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touring questions

Old 10-22-19, 07:53 AM
  #1  
TigreBici
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touring questions

Hello everybody
I have been cycling in the city for a while now. Nothing pro or to train just to move around and get places.
I do ocassionally do the 100km sunday ride.but nothing else. Have done 2 short bike tours on on my own and the other with another person and the idea.os a bike tour of more than a week really appeals me
So I have questions for ya
1-How much do you spend a day while on tour? (Excluding gear and plain/train tickets)
2- If you do cook and dont buy food from restaurants, What do you buy/carry/cook?
3- How much do you train/prepared before a bike trip?
(In my solo trip i made around 80 km per day, took me 3 days to get where i wanted but... at night i tried to sleep and my body wouldnt shot down. I was tired and needed to sleep but my body didnt cease. Has happen to you?)
4- Do you follow a special diet before tour? (Am a poor eater, sometimes I forget to eat and want to train food wise as well to survive weeks on the saddle je-je)
5- What type of bikw do you use? (I have a 2018 specialized vita with disc brakes that will like to take to tour althought 26"tires are widely spread and easy to find. I dont have that much money but also been thinking on buying and olt mtb trek or raleigh to tour)

Well let me know!

Thnks
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Old 10-22-19, 08:17 AM
  #2  
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1) I spend whatever it takes. I don't try to save money when I travel by bicycle. That said, whenever I get the chance, I try to find hosts for the night, which saves a lot of money on lodging. I don't camp.

2) I don't cook. I used to, but since I no longer camp, I don't find carrying cooking gear to be worth the weight. When I did cook, I carried oatmeal for breakfast with raisins, sugar (packets from coffee places), and peanuts. Lunch was often a Subway or other purchased sandwich. Dinner was usually stir-fried vegetables with whatever vegetarian protein I could find.

3) I train hard for my tours. I wrote an article explaining my training regimen.

4) I try to lose a bit of weight before I travel. My training often takes off a pound or two. Mostly, I try to cut down on chocolate, but usually don't.

5) I have 2 bikes. The one in the US is a Waterford touring bike with 700c wheels and S&S couplers. The one in the UK is a folding Bike Friday New World Tourist.
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Old 10-22-19, 08:23 AM
  #3  
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1. Depends where I am. Campground fees vary greatly across the globe. In addition to campground fees, there are some restaurant meals and food that I prepare in the campground. And an occasional stove fuel cannister.

2. Stuff that is similar to what I eat at home, but generally modified to be simpler, preferably from one pot.

3. Almost no additional training but try to get some longer rides in during a month before the trip to get my bum more used to the shape of the saddle.

4. I have a few medical issues that control my diet wherever I go, but for bike touring you probably should try to get more protein than you otherwise would to aid muscle recovery.

5. I have three touring bikes, but what I have does not matter. You can tour on almost anything that you can put a rack onto. On my tour this past June and July in the Canadian Maritimes I noticed that most others that were bike touring were on regular hybrid bikes, not touring bikes.
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Old 10-22-19, 08:37 AM
  #4  
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1. Depends where you travel. Last summer while touring eastern Europe and central Asia I was hard pressed to spend $50 a day on lodging, food and entertainment.
2. I eat pretty much whatever I want, I don't have/follow any special diet,
3. I don't train for tours. I'm a daily bike rider.
4. No
5. For the past 25yrs or so I toured on the same bike. It was a KHS Urban Express, a good sub $500 bike. I no longer have it since shipping it back from Uzbekistan last year would have cost more than the bike was worth.

Last edited by gerryl; 10-22-19 at 12:11 PM.
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Old 10-22-19, 09:18 AM
  #5  
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I cook most dinners. Usually pasta with vegetables and some protein source. Foil packed tuna is often available and light if you have to carry food to camp. I'll try to get a bagel and something like cheese or canned fish for breakfast. Cured meat also keeps well. Lunch consists of what I come across on the road or buy the day before if there is nothing along the way. Cliff bars for snacks. Perpetuem for hard days with no services.

I spend what I want to spend. As noted, campground fees vary. I don't look to blow money for the sake if it, but it's my vacation. I am not likely to skip something I really want to do or camp under a bridge because the campground wants $30.

I try to get in some long weekend trips before an extended tour of 1-2 weeks.

Surly Long Haul Trucker is what I ride.
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Old 10-22-19, 11:00 AM
  #6  
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To elaborate a little more on food, you should expect to want to stop and buy a few in between meal snacks.



And sometimes you get thirsty.



As far as types of food, there are not many choices for a fast in-camp breakfast, it is usually hot cereal. Freeze dried from a camping store is also an option but much more costly.

I usually have one pot meals for supper, sometimes a two pot meal as in the photo where I made the pasta sauce separate from the pasta.




***

In 2016 I think my total cost for a four week trip in Iceland was about $2,500 USD, that includes round trip air fare from Madison WI to Reykjavik. Also included five nights in hostels.

And earlier this year my total cost for a five week trip in Candian Maritimes was about $2,500 USD, that included round trip air fare from Chicago to Halifax, NS and ground transport from Madison WI to Chicago. This includes two bike jerseys for souvenirs. My helmet was getting old and had a lot of UV over the years, I saw one I liked in a bike shop and bought a new helmet too. The two jerseys and helmet were probably 10 percent of the total trip cost. This trip was quite rainy, I spent four more nights in hostels than I had originally planned for, but the hostel fees were not much more than a campground fee. This trip also included a ferry ride and a toll bridge fee to and from PEI.

Both of the above trip cost estimates included luggage fees for two checked bags but I did not have any oversize or overweight fees, as my bike fit into a case that met airline luggage standards.

But a short trip without air or ground transport costs near home, you likely are only looking at camp fees, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. Hopefully you will incur no bike shop costs.
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Old 10-22-19, 11:36 AM
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Fresh cider donuts this weekend. I ate only two and gave away the rest. That and a 20 oz. apple cider was lunch for a 35 mile ride during a group overnighter. In my rush to pack up the car to get to the start I left my lunch behind.

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Old 10-22-19, 08:44 PM
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On a recent 5 week tour I spent about $1000 just on food. I don’t cook and eat whatever I want. No special diet. I’m hungry all the time.

i don’t train but ride a leisurely 50 miles per week.
This won’t get you in very good shape but I guess it’s better than nothing.

i go on tour because I’m usually disgusted with myself for not being in very good shape so for me there is no reason to train. Touring is the training.

i sleep on the ground anywhere I can but I use state or county parks a lot just to take a shower.
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Old 10-23-19, 04:49 AM
  #9  
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1. Typically not very much, but it varies depending on the tour. Some tours I have spent less than I would have spent at home because I wasn't putting gas in my car.
2. I typically try to buy food close to where I will eat it to avoid carrying much. I often eat one meal per day in a diner and occasionally two. I cook simple meals.
3. I don't really train, per se. I do try to have some time in the saddle before a trip and be in a state of good general fitness.
4. I eat food that I like. It tends to be a carb rich diet.
5. I have ridden several different bikes on my tours. I ride the one that suits the tour route and my packing style for the tour. The following give you an idea of how flexible the possibilities are.

I rode a Windsor Touring (rebadged Fuji Touring) for fully loaded touring on my first long tour (Trans America). I used it for some other tours with medium and lighter loads on paved tours.

I rode an older (1990) Cannondale crit race bike for an ultralight camping paved road Southern Tier tour. I think I had 14# of ultralight backpacking camping and cooking gear. I modified the crankset to give me lower gearing by using a triple with the big ring removed. That gave me an "ultra compact double" 39/26 that I ran with a 12-28 cluster on the back. The whole setup worked fine.

I did an on/off road tour on an older (1990) Cannondale MTB with UL camping gear. I improvised a tiny rack with a small stuffsack on the back, a bar roll, and a little backpack. Base gear weight was just over 11 pounds and bike and gear together just over 33 pounds so the whole shebang together fit in a soft case that was airline legal and under the 50 pound limit. It was pretty cool to have a single bag that included bike, gear, and all to go on a long tour. Again it all worked out fine.

I rode a couple old bikes even though I owned a dedicated touring bike and truth be told may never tour on a "real" touring bike again. I am trying to make a few points. First if you learn to pack light you gain a lot of flexibility in how you carry your gear and what you ride. You get the joy of riding a more unladen bike. How far you carry this is up to you. You can go full on ultra light or you can just be a bit more careful in packing. Either way, I do advise you take great pains to avoid over packing. Second, you can get some experience trying touring on whatever bike you own.

After typing all that, I looked up the Specialized Vita and it looks like it is reasonably set up for touring. In hilly or mountainous country, especially if carrying much, you might want to fit a 24 tooth inner chain ring if it will take one.
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Old 10-23-19, 08:26 AM
  #10  
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1-How much do you spend a day while on tour?
that depends on the country's purchasing power and exchange rate

2- If you do cook and dont buy food from restaurants, What do you buy/carry/cook?
anything I would do if I was touring in my home town. If I want a lunch with a baguette with crab salad, and a pastry with something good to drink then I walk into the store with a basket, buy a baguette, buy crab salad, go to where they have pastries and pick up a muffin, go to the refrigerated section and buy a smoothie or orange juice or a gazpacho if I'm in for a vegetable drink. Then I go outside, find a comfortable place to sit and open my goodies and start eating. After I'm done I throw the empty stuff into their trash cans and put the stuff I have not eaten (as if) into my panniers.

3- How much do you train/prepared before a bike trip?
Nothing special but I did put 3000 overall miles on my odometer this year so far so that's my training I guess

4- Do you follow a special diet before tour? (Am a poor eater, sometimes I forget to eat and want to train food wise as well to survive weeks on the saddle je-je)
No.

5- What type of bikw do you use?
I have 4 types of bikes that could be used for touring (fat bike, gravel bike, touring bike, tandem bike) and I use all 4 (not at the same time)
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Old 10-23-19, 08:34 AM
  #11  
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I don’t keep track. It’s a vacation. I’ll generally try to keep it under $200 a day, which is easy if you are camping. Hotels eat up the budget.
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Old 10-23-19, 08:35 AM
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1) My last sustained multi-month self-supported tour in the US cost me about $25/day, split roughly between food and lodging. That included one motel stop per week and one restaurant meal per day, on average. I often went days without stepping under a roof (other than the occasional public toilet). One recent five day combined bike/hike trip from home I went unsupported, camping on public land, and didn't spend a cent other than the cost of groceries from home and one tire patch.

2) I have extensive long distance hiking experience and have developed a stoveless travel style. I carry whole-grain muesli (which I make myself from oats, nuts and raisins), tortillas and peanut butter, bags of nuts and raisins for snacks, Fig Newtons for a quick breakfast, as much fresh fruit and veg as I can carry, and whatever else looks good while shopping.

3) I cycle a lot all the time (100 miles per week) and never need to train for a trip. One trip started out with lots of climbing in Washington State, like 5000' per day for five days, so I did train on multiple days of serious climbing for months before that trip. I wanted the climbing to be fun, and it was. I heard some good advice once, to train for 30% of your target sustained daily mileage (if you have such a thing). On one long trip I had a goal of 500 miles per week, so I cycled close to 200 mile weeks in the months leading up to that ride, and that left me very well prepared. I tend to have goals on my trips and enjoy meeting those goals. I know that differs from others' travel styles.

4) I prefer a plant-based diet all the time, at home or traveling, but not too strict. It's a simple, inexpensive diet to fit my lifestyle. I'll stop for a pint of Ben & Jerry's or treat myself to a cheese and veg pizza when I start losing too much weight on a bike trip. I don't get cravings normally, but I will satisfy them while cycling or hiking. I'll eat more packaged and fried food while touring.

5) I tour on inexpensive, sometimes used bikes, anything that will take a rear rack. My current bike is a low-end gravel bike with road tires, with a 2 x 11 drive train and mechanical disk brakes. I got it from a guy who'd been in an accident with it (damage to the rear rack and bent der hanger) and was dumping it for a low cost. Before that was a half price sale at REI for their Randonee touring bike, $350 in 1996 and that lasted over two decades. I used a 1983 Trek 620 touring bike for a few years, a gift from a friend, on lots of short tours.

My style developed gradually over four decades of touring and backpacking. That's probably the case with everyone responding here. We're all going to have different styles, each one valid. I enjoy touring with others, seeing other styles, sometimes learning, sometimes teaching.
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