious.
The Great Salt Lake in Utah is the size of Lichtenstein. The Grand Canyon of the Colorado is longer than the Italian boot is wide. England is the size of Alabama.
It can be harder to find a safe route somewhere in the country, I'll give you that.
The US is not like that. There are only a few routes in the west because the west is more than a thousand miles of mountains and deserts nearly all above 1500m and much of it above 2000m.
It is hundreds of miles between north south routes in Arizona because of the Grand Canyon. And the eastern route goes from vast remoteness to vast remoteness, Navajo nation to the Great Basin (an internal drainage the size of France).
I am not a general fan of American exceptionalism. But for geography, it holds. The average height of the Colorado Plateau is about 2000m…almost as high as the highest point in Australia. And the plateau is larger than Germany.
I am glad it works on your machine.
This is vaguely similar to Australia, which has gigantic deserts with terrible roads through them as most of the landmass, but geographically bikeable population centres where everyone actually lives.
Any side road advantageous to a cyclist (good pavement quality, shorter distance) will have cars, unless it's brand new and nobody knows about it.
You have to find the good side roads which are not usable to drivers, due to, say, obstacles that a cyclist can get around easily. If it's not obvious from the entrance to that road, you will need local knowledge.
There is always a risk that if you go down some random side road, you may be backing out to where you started.
Riding on roads outside of city limits isn't such a big deal that you'd bother, in the first place. It depends on the exact conditions. What is the visibility like? (Curve with rocky wall on one side, precipice on the other? Or field?) How wide is the paved shoulder? What are the speeds like?
Everywhere else, the pyrennes, the alps and company are a spiderweb of tiny towns with tiny quiet roads between them, in a ratio of about 5:1 against the larger main roads. I've cycled them, traffic isn't a problem.
As for paving, on a tour I'll take a hard pack, unpaved surface with no traffic over a main road all day every day.
And knowing where the roads go? That's route planning! Have a little look at where you plan to go before you set out each morning. Strava's heat maps are really useful, though understand that road racers do prefer the highway, and they cycle a lot!
I do this every year, and traffic just doesn't come in to it except at the large terminal cities where we get the international trains or ferries from...
The A-C road may not be any different from the A-B one in terms of A-B being "main" and A-C being a "secondary" road, and the path will likely be longer.
A road actually going to a neighboring town is a strawman example of a side road.
He is talking about cycling for travel, exploration, sport and leisure - not about commuting. I have just done the same last week, a 5 day tour and can confirm, I planned everything around secondary, tertiary and country / farm roads. It was mostly empty, and a pleasure. (despite being longer than the "main" road)
Sounds like you live in a large city or something. I can ride 100 miles on rural country lanes where I live, and only see a handful of cars all day.
Please don't comment on subjects about which you know nothing.
Also, rural roads aren't exactly known for their alert drivers. Drunk driving is far more common due to lack of taxis/ubers.
https://www.google.com/maps/@63.3222885,10.1328111,3a,75y,34...
I run cycle.travel, a touring-focused bike routeplanner (based on OpenStreetMap data, of course) which aims to find these roads. It generally won't find as direct a cycle route as some of the bigger names, but by and large the route should be quieter and less stressful. https://cycle.travel/map - always happy to hear comments/suggestions!
I suggest you show input validation hints before submitting forms, e.g. for the user name.
Normally I plan my tour routes offline using downloaded OSM maps (something like velomap.org) in QMapshack. One thing I like doing on there is having POIs I can turn on/off with things like UNESCO World Heritage Sites, National Trust Sites, World Wonders from the Civilization games etc. so I can tweak my route to connect a few of those dots if it goes near them.
One thing I’ve noticed is the routing’s great aversion to hills. As someone who doesn’t mind them I would sometimes like to be able to toggle that. (It’s not a big problem, cycle.travel is beyond anything I’ve tried, it certainly beats the 1:200 000 maps of old.)
When bicycle touring in this country, you don't usually (almost never, in my case) do bike touring on roads that carry heavy traffic. You ride on mostly empty roads that have very low traffic counts. Every state compiles Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) statistics. There are roads where you might see one or two cars an hour.
Those are the roads to ride on.
I did a few multi-day charity rides here in California. Some of those included stints on a stretch of 101. You realize how shitty our roads can be.
What stops someone doing the same thing with the car, motorcycle or scooter?
and everything just whizzes by too fast to appreciate anything
For the car:
> In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.
> On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.
* Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
* https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/313360-in-a-car-you-re-alwa...
You stop at a sign or light, and you put your foot down. You have the wind at your face, the sun on your back. No radio, no cell phone beeping at you. You wave to motorcyclists coming from the opposite direction.
Not that riding is without its dangers or downsides, to be sure, but it can be wonderful.
The speed and physical inertia of a car seem to translate into a psychological speed and inertia. Again, I can't justify this on utilitarian grounds. I find myself driving faster than I would go if I'm on my bike. As angry as drivers get when they're stuck behind my bike at 12 mph, imagine how angry they'd get if they were stuck behind my car at 12 mph for no apparent reason.
In the car, I don't stop to notice "little" things. To do so requires getting the car off the road, finding a place to park (if there is one) getting in and out. On my bike, I can come to a complete stop and be off the road and parked, virtually anywhere, in about 15 seconds. I get priority parking at the supermarket. ;-)
I admit that I've become somewhat anti-tourist, perhaps influenced by the experience of a driving vacation in the British Isles with my family. It seemed like every coastal or scenic road was jam packed with cars and tour buses, and every square foot of space filled with parked cars. It's possible to find less-touristy places to visit, but now those places are getting crowded too.
These days when my family goes on a vacation, we like to find a destination where we can ditch the car, and hop on our bikes. I actually miss my bike when I'm on a trip without it.
I ride a bike every day but only on short distances; on a tour I would be afraid of not being able to pack enough things (clothes, shoes...) But it's a neat idea.
You can always start small with a weekend trip and see which of the items you packed you actually needed, and you'll find out which items you forgot to pack. If you take good note of these, you'll be a proficient and efficient packer very soon, and you'll go on trips that last for days or weeks with the exact amount of stuff you need. And at least in Europe, the next supermarket is never so far away that you can' t reach it on the next day in case you did forget something essential.
But just like you did, I kinda feel like cross country road trips would be excellent on back roads via motorcycles. In a car, it's a bit disconnected and insulated. On a bike, it just seems way too slow and tiresome.
Only things I'd want in a cross country motorcycle is: a machine that's under 50 pounds, has a max speed of 50 mph (I'd prefer to keep it at 20-30 mph), goes 300 miles per gallon, and costs under $3000. SO I GUESS I WON'T BE TAKING THAT CROSS COUNTRY MOTORCYCLE TRIP EVER THEN.
They don't make those anymore, but they were incredibly fun to ride (and at the time, it cost 6000FF new, which translates to maybe €1000-1500 today).
On a bicycle, you'll be a lot closer to nature. A lot of paths I use are closed to motor traffic and you can't ride with a motorcycle.
On the motorcycle, you can cover more ground and see a lot more different places in the same time. Also, cars don't feel as dangerous, so you can ride roads with lots of car traffic that I wouldn't ride on a bicycle.
I've ridden motorcycles since I was 16, and everyone always sees me as the daredevil. Yet, I still think bicycle commuters are the true madmen. Zero protection, can't keep up with traffic, your very presence is a psychological irritant to motorists which causes them to wish you harm, etc.
But don't take my word for it: https://youtu.be/wM8Xli2KTzI
My only advice to cyclists: put your bike on your car's bike rack, take to a bike path and enjoy. If you want to get on a road on two wheels, buy a motorcycle and wear every piece of protective gear you can afford. You (and your family) can thank me later.
Let's change the rhetoric from "cycling is dangerous" to "driving a car is a serious responsibility".
> I've ridden motorcycles since I was 16, and everyone always sees me as the daredevil. Yet, I still think bicycle commuters are the true madmen. Zero protection, can't keep up with traffic, your very presence is a psychological irritant to motorists which causes them to wish you harm, etc.
> But don't take my word for it: https://youtu.be/wM8Xli2KTzI
Whatever one might think about the general premise, but this video is absolute rubbish. All the little example videos he puts in is of people riding on crazy tuned e-bikes or downhill bikes etc.. On the other hand the few instances of motorcycling videos show him just riding along in traffic, a bit disingenuous.
> My only advice to cyclists: put your bike on your car's bike rack, take to a bike path and enjoy. If you want to get on a road on two wheels, buy a motorcycle and wear every piece of protective gear you can afford. You (and your family) can thank me later.
Considering that the article points to bike paths off general roads your post is a bit redundant.
I would still question your premise. You ride a motorbike beside the fact that motorcycle deaths and serious injuries outstrip cycling ones by quite a margin (it's right there in the video you posted). So I guess safety is not your main priority. Moreover, if we consider overall health benefits you will live longer if you commute by bike, so if health is your priority you should absolute bike.
If you did, one of the things you'd learn is the extent to which serious cyclists minimize the risks, from route choice to gear to behavior. E.g., the first bike tour I did was about 150 miles. I found a mailing list of local riders and people were happy to discuss my route and how to handle safety issues.
In any case, you're wrong on the facts. Motorcyling is more dangerous. Deaths per 100m miles traveled is circa 25 for motorcyclists [1], while it's between 4 and 13 for people on bicycles [2]. Given that recommended touring distances for motorcyclists seem to be around 300 miles per day versus 50 for bicycles, bike touring is going to be much safer. Which only makes sense; if I'm riding at 10 mph vs 50 on a motorcycle, that's 25 times the kinetic energy that needs to get dissipated if something goes wrong.
[1] https://www.motorcyclelegalfoundation.com/motorcycle-acciden... [2] https://bicycleuniverse.com/bicycle-safety-almanac/
Also, you learn hearing the difference in sound a car makes as it moves over to give room.
In short, I’d wager that < 0.5% of all people that have done any sort of serious biking would prefer to ride against traffic.
Yeah relative speed goes hand-in-hand with head-on collision and less reaction time and expectation that I mentioned. I do bike a fair amount, but not on major roads. I am coming to realize that going with traffic is safer, despite it being hard to see cars coming from behind you. I also didn't realize that it's illegal in most places to bike against traffic https://roadbikebasics.com/ride-with-or-against-traffic/
Bicycle mirrors aren't comparable to automobile mirrors: Car mirrors are stable in alignment - your body is in a relatively fixed position in the driver seat and so are the mirrors relative to you and the car. On a bicycle, your handlebars are moving frequently as is your head. The whole bicycle vibrates far more than a car, sometimes making the mirrors unusable. Cars have space for more and bigger mirrors.
(Also, isn't it risky attaching anything to your helmet? In an accident, as far as I know, it can both change the helmet's performance properties and also get jammed into your head.)
A lot of people consider it a cute gadget before they tried it and regard as essential safety tool once they did. It certainly depends on your use case - in busy cities it's useless since you'll be alerted to cars constantly. However in my area I ride on countless long stretches of road with little to moderate traffic. Cars will surprise you on these kind of roads. Sometimes you don't hear or notice them.
With the Varia radar I'm much more aware of my surroundings. I can take up the middle of the road until a car approaches. I won't be surprised by cars I fail to hear due to strong winds or other noise. I know when it's safe to slalom around obstacles on the street. Or when to do a left turn (I'd still look but I'm not sure if the radar ever missed a car - it's very reliable). These days I'd feel almost naked without my radar.
Plus, don't forget that it's also a very good rear light which you can control from your head unit. Don't underestimate the importance of daytime lights in order to be noticed by cars - that is the single most important measure to avoid accidents on a bike.
Next time you drive a car, notice where you look. Consider where a bicycle would have to be in order to noticed if you are in a hurry, distracted, trying to figure out where you are or where to go, not expecting them, etc.
At a social event which happened to include many members of the local bicycle club, I observed: Almost everyone I know who bicycles regularly has been hospitalized due to a bicycle-car accident. Is that true? Yes, they all agreed, that's about right.
IME, they don't minimize risks well. There's no safe way to ride in traffic unless it's moving near bicycle-speed. However, there are side streets, etc., so that risk could be minimized if they wanted to do it; you can cut exposure to cars by 90% easily.
The answer to that problem should not be pushing weaker participants off the road.
Seemingly, car traffic is just straight up dangerous in the US (to everyone). It's normalized how dangerous car traffic is, there are plenty of car crashes every day that kill and maim, yet we feel so comfortable driving we hardly pay diligent attention and have very absurdly low standards for who can get and keep a drivers license.
He looked at me and I looked at him, didn’t seem spooked at all.
Being able to ride the quietest country roads regularly makes me really happy that I don’t live in a city.
Over the next few decades we have to change so much infrastructure to solar / electrification that we have an enormous opportunity to make it not just a question of survival but a better civilisation - more human.
Cities where every child can cycle to school on car free paths, every worker can get to work on car free paths.
Hell it even makes carbon sense to get rid of petrol cars in favour of diesel buses.
The design of our lives environments is a force multiplier for our quality of life
I think what you're looking for is a more rural existence.
The point is if there was a dedicated (about a metre wide, cut off from road traffic by a raised kerb) cycle lane not just through Londons busiest roads but ... well everywhere there is a car road.
Just say if you want a car there you should also have a bicycle.
We seem to think that the industrial revolution chnaged something - like globally there should be some kind of "profit".
I think it's just we as a species get to still be at a subsistence level, just a higher subsistence level.
NB- re london cycleways - yeah people do die. The cannon street path was opposite the LFB station and they did not have far to go to wash the blood away sadly.
Sort of agree, although an electric assist (for people who aren't in great shape, to get over hills) might be an exception. Limit it to 15mph or whatever.
It would be so nice to share most roads - but like op mentioned traveling through the historical European sites, the greenways being built here are approximating that. It is changing our city government significantly. Hope it is yours as well.
People tend to forget that while there are benefits in increasing density, they don't continue ad infinitum.
Speaking for myself, absolutely not. The amount of things available in cities compared to rural areas is immense. I’ve lived in both.
Theater, music venues, libraries, restaurants, beer gardens, good food markets, schools. I have all of this writhing walking and biking distance. You don’t get that in rural areas without needing a car.
They SHOULD be better but... no.
Then again my urban experience is Minneapolis St Paul, possibly the most bike-able city outside of winter I've seen.
It's certainly not as bleak as you describe.
as for alternative roads, that really depends. generally from my experience between two neighboring villages there tends to be only one road, unless you want to make a big detour. sometimes alternate roads exist when and old main road is replaced with a new one on a different route.
Forgive me, if your rural land is on a major interstate then I definitely agree! For every branch off that major arterial the road becomes more and more specific to a few number of people, who rarely pay the full cost of the road/utilities that service them.
> It makes no sense to further incentivize moving to cities
I'm not asking for any incentives. I'm asking to stop sending my money to highway expansion, road repair and other services to people who live very sparsely. Let them pay for the extension (and maintenance) of service themselves, and then they can decide whether they would "rather" live there.
As an aside, it's a wild stretch to pull the national park system and state beaches into "I, one person, prefer to have multiple acres to myself", as if these programs exist so that you can live X many miles away from anything, for free.
There are costs that are higher in cities too, such as public housing. There are costs that are higher in mountains and in plains, in the north or the south, on the coast or inland, for commuters and people who stay home and people with kids or without, those that have ICE or electric vehicles or bikes, etc.
Allocating taxes or fees based on service usage has a lot of negative effects: 1) It's very complicated to quantify: Those rural roads also carry goods to the city, for example, and each person in the city uses those goods at different rates. 2) It requires a metering, collection, enforcement, etc. infrastructure. 3) It's divisive: Instead of bringing the community together and saying, 'this is good; we should do this together', it becomes 'you used 10 micro-whatever more but only paid X'.
Instead of spending my energy and time on fees, I think this is a much better deal: I'm happy for my neighbors, urban and rural, to do well and have what they reasonably need, and they are happy for me to do the same.
At the same time, would you happen to know about any data or research that tries to sort out the economics of #1 above?
The front door would lead to the relaxed communal part of the neighborhood.
The back door would lead to driving and work and the rest.
strangely, I remember going to a friend's parents house in florida. They lived on the intercoastal waterway. The driveway lead to the garage and the front door. The back door lead to the backyard and a boat dock.
People will cycle longer if we need to and can do it safely.
I love biking but I don't love lugging tons of stuff around.
An example of a breakfast I was having on my last trip was: 2 croissants, yoghurt with chocolate coated peanuts mixed in, a banana and some fruit smoothie (which seemed on offer a lot this trip) and I might stop for second breakfast/early lunch and get a couple of pasties at the next town with a bakery (handy because you can eat these while cycling). In Italy you might instead be eating things like focaccia from local bakeries (perfect size for my handlebar bag), the landscape of what you eat changes with region, season and mood. You might be surprised though just how good very simple food (bread/cheese) can taste when you are doing exercise all day.
One thing I would advise is that it is a lot kinder on the body to attach the bags to the bike if possible rather than carry on your back. I tour relatively heavy and I think my bike/bags together weigh about 40-45kg, just about liftable at a push if I need to, for example, get a small boat for pedestrians (though usually I'd take a couple bags off to make it easier). It's very possible to travel a lot lighter than this though, particularly if not camping, some people just take a change of clothes and a credit card.
I hear what you are saying - if you love bikes long journeys are wonderful. I imagine motorcyclists or long distance runners could get the same buzz.
> It may not be for everyone but I want to live in a world where that experience feels accessible to as many as possible.
But let's not kid ourselves that this is a viable option for most people. And if you mean that we should get rid of even more roads for bike lanes, you are actually going to restrict people engaging with distant relations and friends.
We should re-evaluate what? The reality that the system we find ourselves in, means that families are distributed? Would you force people back together into the same region?
Some people (but by no means everyone) are better off away from their family and the town where they grew up.
Imagine that you are the fourth generation to move far away from your patents, as I am. There is not some community in which I have generational roots…and it was the prospect of conscription by the Tsar’s army that started it all. Not capitalism.
For me, employment someplace far away was the way out of where we weren’t from and that wasn’t for us.
Some people have a reason to stay. Those reasons are sometimes the reasons for other people to leave.
That is utter bullshit. You could dedicate half the secondary roads to non motorized traffic and add a separates bicycle path alongside every highway and fluidity of the cars traffic wouldn't be affected at all. It would even improve.
Of course it’s a car centric argument, that’s what I’m advocating for.
As for the reasons themselves, I'd like to add:
7) friendships made on bike tours seem to last a life time
8) people help each other far more readily than when using other modes of transportation
9) the sense of accomplishment
10) the sense of immersion, which is far stronger than when looking at the scenery through the windshield of a car
11) the confidence boost from accomplishment
12) if you travel with others you will get to know them much better as people than when making the same trip by car or plane (their good sides and their bad sides)
One thing that's not mentioned in the article is to use Couch Surfing and Warm Showers. Warm Showers especially is amazing, because it is an amazing cycling community and you can borrow anything from small stitching kits to a full-on welding kits to fix bicycles. Full of amazing things and people in almost all euro velo routes.
FlixBus will take bicycle on board on most buses (for 10 euros IIRC), and most trains will too on weekends and off-peak hours.
Overall, it was a fantastic experience and I can't recommend it enough.
He also did it on a kids bike the year before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49V4P_wkKTU
I should mention he currently rides for a UCI ProTeam, which is one tier away from the highest level in the world.
So, some more context: swapfiets is the dutch student bike provider, they are very basic bikes, no gears, no nothing because what isn't on them can't break.
Key quote: "What do you miss the most about a racing bike?" -> "A slightly lighter gear".
He's doing remarkably well by the way, testimony to his skills, keeping up with those guys on their carbon frame racers with 22 gears is extremely impressive even over a short distance. The gearing on a typical swapfiets is typically 46/16 or 44/16 so ~3:1, on a racing bike you would have access to 36/23 or even 34/23 on a special climbing gear set. So he has to work about twice as hard to maintain the same speed.
Passing bike comments 'you're crazy man' :)
Nevertheless, the lowest gear on that bike is still not much help on a steep ascend like this.
That said, there are these moments of bliss, finding yourself in nooks and crannies of the world that 90% of tourists never see, spending all day out in the sunshine, feeling the breeze, smelling the grass and the flowers, stopping to have daily picnics in random fields, next to lakes, overlooking beautiful mountain ranges... You're taking it slow, so you really take it all in. You're constantly ravenous so every meal you have is one of the greatest of your life. Maybe the exercise induced endorphins are boosting it all a bit too.
Anyway, some of the best memories of my life are those I made while bicycle touring.
Is your bike set up properly? That can make a world of a difference, if your bike is not perfectly set up for your body on a longer tour it can really hurt.
That said I'm also a big whiny out of shape baby.
With that said there are hills and there are hills - we did just the last 10km after our train ride recently but it was all uphill all the time. We took almost two hours because my family just couldn't make it. It was rough even for me. Going back was the a 30 minute breeze, we spent more energy braking :-).
The big trick is to keep your weight down, that makes a huge difference (for me, at least). Just a couple of kilos more or less and I feel completely different after a long ride (~70kg = everything is fine, ~75kg = I feel miserable).
I was a little worried about finding a job after, and having a gap on my CV but I easily found another data science job and have changed jobs no one even asks about it.
If like me you have an urge to take a bicycle tour do it you won’t regret it.
I've found that the companies/people I most want to work for are genuinelyhttps://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=LightG interested in that gap rather than are suspicious about it.
I use how they respond to it as a minor filter for those I don't want to work with.
Of course I’m also considering dropping my job at some point and biking for 6+ months.
To see historic weather I use wunderground.com, for example, here[1] is the weather for May 2021 in Amsterdam. I usually check a few years to avoid one-off years.
[1] https://www.wunderground.com/calendar/nl/amsterdam-airport-s...
My general method was to ride for 4 hours, usually covering 100km (60 miles). Some days there isn't a good destination within that distance, or the terrain is steep, poor roads or an extreme headwind. On those days I'd put in more time or do distance (sometimes only covering 30 km). Once I got to a nice location I'd stay until I felt there wasn't anything interesting to take in, usually 1-3 days, and then I'd head back out. Sometimes you want to put in back to back rides, other times you just want to sit and relax on a beach.
Food was terribly cheap while I was there, so I at at street stalls as often as I wanted. Portion sizes were small enough that you could sample a lot of cuisine. Fruit stalls were plentiful too.
There is really no camping in S.E. Asia, due to land mines, etc. So you stay at guest houses, which were extremely inexpensive while I was there. People are extremely friendly and helpful. Some will try and become your friend simply because you'll buy them a meal, others to practice English or for the prestige. This was a bit annoying at times, but hardly insidious. Lots of children will run out and yell "hello" which gets tiresome on long stretches...but still rather cute.
What people don't mention, is you have lots of time to your thoughts. My journals from this time period has tons of great inventions and ideas for books, businesses and what not. My writer friends were jealous of the outpouring of long form writing that I was doing at this time.
I highly recommend bike tours!
Small ones can ride in the basket provided they have ample shades, there are dedicated trailers for dogs and there are even dogs who get used to jump in and out of a simple platform trailer to run or get carried depending if the road is flat, going uphill or downhill.
This is a reason why there is kind of 2 worlds in term of bicycle touring / bikepacking. Those that ride very light and focus on efficiency with very light hardware, one set of clothes/change, a bivy and a tarp but no capability to cook and would have meals and dinner on the parking of a supermarket or in a café. And those that truly set camp and will carry a lot more stuff and possibly walk the bike for a bit or grind very slowly when they encounter a very steep climb.
Don’t have time? Try to do a quick one and turn it into an adventure. One of my most exciting trips was going from Southern to Northern Europe in just a week.
I recommend to pack lightly, and don’t spend to much time planning on gear and routes - just do it otherwise you’ll risk to postpone it again and again.. just do it.
Now that is impressive. Do you remember your route?
It all started out when I heard about some friends (brothers) who did the same and I know that I personally motivated at least 3 other people to do similar rides.
Oh jeez, I could go on and on actually, but I will keep it brief, it was a wonderful experience overall. I am lucky and grateful that I was able to do something like that.
Please do! Fascinating all these stories.
I started to think about buying a recumbent bike for touring but there's no one around me who owns or sells one to try it.
My mother used to have one. As long as you're not crossing the Alpes it is great for tours (the riding tends to be significantly easier due to less wind resistance), but not so great for commuting in the city (you're seen less, have less maneuverability, need more space for parking ...). I highly recommend searching out a place and maybe do a weekend trip to a city near you where there is a job to try it out, however be aware it takes a while to really feel comfortable on them.
As for trying one out, I would recommend talking to your LBS with the best mechanical reputation. Every recumbent rider I've seen was the only one around, and because their rigs are non-standard they tend to have a very good relationship with their competent LBS. I suspect the local recumbent person would be delighted to introduce you to their ride.
My friend, who worked in a bike shop, told me that recumbents require a knowledgeable mechanic but if I find one he/she will be more than happy to work on such a different build.
"Cars are way too fast, the world speeds past in a blur. Bullock/ox carts are nice but not much faster than walking. Cycling, however, gives you time to say hi and be waved back, while being fast enough to be practical."
I wish I could remember the author (maybe Sudha Murthy, Ruskin Bond, Rudyard Kipling or even perhaps Roald Dahl?), perhaps some other HN-er might remember!
The thing is, back then, no GPS, no Internet, just maps and asking people for help. The trip was not particularly challenging and was very rewarding. It seems like such a trip would be even more easy and fun today with all of the extra context and information that you have with a smart phone.
The site allows long distance cyclists to write journals of their trips while they are on tour, some of which had me binge-read them for entire weekends.
Also, the site carries a lovely craigslist vibe :)
Focussing on the match-made-in-heaven which are cycling & food, [2] chronicles the experiences of a bloke in his mid-20s, who ditches his job at an ad agency (as well as his girlfriend) after becoming enamored with cycle touring, and travels through North and South America in search of the perfect meal.
[1] https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/
[2] The Hungry Cyclist, https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Cyclist-Tom-Kevill-Davies/dp/0...
before doing these solo-trips i was part of a youthgroup that did most of their trips on bikes. we were all middle-school kids, and in the evening we would split into groups of three and knock on doors seeking a place to sleep.
another memorable trip was cycling through new jersey, wearing a cycling jersey depicting a cow on a bike. that was a trip with several dozen people, organized by the bike commissioner (or something like that) of washington D.C.
now with family, i'd love to get back on a bike again and take my kids on new adventures.
What do you do with your bike and gear if you want to stop and so some sightseeing?
If I wanted to go on a hike, I would start the hike with the bike and then maybe 500' in I would veer off about the same distance and stash it out of sight.
If I was in a city that had no organized storage I'd just stop at a bike shop and ask if I could stash it there for a few hours. If you were for real with panniers and stuff I can't imagine them saying no.
Recumbent trikes are much more convenient for these purposes.
I’ve gone from basically not having done any exercise at all for several months to riding ~100km per day, ending up only weary in the legs at the end of each day, not in pain in at least back and crotch as you certainly would be on an upright bike.
The inherent stability of a three wheel base means you can load quite heavily without it being in the slightest bit troublesome—you’ll go slower, but won’t have any balance issue. In each of my trips, it hasn’t been just a cycling tour, but I’ve had other gear with me too, as it has become my habit if I’m going to another country for any sort of work or conference to take my trike with me and explore the place thus. My typical load is well in excess of 20kg—panniers on a rear wheel rack, then pile other stuff on top and strap it all down with bungee cords. I have a fairly heavy tarp that I use to wrap the trike up for air travel (it folds in half), and then it serves as a ground sheet for camping.
I am firmly convinced that trikes are considerably safer, too; as well as the inherent stability, there’s also visibility, your visibility: you behold the world in front of you readily without needing to crane your neck, and, since you can’t really look over your shoulder due to the posture, you have a mirror that is mounted in such a way that it works well (which isn’t my experience of mirrors on bicycles), so that you can easily keep an eye on what’s coming up, and interact usefully with traffic rather than being blind.
The only downsides I’ve really observed are: (a) being lower, you generally can’t see well over guard rails at scenic points on bridges and ocean roads; (b) off-road cycling trails are probably not well-adapted to you (not that this quite stopped me from taking things like the Timber Trail and the Remutaka Trail in NZ last year, though the GT3 specifically is very poorly suited for both with its extremely low clearance on its rear derailleur); and (c) three tracks instead of one generally leads to a rougher ride on very-low-quality surfaces, and more potential for debris punctures (in 2014, on my first cycling tour, I discovered that California in autumn has a particularly virulent type of thorn endemic, and that the slick tyres that the trike came with are eminently unsuitable—I averaged more than one flat per day, where on subsequent trips with Schwalbe Marathon Plus I’ve never had one).
Fear not perception: as a generalisation, people love recumbent tricycles and their riders; my experience is that you will get an overwhelmingly positive reaction. I have observed negative reactions from drivers on a very few occasions (at a rate similar to an upright bicycle, I think), but overtly positive reactions from drivers very regularly, which is not common on an upright bicycle. As for pedestrians, well, if you’re open to it people will talk to you about your vehicle very, very regularly, positively and curiously.
http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/showthread.php?t...
I've had just that and trust me you don't want it happening to you (7 hour operation, fairly massive steel parts in my right leg+associated other hardware).
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transf%C4%83g%C4%83r%C4%83%C8%...
Last I checked they were around $5,000 to $10,000 (five thousand US dollars to ten thousand US dollars) but they look kind of great for touring to me. You can find myriad velomobile videos on YouTube.
Flags, pool noodles (yeah, pool noodles), and of course LEDs can make them highly visible.
For commuting the "Rotovelo" looks like it might be a good choice because it seems like it can easily withstand bumps, bangs, and scrapes. See...
Rotovelo Ice Hockey Match! https://youtu.be/F_wXHFab5XU?t=108
Nothing against bicycle touring, but while a bicycle may force slower travel, a bicycle is not necessary for it.
A person can road trip in their car, truck, or van [1] at a similar pace. The daily cost of gasoline will be fairly low...less than about $20 per day even for a motorhome driving California.
How a person travels is more a matter of time resources. At 300 miles a week, it will take ten weeks to go from coast to coast. Few people have that kind of free time.
And if you have ten weeks for travel, you will almost certainly have a life changing experience irrespective of travel mode.
[1] or upon a motorcycle, moped, or scooter.
> or upon a motorcycle, moped, or scooter.
Not quite the same thing; you're isolated from your environment by the noise and the cabin or the helmet. You won't hear the birdsong, the silence, the wind rustling in the trees. Much of the depth of the experience is in the total engagement with your environment from moment to moment.
> Few people have that kind of free time.
...if they're selling their labour in exchange for money. Do you need to spend quite as much as you do every fortnight? If you're not living from paycheck to paycheck, spend a couple of years saving and then take time off to do a big trip.
I did it during 2017; the mortgage payments continued and I lived on the rest. I had money left over at the end.
Finding morality in someone else’s orthogonal choices is the hard work.
For me, the birdsong and the wind are there but for stopping beside the road for the sake of stopping.
In those moments I am just there not even riding a bicycle.
For someone else, the logistics of a hike might suck all the joy away.
For others hiking may become a shopping exercise…gear, guides, supplies, permits and such.
For still others, why hike up a mountain when you could go surfing?
Some people don’t want the burden of owning and maintaining a bicycle touring rig. They find more value elsewhere.
YMMV.
I know it is better for me.
Because the alternative to how I travel is not a bicycle. The alternative is more or less not traveling to the places I travel.
And not traveling with a typewriter, six cameras, and a 61 key Yamaha.
However! The pace can be the same by day or week. But the average speed while moving is different. One not necessarily better than the other.
Travelling by car will eg allow more time sightseeing, walking around a city at lunch. While travelling by bike is more like you get to see a little bit of lots of things. And you can stop wherever and lift the bike off the road if necessary.
For some trips, a car is better, for other, a bike. For other still, hiking or taking a train or a plane. I’ve done all five, and all have their pros and cons.
You could probably go 100 miles a day with the energy of a 20-30 mile ride, and hold 20mph if you needed to regardless of conditions. And carry all the serious rain gear too.
And the bikes are tougher, you can carry spares and tools...
The only issue is the asshole drivers of America, especially the roll coal pickup trucks. And it is tough, because rural America is conservative and full of very angry pickup truck drivers.
https://jacquesmattheij.com/long-range-ebike/
It does a shade under 100 miles on one charge.
I myself have experienced some close calls and I only ride a few times a year.
Then i remembered that I live in Mexico and going on a bike ride/camping would be a death sentence due to reckless drivers, robbers/muggers or drug traffickers.
I'll keep doing stationary bike.
In Panama I just rented bikes and did day trips. In Colombia I started doing that, then bought a bike once I realized the country was a better fit for how I wanted to travel. It seemed like there was a stronger bike culture there. By which I mean, there were relatively more utility cyclists - not sport/fitness cyclists, but people with baskets on the back hauling fish or produce from their angling spot or farm to the market. Aside from bicycles, a lot of locals also rode scooters or light motorcycles - this made me feel more confident on the roads because the ubiquitous trucks and buses were more used to sharing the road with smaller and slower vehicles.
The big difference I found touring in Colombia versus the US and Canada is that towns with affordable accommodation and other services were generally much closer together. It wasn't uncommon for me in parts of Canada to have 100km between towns, without even a guarantee to find a grocery store much less a camp site or motel in the next place. Especially in the prairies it was necessary to carry a LOT of water, plus plenty of food like oats, nuts, tortillas and so on. In Colombia there are lots of small towns of under 20,000 people and they all have hospedajes (kind of like a European pension, or very low budget B&B-without-the-breakfast), bakeries and convenience stores. I barely even needed a food bag - every day I could get fresh pastries in the morning.
Because the towns were close together, I took it easy and sometimes rode just 40km or 60km a day, which was well worth it because the temperature in some areas was around 36C - the kind of heat above which you really start feeling heat stroke after 2-3 hours on unshaded roads. To deal with the heat, I decided to pull over everywhere there was a roadside stall selling drinks. Usually it's fruit juice (watermelon is best), sometimes a lemonade made with panela, occasionally chicha. I figured anything with water and sugar was worth stopping for.
To navigate I just used the standard combination of OsmAnd~ (OpenStreetMap) and BRouter tool for offline routing. But it's important to double-check on Google Street View when you have internet, because often the helpful bike routing tools avoid the highway, which actually in Colombia is what you don't always want to do, because the "highway" is sometimes just a reasonably quiet two-lane country road. On the other hand, some of the back roads look like well-maintained gravel, but due to heavy rain they can turn into very deep mud. I got stuck in one or two spots that looked okay on Google Street View but were a real adventure on the day - not even a car could make it through, horses and dirtbikes only. But the benefit of being on a bike is you could easily head down a back way and then cross the river on a small sampan designed for foot traffic, so sometimes taking those back roads paid off for the fun aspect. They were definitely the exception rather than the rule, though - most times I figured better safe than sorry and tried to stick to main roads, especially when a back road would require more than 50km (my theoretical limit for being able to walk/hike back out in case I had to abandon my bike).
One thing I didn't do in Colombia was go deep into the Andes. The climbs are just ridiculous. Like 2000m or more. Personally I don't enjoy hill climbing, and I don't like cold temperatures, so when I am touring on bike I do everything I can to stick to the lowland and plains. I think going the hills would be a very different experience and might need different preparation. Although, I think the hills are also far more popular routes both for bike tourers and for sport/fitness cyclists, so there would probably be much better support. Down in the valleys you're going to find yourself cycling with campesinos and trying to get stuff fixed at a moped shop instead of a bicycle shop, but that was fine by me.
I think the best way to go if you have the time is just head over to the country you're thinking of traveling in with some panniers rolled up in a duffel, rent a bike once or twice to see if it feels good, then buy a cheap bike when you're there. That way you haven't invested too much in some kind of "dream journey" that doesn't turn out to be what you expected. But perhaps that's just my way of travel, not for everyone.
What was much, much more terrifying to me than cars was dogs. In certain parts of the country, people's dogs would charge out of the yard and chase me down the road for a half mile, barking and snapping all the way. I even got bitten once or twice. I'd definitely rate pet dogs as a bigger hazard than cars, or at least a scarier one. More dangerous than bears and coyotes too, in my experience.
My advice for cars is to wear hi-vis gear, ride in the shoulder whenever there is one, confidently take up a decent slice of the road when there isn't, keep an eye on your rear view mirror, pull over to let very wide trucks pass, and never ride main roads at night or in poor conditions.
Its all nice in echo chambers with heavy survivorship bias where everybody claims how they are fine (but had close calls here and there, often not even realizing them), but its far from reality. If you want some counter-balance (which most folks in these echo chambers really don't want), talk to some ER folks, or orthopedics.
For what it’s worth, I’ve got thousands of miles on a touring bike under my belt. I’ve had close calls…but I’ve also had close calls driving, flying, and boating. I’ve had close calls swimming and climbing, too. If the alternative is to hang out in my basement on the computer where it’s ‘safe’ all the time, I’d rather stick to the close calls.