tutu10

I plan to ride around my country, I live in VietNam, not a country large, so I think it's easy better than country bigger, but I 'm worry. Planned departure is around the summer 2019

CliffordK

I've suggested this get moved to the Touring subforum.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Vietnam

So, in the middle, Vietnam is only 50km wide. You could easily do that trek in a day, assuming good roads.

It is a little wider at the two ends, and about 1650km (about 1000 miles) long, total.

A lot will depend on your actual road conditions. Paved? Gravel? Dirt? Course ballast?

At this point, start planning your route (bike paths, and secondary roads). Find a good bike that you would be comfortable riding on for quite some time.

Find your gear, or choose to go "credit card touring".

cb400bill

Thread moved to Touring forum.

Tamiya

CliffordK

So, where are you, and have you started looking at a route?

What are the road conditions like?

schoolboy2 

Congratulations on your plan to tour your country by bicycle! You will have a great adventure.

I suggest that you start by reading journals of others who have toured your country by bicycle, you will probably find several at crazyguyonabike.com: Bicycle Touring: A place for bicycle tourists and their journals and search for Viet Nam. By reading these journals you will get an idea of which route to follow and also learn if there are difficult situations to avoid. You may also learn of any touring equipment they found necessary. I found in my travels in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, that there were inexpensive guest houses in every town and you may be able to stay there rather than camping. But each of us is different, and your choice of where to stay may be different than mine.

I also encourage you to ride your bike as much as possible as you will need to develop strength and endurance. You may find that you can ride your existing bike on your journey, or you may decide to purchase a special bike designed for touring. On my first tour, I rode my carbon fiber road bike across the US; I was 62 and had never toured before.

Good luck and ride safe.

Dan

saddlesores

if you want to ride north-south avoid QL1A (ho chi minh highway). horrendous traffic! fewer vehicles away from the coast but maybe more hills to deal with.


the south seems to be more casual, everything at a slower pace, so maybe a tour of the delta region south of HCMC would be good for a first attempt at touring.


you can avoid the traffic by taking a bus to the border with laos. many mountains and climbing in the north, but plenty of flat land in the south.



you could follow the mekong from the lao/cambodia/vietnam border area to vientienne. if flat riding gets boring, lots of interesting riding (and lots of new roads with good pavement) in the area between the mekong and the vietnam border.

linus

"The metaphor for Vietnam." by Jeremy Clarkson.

It's a beautiful country for sure.