how did you get into touring?

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
roadvader
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how did you get into touring?

Post by roadvader »

what made you want to do it and what was your first steps to getting familiar with it...first camping trip etc,close to home or straight in at the deep end and go to europe?
:)
sorry love not tonight im shaving my legs...
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horizon
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by horizon »

From the age of 16 to the age of 24 I did all my travelling by hitch-hiking, taking me as far as Hungary and Turkey in the east, San Francisco in the west, Greece and Spain in the south and Scotland and Prince Rupert (in Canada) in the north. But at 24 I decided that waiting by the side of the road for a lift was less interesting than pedalling so I set off from Clermont Ferrand to Montpelier on a bike, having taken the train from Victoria. Oddly enough I don't remember having considered doing a bit of English touring first.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
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Si
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by Si »

how did you get into touring?


A joke. About a year after taking up cycling again (after the going to uni, discovering cars phase) my manager made a joke about me doing LEJoG next...so I did.
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Mick F
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by Mick F »

Me and my mate Paul rode from Lancs to N Wales.
Summer 1968.
First night just short of Betws-y-Coed - about 100miles, second and third night at Snowdon Ranger YHA.

Excellent!
Mick F. Cornwall
daveg
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by daveg »

I used to do day rides and cycle commute and although I fancied touring I never did it. Then my son who was doing some charity fund raising asked me if I fancied doing LEJoG. Much to his suprise I jumped at it and six weeks later we were off. So I did my first tour at the age of 57. Enjoyed it so much I've been to Holland, done Coast and Castles and some touring on the south coast. This year I'm off to Spain and over the Pyrenees.

Just love it and wish I'd started sooner but perhaps I wouldn't enjoy it as much now if I had.
If it wasn't for cars, there wouldn't be the amount of tarmac that there is.
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dionherbike
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by dionherbike »

I have always enjoyed riding my bike, but had a long break between childhood and adulthood. Then, like daveg, I started commuting and going on day rides, but like all addictions, it was never enough. Plus, I read Anne Mustoe's book, 'A Bike Ride', along with any other bike travel book I could lay my hands on. I had it baaad. My first 'long' bike ride was an overnight tour from London to Brighton via Guilford (3 days after dislocating my ankle), then it was 4 days up the Thames, 3 days Glasgow to Edinburgh, etc. Then, oh heavenly joy, it was buying a new bike, a tent, a thermarest, a sleeping bag and a stove and the camping started - Isle of Wight, Aberdeen to Newcastle, until the crowning glory of London to Istanbul. Next Tuesday my husband and I (who I met cycle touring) are taking off on our next journey, Estonia to the Black Sea. My inspiration is Anne Mustoe and my muse is my wonderful bike - a Roberts Roughstuff. Cycle touring may be an emotional and physical roller coaster ride, but it is always deeply satisfying. :)
daveg
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by daveg »

dionherbike wrote:I have always enjoyed riding my bike, but had a long break between childhood and adulthood. Then, like daveg, I started commuting and going on day rides, but like all addictions, it was never enough. Plus, I read Anne Mustoe's book, 'A Bike Ride', along with any other bike travel book I could lay my hands on. I had it baaad. My first 'long' bike ride was an overnight tour from London to Brighton via Guilford (3 days after dislocating my ankle), then it was 4 days up the Thames, 3 days Glasgow to Edinburgh, etc. Then, oh heavenly joy, it was buying a new bike, a tent, a thermarest, a sleeping bag and a stove and the camping started - Isle of Wight, Aberdeen to Newcastle, until the crowning glory of London to Istanbul. Next Tuesday my husband and I (who I met cycle touring) are taking off on our next journey, Estonia to the Black Sea. My inspiration is Anne Mustoe and my muse is my wonderful bike - a Roberts Roughstuff. Cycle touring may be an emotional and physical roller coaster ride, but it is always deeply satisfying. :)

Yes, the addiction! It's got to have something now that previous tours didn't have!

Besides that Spanish tour there's also a chance of doing a double C2C this year and already thinking about a European tour for next year. There's also a remote chance of cycling from home to Romania.

Think you are right about the addiction, but its not a bad one! :?
If it wasn't for cars, there wouldn't be the amount of tarmac that there is.
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al_yrpal
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by al_yrpal »

I used to race and time trial when I was young. I remember doing my CTC 100 in 8. Then as a Student Engineering Apprentice I discovered motorbikes and sports cars which girls seemed to like and more or less gave up cycling. Cars later gave way to sailing and for 20 years I enjoyed sailing my boat all round the British and French coasts.
Then I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The prescription to halt it without medication was to loose weight and get fit. So, having become a bit bored with sailing I sold my boat and joined an old apprentice friend of 50 years cycle touring around the Southern Hebrides. We enjoyed jazz, whiskey and travelling through wonderful countryside at a gentle pace. I was hooked and cycling has done wonders in halting the diabetes. Although my trips are modest, every one is an adventure. I still enjoy tinkering with classic cars, and occasionally chartering a boat, but there is nothing like the freedom of riding along exploring on a touring bike.

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
mrjemm
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by mrjemm »

bikessm.jpg


Was travelling in China and decided to join the rat-race...

Well, more like sick of the trains and buses I wanted a bit more freedom, so got to know Kunming well hunting a reasonable bike. Ended up with a too-small Diamond Back Topanga (this was 1994ish?) and fitted it with random stuff to make better- suspension stem (a spring in a tube to make it look like it anyway; it felt horrible) and a rack with old fashioned army satchels dangled over the sides- soon cut off the straps!

Ended up putting it on trains and buses lots anyway. Sold it in Bangkok after some fun times around that part of the world. Then missed it too much and bought a Marin in Singapore to get back to HK. Promptly used it rather less and sold it in HK to a friend there who subsequently has done a lot more touring than I ever did!

Forgot all about cycle touring when I got my mobike licence... Until recently. Woohoo!

Now feeding my re-addiction with blogs and planning until I am back ashore and we scoot off on a nice little adventure. Double Woohoo.
eileithyia
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by eileithyia »

My Mum, she had been a CTC member in the 50's and her tales filled me with inspiration, but just did not know how to go about joining a club and at 14 di dnot think I would be able to, never really discusses it with parents as assumed they would not be able to afford the right sort of bike and that I would not be able to cycle with fit people ......

Exams came along with higher priority as did a b/f via the scouting guiding network who was a cyclist and in a club.... exams over and spare bike to borrow on Sundays and I was off out with cycle club, that first day out I did not know what hurt most; hands, wrists, arms, neck, shoulders, legs, b*m, but I was back for more the next week.
Hostel weekends followed day rides, were followed by longer tours in this country and eventually abroad.
From this base I also expanded my interest into TTing and audax. I have met some wonderful people along the way and have cycling friends all over the country.
I stand and rejoice everytime I see a woman ride by on a wheel the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood. HG Wells
tonythompson
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by tonythompson »

Being 6'2" and sick of being cramped up in buses only taking you from one city centre to another, decided to travel by bike and see if that was any better. Now all my touring id by bicycle and have been all over the world just about. Just love it whether here in UK or some far flung place.
www.tonystravels, is where I've started putting pics et together.

In fact I see myself more of a traveler by bicycle than a cyclist :?
Crossed Oz Perth to Adelaide to highlight Barrett's Disease http://www.tonystravels.com
sloe
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by sloe »

I've always been into hillwalking and camping, cycle-touring is just an extension of ti really.
tatanab
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by tatanab »

roadvader wrote:what made you want to do it and what was your first steps to getting familiar with it

Peer pressure.

I joined the CTC at age 16 and started club riding with them a few months later. Within a year I had joined the YHA to take part in bank holiday weekends away, later a whole week on tour. A few years later finances allowed me to join them in a weekend in France. All of that was late 60s early 70s. In the 80s we started using B&Bs as the YHA experience deteriorated and I started cycle camping in 1995.
bogmyrtle
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by bogmyrtle »

I hadn't cycled for years when my sister in law gave me her cast off bike. The first time I went out on it I only did about three miles but enjoyed it so much each time out I went further and further until I was planning routes and spending all my holiday time going places on the bike. I didn't realise there was such a thing as cycle touring until I met other people who were doing the same thing.
A bike does more miles to the banana than a Porsche.
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dionherbike
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Re: how did you get into touring?

Post by dionherbike »

There is a brilliant post on the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree website in the On Your Bike forum. It's written (with tongue firmly planted in cheek) from the perspective of a wife who gradually finds out that her husband has been seduced by cycle touring. She discovers his secret activities on the internet, how the internet community of cycle tourists grow and feed his addiction and how his addiction affects their marriage, his personal hygiene, eating and sleeping habits. The thread is called 'The height of irresponsibility'. It's really funny and well worth a look.
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