With corona virus about, the last thing anyone wants to do is sit on a crowded plane or spend hours in a holiday resort surrounded by other people. But no worries, now is the perfect time to get on your bike and discover the joys of the cycle holiday! Just you and your bike, cruising slowly across the country, eating as much as you like and discovering the joys of local. If you’re new to this great way of travelling, here are my top 6 tips for organising and getting ready to go cycle touring.
1- Start small!
Riding a bike with extra weight on is a big difference to regular cycling, and you’ll find yourself becoming tired quicker than normal- hills are especially a shock to the system. Try and choose distances and elevation profiles that reflect this. Think about what you’d normally cycle in a day, and plan for a bit less than this.
For ideas on where to ride (in the UK) have a look at the national cycle network for ideas- https://www.sustrans.org.uk/ – there are plenty of short and long rides on here that can excite even the most cautious of cyclists.
2- Route planning!
This is an important part of the journey for several reasons. Firstly, it’s key to make sure you have opt out places. Make sure you know where there are places you can either stop, or take the train if the going gets too rough. You never know when you might have an emergency, a mechanical or hit a weather front that gets too scary- but you can prepare by making sure there are a couple of places over the ride where you can opt out if needs be. I make sure there are at least two in a day.
The next part of route planning is that it’s great to know where there are cafes, supermarkets, rest stops, bike shops for when you need them. Knowing you have a cafe with baked potatoes for lunch is a wonderful stimulant to keep going!
Thirdly, have a glance over the elevation profiles, terrain, and where there are main roads. If you are riding on bridleways all day, don;t bring your road bike. If you hate A roads like I do, make sure you’re off them if possible. If it’s multi-day, plan around distances that you know you can do, and be mindful that carrying bags makes it a lot harder than normal.
Lastly, route planning is useful for logistics of the ride. You’ll need to work out how you are going to get to and from the start and end of your trip- are there ways to make it a loop? Are there train stations you can use? Can a friend come and pick you up?
3- Pack light.
Perhaps you’re used to wearing a different shirt every day but… you don’t want to be carting your whole wardrobe with you. Have one riding outfit, one non riding outfit, some waterproofs, and your camping and cooking things. You’ll thank me later!
4- On that note… Camping equipment.
What you deem as ‘essential’ camping gear differs very much from person to person. I know some people who are horrified at what I bring because it weighs at least double theirs, but I’ve seen people carting around three times what I usually do.
For context, I carry a lightweight tent, self- inflating mat, 3 season sleeping bag, blow up pillow, a multi-use pot, gas canister, spondonickle and screw-on stove. It’s a fairly lightweight set up, but nothing on those who do bike pack bivvy rides. They might just bring a bivvy bag, ultra light sleeping mat, triangular stove and mug.
My advice is just to plan what you need carefully, and then do a pre-pack to see if it all fits on the bike. If it does, congrats…. But check you can ride it too!
You can of course, opt to not camp at all, and go from hotel to hostel to airbnb. Whatever suits you!
5- Take food with you.
You don’t know what’s going to happen- might be that you (like I once did) roll into the town you expected to buy lunch, dinner and breakfast from and everything is closed because its Sunday. (Some places still do that apparently) You don’t want to bonk or starve, so having essentials with you like porridge, rice or bread, can really help, along with a little camp stove. I’ve saved my own stomach and the stomachs of a fair few other cyclists by this rule, so I cannot reiterate it enough. Also you can stop and make yourself a brew at any point- who wouldn’t want that option!
5- Weather Forecasts are pretty useful!
There is a lot of joking about fair weather cyclists, but with cycle touring it really matters. If you’ve ever experienced having to climb into a tent and sleeping bag wet from the days ride and the nights rain before, you know to avoid this grim feeling at all costs. Spending 3 days in the rain, with everything you own and your tent soaking is NO-ONE’s idea of fun. This doesn’t mean only ride if it’s glorious sunshine, but be flexible enough on route, dates or distance if the weather does fall foul. I used to think this mentality doesn’t ‘count’ as cycle touring, but trust me- unless you’re breaking a land-speed record or trying to prove your gritty masculinity to all your buddies- just do what is going to give you the most amount of fun and the least amount of damp sleeping bags.
6- Don’t forget to have a few extras!
Bring money in case they don’t take card. An external phone charger, especially if you’re using this to navigate. Some sort of low level first aid kit ( seems a dead weight until it really doesn’t) A physical map, and some basic tools like an Allen key and puncture repair kit.
Happy riding!
And that’s it. Cycle touring is loads of fun, as well as a great challenge. You will definitely make lots of mistakes first time around, but hopefully your general experience will be a good one. Nothing beats seeing a country in slow pedal strokes, camping in the wild and earning coffee and food stops throughout. Have fun!
