Im off to South America in April to do 5 months touring around...

Peru to argentina, or most likely that reversed.

Never toured or gone international... Mad planning right now.

I wrote a blog entry about my very first bike trip. I'll copy and paste it here.... I actualy wrote this entry while we were cycling Baja as part of a one-year trip around the USA and Mexico with our kids.

It ain't fair. It just ain't fair. Every cyclist alive reports unbelievable tail winds on this section of the road. Flat, straighter than a yardstick, and awesome tailwinds. We should have flown. But just because we were passing through, the winds shifted. We fought a cross wind all day. We tried to look at the positive - at least it wasn't a headwind!

It was one of those days when you get lost in your thoughts: nothing to distract you at all. Yeah, there was still a lot of cactus - cardons, organ pipe, old man, cholla...but they were all dwarfed somehow. Rather than the huge sprawling bushes we are accustomed to, these were pitiful little things. Even the elephant trees would have been hard pressed to provide enough shade for a cat.

So I got lost in my thoughts...drifting back through the years...and I started thinking about how far I've come. That first tour I took... I hestitate to even call it a tour; it was really more of a comedy of errors than anything else. But it was start. And I was so proud!!

Way back, twenty some-odd years ago, I came up with the cockananny idea of traveling on my bike. I had no gear other than a bike and a sleeping bag, but that didn't stop me. A quick trip to my local K-Mart solved the problem of no rack to put things on. And an hour later I was beaming - my mechanical prowess have paid off!! I had somehow managed to mount that contraption on my bike! My gear found its way into a myriad of plastic bags which then became tied and bungeed onto the rack and I was off! Off on a grand adventure! I must have looked like the quintessential bag lady.

My destination was simple - a dam 100 miles from Boise. At least it sounded like a good idea at the time. The way I figured it, I would pedal 50 miles per day, making a 4-day trip. Perfect for the novice I was. I kissed my mom goodbye and promised to call home every day, and set off to find my rainbow.

Five miles from home I almost crashed. Something was throwing my bike terribly off. Maybe my mechanical prowess wasn't as good as I had imagined it to be... A screw had fallen out of my $5 rack. I found a stick to fit through the holes and continued on my way. Three miles later my stick broke and the rack wobbled dangerously. I replaced it with another. And then another. And another....

50 miles went by quickly - 50 miles of sugar beet fields. And cornfields. And onion fields. And broken screw-sticks. I started looking for a place to sleep. But sleeping in someone's field wasn't an option I considered at the time. 10 more miles went by - 10 miles of sugar beets. And another 10 miles of onions. I was getting tired. I wanted to stop. But the farms showed no signs of letting up.

98 miles from home (and countless broken sticks...) I finally found a spot. In retrospect, it was perfect - a flat grassy spot right next to a meandering creek. But young and naive I was. I know now that nobody knew I was there. And even if they had known, nobody would have cared. But at the time...all I could think about was "What if??"" What if someone saw me come back off the road? What if someone knew I was camped here? What if someone came back here in the middle of the night? I wasn't the least bit concerned about being attacked. Or robbed. Or raped. My greatest nightmare was that someone would come and tell me I couldn't camp here. And I would be forced to climb back on that god-forsaken bicycle again. So I laid there all night long...sure that every passing car was bringing that person who would kick me out. And I didn't sleep a wink.

I was up and about as the first rays of the sun graced the earth with their presence - eager to escape my torture chamber. I pedalled away...and found a wonderful little campground with a pool fed by a hot spring a mere two miles down the road. If only I had consulted my map I would have known that....

I still marvel at the fact that I made it back home in one piece and that I am still touring today. But I learned a lot from that trip. I learned that a good rack is essential. I learned that panniers are a better option than plastic bags. And I learned that it is helpful to consult a map every once in a while. But in many ways things haven't changed at all. I am still footloose and fancy free. I'm still out chasing rainbows. And the magic of bicycing hasn't diminished one bit.

I finally have a new bike, and now I get to plan a bike holiday for next year! I've been wanting to do this for ages but my old bike (which I love dearly) is really way too old - mid 80's model Puch.

So now comes the big decision: where to go? we'll probably have the usual month off and I hate hate hate hills and mountains and climbs of any sort. I was thinking Europe is a good starter, we can do longer weekend trips through Central Europe in the fall and spring. And of course ride to work to train muscles and the back side.

Any suggestions? we'll be camping and water to swim in would be nice.
I was thinking Normandy, the Netherlands or Norway. Everywhere further south seems to have way too many mountains.

Elis: Just go Coastal. Riding along the Northern Coast of Greece, per example, should be fine.
Or what about Rimi to Split? That shouldn't be too bad.

quote:

Originally posted by elAdi:
Elis: Just go Coastal.

Ditto. But in the spirit of the possibilities already mentioned (Normandy, Netherlands, etc). Why not start some place along the southern coast of the Netherlands like Vlissingen and work you way down to Normandy? That could be, depending on the weather, a beautiful trip.

It's looking more and more like Denmark. I've always wanted to see Christiania, there's two seas, and Denmark's highest mountain is a mere 170 meters. Sounds perfect!

Excellent. Expecting a short report and some pics here!

Have you guys ever used Bikemap ?

I just ran across it looking for routes through the Salzkammergut, we'll be spending the next week there. Looks nice, but are the routes good for other areas as well?

For everyone who's done some serious biking, how would you say the costs of cycle touring compare to "regular" traveling? Clearly you're saving a lot of money on transportation (and probably lodging, if you're going the tenting route).

I'm planning on doing a cycle tour of New Zealand this summer and was trying to figure out how much money I'm going to need, but the traditional "how much does a month in x country cost" estimates don't really seem to apply to this kind of traveling.

Arre. I haven't been to NZL in a long time, so I couldn't give you any numbers. So, this is probably more general than you'd like:
As you mention, you save all the money for transportation. So, per example, you take the most extensive Kiwi Experience package (hold on, I need to go throw......OK, back, can't believe I wrote that), you save an immediate NZL$ 1,899. In your pocket. With that money, you can buy a very decent tent for 500 dollars (and still have 1399 to spare). New Zealand is awesome to camp. There are plenty of cheap camping grounds and in rural areas, the farmers will let you camp in one of their meadows for free for sure. So, I'd say you'll also save 10-20 bucks a day on accommodation. That's another 3000 per month. You'll spend a little more on food (if you have a camping stove, you'll obviously be able to balance this out a bit) and much less on alcohol - generally you only make the mistake of trying to pedal 100 kilometers with a terrible hang over once or twice, then you learn your lesson that 2 beers is ENOUGH. Plus, because your body processes liquids more quickly and efficiently, you'll also be drunk on less. At least that seems to be the case with me.

Throw in another 200 - 300 extra bucks on emergency replacements (tires, cables, etc) - although the likelihood of this happening is usually slim.

So, yeah, generally speaking, you should save a lot of money, especially if you are willing to camp.

I have a dream/plan of traveling overland through Asia (possibly, starting in Western Asia/Russia, through China and Southeast Asia, ending up in Singapore, where I'm from) by bike some time in the next 5 years.

I am currently studying in Ohio & will be spending the next 3 years living in Canada in order to become a citizen there. After that I'm hoping to undertake some kind of big bike trip through several countries to go home for the first time in 4 years.

In the mean time I am hoping to get practice cycling through as much of Canada as possible.

But does anyone have any advice on how feasible this is? Or how long it would take to cycle from,say, Western China to Singapore. So far I have not told anyone else yet for fear they will laugh me off.

I'd say it's very feasible. I travelled that route overland — some of it on motorcycle; so I imagine pushbike wouldn't be too difficult.

I did Hanoi to Saigon by motorbike. It was a riot.

quote:

how long it would

garbils4hands: You wouldn't believe what is feasible on a bike - some of the routes make China to Singapore look like child's play. There are very few areas in the world that have never been toured on a bicycle.

Read the Asia Journals on CrazyGuyOnABike - there should be enough inforamtion and inspiration to get you through the 3 years of working!

This is a great post as i would love to bike across the whole world. any tips about organizing .. what do you do with your bike while in cities and such..

Bikes in the cities is not really a problem. Just make sure you have a good lock, so if the staff doesn't let you take the bike into your room, that you can look it somewhere public where the hotel staff can see it all the time. Take all non-fixed stuff off the bike: bike computers, bells, etc.

Otherwise, obviously an around the world tour is quite a big thing. First, you'd need money for probably around 4 years.
You'd have to look into a route that makes the seasons work out more or less.
For such a long tour, a quality frame would probably be a good idea: Surly is well regarded.
While the quality of other parts matters as well (hubs, bottom brackets, rims, etc.), I'd say that during an around the world trip, you'd probably end up breaking most of them at one point or another anyhow - regardless of quality.
If you want to go all around, I'd say camping gear would be necessary. There are regions, where camping is not needed because accommodation is plentiful and cheap (per example SEA) - but in others you simply will have to camp (Tibet, parts of Africa, parts of South America, etc.).

Have you done bicycle touring before? If not go on a 2-3 weeks tour before you make such a commitment. Just to see if you really like it or not.

************

Personal note:

Our trip is now just five months away. My 'new' touring bike is being built as we speak. Over the holidays, we'll go on a short tour to give all the new gear a test drive. We'll ride from Perth to Albany (on the southern coast of WA).

Yay, soon things will happen very quickly indeed.