bertusg

What's up all - I have total NOOB question. I have been dreaming of long long self supported tours for some time, and have a great road and mountain bike ready to get more serious. I've been doing longer and longer daytime distances on both & getting more and more in shape, acquiring some packing space, & figuring out my setup progressively. Unfortunately I don't know anyone else who has done long self supported touring rides to ask them some basic questions - so looking to get some guidance online here.

A couple things are intimidating to me to actually hop on the bike for multi day tours.

1. I love the idea of being self supported, and not riding hotel to hotel. But - how does this actually work? Do you have to plan your camping, or are you able to get away with finding a spot to crash within a few miles of wherever you end up? The freedom to not be tied to a specific daily endpoint, but being able to keep going as much as you can sounds really appealing to me (Trans Am Bike Race / Inspired to Ride style). Curious how this works in practice?

2. I like to prepare and not be stupid & risk disaster - but not so much that it holds me back from doing the thing I'm after. How much maintenance should I be able to perform? I can do the basics, but I can't repair major items - I don't know how much knowledge I should have to be responsible & confident out in the middle of nowhere.

(I did search before asking but didn't find the answer, probably because it's just not a big deal).

Thanks all.

Rob_E

Look up Stealth Camping and you'll find lots of contentious discussion about this. My preference is to plan for an established camp site. Knowing that things can go wrong, or I might get distracted by something shiny, I try to have an early bailout option in mind as well as an optimistic, I-made-to-camp-but-dont-feel-like-stopping, long distance option. But while I like to have them, it's not always possible, so sometimes I just have one goal. If you don't make it, you improvise. This is the biggest, nerve-wracking thing for me to get over. It's happen a few times that I have not been able to make my planned stop for the night, and it was fine. I found an isolated spot and set up. In some areas it's easy enough to just ask around. Check in with the police and ask about staying in the park that most small towns have. See someone mowing their lawn and ask about the empty field next door. For me, by the time I realize I'm not going to reach my planned stop, it's late, and I just want to pull off the beaten path and go to sleep, so I find an unobtrusive place to do that and use the the easier-to-ask-forgiveness rationale. The trickiest part for me is getting over the discomfort of not knowing where I'll end the day. I'm too much of a planner. But whenever the plans have gone off the rails, it's worked out fine.

Part of it depends on what you mean by "the middle of nowhere." When you say, "bikepacking," some people, myself included, think of isolated, natural areas: logging roads or rustic trails where you might not see another person all day. If that's where you're going, you should have a plan to get out, with or without your bike. There are varying opinions on how much knowledge you should have. My feeling is that it depends on how isolated you're going to be. The more isolated, the more knowledge you need, not just on bike repair, but to have some kind of plan to get back to civilization. No matter how good your repair skills, not everything can be fixed, and some things are going to require parts and tools that you wouldn't want to carry with you. My baseline is to know how to change a tire and patch a tube. But I've read tour journals of people who got a flat and stuck out their thumb to get a lift to the nearest bike shop. You can get away with a lot less knowledge if you're going to be where other people are. Even in "the middle of nowhere," most places you can't go more than an hour or two without seeing another person unless you make an effort to leave established roads behind you. I prefer to know more. It makes me more confident. I built my bike up from parts, including the wheels, so I know I can fix a flat, a spoke, deal with brakes and brake lines, and take care of a broken chain link. I feel like that's enough to get me by. I can do other things as well, but I'm not likely to have what I need on my bike. It's nice to have bike repair skills in general, but when it comes to touring, at some point you have to admit that unless you're carrying a spare bike's worth of parts, some failures require catching a lift to a shop. Fortunately a little preventive maintenance and tune-ups makes that fairly unlikely. Basically, I say know how to fix a flat, and have some kind of plan for if the bike can't go on. If you're going on a long trip, have everything checked out before leaving. If you're going on a really long trip, have everything checked out once a month or so by a professional if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself.

gauvins

[surprised by the limited number of answers. so let me add something even though I am not an expert in the field]

1. wrt camping -- if you ride "in the middle of nowhere" I suppose that stealth camping is quite possible. Plan for water (carry a lot, filter or treat raw water). I personally prefer to spend the night in a formal camping area. Fresh water supply and sanitary block (shower + toilets) being the major reasons. Touring with spouse + kids makes stealth less appealing. Depending on where you travel, you may find that customs can be quite accommodating regarding camping. In Japan, camping is tolerated basically everywhere; in the (rural) US, churches or police stations will often let you pitch your tent at night in their backyard; in France, small communities still practice "mandated hospitality" such that the mayor will find a place for you to spend the night.

2. wrt repairs -- again, depends. In most cases, being able to fix a flat tire is all that is really needed. You may want to carry an emergency kevlar spoke replacement. A decent multi-tool, including a chain breaker, should be enough to get you through most mechanical problems. A mobile phone is a good insurance. If you venture in more remote areas, you may want to invest in a personal beacon. But frankly, a decent bike is a very resilient machine -- sudden, catastrophic failures are a rarity. Enjoy the ride.

cyccommute 

A large part of touring is getting over the fears of doing it. It only seems intimidating. Once you get out there, it becomes easier. Basically, the best thing to do is to just, well, do it.

A bit more elaboration on nomenclature. While “bikepacking” can be applied packing stuff up on a bike and going for a ride, the term “bikepacking” was originally coined for riding off-road. It uses equipment that works better in the close quarters of trail riding. This is what “bikepacking” off-road looks like:


DSCN1146 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

DSCN1255 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

The load is carried higher than on a typical road touring bike like this one


2015-05-03 11.38.54 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

because a load that is carried low would hit off-road obstacles. I use bikepacking bags for off-road tours because of need but I would rather ride a week to month long touring on the second bicycle.

For camping, I set my route each day by the distance to where I plan on staying for the night. I try to stay in organized campgrounds and use an app call All Stays Camp and RV. It lists commercial campgrounds, US Forest Service campgrounds, BLM campgrounds as well as

If you know how to change a flat and lubricate a chain, you will probably fine. Knowing how to adjust a derailer may come in handy but is usually unnecessary. Broken spokes are another common problem. Knowing how to replace a spoke and true a wheel comes in handy at times, as well.

But don’t let the lack of some knowledge get in the way of just getting out there and doing it. As Pee Wee Herman so famously said (in the greatest bicycle movie of all time), “Everyone has a big but, Simone. Let’s talk about your big but.”

bertusg

Right on point - & glad to see i'm not the only one a bit trepidatious about just camping out in the middle of nowhere (I thought that was a standard requirement & didn't know how!).

This addresses a couple of mental barriers for me to get going, thank you!

djb

another person who just prefers to stay at campgrounds, nothing like setting up the tent quickly and getting into a shower to feel better, and then of course washing your bike shorts, shirt and socks and setting them up to dry, often dry the next morning, if not you have your second set to wear.

generally, planning a route with a campground at a reasonable distance that you know you can do, means you have water and facilities, and you just have to have stopped at a store and bought supper stuff and breakfast stuff, and you are all set.

campgrounds also have a certain social element to them, which I like also, and most campgrounds have some sort of shelter, overhang, gazeebo or whatever wehre you can eat if it is raining.

re repairs--the more you can learn and do hands on mechanical stuff, the better.

the more you know your bike, the more you know what is in great shape, or by regularly checking your bike over when you relube the chain lets say on a day off, you can and should notice that lets say, a rack bolt has loosened a bit, so you take care of that.

as gauvins said, generally, a bike in great shape will not have problems. As with everything in life, knowledge is good, and the more you know about bike mechanics, teh better it is for you and your bike.
Being aware and observant is a good attitude, and you will have more confidence if you have a clue of what is what. Lots of people go the "I'm just going to hope that nothing goes wrong mechanically" route, but thats fine and good until something develops that they could have avoided, so look into a basic bike mechanic course , if offered at a bike store or outdoor store, its a good start anyway.

like all things in life, we learn bit by bit, but one has to start, and importantly, have the interest and attitude TO learn new things.

bike mechanics is not rocket science, its not that hard, and we all are learning new things all the time.

oh, ps
I always recommend the "Park tools" video youtube series, an excellence resource of well made, informative vids that can be completely trusted. There are a whole slew of them.

djb

pps, the search function on this site is abominable, I've rarely had success with it and frankly, dont bother anymore really.

cyccommute 

That’s one of the aspects of the differences between off-road bike packing and road touring that I didn’t address. Off-road touring is generally more remote and requires different approaches to food and water. Generally, there aren’t places to obtain food in remote locations so you have to carry more food. I generally have to carry all the food I expect to need for a multi-day trip as there are probably going to be few places where I can get more. That usually means carrying several days of freeze dried foods.

On a road tour, I have more access to food so I can carry less. I have found that I usually have to carry about 3 days food since stores are more limited, in my experience, than most people think.

reppans

Camping in the middle nowhere is a piece of cake.... it's camping in the middle of somewhere that gets difficult. I personally lean toward short-touring in more densely populated urban and shoreline areas, which is also where you're unlikely to find reasonable campgrounds without 6mo. prior reservations. Have a somewhat specialized rig/methodology for that type of impromtu touring/camping, and I actually enjoy having no plans and figuring it out as I go - no other form of transport is as flexible. It's kind of neat having a fresh seafood meal in a nice ocean-side restaurant, and then retreating to a seclude site for the night almost as good as when backpacking. Oh, and shower included (just carry an extra liter of water in)... can't stand sleeping wearing my dried-up sweat.

djb

and its exactly this why I am so impressed by you guys who do the remote touring thing. On all the trips Ive done, there is always some sort of store at some point, and even on my longer trips in various countries, Ive never carried much more than a can of tuna, some pasta or whatever, to scramble up some sort of meal. Even in Latin America, because I was following roads, I was able to get by with a spare supper meal and a bag of tortillas, some jam, bananas etc that got me by for a supper and some breakfast.