Touring on a shoestring : inspire me please !

[bigjim]

do people always have to tour on relatively expensive new or newish bikes. Surely all you need is a bike for goodness sake! Just for once I would love to read an account of some adventurous soul who has stashed a pair of old panniers/bags or whatever on an old creaking bike and set off somewhere with a little bit of money, but a head full of optimism and adventure. Has anybody, anybody at all done this and what sort of experience was it. How wonderful it must be to just take off not knowing where you are going, or even why. You are just moving. for the sake of it. Sod all the planning and choosing which bike, tyres, panniers, shoes, shorts........

I need inspiration!

Jim

[lauriematt]

is this an idea for a tour???




.......sounds fun!

[Creamcrackered]

This guy gets pretty close http://tinyurl.com/5lupkf

[vernon]

do people always have to tour on relatively expensive new or newish bikes. Surely all you need is a bike for goodness sake! Just for once I would love to read an account of some adventurous soul who has stashed a pair of old panniers/bags or whatever on an old creaking bike and set off somewhere with a little bit of money, but a head full of optimism and adventure. Has anybody, anybody at all done this and what sort of experience was it. How wonderful it must be to just take off not knowing where you are going, or even why. You are just moving. for the sake of it. Sod all the planning and choosing which bike, tyres, panniers, shoes, shorts........

I need inspiration!

Jim

I did my first tour on a bike that I collected from someone giving it away in the small ads. I was eminently unsuitable as a tour bike but a rack and P-clips converted it into a tourer. A £15 tent from Argos and some cheap-ish panniers and a camping gaz stove saw me all set up for my first ever camping tour a C2C.

I really didn't know what to expect. I had to get off and push when anything more than a moderate hill defeated me. But tea brewed after pitching the tent beats all other brews hands down. I met some incredible folk and the following year saw an unsucessful attempt at LEJOG followed by in the next three summers seeing JOGLE, LEJOG and Channel to Med rides interspered with several cost to coast crossings and casual jaunts into the Dales.

The two bikes that I can use for touring cost a grand total of £280 bewtween them - they were bought second hand. They have both served me well over the past five years.

[hamster]

I did the Pacific coast of the USA a few years ago, there was a guy I kept overtaking (on my 270 quid secondhand MTB) riding a gaspipe pseudo-MTB with a rolled blanket on his back and not much else. He looked like a scruffy Vietnam Vet type. Well he was always going slowly and he must have ridden hours each day, but he was doing it and hats off to him.

All I did for my tour was fit slicks, but I don't know if 270 is too much for you...but a good 1990's steel secondhand bike is easily available for 150 notes or so and makes a good tourer.

In fact I still have the bike and it's still my ride of choice for touring.

[pioneer]

Jim, you can tour on anything. I've toured on proper touring bikes,MTB's, a 7 speed Dutch style roadster and fixed gear bikes.

It's only our own vanity,snobbery,that constantly gets us to spend ever more money on having the best bike,latest gear etc.

On the course of a tour,I'll often stop at the top of a hill, look back over the miles of glorious countryside I've just cylced through and think to myself, there, I've done that on my own,no engine,just me and the bike. And it really doesn't matter what bike you ride. Bit of air in the tyres,oil on the chain and off you go.

It only gets complicated when we let it.

[cycle_tourer]

My first cycle tour (though i wouldn't have called it that at the time) was back from the Glastonbury Festival to London when i was about 18 or 19. It was on a girls 3 gear fold up bike i borrowed from a friends mum. The friends i were with had better bikes so i presume they must have carried more of our stuff. We wild camped the whole way back. I have no idea how many miles we did each day, but it inspired me to go back to cycle touring years later. Most of my touring has been done on an old second-hand mountain bike with rear and front racks fitted. It's always proved very reliable. I am now getting a touring bike, mainly for comfort for long days in the saddle and because the mountain bike is old, aluminum and a bit too small for me. I think the main thing is to get out there and enjoy it.

[eileithyia]

Well have always started off with a relatively decent bike, though on going maintenance was often only basic stuff; tyres, cables, blocks, chain etc., due extreme lack of funds.
You can live pretty cheaply wild camping in scotland, won't say it was entirely on a whim and who knows where we may end up, ex was an obessive planner, from how long it would take it us strike camp, exactly what time we should be on the road, and exactly how many minutes each segment of the journey would take. i only found all these copious notes in the bottom of his saddle bag once at the end of a holiday.
By contrast my solo holidays were far more free-wheeling and casual, as long as I did vaguely what I set out to do and ended up back at departure point on time for transport home.

[jake]

The bloke from Kidderminster (see Creamcrackered's post) has a fantastic attitude to the whole touring thing. Having got lost in Calais myself recently, his description of it as a "hell hole" is apt.
Many of us (myself included) have been suckered by the adverts and reviews of the latest bikes and gizmos to the extent that we probably believe that long distance touring can't be done on a bike under a £1000 (or whatever).
I started out on a 3 speed Elswick that cost £15 on Portobello Road market.
Couldn't afford panniers so it was "pile it high and strap it down as best you could" attitude. Somehow survived to tell the tale.

[dkmwt]

I can't remember the link or the name of the guys that did it, but 2 guys did LEJOG and all they started with was Unionjack shorts and no money. Not even a bike.

[simonhill]

My current bike started out as a cheapo steel framed mtb (£250). It happily toured for 2 months (2,000kms) in Vietnam. It then went on to 3 months in Thailand and Lao, before needing a rebuild after a further 3 months in Sri Lanka and India.

The Cro Mo frame is pretty solid and is now equiped with a variety of gear fron STX to XT and continues to undertake 3 month trips twice a year to far flung places. My bike rarely attracts any interest and I don't worry overmuch when it is thrown on top of a bus or in the hold of a boat, etc. I sometimes wonder how many of these top of the range tourers actually do any serious touring?

One thing is don't skimp on your panniers, they take a lot of punishment and cheap ones will fall apart in no time. I use Carradice Super Cs, the last ones lasted over 15 years.

My cheapest bike was a US$50 (£25) Chinese mtb bought in Madagasgar which I toured on for about 600 kms in some fairly challenging terrain. This bike was rubbish and I wouldn't recommend going this downmarket.

[ciuffolotto]

I cobbled together a tourer from an old Cannondale mtb frame (given to me) and stuff from the shed. The only bits I didn't skimp on were the rear wheel (hand built on XT) and a Tubus rack. I did 1000 miles in W Australia without problems, and last year used it for a mad charity ride to Italy over just 5 days. I don't worry about baggage handlers, mud, rain or leaving it outside a shop - utter freedom!

[glueman]

One of my most memorable tours was round the eastern counties on a Raleigh roadster with a 4 speed SA hub. Two small canvas panniers on the back, a Milletts tent, a saddle like an armchair and anything that didn't fit got tied on with bungee straps.
A rack bolt went ping after a few days so the carrier was secured with wire. The black fly were so thick at one point everyone was swathing themselves like Bedouin. A fantastic tour.
It doesn't matter what you tour on, a free spirit and a little ingenuity go a long way.

[skiddie]

My Easter break from graduate study was a 2 week trip in southern France. I had a decent bike (Dawes Horizon-- most expensive I've ever owned) 1 pair of Halfords panniers that a friend had given me (~£30 new, they were quite old when I got them); a bar bag that my mother bought in the mid-80s; a tent that my parents bought in the early 90s (it's the only tent I've ever owned); and no specialized cycle clothing.

I only paid for lodging 4 nights out of 14-- 2 youth hostels (one on the first night) and 2 nights in pay campsites-- the rest was wild camping. I had absolutely no problem with any of my chosen campsites, and in total the holiday cost me less than £400 (~250 for the trains there, £100 - £150 while there).

Now I realize this isn't exactly cut price (primarily because I desperately needed sun and thus spent quite a bit of money to go a long way away from northern England) but it's not expensive either.

[AMC]

Just do it - it's only by trying it out on a load of cheap kit that you'll find out what you really want or need for next time. I tour now on a lovely custom built steel tourer with Ortlieb panniers, Tubus racks, lightweight quality tent - all of which I would never be without now - but I only got there by doing mile after mile in my young days on an old 5 speed racer with ancient nylon panniers & an awful lot of bungy cords. Tougher & more innocent then, although I still can't quite believe the distances I covered in the summer months wearing rope soled espadrilles!