avole

Simple, really. I'm interested to see what people see as the most important, and what takes the most time. Practice implies just that: whether it be restricted to getting fit, or having a practice tour in comfortable circumstances.

By the way, I appreciate this can be a difficult subject for some people who don't like looking beyond their own experiences but we all learn every time the bag is packed, the rear pannier secured, tyre pressures checked, or the bike disappears down the baggage belt and onto the aircraft. Once the poll goes up, I'll tell the tale of my first serious weekend tour. Up to you if you want to continue with your tale.

Please rate; Research
Practice
Planning
out of a total 100%

Alas, I tried to add a poll for the above, but ran out of time

Andrew R Stewart 

I view research and planning as being two sides of the same coin. Not sure I can separate them from each other. As for practice- If you're riding on your own then this is a less important aspect as you'll ride yourself into shape with proper planning for this aspect. But being in good touring shape when you leave is a very good part of planning Andy

skidder

All three.
Research where you want to go; roads (do they have a shoulder? or very little traffic? etc), campsites or hotels for overnighting, any stops you want to make along the way (tourist attractions & stuff like that).
Plan a short overnight trip for your first excursion., maybe and out-and-back trip staying in a hotel, then maybe another trip to a campground for one night - see which one you enjoy most (maybe a mix of both?).
Practice would mean getting in shape(?). You can do that while doing the research and planning. The better shape you are in, the more enjoyable the trip will be. And load your bicycle up with your bags and a little bit of weight (not necessary to fill them up with all the gear) to see how it handles while on the road, in the wind, on downhills, etc.

Leebo

I ride on a regular basis, so no training for my bikepacking trips. Research and planning are the same thing? I look at maps, and usually have a plan for my first nights stay. Most important? Be flexible. And have options of where to go and where to stay ( camp) Great to have everyday planned out and camping lined up. Some days you get 40 miles instead of 70 or 80. Or the bridge is washed out or under construction. ( You shall not pass)

jefnvk

Agree with Andrew, planning/research go hand-in-hand, they're the same to me.

As to the rest: it all depends. None of the items are mutually exclusive, and I'm very firmly a "no preparation or amount of knowledge is too much" type person. That said, while practice can prove incredibly valuable to someone who has never toured before, someone who has been doing it for 20 years probably isn't getting as much out of it beyond basic conditioning. Likewise if I am touring around Michigan, the research/planning probably isn't proving as valuable to me as it would if I were heading to Kyrgyzstan.

In short, if I'm a veteran tourer who regularly rides and who is staying in a familiar area, none of it is probably important, if I am someone who just bought the first bike they've owned since grade school heading out on their first adventure abroad, all of it is very critical, and everything else falls somewhere in between.

avole

Research 45% - I know I bang on about this, but from competing in the 10 tors on Dartmoor to trying to explain to a member of police who is only doing their job that you weren't trying to enter Angkor Wat the back way while trying to avoid naming the hotel and staff person who told you that but had missed the well signed, obvious turn to the pay booths, research is key.
Planning 40% - Distances are critical, especially where the climate may be different from yours. OK, it's a small example, but research had altered my planning about how I was going to explore Finland. The moment it froze in Helsinki the bike went into storage, and trams or trains became my main means of transport. I visited many places on the weekend, but always by train if outside Helsinki, and I trebled the time to get to the tram stop. Obviously camping is difficult, so I always had hotels booked. Never restaurants, by the way, most locals are willing to name a decent one. .
Practice 15% - If you aren't visiting another country, then surprisingly unimportant. That said, I've always tried to match distance to fitness of myself and co tourists, and spent a month getting preparing for my circuit of Bali.

Neverthless, you learn. I'd been living in the NT for a number of months, and was well acclimatised. Cycled to work, did a 20 km circuit after work, checked the distance from the gate to the camping spot, packed light kit, as I was only going for 1 month. I still remember a kindly ranger flagging me down 3 km from the camp, and asking whether he could give me a lift to the camp, as a couple of cars had reported a cyclist struggling. I was red faced, sunburnt, not enjoying the cycling at all dreaming of that pool. I accepted. You must know your limits. I'd love to say the pool cured my overheating, which it did. The freezing cold beer I knew to avoid. I put my small tent up, inflated the sleeping bag, had another swim then lay down to recover. As I lay there, I remembered the obvious. Midday in the sun in the tropics isn'f fun in a tent, especially under the sparsely-leaved Australian trees. The lodge being fully booked, I packed everything up, got a ride on the bus back to town an hour later.

Was that experience useful ? Yes, but mostly because the bus had left 30 minutes late, and that had made a significant difference. OK it's exceptional, but temperatures can rise quickly in the tropics, especially when there's no cloud cover. The tent - who stays in a tent during the heat? I was expecting to be out, cooled down, complete with hat and replenished water, not exhausted in a tent. No, and I recovered quickly enough. So, I ended up watching Australia build up and impregnable total against the Indians, beer in hand. In the evening there was a concert not far from me, the great Yothu Yindi. For once, the accident had been a happy one.

avole

You've just neatly illlustrated the difference. Without research you cannot plan, and there's a full stop there. I'm aware hardcore bikeforumers often confuse the two.

indyfabz

"Plans are worthless, but planning is everything."--D.D. Eisenhower

avole

I have the greatest respect for Eisenhower, not for his presidency but his military planning. Facile but good sounding bite, ideal for the politician he became, but do you really think he did no research?? Of course he did, and, in fact, it was the lack of research by his British equivalent that produced the plans which so enraged Eisenhower - and near destroyed that part of France.

By the way, it's only fairly recently the Montgomery has been openly criticised in the UK. Eisenhower's abilities as a soldier and leader had long been recognised. .

Leebo

Over thinking it. They go hand in hand, as someone else said. Most of my tours involve rolling down my driveway. Be the wheel.

alan s 

saddlesores

cyccommute 

Or as Field Marshal Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke said "Kein Operationsplan reicht mit einiger Sicherheit über das erste Zusammentreffen mit der feindlichen Hauptmacht hinaus." Or, very roughly translated, "no plan ever survives contact with the enemy".

Plan, research, prepare and then be willing to chuck the whole thing in the bin after your first few days. I've done numerous tours of up to 5 weeks at a time. Not a single one went according to plan. Stuff happens. Wind, cold, traffic, injury, mechanical, etc. Be prepared but don't be so rigid that you can't make changes when they are needed.

In the days before smart phones, I carried paper maps of the sections of a tour. Unfortunately, that made my tours very rigid. I didn't have information, nor even access to information, on what was off route. If there was a grocery store a half mile off my route, I had no way of knowing. "Solo without Pie" in my signature below was done in that era. I had a devil of a time finding grocery stores because they just aren't listed on AAA maps, especially in smaller towns.

That kind of touring continued until "A Good Ol' Fashion Appalachian Butt Whoopin'" (2011) when I got a smart phone...ya, I'm a late bloomer On that tour, I researched like I normally do, decided on a route and then threw the route away when I found that I could map out my travel from day to day. I picked a campground or hotel I wanted to get to and rode. Finding food isn't all that much easier...thanks, HelMart...but I wasn't stuck with a particular route. Now I get a general idea of the route and then use Google maps for my day to day routing. Don't follow Google maps slavishly...it tends to take you on some weird routes...but it's a pretty good tool.

As for training, I've done enough tours that I know what to expect. I ride enough that I'm always prepared. I could start a multi-week tour tomorrow without doing any pre-ride training. It gets better once you've got a few tours under your belt.

Finally, I've noticed something...even with lots of experience. The first day is filled with excitement and some dread. The second and third days tend to have less excitement and more dread. You are close enough to the start to abandon a tour in the first through 3rd day. By the fourth day, you are far enough along that turning back is less of an option.

On my last tour..."Pokin' around the Poconos", I almost abandoned it after the first night. It was 22°F for a morning low...a record for that date...and I was using a summer bag with a 40°F rating. Even though I had driven nearly 2000 miles to Toledo, OH, I was fully prepared to go back home. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), a seagull intervened and stole the keys to my bike lock and, more importantly, my truck. I could only go on. And it was a good thing I couldn't go back because the first week was shear hell...cold and rainy. Even when I was 300 miles along, I would have turned around and headed home.

Leebo

^^^^Nice. A seagull? Freakin sky rats. But more details please.

fietsbob

I found Storage and moved out of my Apartment, so I cut that cost.

Boy scout camping in the 50's , Put in a hitch in the navy .. 66-69 bike shop mechanic in the 80s ..

By then I had background & comfort level, to improvise, and so Bike touring was a pleasant time visiting other countries.






..

cyccommute 

From "Freezing on the shores of Lake Erie"

indyfabz

A man after my own heart. I have each day planned but remain. I like to have multiple camping options identified for each day in case things doesn't go as planned and for when they go better than planned (tailwind turns what would have been a 60 mile day into a longer one).

John N

Flexibility: 80%
Research: 10%
Planning: 5% (as result of Research)
Training: 5% (more is better but not necessary)

If you are not flexible, you are asking for a lot of aggravation. Sure, you can ride a very rigid schedule but for me, if I am not enjoying the tour for whatever reason, I look to change it (being flexible) so where I am. I have 40 years of touring and tens of thousands of miles of loaded touring. What works for me, may not work for you. Best, John

mev

It depends...

On a lot of things, but including the type of trip, duration, etc. So here is how I look at this balance for me:

Research - In this category I put things that might stop the trip if left unaddressed. For example - (1) Are there visa requirements where you are going? (2) What does the climate say about the gear required? (3) How big are gaps between services - what does this say about equipment e.g. camping required? (4) What else is needed to set a reasonable "budget" for time and cost of the trip?

On a short overnight trip, "research" might be more simple like "what is the weather forecast?"
The percentage of time spent in research isn't necessarily high - it is more important to make sure you have asked the key questions.

Planning - This category follows a bit from the research and then the parameters you have set for the trip. For example, if your research suggests a minimal time budget of 30 days is necessary - and you decide to ride in 30 days then you will need to do a lot more planning - than if you decide to ride in 65 days and leave yourself some flexibility to adjust. If your research suggests there are larger gaps between services and you are going at peak times without camping gear - then you'll need to do more planning than if you decide to bring certain gear that gives you some flexibility, etc.

Practice - This is a sliding scale that can trade off against the other two. I've done enough touring that I do almost no research/planning for a short overnight trip - since I pretty much know my equipment, routes, etc. If I didn't have that practice, then I might do a bit more planning even when taking those shorter overnight trips.

I tend to agree with TulsaJohn that the *minimal* amounts of research+planning+practice can add up to a not very big amount (e.g. 20%) with either the remainder being some measure of flexibility or a change to expand one at the expense of another.

For me it also depends a bit on the type of trip, duration, etc. On my own long trips (>3 months), I bias towards doing a lot of research because I enjoy it (e.g. reading books, reading all the trip journals I can find, learning local languages, etc). As a result, I leave myself a certain amount of flexibility when on the road since I've got past experiences of others I've learned from as well as my own background. However, if I didn't enjoy doing that research I could certainly take the same trips with less background info...

On my own short trips (<1 week); I do barely any research in familiar areas and rely a bit on past practice/experience so the percentages are skewed the other direction. I could certainly do those short familiar trips if I had less past practice as well.

jefnvk

Confuse, not particularly. Realize they are useless without one another in most cases, absolutely. If I don't use my research to plan, it was useless and worth exactly 0% of my time, and it is hard to plan without any research. But this is hardly a semantical argument thread (I hope), their overall importance can vary wildly based on the particulars of the trip.

Do agree with everyone that being flexible is the most important out of everything.

MixedRider

Want to do it, try it, learn from it, and improve upon it.
All depends on your goal. Travel the world, self-supported, travel fast, travel light, 1-night, 1-year?
They are require a different amount of everything. Gaining experience prepares you for most things. So the more you do anything, the more second nature it becomes. I find that the more actual touring I do, the less real-time it takes do prepare to do one. The percentages in the OP's question don't mean anything if total prep time is 10 minutes for a random overnighter (Packing) to maybe an hour for a long weekend.... If I was doing something completely new or different,,, my total prep time may be anywhere from an hour to weeks to months...

gauvins

Planning is the process of thinking about the activities required to achieve a desired goal. (suggested in Wikipedia). Interestingly, the same blurb contrasts planning with opportunism. I'd personally suggest that we always plan. Sometimes, as we go, sometimes ahead of time. Optimal planning depends on what we do and on who we are.

Hmmm... I wouldn't like to be misunderstood by using the following illustration. Mev is a remarkable tourer. I've read his book and many of his posts with considerable attention. I wish I could have done one fifth of what he's done and I completely agree with his views on planning etc. Yet I don't know what to make of his experience with a spark-plug-as-an-emergency-pedal, or having to improvise because of a crank failure. I would tend to argue that Mev is more opportunist than I am, whereas I am more an ahead planner. (which is why I asked him questions wrt to the crank failure; and why our bikes are running XT/Saint; or why I've asked countless questions about drivetrains, and so on).

We probably all end up investing enough in research, planning and training as we learn about touring. Whatever our mix is. If a tourer gets upset because he cannot find a place to spend the night, get medical help, enjoy the ride, he'll invest more in R&P, the next time. Unless the experience was so bad that there won't be a next time, in which case it probably means that there wasn't much love for touring to begin with, so not much is lost. If a tourer is more a carpe diem type of a person, he'll not waste time locating every single campground within a 50Kms radius, 6 months ahead of time. And if someone finds pleasure in being a desktop tourer planner, well, there are worse things in life, I guess.

Happy Feet

As others say.. Depends.

For most of my life training consisted of little more than putting some general saddle time beforehand so that the first days weren't uber painful or hard.
In 2016 I did a more comprehensive training regime including a series of mountain pass climbs but that was partially to engage others in the awareness raising aspect of my main ride.
Last year I was quite specific about training as I wanted to experience bikepack type racing conditions to see if I liked that idea (perhaps thinking of joining an event down the road). So, in the winter I trained on spin bikes and weights to increase my cadence and to strengthen my core/cycling muscles.
So, three different ideas about training for three different reasons.

Planning and research do go hand in hand and are scaleable to how much experience one has on the subject. If I plan to do the KVR trail I may have to research what the trail conditions are to determine what bike to take. If I know those conditions the research is cursory at best. If there is little information I may have to research more. If research dictates I don't have the right bike I may need to change the plan - go somewhere else or buy the right bike...
If I plan not to cook on tour and forage from stores I may need to research the locations of those stores (especially in more remote regions). If I know there are plenty of options due to experience I need to research very little. If I plan to cook the stores I shop in may be different (or not).
Etc...

So my values are T=64% P=10% and R=36% (adjusted for inflation in 1984 Canadian dollars). I always give 110%.

Machka 

I keep in shape year round, as much as possible. And I've done a lot of different tours. I could quite easily just throw stuff together and go. So ... when it comes to practice, that's just an ongoing things, always there.

As for research and planning, it depends.

On longer tours, I'll often arrange the flight to and from wherever I'm going, and the first night. The rest is up to the wind ... wherever the wind blows us.

On short tours, I might book the whole thing because we've got limited time, and I don't want to waste time.

avole