Trailblazer Guide Books

Trailblazer guidebooks provide practical information on specific routes… in less accessible parts of the world.
 - Wanderlust

Planning and preparation

WHAT KIND OF TRIP?

This book is mostly concerned with the practicalities of going on lengthy and adventurous bike trips, but before your trip takes shape, you need to ask yourself what kind of trip you want and what you hope to get out of it. One of the beauties of cycle-touring is the immense freedom and flexibility you have on a bike, and your trip can be every bit as individualistic as you are. Indulge in a bit of blue-skies thinking about dreams and goals, tempered by a realistic appraisal of your strengths and weaknesses, and from the ideas that come up, destinations, a route, what kind of bike and gear should follow.

Your motivation should be clear and give shape to the trip. Do you want a relaxing trip or are you out to challenge yourself? Many sensation-hungry cyclists look for the excitement that comes with pushing themselves physically and exploring parts of the world that can in some cases only be reached by bicycle, such as the tracks of the Tibetan plateau or remote African villages. You may not be sure you have it in you, but aim high; your abilities will surprise you. What would have seemed impossible before your trip gradually becomes reality as you become a stronger, more confident rider. One of the aims of this book is to prepare you to ride in places most people would not dream of visiting.

When people ask you why you’re undertaking your trip, it could be because it doesn’t sound like much of a holiday to them. It probably won’t be like any other holiday you have taken, it will hopefully be much better, but think of your trip as your own Grand Tour, a bespoke personal education in all that the world has to offer. You will benefit enormously from it, and by meeting ordinary people in the remotest places, some who may never have met a foreigner in their lives, you’ll change the world just a little bit – hopefully for the better! Don’t feel guilty just because you’re able to take the time out for the trip of a lifetime.
 

The company of strangers

People will ask you if you’re going alone and, if so, quiz you if that’s safe and whether you’ll have a good time on your lonesome. This is understandable; we are a gregarious species and solo travel does not come naturally to everyone. For most people though, the decision is already made, it’s merely a matter of recognising your situation for what it is. Either you have a partner with a like-minded commitment or you don’t. If you don’t and you still want company, you can post on various bike-touring forums, outlining your plans and asking if anyone might be going your way, at which point you can reveal a bit more about yourself in private with prospective riding partners. The good thing about these arrangements is that they aren’t set in stone, that you can go your separate ways if your riding styles or personalities clash.

Life on the road involves meeting many fellow riders who easily become temporary friends, camping companions for that evening or often longer if you’re both heading in the same direction. Adventure cycle touring encourages a certain comradeship and it’s unheard of for long-distance riders to pass each other and not stop for a chat. The friendships you make tend to be robust but focused on cycling, and that’s why they often only last the few days or weeks you ride together, but break up when your paths and plans diverge. There are people who prefer to ride alone for the most part but enjoy a week or two with other riders now and again. It’s a chance to learn new things and experience different styles of travel. The challenge can be in readjusting to being with other people and the compromises required; things that aren’t an issue when you’re alone.

Among all the people you’ll meet on your travels, you’ll probably remember fellow-cyclists as the most like-minded and supportive. But friendships with origins back home don’t always survive the transition to the road where old rules or loyalties are no longer relevant. Travel gives you the freedom to find your own style as a process of self-discovery, and that is often easiest done in the company of strangers where you can re-invent yourself as the miles unroll. If you’re riding with a friend from home, you need to talk about all these possibilities and agree that expectations may change on a long ride, and have to be accommodated.

If you’re in a committed relationship with someone and you both want to take on the big trip, congratulate yourselves on your good fortune in finding someone with the same aspirations. These rides are often some of the happiest and most successful, as many blogs will attest. There’s more need for compromise than the temporary arrangements discussed above, but also more support when the going gets rough. The couples that ride together most happily tend to be fairly equal in their physical abilities, but over the course of many months most couples find their endurance abilities converge. As for mental strength and determination well, it’s a chance for men to catch up, but they don’t always get there!

A few basics to consider are that equality involves acknowledging differences, such as body mass. When packing your bikes, aim to carry roughly the same percentage of body mass. For an 80kg man, that might mean a 15kg bike + 25kg of gear, but a 60kg woman aiming to carry the same 50% of her body weight on a similar bike should therefore carry only 15kg of gear on a 15kg bike. That’s the problem: women tend to carry proportionately more weight than men. Women carrying similar weights to heavier men will have a much harder time of it, but if they stick it out, invariably end up becoming much stronger.

RESEARCH: ONLINE and IN PRINT

What you’ll read on cycling and travel forums is not checked for accuracy but it has a quality that books lack: it’s interactive and up to date. Internet forums  (see p302) are great places to correspond behind the veil of anonymity. Many are like clubs so lurk first and get a flavour of the forum’s personality. Some forums stick strictly to disseminating information, others are occupied by people with perhaps more spare time on their hands than is good for them and many are dominated by a coterie who have an answer for everything, but among the half-baked opinions and waffle are real gems of information.

For the low-down on global travel Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree (: www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree) is best overall. The bike touring branch, On Your Bike, is the most international bike forum you’ll find and is as useful on the road as it is when planning your trip. Other branches on Thorn Tree cover every country or region you might visit and there’s a good branch on cameras and computers angled towards travel needs. Like any forum, the Thorn Tree can be inconsistent, moody and even plain wrong and if On Your Bike is not to your taste, there are other cycling forums where you might get more specialist technical expertise, though nothing beats the Thorn Tree for access to on-the-ground information about destinations and routes.

It’s a good idea to read a book on cycle maintenance (see p302) before you go and possibly before you buy a bike. Haynes’ The Bike Book is a great start though there’s no need to go in too deep; there’s always a ‘how-to’ guide for everything on the internet, often with a video too. It’s rarely worth taking reference books (including this book) on a trip, so digest them before you go, or rip out the pages you think you’ll need. Country or region-specific guidebooks are the only exception here, because once stripped down you dip into them often enough to make them worth the weight.

It’s not worth buying guidebooks speculatively; do your most general perusing of destinations here to see what catches your interest then search on the internet for accounts from cyclists who’ve ridden to the places you’re interested in. Once you’ve narrowed a route or destination down, buy the necessary guidebooks. On a long trip if you can get them sent to you en route so much the better or consider swapping them on the road. It’s usually hard to buy the latest edition of a guidebook in typical adventure-cycling countries. Information on the road comes from meeting other cyclists and using old guidebooks found in guest houses while bearing in mind that some key information may well be out of date in old guidebooks.