What / Why Do You Like About Touring?

stephenjubb · Post by **stephenjubb** » 4 Apr 2008, 1:25pm

What / Why Do You Like About Touring?

For me it is the getting away from it all.

What about others?

Cyclenut · Post by **Cyclenut** » 4 Apr 2008, 7:00pm

It's just the perfect way of getting to know an area.

Perfect speed: fast enough to cover enough ground and deliver a change of scene often enough to avoid boredom. but slow enough to see all the detail and to be able to stop wherever something merits a longer, closer look.

Perfect way to carry your gear: can't bring too much, just enough, and no need to turn yourself into a donkey when the bike has a set of wheels already!

Perfect exposure to the environment: not just the sights but all the sounds, smells and human society of a place. Okay the weather too: but unless one has also experienced that, one has not really been there!

hamster · Post by **hamster** » 4 Apr 2008, 7:26pm

It's a real experience - driving in the car is more like going to a cinema.

Hearing sounds, smelling smells you wouldn't otherwise experience...
1 hearing thousands of frogs just after a rainstorm in Australia,
2 smell of orange trees in Spain
3 feeling the warmth under a tree riding at 1am in the summer
4 having people come up and talk to you - it breaks barriers

scottg · Post by **scottg** » 4 Apr 2008, 8:15pm

When you are on a bike people will talk to you, the bike itself
is good for starting the conversation. Roundabouts are a lot
easier on a bike, since I can pull to the side and puzzle out
the map. You see the country and you feel it, I love those
1 in 4 signs. The drivers in Britain are much nicer than the ones
at home, no one honked or screamed at me in 7 days, amazing.
I rode Manchester to Plymouth last June and had excellent time.

Scott G.
Yankee Tourist

barn · Post by **barn** » 5 Apr 2008, 9:29am

For me i like the challenge of doing big days in the saddle,as well as getting away from it all.When i done my 1st tour on my own all my family/friends thought i was nuts,now i am hooked love it!!!!.But the best thing is not knowing what lies ahead a different ride every day when on tour.

jawaka · Post by **jawaka** » 5 Apr 2008, 2:36pm

not being tied down to a car or public transport, and i think you get a better feeling of a place when you've cycled through it

42MuskhamSt · Post by **42MuskhamSt** » 16 Apr 2008, 8:12am

The motion of the machine. The aching muscles at the end of the day. The taste and feel of a cup of tea when you've really earned it! The fact that everyday on the road leads to a stronger body. Sleeping in a tent. Freedom baby, yeah.

JC4LAB · Post by **JC4LAB** » 16 Apr 2008, 9:24am

Deserve your food indulgences thereafter even though you are calorie counting..

peter236uk · Post by **peter236uk** » 16 Apr 2008, 1:12pm

I am lucky as this year doing 2 tours for the first time, the first a taster is calais to Lille area to attend a rugby tournament.

The second is south of France to watch tour de france and also meet up with friends in Agen area

Tim Holman · Post by **Tim Holman** » 16 Apr 2008, 7:40pm

We all seem to like the same things...wind in the hair (if you are lucky enough to still have some), talking to the locals (even if you don't speak the language too well), enjoying the food (without the worries about weight gain), taking just enough (and not having room for new stuff to be taken home). Cycletouring is wonderful even in the rain, in the right place(where's the wrong place?).

Post by **Mick F** » 16 Apr 2008, 7:49pm

Tim Holman wrote:enjoying the food (without the worries about weight gain),

That's the best bit.

In fact, it's wonderful. Guilt-free diet !!!

frank · Post by **frank** » 16 Apr 2008, 8:13pm

Riding off the ferry into france and thinking i have a full week ahead of me.
Then putting my tent up cooking my meal and opening a bottle of the local wine and watching the sun go down.
Watching your bike computer as the milage for the day goes into three figures.

Have the courage to live your dreams

eileithyia · Post by **eileithyia** » 17 Apr 2008, 6:32pm

Finding interesting routes
Seeing wonderful scenery
Meeting new people
Seeing the wildlife close up
The sense of achievement and freedom.

horizon · Post by **horizon** » 17 Apr 2008, 10:48pm

Meeting someone else cycle touring.

Their sudden yet almost unbelievable appearance, the wide-panniered profile of their bike silhouetted on the horizon, the look of recognition as you draw closer, the realisation that you are not alone, the fleeting and uncomfortable but soon banished thought that the uniqueness of your place on the road is momentarily threatened, the exchange of a few words of genuine friendliness between two like-minded souls.

And then they are gone. And as the tiny speck finally disappears in the distance you know that, sadly, you will meet no other cycle tourer for the rest of that day, perhaps for several days. So you are left again in solitude to experience, once again alone, the most pleasant form of travel known to modern man and yet, for some unfathomable reason, enjoyed by so few.

Basil W Bloke · Post by **Basil W Bloke** » 18 Apr 2008, 8:02am

The lack of rules, deadlines, instructions. (I've had some non-cycling holidays that seemed to have more of those than a week at work.)
Never quite knowing where I'm going to end up. (One tour that was supposed to be to the West Country ended up in Wales)
Thinking of doing about 45 miles tomorrow and doing 85 (and ending up 30 miles from last night's site)
Thinking of doing 80 miles tomorrow and not actualy leaving the camp site.

Freedom.