Five Mistakes I Made on my Bicycle Tours | Bicycle Touring for Beginners
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- In 2020 I went on two self-supported, solo bicycle tours. Because of the pandemic, group tours were not possible, so I did my best to figure things out. I made a number of mistakes, a few of which led to an IT Band injury (otherwise known as the "runner's knee").
I think that the best way to learn is through failure, so while I didn't enjoy getting injured, I have learned a number of valuable lessons in return.
This is a companion video to the Bicycle Touring - 5 Tips for New Bicycle Tourists • Bicycle Touring - 5 Ti... .
A Follow-up video with mistakes from my 2021 tours is now available • Five MORE Mistakes I M... .
#cycletouring #bicycletouring #bicycleinjury
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I find it wise to pack with each particular trip in mind. An overnight trip, has different needs to a long tour of hundreds of miles. Kind of obvious, but perhaps worth mentioning. Short trips can be nice, because its easier on the body, with less physical strain, and you know that no matter what happens you will soon get meaningful recovery time. Long tours are great too - you get in a groove and don't want to go home. Well I don't anyway. No matter how hard I try, I cannot cycle tour and camp with fewer than four panniers. On the short weekend trips, each pannier has lots of free space, but the total weight is better distributed. Less is more as the cliché goes.
Pinned your comment! Thank you for sharing.
I like to do somewhere between 45 to 65 miles per day roughly, but not strict. I also like to be pitched, showered, and chilling out no later than 4pm. I need the 'me' time and space to lean back and relax. The riding is great, but its also nice to just relax and unwind. Do the crossword puzzle, listen to music, or even have a snooze. I'm not concerned with being a 'better' cycle tourist - I'm not competing (even with myself) but each tour is definitely a new learning experience.
You are right about that. Cycle touring is more than just cycling, ideally, you'd want some time to relax, walk around, explore and do whatever else you'd like.
I love your attitude!❤
Thanks so much for approaching bicycle touring in this way -- mistakes we make and how to correct them. So many videos avoid talking about things that go wrong, and because we all make mistakes it's really helpful for someone to show us how to correct them.
And I keep making mistakes, because there's always more to learn.
Not taking a rest day. That's my big mistakes.
Hahaha glad your heat to share your mistakes. That protein bar experience sounds rough. Lol.
My mistake, on a 700 mile self supported I only had my phone as a map. I brought chargers but it never crossed my mind, what if my phone breaks, stops working ect? I never wrote the route down or had paper maps as backup. 😂🤣😝
Thanks for sharing your mistake, it'd be easy to make and I have to say I've done the same. I typically have a backup, but it's always digital. On my current tour, I took a paper map.
I usually aim for an easy/flat 40-50km the first day; gives you and your bike a good shake down. After that, I usually can ramp up to 100km on the 2nd or 3rd day (depending on elevation gain and wind direction).
Thank you for sharing that. I think starting with a low mileage day is a good idea.
This tip is very important solo tip, don't push high speed,or heavy miles if new, this one mistake can break shoulder destroy knees pull tendon ect miles come with time it's the journey between a and b not a and b start slow ,seen to many do this mistake will hurt you bad
I’m very impressed with your courage! Thank you for sharing your experiences. ❤
Thank you!
Nice voice. Nice hair. Nice nose. Nice chin. Nice ears. Nice shades. Nice video. Thanks for the upload. Very sagacious advice.
Thank you for watching and for the compliments. The shades are my actual glasses - transitions.
Such good advice. I plotted a trip in Spain, planned and mapped the route before I finally took a look at the elevation profile for each day and realized that I had plotted way too much climbing for the mileage I had planned. It was ridiculous, it would be impossible for me to make the distance I had planned. Totally to need take distance and elevation into consideration aa a whole approach
It's a good thing you DID look at the elevation profile. Can you imagine if you didn't and were faced with the issue while riding?
Great points - Keep the center of weight as low as possible and the bike be super stable.
That pesky centre of gravity - right ...
Thank you, for sure it's helpful! 👍
Nice transparency. Honest. Helps us all think.
Interesting & informative video. 👍
I’m with you. I just had to cut short an 11-day bike tour all around the Peloponnese, the south of Greece. Doing some 100 km a day in 100+ degrees slowly broke me down. But yes, I enjoyed and I learned.
I think one of the best lessons to learn when touring is knowing when to slow down or stop and take care of yourself. Sorry to hear you had to cut the trip short.
@@WheelsonaBike I have no regrets. Greece is my birthplace and I have ready access to it. Lesson learned :-) My next multi-day tour here will be in April/May, with mild, spring breezes in the air.
Thanks, very useful info.
I'm glad. Thanks for watching.
My #1 tip would be to have your bike professionally tuned up by a mechanic prior to leaving for a tour. Tell the mechanic you're biketouring and they'll know what to look for. You want the bike to be in great condition before setting out so as to eliminate the risk of mechanical failure. Even on my tour I did in 2017, I did have a flat tire and didn't have spare tubes. I walked for some miles w/ the bike before I met a guy who used fix-a-flat as was able to help me get back on my way. Mind you, this was the last of a 4 day trip so to be that close and look like it might be ruined, awful! But I'm thankful that stranger helped me. So other lesson apart from getting the biked tuned up: carry extra tubes for your size of wheels and know how to fix them. :)
Thank you for sharing your lessons learned, based on your experience! Talking to mechanics before the trip is always a good idea, but not all will recommend the necessary changes. For example, I had my bike tuned up before the tour, and asked if they'd recommend any other work - they should've addressed my gearing which was not mountain climbing ready. They didn't, and I had that done while on tour.
Hope you recover quickly from your injury. Your videos are always inspirational and a joy to watch!
Thank you!
You gave some great advice thank you so much. Love from Australia 🇦🇺
Thank you for watching! Awesome to know my videos are reaching people in Australia.
I made so many mistakes when I first started, my self, new people start slow eat more meals over the day not just 3 ,eat eat eat , and don't forget water drink more water than you think you need , pushing to hard can hurt the body miles come with time
Thank you for watching and thank you for sharing your own experience with us. I am still working on earing more food while touring.
@@WheelsonaBike I break my meals into 5 meals to much at one point drop energy, to little no energy , and carb load every night, need any tips or help ask did tours for 7 years straight and going on another
Thank you very much for the offer to share your insights, you may get some questions from me when I'm back touring next year.
Very good presentation. Thank you.
Thanks for watching.
live and learn.
very good
Profeska 👍
Dzięki Wojtek!
Just started watching your channel. Well done and informative, I'll be checking out more of your videos.
Thank you. Glad to know you find them informative.
That's very commendable, 96 miles on your first day .Awesome 🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴
So I think that instead of commendable, that was very silly of me to do. I had no business riding that far on my first day. Newbie mistake.
@@WheelsonaBike The fact that you did it is respectable ,it was not a mistake .The mistake would be staying home and watching other people riding their bike Bless you in all ways my sister .Christ is sending his angels out soon to collect his bride ,I hope you are saved .Praise Yeshua the one and only .
stretching & nutrition are very important as well as rest stops. good info as usual
Thank you! I pretty much have to stretch after every ride. If I don't, my body reminds me.
Thanks for sharing! I cycled from Kitchener to Long Point ON last year and will be leaving soon to Victoria BC
Hope you love Victoria! They have fantastic cycling infrastructure.
Not having enough water was one mistake I remember making. Bonking out and needing food was another. Not many other problems, just food and water.
Thanks for sharing! Both incredibly important.
Your videos are very informative with smooth editing and music:) A fan from Deutschland! VV
Glad you liked it. Did you find the music too loud at all?
Hi, I'm Planing my First Bike Tour. in July 2023 I''ll be Cyling From Winnipe, Manitoba to Sault Ste Marie Michigan in the united States . I love your video there great to watch and learn
Amazing to hear that you're heading out on your first tour! I hope you enjoy it and I know you'll learn a lot from the experience. Tailwinds!
Really enjoy your channel and I have learned so much from watching your videos. And I can say because of your inspiration, I will be going on my first bike tour of C&O and GAP Trail from Washington DC to Pittsburgh. Thank you again for your videos.
Excellent to hear! Thank you so much. I am so glad you've been inspired AND are taking action on that inspiration. I hope you enjoy your adventures and do a lot of learning in the process.
Nice voice,valuable content. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching.
This channel is criminally underrated. Stay safe, Agnieszka!
Thanks for watching and for the comment.
Cool video, Great tips. See you on the road.
Thanks for watching!
Hola...I really enjoy your videos and this was is great. I have been on some long bicycle tours and I have made many mistakes but my biggest one was packing way too much because I got bigger panniers and therefore, I packed the house...including a cast iron skillet...and I had a give away or donation at thrift stores or homeless on the side of the road. I now have small panniers and my gear is more suited for the way I like to travel. I also did the first day way too many miles , too much elevation and not enough calories. Now a day, I do a 30 mile first day and a 40 mile second day and let my body acclimate to it and I always include a 20 minute nap with a light stretch. I had IT band syndrome after one of my Ironmans and it sucks. I hope you are over your injury and fully out and about. Cheers.
Ah yes! The more space you have, the more you will take - absolutely true. I recently went on a self-supported tour on a Brompton which has a carrying weight capacity of about 20 KG total on the front and rear racks/block. I took much less, but I still had all I needed.
The IT band issue took a while to resolve, but it taught me a lot as a result and now I'm much better equipped to keep healthy and injury free as I ride.
I did exactly #1 on my first trip. Not testridden and much too backheavy and unstable. Got a frontrack after that.
And doesn't a front rack make a huge difference? The ride is so much more enjoyable when the weight is distributed across the bike.
Nice, charming voice.
Points 2 and 3 were where I failed the worst. It made the first two days way too stressful. I was able to adjust the routes after that to make the final three days much more enjoyable.
Bicycle life is a different life(style). Your body has to be able to adjust to it. I too made the mistake to ride 98 km on one day. I also should have made a overnighter to find out if I'm not carrying too much gear. The bike needs be adjusted to your body: Check the hight of saddle and handlebar! Otherwise you might experience problems with neck and/or wrists. I learned the hard way. But I learned too to push myself. Definitely a learning curve.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Great point about bike fit - I ended up getting my touring bike fitted and it made a huge difference.
Oh, I forgot to mention, I’m planning my bicycle touring experience now, after decades away from my love of cycling. I am sadly, without my lifelong partner now and if I’m ever going to live my life’s dreams, it’s now or never. Never is not an option. Thanks for sharing your experience!❤
That is amazing! Live your dreams and adjust as needed. You won't regret it.
To the person new to bike touring there are two basic ways to learn a skill. #1 trial and error. and #2 systematic learning. Systematic learning means Learning from an experienced person. I'm a firm believer in learning from an experienced person. Take your first tour on a group trip such as a local bike club or a Sierra Club trip either local club or one of the many National Sierra trips. Yes it will cost you money but that is why we have schools to learn math, science, language motor skills etc. They will give you a check list and show you how to load your bike and what to leave home. A topical mistake many riders make is to set their bike saddle too low. Which will cause Knee pain and even injury and take the joy out of biking,. When you sit on the bike saddle with your heal on the paddle the knee should be straight but not over extended. We learn from our mistakes , but why? When you can be taught the correct way and move through a series of progressions rather that a hit an miss out of order progressions which can lead to a dead end. One of the many learning moment's on a group trip are hearing the War Stories around the evening camp fire and how long time riders on the tour dealt with a road problem, health problems, injuries, broken spokes, broken cables and how they handled them. Than when you go out on your first solo trip you are bring a load of vicarious experiences with you.
Great tips! I have only cycled on 3 separate overnight camp trips so far. I am grateful to have had the practice with that. Next on my list is to do a multi day trip. Good tip that you made regarding paying attention to the terrain/hills/weather etc. when planning distance.
Overnight trips are perfect. They are low risk and high value. Good for you!
What caused your IT band injury specifically: worng gearing - cycling through pain, cleat position, saddle height? Do you know - and how are you working through it?
It was an overuse injury. Pushing too hard. I don't clip in, so it wasn't cleat positioning. Lack of proper gearing and just pushing my body too hard. I worked with a physiotherapist and an osteopath to get that sorted.
@@WheelsonaBike Thanks. So was the fix a stretching regime? I'm currently warding off a similar injury. Not too bad but I don't want it to get worse. I've got a big ride coming up.
For me it was a matter of activating the glutes when riding and not letting the TFL compensate, thus pulling on the IT band. I did a lot of glute strengthening exercises and some stretches, but more strengthening. I then had to relearn how to ride my bike pushing with the glutes and not relying on leg muscles only. It made a huge difference, but took a while for me to "get".
@@WheelsonaBike Thanks. Sounds good for the future. Hope the current tour goes well.
Good luck with the recovery! My current tour is going very well. Thank you.
🙏
mistake #6 - thinking you won't make mistakes next time! It's ok, things will go wrong when you ride, roll with it and have fun! it will turn out fine.
Absolutely true! I certainly look forward to my future mistakes. 😉
Wow! I did! Said to myself, "woo! How horrible! Poor thing ... that was a bad experience ..." but then you were like, "I did have a lot of fun though" .. whew! I'm so glad to hear that!! I hope you are feeling better and better each day! Going at it alone seems so scary! With luck, I'll be able to convince my stoker to go on a tour with me (we will be riding a tandem bike). Some more "embarrassing" questions (if you wouldn't mind) ... how do you suggest for my stoker (a female) related to bathroom situations? Also, did you stay in hotels, and or airbnb or did you dry camp? I would also need to address the laundry situations in order to convince my stoker. Thank you.
I'm glad you watched until the end to get that final message. :)
Regarding your questions - bathroom breaks - if you are in an urban area, public washrooms are available and open now. Coffee shops, gas stations also have washrooms available - you may need to get a small something at a coffee shop, but not all the time. If you are riding through a remote area, then the leave no trace policy applies. Have a plastic bag to store used toilet paper in, and discard when a garbage is available. Dig a hole for solid waste and cover it up (i.e. do not leave toilet paper with the waste).
I did not stay in hotels/AirBnBs, I just camped at provincial parks. I was also going to reach out to Warmshowers hosts (look this up if you're not familiar with the platform), but due to the timing (the pandemic), Warmshowers hosts were not open to hosting people - which is understandable.
Laundry - as long as you have access to water, you can do laundry. Sinks at camps, or in bathrooms and hang to dry. If you stay at a hotel/motel, they may also offer laundry services.
There are so many options.
@@WheelsonaBike I failed to consider camp sites. What a great idea! If I design our routes around camp sites, that just might address a lot of issues such as safety as well as laundry. Thank you for your tips! We hope to be on the road one day like you.
I put my bike 🚴 on a bus out to a country town then the next morning I rode 68km I didn’t have enough water 💧 or food I really thought I was going to die ⚰️. But I waved a bloke down in a 4x4 and I asked him if he had any spare water 💧 and he didn’t hesitate to fill my water bag up, 3 litres. And I made it to my destination, but I was very very sore. 😩
A good lesson learned indeed! And how lucky you were.
I like your voice😁
Thank you.
My mistake......shoes, in my case a pair of high heels that I did not use! Stay Safe!
I hope you didn't attempt to cycle in the high heels! 😉😂
@@WheelsonaBike NO!!! Chance!!!
Hi! How could I possibly get elevation profiles and terrain conditions for my route?
Ride with GPS offers that info. As does Komoot.
Hi! Distributing the weight on your bicycle means moving the panniers to the front rack? Leaving the rear rack empty? Please let me know.
Distributing the weight on a bike means placing it around the bike, and keeping it low to the ground. This typically includes using both front and rear panniers. Some riders use bikepacking bags and use a big frame bag which keeps the bike stable and centre of gravity low.
@@WheelsonaBike thanks.
Thank you for the tips. I am off on my first (mini) bike packing trip in just under 2 weeks, so the timing of your video is perfect.
Wonderful to hear. I'll look forward to seeing your trip documented on your channel. Hope you enjoy it!
@@WheelsonaBike I shall make sure I tag you on my video post so you can chuckle at my ineptitude!!
Sounds great! I look forward to it. 😉
@@cardiaccyclist7477 we learn by doing, good laugh but mistakes are learning tool
@@glynnburchett5554 Thank you for the advice
My last trip was exhausting. It was my own fault for trying to make it from the garage to the end of the driveway to check the mail. I should have taken a rest halfway there. Instead I hurriedly reached the mailbox, reached for the mail and ultimately pulled a Biden and fell over.
😂😂😂 What a comment! Thanks for making me laugh. I hope the fall was gentle. "Pulled a Biden" love that expression. 😂😂😂
Oh no! Sounds like me. 😅
Thank you for your interesting tips. I found it hard to hear you over the muzak.
Oh... That's not good. Interestingly, I can hardly hear the music on my phone. We're you watching from a phone? Headphones? Or just speakers? Thanks for any additional info.
@@WheelsonaBike Simple tinny headphones. I would really prefer to concentrate on the info you provide.
@@chriswatson2407 Thanks for this feedback. I appreciate it. I'll pay closer attention to music levels in the next one.
Pro tip: do NOT take a full size jumbo acoustic guitar on your back. The extra weight will be telling over the long haul and just ugh, don’t do it!!
😂😂😂 Great tip!
I have small guitar I take on motorcycle trips, but on a bicycle I might just settle for my ukulele
There's a couple, Chains and Chords, who travel around the world by bike, WITH a guitar in tow. They make it work.
More hints from a 7 year tour person,1water drink a lot 2 miles come with time don't push numbers 3 food plan 5 meals protein lunch carbs super fruit carbs morning,4 get tour tires there hard rubber don't use soft rubber road tires marathon plus tour tires, 5 lights use them 6 balance the bike load death wabble at speed and destroy a bike over time if not balanced 7 breaks and wheels check them often before down hill 8 stay off sidewalk will destroy rims and not nimble like road bike
These are fantastic. Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I pinned this comment so that others can see it as well.
Good tips here, but I didn't got the last one!
English not my language, so more explanation will be appreciated!
@@GabrieLight most sidewalk or walk way for people are small compared to a full loaded tour bike, the extra width and weight will bend rims with the way sidewalk is
@@glynnburchett5554
I see, thanks!
Do you need a weapon when you do long distance bike touring alone?
A weapon? Are you joking or is this a real question? I don't carry weapons. They're not legal in Canada.
@@WheelsonaBike I am serious. There are many types of weapon, not just guns. Some of them are not so deadly, such as knives, bear spray, etc. I believe it is the time to think about carrying sort of legal weapon during long cycling trip. Maybe you have heard, there were 2 people stabbed 10 victims several days ago in Saskatchewan, Canada.
I have heard about the stabbings in Saskatchewan. They took place on a reserve, no?
@@WheelsonaBike I am not sure if it's in a reserve. But I beilieve it's a red flag for cyclists.
I don't agree. I think it's important to understand that this type of behaviour and incidents are not the norm. Here's more info about it www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62790900.
It doesn't seem they were attacking cyclists.