Bike Touring

(Originally published in the Oct. 14 to 20, 2012 issue of the Baguio Chronicle ---

a weekly newspaper based in Baguio City, Philippines ---

by Sly L. Quintos, Associate Editor.)

BICYCLE touring has much in common with backpacking and mountaineering --- they are both form of self-propelled travel and bring the participant into close contact with the natural world in both its gentle and harsh moods.

According to The Sierra Club Guide to Outings on Wheels, “there is a special appeal to bicycle touring that makes it unique among the various types of self-propelled travel . . . the bicycle is a practical means of transportation as well as a recreational vehicle”.

There are many advantages of a bicycle as a means of getting around. It is relatively cheap and economical. It does not consumer fossil fuel (except for the relatively small amounts of fuel needed to build it and manufacture replacement parts such as tires and brake pads), it is compact to store and can be easily picked up and carried into a house or other building. It is a personal vehicle so that is is ready to go when and where you are. It is fast enough and efficient enough to cover considerable distances in reasonable time periods. 

A bicycle is the ideal vehicle from which to see the countryside. It allows you to travel fast enough to move from one pace to another at a reasonable rate but slow enough to permit you to enjoy the scenery along the way. It is quiet, so you can hear the songs of the birds and the wind in the trees. The touring cyclist isn’t cut off from his surroundings by walls of glass, metal and noise as in touring by car (road trip)

And because of its practical uses, the purchase of a rather costly, good-quality bike actually may save you money in the long run, unlike most other purchases of recreational equipment. 

Questions about gears preoccupy anyone starting out to a bicycle tour. Mistakes in choosing equipment can be disheartening as well as expensive. The touring bicycle us a precision machine that is highly sophisticated in design and the cyclist is quite dependent on its proper functioning. Good equipment does not make you a good cyclist, but even the best cyclist cannot ride well without equipment that meets certain minimum standards. Equipment provides a means of having a good time, of directly experiencing the world around you and of enjoying companionship of friends.

A bicycle tour can be a one-day event, a three-month journey across the country, or a decade-long adventure around the world.

THE LONG DAY TRIP: This is actually just a very long single-day bike ride and not really a “tour” in the strictest sense of the word “tour”. Typical rides of this type can go as far as 100 kilometers as compared “bicycle touring” which is typically an overnight activity.

THE GUIDED/SUPPORTED TOUR: This type of a tour is where your gear (food, clothes, camping equipment, etc.) is carried in a vehicle that meets you at various checkpoints along your route. Some of these tours require that you pay to be a part of them where the tour leader drives the van or truck while you get to ride your bike. The benefit of this type of bicycle touring is that you don’t have to carry a whole bunch of equipment on your bicycle as you ride and you can simply sit back, pedal, and enjoy the scenery. 

THE CREDIT CARD TOUR: Credit card touring is when you travel by bike and pack almost nothing but the clothes on your back and a credit card (or cash) to buy things along the way. Instead of carrying a tent, you pay to sleep in a hotel each night and instead of cooking your own food, you buy food along the way. 

THE GUIDED SELF-SUPPORTED TOUR: This is a tour where you carry on your bicycle everything (food, clothes, tent, stove, etc.) you need to survive while a guide from a touring company leads you along a specific route. With these types of tours, you ride with a small group of people and are then escorted on a daily basis by an experienced bicycle touring guide.

THE FULLY SELF-SUPPORTED TOUR: Then there is the self-supported bicycle tour, which requires you to travel alone (without a guide) and carry all the clothes, tools, and gear you will need to survive for days, weeks, or months on end. This is perhaps the most popular ways to travel by bike.

Until then and have a safe ride by putting on that cycling helmet each time get on your bike. Remember: YOU CAN BEAT THE EAGG WITHOUT BREAKING THE SHELL.*