Touring - A few thoughts

Sent as an email 2022-05-21

Posted to the Bikepacking Australia Facebook page

Last updated 2022-09-12

Word count: 2,300. Reading time: 10 minutes.

Hi Cohen,

Sorry this has taken so long. Hopefully, there is something valuable here!

First and foremost, you're meant to enjoy the experience. This is an overall statement. There will be moments, hours, and possibly entire days where it's not, but that's part of the experience. If a lack of enjoyment drags on, you're doing this wrong. I'd start by changing your approach - ride less/more, change the route, carry less/more (carrying more is rarely the answer), or accept this is not for you. That's okay. You're not a professional athlete. You're not being paid to ride. This is how you're spending your free time.

The idea I keep coming back to with bikes is that everything is a trade-off. You could argue this is true in life. The clearer you are about the trade-off, the easier it is to decide. Want more flexibility with how you travel? Then you'll carry more stuff. Do you want a light and fast bike? You'll be limited by the route and need to stay in accommodation every night. Do you want to stop in towns and look around? You'll ride less distance each day and therefore more days in total.

Broadly people fall into two categories:

1. They want something that's about their level and to be pushed slightly.

2. Some people set out to find the most brutal way to do something and expect to fail half the time.

If you’re unsure, you're in the first group. If you're exhausted at the end of every day, back off what you're doing. If you're making mistakes, forgetting things you were meant to buy (food) or can't find things quickly, you're pushing too hard. This experience is entirely typical for the second group. You spend long periods frustrated that you can't do simple things right because you're so tired. This is why we write lists and create simple checklists to stop making dumb mistakes. For example, on my last trip through some of the hottest, harshest parts of NSW in the middle of summer, Feeling my skin burning, I would stop to apply sunscreen and do three other things. Then, after riding for a minute, I realised I'd forgotten to put on sunscreen. This happened more than once a day.

Daily distance duration

Everyone you will meet will ask how far you ride each day. Make up a number and instead ride to time. Set a time goal and stick to that. Distance goals mostly drag you down all day because distance goals are quickly converted to time goals, and you're constantly looking at your average speed. For most people, 4-6 hours is probably more than enough. I know it doesn't sound like much. Factor in that you're doing this for multiple days, carrying your life with you, and probably not that experienced. Once the days get longer, you rarely have any time during the day, and you're exhausted when you try to sleep. I'm slow to pack up camp, but I often needed close to two hours from waking up to riding each morning. Less at night, but that's three hours gone every day you can't get back. Now add 8-9 hours of riding, 3-4 hours of stops/supermarket shopping/looking at maps. The day is gone (and part of the night).

Using a 4-6 hour time goal, develop a plan for each day. You might find blocks of 90-180 minutes work for you. During these riding blocks, I would try to stuff around as little as possible. Outside of these blocks, take long breaks. Get something quick if you need food during a block and keep riding. Do a supermarket shop on a long break. This approach will not always work, but the idea is to separate your day and not just merge everything. I would suggest trying to get most of your riding done before lunch. The weather is cooler, and mentally you feel more satisfied (less defeated). If you're riding 4.5 hours, this might mean doing two of the three 90-minute blocks before lunch. The afternoon and evening are now yours. You take a long lunch and ride late in the afternoon or push on and get to your destination with enough time to set up and relax.

In the same way, I would have riding blocks; I would have riding days. If you want to get somewhere, most days will be riding days. The temptation is to say, 'we'll make this an easy day and only ride two hours'. You'll still get a lot of fatigue from packing, moving and stopping. Constantly moving is tiring. I would be inclined to add this distance to the previous day and then take an entire day off. I.e. if you usually ride 4.5 hours and need to ride six hours over two days, I would do all of this in one day and then have the other day off. Don't be surprised if you don't have a lot of energy for sightseeing, going out or drinking after riding for a few days, let alone a few weeks. You're going to change as a person, and that's good, but at times, the person you become will conflict with who you were. Observe and accept this. You'll change again when you come back.

In terms of bike stuff, there's a lot you could do. I recommend finding a loop from your house of at least 30 minutes, ideally 60 minutes, that is of mixed terrain similar to what you think the ride will be. I'd make minor adjustments to the bar ends, the seat angle, height, basically anything that can be adjusted and keep riding until you dial in the fit. It's essential to use the same loop. The first few times, this advice will not make any sense. You'll reach a point where you start to feel the bike and understand that a few millimetres can make a big difference. Once you're happy with the fit, try riding the bike with the partially and fully loaded panniers. Get a feel for what more weight feels when riding. Use this in guiding your packing.

Most people spend too much time worrying about big bags and not enough time on small bags. I would try and find two feedbags and a top tube bag. Ask on Bikepacking and Ultra-distance Gear market ('straya), a Facebook group, to see if anyone is selling these. Most people tend to hold onto these items. Someone might loan these to you; I have offered this in the past. I like Revelate products. Here are the ones I use, but anything similar will work.

• Feedbag

• Toptube bag (I like the bigger version)

Many people on sites like Etsy make custom bags that are usually cheaper than the big brands, and you could customise colours, designs, etc.

I recommend installing the Wolf Tooth B-Rad double bottle adapter. This pushes your bottles out to the side, allowing you to carry an extra bottle. Wolf Tooth recommends you purchase a mounting base. This is not strictly necessary, but it does allow you to shift the location of the bottles (up and down the frame). For the cost, I would get this for the flexibility to mount the cages in the ideal position for you. You want to avoid your legs touching the bottles.

You can buy lots of other bags and storage. The feedbag, toptube bag and double water bottles make the most significant difference as you access them daily.

GPS unit

I would purchase a second-hand GPS unit such as a Garmin Edge 530, upload the route and use this for navigation instead of your phone. You will need to plot the route in software such as Ride With GPS, Komoot etc. This software will export the file in the correct format for the GPS unit. I don't understand why Google Maps doesn't export routes in the required format (at least not the last time I tried). If you're riding a well-known route, someone has (probably) already marked up the route and made it public. Create a copy and add it to your account. The free version of Ride With GPS or whatever software you choose will be sufficient for you. The other advantage of a GPS unit is that it will tell you information such as speed, distance etc. I would save the file each day and start a new file. Otherwise, it's hard to remember your start distance. I use 'moving time' when thinking about riding blocks. As soon as I get off my bike, I pause the unit. That's just me. The GPS unit will store all your rides, and you can look at them when you get back by uploading them to Strava (Facebook for athletes).

Hydration

Assuming you use the Wolf Tooth adapter, I would run one of the two bottles with water and the other with a mixture. I keep water on the right (drive side) and electrolyte or powdered nutrition on the left (non-drive side). Always.

There are a few options for the bottle on the left-hand side.

1. You could use just electrolytes (the stuff you lose through sweat).

2. Liquid calories (some form of sugar and flavour mix).

Like anything to do with nutrition, this topic is complicated and requires nuance. People with completely contradictory points of view believe in their view as much as those from Scientology (with about as much evidence). The metaphor works surprisingly well as both groups 'discover the truth for themselves' - these people are usually saying, ‘this worked for me; it will work for everyone’.

As a general rule, you'll work out when you're hungry and will eat enough. Not convinced? Look around at society... We're not nearly as good at managing how much we sweat. Water is fine if your effort is low (say a brisk walk or easy ride) or short (an hour or two). This is because your muscles store energy in the form of glycogen that will sustain either of these efforts. As you increase intensity or duration (or both), some form of electrolyte mix would be good; frankly, it breaks up just drinking water all the time. I don't drink soft drinks, and even I'm tired of water after a while when riding. Until recently, there were few good options for electrolyte drinks. The best ones are costly because they don't have any fillers. You can buy cheap effervescent tablets. It's hard to beat Wiggle on price. I use products by Ultima. US podcasters are recommending LMNT. Compared to Ultima, LMNT comes up short on everything but branding and marketing.

The advantages of liquid calories (compared to food) are:

1. They are cheap.

2. They are easy to consume.

3. You get energy straight away (no digestion required).

Here is the sort of product I am referring to. The Wiggle option of 1.5kg for $25 is hard to beat. The basic option is to buy a bag of sugar and mix this with a bit of salt and drink that. Powdered nutrition (sugar) is heavy to carry around dry, but it's cheap and works. It's hard to find people riding long distances (at a moderate to high intensity) that do not rely on some form of sugar drink for calories. Maltodextrin is the sugar of choice for most of these products. I mix drinks 2-3 times the recommended quantity. I take a sip of the liquid calorie drink and then take a sip of water to clean my mouth (drink the water). This way, the powdered nutrition will last a few hours, and you won’t need to keep refilling the bottle. I usually do the same with electrolyte drinks. Some powdered nutrition will claim to have electrolytes. Usually, they add in some sodium (salt). Read the label to know what you're getting.

As a side note, I know people that have bought maltodextrin to try and make gels. Unfortunately, despite considerable effort, they tasted terrible.

In summary, I would have an electrolyte drink and some liquid calories. I would probably drink 1-2 bottles of liquid calories per day when riding for 4-6 hours and electrolytes as required. You could use electrolyte and powdered nutrition in the same bottle, but I would keep your water bottles separate. Once you've used flavoured products, you'll never get the flavour out of a bottle.

Bags

I would avoid riding with a backpack, as this always feels like a physical and emotional burden. I find backpacks pretty comfortable and they don't bother me, but there is something freeing about not needing to have a backpack on all the time. A few brands make super compact 15-20L 'backpacks' (e.g. Sea to Summit). I like these because they are super small and not that comfortable - you'll use these sparingly. I often use these when going to the supermarket at the end of a ride en route to the train home. I can fill the bag with food I eat on the train, and I don't need to lug around a bag I don’t need.

Regarding shopping, I would take the bags you plan to take the food with you into the supermarket and purchase accordingly (i.e. fill up your pannier or backpack). When carrying stuff on a bike, what you think will fit easily is very different from what fits in a basket or a trolley.

Final thoughts

This article is a good write-up worth reading for people thinking about long tours (many months to years): some of these points hold on shorter trips (weeks to a month or two).

The final thing I'd say is that, whatever you're setting out to do, many people have done this before, often with less gear, knowledge, and fitness. You'll be fine as long as you believe that. Otherwise, you're fucked. The good news is, this is entirely up to you.

Have fun, send me some photos (if you get a chance) and have a fantastic time.

Andrew