Top Touring Tips

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Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
Only book places to stay over the weekend. Then during the week (when accommodation usually is not a problem) of your tour you can take advantage of the weather and terrain and your legs to flex how far you ride each day.
 

Ludwig

Hopeless romantic
Location
Lissingdown
Metal Tent pegs are often very thin, turn around and bend easily and can be quite heavy so take a few wooden square section ones that will hold the guy rope much tighter and make the tent firm firm and tight.
 

froze

Über Member
Don't go to bike touring stores or backpacking stores or websites and buy their expensive stuff, you can get just as good of stuff for far less money at either Walmart or Amazon, I got all my gear from Walmart and Amazon and probably saved $1,000 in doing so! And the gear I got has worked great, the only difference is a slight weight penalty of about a pound total which on a bike is easier to deal with then on my back. There is actually YouTube videos that show you this stuff, how to backpack on a budget. Also don't over buy stuff either, a lot of beginners go out and get a bunch of crap in the excitement of it all then figure out on their first backpacking journey they didn't need some of the stuff they got, so it's best to start out with minimal stuff and add to it if necessary as you go. There are also ways to eat cheap too, like buying microwaveable food and simply boiling water and placing a freezer bag with the food in it and put the bag into the water.


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


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wT8OZVTEWk


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mZ187Hkrz8


Anyway do enough research and you will find a lot of cheap and light ideas.

First aid kits you should make your own instead of buying a premade ones, read up on what you need and then stuff the supplies into a plastic baggy, also throw in some SuperGlue because it you cut yourself deeply enough to require stitches you could be in trouble if you can't sew and butterfly may not stick if it gets dirty or wet, but if you simply pinch the skin together and apply the glue it will seal it shut fast.
 

User66445

Guest
Location
France
If you are considering cycling in rural Asia, especially India and South East Asia, get rabies shots. It is endemic to the countries in this region, and often it is the pets who carry the disease. The shots won't prevent the disease, but they give you time to get to a good hospital for treatment.
 

Conradm

Regular
Location
Peterborough
Regarding tyre labels aligned with the valve - I do it as it makes it slightly easier to locate what caused the puncture from the hole in the tube, if it's still embedded in the tyre.
Also satisfies the CDO that people around me appear to think I suffer from.
 

Conradm

Regular
Location
Peterborough
Tent pegs. Aluminium ones are cheaper than titanium and lighter and fatter than steel, the extra girth helps em stay in place in damp windy conditions.
 

froze

Über Member
Buy the bare bones camping gear necessary and spend as little as possible, then go on several practice runs and see if you need to add anything or get something a bit more expensive from what you bought originally.

I found a $13 stove that had over 3,000 reviews which were all 5 star rated, I tested that stove against my friends much more expensive MSR and mine worked just as well as his. I bought a cheap aluminium lightweight mess kit from Walmart, while it does dent easily you can also undent it easily and it only cost me $8, but I learned from this that I should look at a nonstick set since trying to get something burned off a mess kit while camping is really difficult to do, or I could learn how to cook without burning food!, but I'll still continue to use it. There is quit a bit at Walmart a person can use that would save quite a bit money vs top of the line stuff. But don't go too cheap on racks, panniers and handlebar bags, sleeping bags and mats. Also you can buy food cheap if you avoid camping specific food and get foods in foil bags and pouches that don't require refrigeration, even though they say you have to cook them in a microwave you can cook them either in the foil bag in a pot of boiling water or stir cook it on a pan, and these sort of foods have a LOT less salt then camping specific foods. The odd thing that most people don't realize is that eggs will keep without refrigeration for up to 3 days, and yes you can buy a 4 pack of eggs from the store and keep them in the egg pack and they will arrive unbroken.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu1CMjmSY9I


There is a ton of food in grocery stores that packs nicely in pack packs, doesn't weigh a lot, doesn't cost a lot, won't go bad.
 
Carry a small cheap compass. When you've taken a wrong turn and are hopelessly lost somewhere in the lanes and the sky is completely overcast, it's a real help to at least getting you to make the right decision at the next fork in the road.

And don't start me on GPS. Where's the adventure in that?
Yes a good idea. I rode into the Bush a few months back. It started to rain so took shelter under a large tree. After an hour or so I decided to get home... no tyre tracks! True story and I don't mind saying I was very scared. I kept my head. Parked my bike and made large circles found my tyre track and moved to there.. repeat 3 hrs and my wife was so worried! So be careful. Thankyou. I'm looking for a Bar mounted compass.
 
Location
London
Yes a good idea. I rode into the Bush a few months back. It started to rain so took shelter under a large tree. After an hour or so I decided to get home... no tyre tracks! True story and I don't mind saying I was very scared. I kept my head. Parked my bike and made large circles found my tyre track and moved to there.. repeat 3 hrs and my wife was so worried! So be careful. Thankyou. I'm looking for a Bar mounted compass.
I think if you do such rides a GPS WOULD actually be a good idea.
Or the wife will have you (possibly secretly) tagged.
 
I think if you do such rides a GPS WOULD actually be a good idea.
Or the wife will have you (possibly secretly) tagged.
Yes I'm checking them out. I want a small robust unit. Bush maps of my area Western Australia. One I can use for navigation as well as the map. Been in the Bush all my life. But never travelled like biking... easy to get lost alright. Thanks for the advice.
 

MontyVeda

a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
my top touring tip is to actually do the tour.

I joined CC eight years ago looking for some touring tips. I got the pannier racks, the panniers, the small pack tent, the downmat sleeping mat and the frame thing that makes it into a seat, the tangia-a-like stove, and pretty much everything else. It's all ready and packed into the panniers so i can just clip 'em on and go... but i haven't actually gone anywhere. :blush:
 
Location
London
Yes I'm checking them out. I want a small robust unit. Bush maps of my area Western Australia. One I can use for navigation as well as the map. Been in the Bush all my life. But never travelled like biking... easy to get lost alright. Thanks for the advice.

If you want small/robust and pretty cheap (and I'm no fan of using phones for this - folk finding that their FB twiddling has screwed their GPS battery as the wolves circle) I can recommend the Garmin Etrex 20. Or the 20x, which has more memory and apparently a higher resolution screen, though some will advise (I don't know) that the latter feature makes the screen, counter-intuitively for a non techie like me, less readable.

Etrex 20 now superseded but will still be available used via ebay. I have one - any questions fire away.

Very tough. Highly waterproof. Runs off two AAs which can be rechargeable so you can carry and pop in spares as needed - only the most foolish with a death wish will run out of power. The extra memory of the 20x isn't strictly necessary. The memory stores waypoints essentially. Has a card for putting maps on. I use maps for free from

http://www.openfietsmap.nl/

essentially these are Open Street maps flavourised. check out the website to see how the global community-generated maps are in your patch. Even if the maps are poor in your area or you manage to screw the installed maps, you can of course get the unit to straight line point to a chosen point on planet earth or to a waypoint you had previously put in. You can of course get it to plot your outward ride and then just follow your line back.

If it helps convince you, for years I laughed at the things but am now a convert. No need to spend more than the 20 or 20x, in fact some of the more expensive Garmins are in my view less fit for purpose. Quite rare to see the Garmin Etrex 20/x in a UK bike shop as they would prefer to sell you something more expensive. A very good compact handlebar mount is available from Garmin though I advise also looping a small light lanyard through the bar. Recently rode 140 miles through the night in the UK with mine or a route I had previously put in - faultless and still battery power left at the end.
 
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Location
London
my top touring tip is to actually do the tour.

I joined CC eight years ago looking for some touring tips. I got the pannier racks, the panniers, the small pack tent, the downmat sleeping mat and the frame thing that makes it into a seat, the tangia-a-like stove, and pretty much everything else. It's all ready and packed into the panniers so i can just clip 'em on and go... but i haven't actually gone anywhere. :blush:
Quite a common thing - easy to get enchanted by kit touring - very big of you to admit your "failing" - you are in a beautiful part of the world - still not too late this year to go out if only for a couple of nights. Over the hills with you to the Ribble Valley. Or if you are in Lancaster you can of course get a train to other beautiful parts very easily.
 
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