Logistics of touring?

mrhawk166

Greetings all,

I've never toured. I do, however, dream of cycling across the United States or France or even up north in California. What's stopping me? Well, I have not a clue as to the logistics of how to actually tour. Like, where do you sleep? Can you camp anywhere? Do you just camp at campgrounds? Where do you sleep when you're heading through the city? What are the rules governing that? (I've never really camped either...) What do you do about having to go the bathroom in the middle of nowhere (Do you pack toilet paper?) What can you do about water/food when you're traveling through the desert?

In other words, I've been a child of suburbia, naive in the ways of touring. Can anyone point me in the right direction of how to discover the answers to these?

I'd love to go solo touring, but that seems a little risky, going solo for my first tours. I've got a stock Trek 3500 mountain bike (well, I did get headlamp/taillamp addon). I'm thinking of getting a rear rack/panniers, slicks, and possibly mudguards. Any advice is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Mike

PS. Anyone around Irvine, Orange County, California, who'd like to go riding?

daveornee

A good place for some information is URL:
http://www.adventurecycling.org/
Camping in approved parks is usually a good starting point.
However, there are credit card touring methods that have you staying in motels and other establishments.
You need to give it a try for weekend trips to see what works for you. There are too many choices to give you a fixed set of suggestions.
If you are fully equipped for camping you have the most flexibility. Then, if you are too tired, wet, or just want to stay in a motel, you can still do it. Have you ever stayed in a motel and seen a trailer or motor home parked in the lot?
Cost and weight of camping, cooking gear, food, etc. all slow you down a bit; and may change the bicycle you ride.
Carrying some food, water, toliet items, rain gear, etc. are a good idea; even if you never acutally camp.
When you tour, try to stay along some of the major touring routes shown in Adventure Cycling Organization's routes. You will meet some very interesting people and can share stories and ideas that are proven... and that you may want to adopt yourself.
Adventure Cycling has a magazine and books on the topic. You might find some of these books in your library system.
Adventure Cycling supports routes all over the USA, including some off road routes.

__________________
David Ornee, Western Springs, IL USA

byfred

byfred

MidBunchLurker

Check out http://www-math.science.unitn.it/Bike/ for lots of useful links to bike trip reports. This site is sure to inspire you to get on your bike and go exploring!

I've also found the Lonely Planet cycling guides very useful when planning trips...

__________________
nick.

www.nickcoyne.com

pudster

I have done a lot of touring over the last30 years and I have a couple of suggestions. One would be to go to the www.adventurecycling.com like daveornee said. They have set bike tours with maps , campgrounds, stores distances and tell you distances and tons of other stuff. They also do guided trips for groups of people. You can sign up for any tours they offer and meet great people on them. You can also buy the maps from them and do your own tour. The other way to do a tour when you are unsure about about campgrounds is to get a membership to AAA. You can tell them where you want to go (don't tell them on a bike) and they will set up a trip tik for you . The maps have distances and towns and they will give you all the triple A campround books for the places that you want to go. I don't think that they would mind if you are on a bike but I have never said that. It is a good organization if you have an old car like mine though. They also have motel books that tell you all the motels on your route. They are very nice people. One last thing is to stop at churchs and ask if you can stay on there property. Most seem pleased to help you out just give a good donation to the church. I keep coming up with other ideas, the last one I will bore you with is to stop at the local police station in small towns and ask if there are any places that you could pitch your tent for the night. They are usually great at telling you spots and will even check up on you. Bike touring is fun and if you are nice to people they will be nice to you.

Greyfox10025

Hi Mike,
This might interest you.
www.todmoore.net

mrhawk166

Thank you all for your replies Those definitely look like some inspiring links, (and AdventureCycling definitely seems like some good first steps). I just wanted to mention what I have found the most difficult part of this all:

I realized that if I wanted to go touring, I'd probably have to be dealing w/ traffic quite a bit. So, I've been trying to learn how to commute in traffic, (ie, not going on sidewalks, not hugging the right side, actually using the left hand turn lanes and straight lanes, using handsignals to scoot across 3 lanes), and I have to say, this is turning out to be the most "difficult" part of preparing for touring. I think that the camping/packing part seems to be nothing compared to this!

I'll be honest - it's flat out scary at times. But, I know that it can be done, b/c many others do it, and overall, I'm quite a safe cyclist. It's just dealing w/ that "fear"... Hopefully I'll be out touring soon enough...

Thanks guys!

Greyfox10025

Mike If you go overseas you will find the drivers in Europe much much more considerate that they in this country.

Jharte

Good morning all,
Mike, bicycle touring can be one of the most peaceful and rewarding things you have ever done. I have been touring/commuting for many years. One thing I always do when trying out new equipment (new tent, cookstove, even a new bicycle) is to stay fairly close to home first. It's just in case something doesn't work out the way I hoped. The links you have been given are great. There are also many different ways to travel, ie self-supported to a fully paid for guided tour. They all have advantages. One thought I always keep: Just being "there" is awesome. "There" is a different place for everyone. You can count on this forum for good info.

Jerry H.

tmctguer

i would be more than happy to share my touring tips. i've travelled from San Francisco to LA with a HUGE group. i've recently completed 2 multi-day trips through parts of france and spain by myself.

on my group trips, we camped but they were fully supported rides. on my europe trips, i stayed at small, very inexpensive hotels each night after riding. as you can imagine, the pre-trip planning for group versus solo touring is very different.

if you want to discuss via email, write me at "tmctguer@cox.net". i would be happy to share lessons learned.

i live in dana point, by the way. i'm not looking for a riding partner since i always ride solo, but perhaps we could meet for lunch someday if i have any materials that are better shown in person than via email. for example, i have a technique for creating laminated maps & route descriptions that were invaluable during my european trips.

anyway, email me if you are interested.

rlmarr

There is also in depth information on a site that has been spoken about many times due to what occured. The site remains and has great information. Take a look. I hope you find it helpful.


http://www.kenkifer.com

Good Luck

Ray

carlfogel

Dear Jerry H.,

I hope that you see this. I apologize for troubling you, but I'm trying to confirm the existence of half a dozen people who posted from cycling forums to rec.bicycles.tech in past few weeks in a thread about "Should I Wear A Helmet?"

You were grossly insulted without provocation by some of the more paranoid members of rec.bicycles.tech. (You may recall Chalo Colina.) Some of them continued to call cycling forums posters frauds, claiming that there was a conspiracy for one poster to use many names. They are still claiming as proof their inability to find you and five other posters (two of them have replied, martynspeck and augusta cycling, another is deciding what to do, and I've been trying to find you and two others).

While the helmet thread is no longer visible from cycling forums, martynspeck just began a new thread about this from cycling forums. It appears as "Since you guys don't seem to think I exist"
in rec.bicycles.tech.

I'd appreciate it if you'd either reply here, where your email address is protected, or directly. Silly as it seems, there are some people in rec.bicycles.tech who have privately indicated that they might want to apologize. Some have already done so publicly.

If you reply privately, I don't intend to quote you or mention your email address without your permission.

Carl Fogel

izella

Also, check into http://www.sheldonbrown.com/articles.html
A wealth on information as well as more than a few good laughs!