Hello and welcome to Wheels on a Bike. I'm Agnieszka. It's spring and with spring come
thoughts of going on a bicycle tour. Last year, in 2020, I went on two, solo, self-supported
bicycle tours. And in this video, I hope to share with you five tips that I learned by
making some good decisions and by making some really poor decisions on my bicycle tours. So
if you're brand new to bicycle touring and want to learn a little bit about it, then keep watching.
Tip number one is start small. You don't have to go on this massive, epic bicycle tour right off
the bat. You can go on an overnight trip, you can go on a three or a five day trip. When you start
small, you be able to 1. identify whether or not your bike is a good fit for you, whether or not
your saddle or seat fits well. Because if your butt isn't happy, you're not going to be happy.
Starting small will also allow you to identify if you like bicycle touring and what kind of bicycle
touring you like. Do you like camping, do you like credit card touring, where don't take much on your
bike, but rather buy everything along the way and stay hotels or motels. Or maybe you decide that
self-supported bicycle touring isn't your thing at all and you'd rather pay for a bicycle tour,
an organized bicycle tour. Starting small will allow you to work out the details of what it is
that you like about bicycle touring. The second tip I have for you is take what you already have
and borrow what you don't. The best bike you can take on a bicycle tour is a bike you have.
As well, if you're planning on camping but don't have a tent and a sleeping system,
maybe somebody you know has one. For example, when I went on my very first bike tour, I
took my gravel bike. It wasn't a touring bike, it wasn't the perfect bike, but it was a bike I had.
The aim of your very first bicycle tour should be to get to know the experience, so that you can
then start investing into gear that will support your very own bicycle touring experience. Alright,
onto tip number three. Tip number three is use maps that are already in existence. A big part of
planning a bicycle tour is planning your route and that may seem like a super overwhelming process.
There are multiple platforms, there are various maps that you can use and it's just a whole lot
of information. And quite frankly for me, at the beginning, I didn't know where to start,
I didn't know how to plan a tour, how to plan my route. So what I ended up doing is, I actually
purchased a map. And while yes, I did have to pay for it, the benefit of it was, it was a map that
had the route and in addition to this, it had identified various points, points of interest
on the map. And what that map showed me is what I should be aiming for when planning my own trip.
A sub-part of that, of this tip, is you can always reuse maps that are shared by others on sites like
Ride with GPS, that's the site I use for route planning. People share their routes on Strava,
people their routes on Facebook Groups, etc. So just Google or search around
for maps specific to the route that you're interested in taking. OK, let's move on to
tip number four. Tip number four is start slow. You may be tempted to cover long distances on
the first few days of your bicycle tour. I made that mistake and I paid for it dearly.
When you are planning your route, when you're thinking of how much distance to cover,
less is more. So aim for 50 kilometers, 35 miles-ish on the first day and built from
there. Riding a fully loaded bike is a very different experience than riding just a bike
on its own. It will affect you physically, it will leave you, most likely, physically drained. So if
this is your very first bicycle tour, start slow. Tip number five is know how to fix a flat tire.
You are going to run into some mechanical issues while on your bike tour. That is pretty much
certain. And the most common mechanical problem, "mechanical problem", you will most likely
encounter is having to fix a flat tire. If you've never fixed a flat tire,
then I would really recommend you practice at home, in a really safe and cozy environment.
Because that environment is much better to learn in than on a road when it's raining and, you know,
cars are passing by and water is splashing all over you. Not a great experience. So
learn how to fix a flat tire. And that's all I have for you in terms of my tips to consider
as you begin your bicycle touring journey. If you found any of them useful, give this video
a thumbs up. If you're a seasoned bicycle tourist and you've just watched this video,
why don't you share some of your tips, so that we can all learn form you as well.
If you have any questions, leave them in the Comments below. And comment, share, like,
subscribe, and do all the YouTube things. This is a brand new channel and I appreciate your support.
Thanks for watching and see you next time.
Wow the sun, the sun.
Tip number one is veer ...
I went on two self-supported bicycle tours last year
and while last year, 2020, was a very unusual name ...
I went on two self-supported bicycle tours last year.
2020 was an unusual year for bicycle touring, uhm, and I had ...