Bicycle Touring

_NicLovin_

I have this fantasy of riding the entire ECG from Caribou to Key West. What an epic journey that would be! I'm slowly making efforts to realize this dream by saving money for a decent touring bike, and getting in better shape.

What's your ideal bike-packing/touring trip?

Already have plans for a journey? I'd love to hear about it and share in your excitement!

Machka9

I've been cycletouring in one form or another for years ... various places in Canada, a week in Wales, a month in France & Belgium, about 3 weeks down the Rhine through the Netherlands and Germany, 3 months in Australia, other shorter tours in Australia, a hub-and-spoke sorts of things in the US, Taiwan, Japan, Scotland, Switzerland and Luxembourg, some time going up the Velodyssey route on the west coast of France ...

In the relatively near future we'd like to get over to New Zealand to do some trails, and back to Japan to, perhaps, circumnavigate Hokkaido.

But touring isn't where my main interest lies.

My main interest is in Randonneuring/Audax and has been since 2001.

_NicLovin_

Sounds amazing! I had to Google Randonneuring, lol, but from what I read that sounds like an absolute blast! Your experience is very inspiring. May I ask how you got started? My fiancé and I are both noticing that money is a significant factor holding us back.

Machka9

_NicLovin_ wrote: »

Sounds amazing! I had to Google Randonneuring, lol, but from what I read that sounds like an absolute blast! Your experience is very inspiring. May I ask how you got started? My fiancé and I are both noticing that money is a significant factor holding us back.

I started cycling when I was 6 years old, and grew up in a cycling family surrounded by bicycles, bicycle equipment, and Bicycling Magazine back when it was good. I can't imagine life without bicycles. I've never experienced life without bicycles.

I don't know when the idea of doing long distances entered my head ... my parents (father especially) cycled some decent distances and I recall stories about long distance cycling in Bicycling Magazine. But I can't remember exactly when I would have read about cycling a century or cycling a double century ... long, long ago.

Meanwhile, I continued to cycle with my family ... often up to about 50 km.

When I was 17, my father did a 3-day trip from Jasper to Banff and I joined him on the third day. Caught the bug and decided that one day I'd do the whole trip.

And then my cycling kind of took a back seat to running for a bit.

On April 29, 1990 I started cycling "seriously" again, gradually building up. By the end of that year I did a 80 km ride.

And, of course, I had a few goals in mind. I wanted to do that Jasper to Banff ride. I wanted to cycle a Century. And I wanted to race.

In 1993, I cycled from Jasper to Banff in three days.
In 1994, I cycled my first Century ... and vowed I would never do a ride of that distance again. In 1997, I cycled two Centuries. In total now I've cycled 182 Centuries or longer rides.
In 1998, I started racing and raced for 3 years.

At some point during the late 1990s I recalled a story I had read in a Bicycling Magazine years before about riding a double century and so, having accomplished my first three goals, I began to toy with the idea of cycling even longer.

In 2000, I recalled an article which I had cut out of the newspaper years before about something called "Randonneuring". I dug it out, and called the phone number in the article. Amazingly, the person on the other end of the line was still the main contact for the Manitoba Randonneurs ... and all of a sudden, in 2001, I was randonneuring!

The touring kind of fit in with the Randonneuring. For example, I went to Europe in 2003 to ride the Paris-Brest-Paris ... and while I was there, I did the tour in Wales with a friend.


Once you've got a bicycle, you can start touring ... even just overnight tours. Then start gradually collecting the stuff.

_NicLovin_

Your story is so inspiring! Thank you

Machka9

Thanks. I have been at it a while now.

But the best advice I can give you is ... get a bicycle (check the used options in your area) and start riding to see stuff in your local area. That's something I do between tours. On the weekends my husband and I cycle here this weekend and there next weekend, and each weekend we pick somewhere to go where we haven't been in a little while. In a way, I suppose they are day tours.

Then find a tent and a few bits and pieces, and try a weekend tour somewhere nearby. We still do that once or twice a year, and that can be a bit of fun.

And before you know it ... you'll be off on longer tours and things.