You have the bicycle set up, the racks on, a list of what you are packing, but what about yourself? How do you get yourself ready for your big tour? Apart from the obvious things such as knowing how to ride a bicycle, and at least having some level of fitness, there are some other things you need to do.
Most people do their pre tour training by riding long distances at a reasonable pace. They start with small distances and slowly build it up over the weeks leading up to the tour. This is a good training regime but it has a couple of flaws.
Anybody who has toured with a fully loaded bike, will know that the bike handles like a mule, and that it takes a couple of days to get used to. Also on the first day or two of a tour, things need to be moved around to get the bike well balanced.
Have you also noticed on the first day of a tour, that things undo themselves, and other parts decide that they no longer want to stay where they were designed to? Just starting on your tour, you also notice that even after all that training you are still having problems pushing the bike along.
The way that I train for a fully loaded tour, eliminates these problems from occuring at the start, and makes the first day out a pleasurable one. However, my handlebar bolts always undo themselves. I don’t know why, but I know it will happen and am prepared for it when it does. Firstly I do the long training rides, but in the few weeks before the tour, I train with the bike fully loaded.
This has several advantages for fully loaded touring and they are:
- I am used to riding a fully loaded bike, and have no handling problems on the first day out;
- Being used to the bike, I am used to pushing this load, instead of having trained on an unloaded bike;
- The bike is well balanced, as I have got things in their right place during the training runs;
- Anything likely to break or fail under the extra load will have done so by now; and
- Problems that may happen on tour, will probably already have shown themselves in the training runs.
You may look funny riding around whilst training with a fully loaded bike, but you need the training. If you don’t have enough gear to fill the panniers, use anything to load the bike down. Bags of potatoes are excellent for stuffing into panniers for extra weight.
I also like to do one training run where I load the bike with more weight than I’ll be carrying on tour. This helps show up any problems with rack mounts and other load carrying parts. I’d rather break some spokes in training, than on the road.
Another thing for overseas visitors is acclimatisation. We had an extremely hot summer some years ago, and it was well over 40 degrees Celsius for several days in a row.
There was an article in the newspaper about some Finnish cyclists, who had collapsed in the heat whilst training for a cycling event. A Deli (Milk Bar, or corner shop) owner ended up putting them into his walk in fridge to revive them.
If you are not used to dry 40 degree heat, do not arrive in Perth in summer and leave to go on tour the next day in the heat. It doesn’t get that cold here, so it’s mainly heat exhaustion that a cycle tourist needs to be aware of. You need to carry a lot of water, and cycle in the cooler parts of the day. In summer I sometimes consume 1 litre of water an hour, and I live here.
The other thing to be aware of is sunburn. Unlike the northern hemisphere, the sun here has a sting in it, and it is quite easy to burn within 15 minutes of being in the sun. I would advise using UV protection clothing and sun screen lotion. Don’t forget to put sun screen lotion on the back of your legs.
It is also a requirement by law here to wear a helmet whilst cycling on the road, so if you are coming in from overseas, wear a helmet whilst training, then you will know all about “helmet hair”.
