David in PA

This may sound like a weird response to your question, but I would have set a "method" for how I would handle dog "attacks" and stick to that method.

As I described in other posts, on my first long tour I tried to out pedal a dog, lost control of my bike, and fell hard to my left, smashing my upper thigh into the pavement. Eventually, a "doctor" looked at. His so-called treatment was to drain the injury, which caused rampant internal bleeding, which caused me to spend the night in the hospital.

My method now on handling dog "attacks" is to stop, put the bike between the dog and I, and walk until things cool down. If they don't, I might use dog spray, which I only did once in almost 4,000 miles.

David in FL

jharte

There are two things that I have changed over the last several years. One is adding a little extra time. When I was younger (a long time ago!) I could easily log 100+ miles, fully loaded per day. I could also eat lots of pizza, drink lots of beer, and get very little sleep! Wake up the next day and do it again!!

The last couple of tours were around 400mi ea. I rode a less miles each day and enjoyed where I was (instead of the challenge of riding 100+ mile days). I also watched what I ate. I find I need more protien and less junk food now. My legs didn't really feel very good on my last ride across Missouri. I felt very fatigued all day. I talked to a nutritionalist and they mentioned adding more protien along with lots of carbs. They even mentioned less beer. NOT FAIR! I'm sure all of these changes are due to age. Oh, well.

Bizurke

- I would have eaten a lot more, I realized afterwards that I was consuming less than half of the calories that I was burning. This ended up in me running out of all energy and laying on the side of the road under a shade tree for hours with 20 miles left in the day.

- Water Proofing! I can't put enough emphasis on this. There's nothing quite as bad as having every single item you have, and your self, soaked, cold, and feeling like crap.

- Enjoy the time. A tour is not a race and if you try to make sure you make a certain distance in a certain time you will spend more time focusing on your speed then you will enjoying the ride. Take your time and enjoy the ride. Don't be scared to stop, if you feel like taking a break, or just spending some time in the area you're at then do it, but when you get back on the road don't try to make up for lost time or you'll end up not enjoying the rest of the day.

- Sleep! I spent the more than one day staying up late and partying and I payed for it in the morning. The day that I decided to go to sleep early and get as much rest as possible ended in me having the best ride of the week after I woke up.

chephy

I wouldn't've "tuned up" my bike at a crappy LBS the day before the tour. I would've given myself more time to get places I was going (I was riding around the province going to various musical/theatre festivals, and was almost late for a couple of concerts). Would've packed MUCH less casual non-biking clothing. And would've taken some warmer socks and pants, given how early in the year my tour took place (I did seriously freeze my butt off one of those days on the road...) And yeah - would've been a lot more careful about making sure I don't run out of food and water in the middle of nowhere. That happened to me on that first tour, and it was seriously NOT fun!

Critterpace

Who are they? I need to avoid them and their "bad" advice. I love my Boulevard.

Alekhine

yaya

dreamy

My first tour was crossing the USA in 50 days.

In retrospect it was a once in a lifetime experince, so I would have slowed down, spent more time relaxing and visiting places of interest on the way, had more days off, taken more photos and not been so preoccupied with getting to the finish.

Prodigy4299

I would have tried harder to get some cycling bussy to come with me. I really hate touring alone - there's no one there to keep your mind occupied mile after mile.

qqy

I wish I had more appropriate gearing for my tour. I went with a 50/34 and 11-32 - big mistake. I really wanted an intermediate chainring on those long, moderately sloped hills that were so common in central Europe. 48/38/28 would have been perfect. A GPS system would have been very helpful too, but I got quite good at reading maps really fast.

lighthorse@eart

Less stuff. My guess is if it is your first tour you are taking at least 25% too much stuff. I sure did.

DavidARayJaxNC

does anyone think the biopace would be good for touring?

valygrl

Dude, that is so 1989. Forget it. There's a reason no one makes it any more.

niknak

Don't make any changes to your bike right before a trip. I was dumb enough to change pedal systems (from clipless to toe clips) right before a recent tour without taking a test ride. The achilles tendon in my right foot got really sore because the toe clips wouldn't let my foot slide far enough forward. Stupid and painful. Make sure your bike fits you well!

FlowerBlossom

One.

goldener

**** all the planning. Just grab your bike, some food, a little cash, and ride. Don't worry too much about the details..

jharte

Bwhahahahaha! Those last few comments ROCK!
I love Biopace. I know they quit making it. I can't tell you how many articles I read (pros and cons) on the subject. However, I did yank them off my touring bike! (1988 Rockhopper Comp) I like them because I like old bike stuff. Kind of trendy....

How many miles does it take to get saddle sores? ONE is right!

Two really important things to keep in mind before a tour (there are really lots more than two!) 1) ride your bike a lot. This will get your sit bones ready, 2) Don't ever take an unproven weapon into battle. In other words....try not to make any major changes to your bike before a long ride.

nebben123

Sounds like that "... nails to finish a house?" riddle

hairlessbill

Time: I would have taken more time to take more detours and layovers. We had a deadline and that put a lot of pressure to make our target miles each day.

Maps: I had good maps but they were only for one route (Adventure Cycling maps). Wish I had had some other detailed (bicycle scale) maps of the areas we were in.

Pictures: Take lots of them. It rained for half our tour so we didn't take so many but now I wish I had pix of those rain-soaked days. So get a weatherproof camera or learn to take pictures through a ziplock.

Friends: Talk to more people. People wanted to talk to us and you are so approachable on a bicycle. It is a great time to make more friends. The farther from home we got the more excited people were to talk to us. Stopping at bike shops always got us recommendations on food and lots of conversation.

jcwitte

I would have taken my lighter tent and maybe left my stove at home. I only used my stove for coffee, and you can get that anywhere.

flipped4bikes

1. Cut back on the daily mileage.
1A. Stop more often.
2. Carry less stuff.

mooncricket

I would have reduced my load by 50%.

I would have sworn to myself not to linger anywhere longer than a week.

I would have sold ALL of my belongings before I went, instead of only half of what I owned.