touring noobies

[Trillian]

me and the girlfriend are thinking of doing a spot of cycle touring at some point, most likely on the mountain bikes and stopping in tents,

a couple of questions are:

how does one lock up the bikes while asleep to stop people pinching bits?
how much can you sensibly load onto two racks?
would you recommend a slightly flatter start for our first go?

anything i ought to know about touring before i start arranging things?

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

have a good read through the threads in this section and you will find a wealth of info...

 

[longers]

I've picked up some excellent tips in here.

 

[Amanda P]

Fortunately, in most of the out-of-the way places it's nice to tour in, generally people just don't nick bits off your bike. Lock the bikes up with a light cable lock to deter the casual thief/drunk on his way back from the pub, but there's not much you can do to stop people nicking bits except to take everything off and take it in the tent with you.

Unless you're going to travel very light for camping, carrying everything on rear racks is (in my opinion) pushing it. It makes the bike unbalanced and hard to manouvre, and something will probably give - panniers or racks. Split your load between front and rear panniers and life will be easier.

Having said that, if you're prepared to adopt the take-three-socks-and-cut-your-toothbrush-down approach, you could get by with just rear panniers....

Flat ain't necessary if you have mountain bike gears. Just do it. You'll make mistakes, but you'll learn and it'll be better and better as you go along.

Just one tip: pump those tyres good and hard.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

At least one of you should probably have a front rack. When me and Ms RT go touring, I take the tent and the heavy stuff (stove, tools, etc) while she carries her clothes, sleeping bag and rollmat. I think four panniers each just encourages you to carry too much stuff, but six is about right and can help to even out any differences in fitness between the two of you.
EDIT: Six between the two of you, that is ... :-D

 

[Amanda P]

Agreed.

Mrs Uncle Phil and I do the same.

But her panniers arehuge... I don't know why - I'm carrying all the important stuff!

 

[Trillian]

we'd end up using mountain bikes as I leave her standing on my road bike.

neither of the bikes have racks on at the moment, however there are mounts on the frames, we'd not be able to fit front racks due to having suspension forks with no mountings and my road bike doesn't have mountings for low rider racks.

i'm currently thinking i'd manage to get a pan or two, stove and tent on my rack with a pannier for whatever else

we're both so skinny we could fit in one large (none 'mummy' bag) probably.

might just have to pinch my brother's bike trailer he did for his A level project...

oh and gears? what are they?

 

[vernon]

we'd end up using mountain bikes as I leave her standing on my road bike.

neither of the bikes have racks on at the moment, however there are mounts on the frames, we'd not be able to fit front racks due to having suspension forks with no mountings and my road bike doesn't have mountings for low rider racks.

i'm currently thinking i'd manage to get a pan or two, stove and tent on my rack with a pannier for whatever else

we're both so skinny we could fit in one large (none 'mummy' bag) probably.

might just have to pinch my brother's bike trailer he did for his A level project...

oh and gears? what are they?

Four panniers between you should do the job. Make sure that thay are big enough..

It is possible to mount panniers onto front suspension forks if you really want to mount them there.

If you don't have a tent look at buying a three man tent. They are barely heavier than a two man tent and offer more space.

A Trangia 27 will have all the pans that you need as well as the source of heat. It's compact too.

Change your tyres to slicks to reduce rolling resistance.

10 mph is a reasonable average pace.

 

[Trillian]

oh, how i'd forgotten about trangia's (been out of scouts too long i guess)

used to be able to do both hot and lit re-fils safely (both of which shouldn't be done, especially the latter)

 

[Odyssey]

I started a thread a while ago, inquiring on what to take, etc. There's a lot of good info in there.

http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=10427&highlight=fundamentals+beginner