A video of tips for that first bike adventure

[HobbesOnTour]

A video from the guy who brought us a great video series of a US Transcontinental ride geared towards first timers.

View: https://youtu.be/qFApjJ5XKNA


He talks of:
Always be eating (and drinking)
Not to book everything in advance
Avoid Overpacking (and pack the front!)
Shower laundry and the towel roll!
And most importantly....
Remember to enjoy it!!

I don't agree with everything he says, but that's the way of the world.

 

[mjr]

Lots of that is rubbish IMO. Only the tip about washing and drying the kit in a towel roll has nothing I noticed wrong with it.

"Always be eating (and drinking)" - drink liberally, but eating every 30 minutes?!? I get odd looks from some tourists because I eat about every hour. Most people seem to eat less. It almost certainly depends how hard you're riding. Also, watch what you eat: you can't outride a bad diet.

"Not to book everything in advance?" Try that in Benelux or France, especially with more than a room's worth of people, and you're gonna end up choosing between riding to the next town and sleeping in a ditch at some point.

"Avoid Overpacking (and pack the front!)" - The problem with the bike that flipped was that the rear rack load was both well behind the rear axle and mounted square: if you have to put the rear load that far back (for heel clearance, most often), then the pannier needs to lean top-forwards. Some allow this easily (some Timbuk2 and Union, for example see below), but others don't (Ortleib, surprisingly).

Remember to enjoy it? Well, I think it'd be more fun not slogging out 100km a day, but I guess it depends what you enjoy!

I think this couple have better tips, but like Eric basically says at one point, it's really up to you.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrb1UH3SD4c

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-PkTN9xU84

 

[Drago]

Christ, it's worse than a BC information film.