Going on a short bike tour next weekend.

Archbishop

Archbishop

Make ready. Go forward!
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Next weekend I'm going to do a short 80 mile bicycle tour over the course of two days. (So one overnight camp out.) I've never done bike camping before so I thought I'd start out small. My neighbor is going to be my partner. He's very much the bicyclist, but only as a commuter. He does however have experience camping. We're going to take my truck east to a nearby town and take off from there and do a giant loop through a rural area. (Rush County IN.) There are a half dozen covered bridges, and few other architectural structures that we plan to see. We will stealth camp near one of the covered bridges. This part of Indiana Is pretty flat.
We plan to keep cooking to a minimum. We will eat lunch both days in a couple of small towns we're passing through. We will only cook dinner and breakfast at the campsite.
So that's it in a nut shell. Does anyone have any small little "tidbits" or what not they we may not thought of?
If this is successful, and enjoyable I'm thinking of planning a much longer tour this fall in NE Indiana. Closer to a week and around 200 miles.
 
May not have made it clear, for the those who don't know me. I'm reasonably experienced in camping as it relates to backpacking and hiking. I've just never combined it with biking. (Which I'm fairly casual at.) Later this summer I'd like to combine camping with kayaking. Something else I've not combined before either.
 
I'm only a casual day rider and I've never done this so I don't have any tips for you. It does sound like a good time, file a report when you get back and tell us how it went and any lessons from your experience. I'm curious how you're carrying your gear and water. Are you wearing a pack or do you have panniers?
 
leatherman said:
I'm only a casual day rider and I've never done this so I don't have any tips for you. It does sound like a good time, file a report when you get back and tell us how it went and any lessons from your experience. I'm curious how you're carrying your gear and water. Are you wearing a pack or do you have panniers?
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Panniers. Water is two 1 liter water bottles in cages. We will be passing through so many small towns, and over many small rivers so I'm not worried about more water. (Steripen for the rivers.)
I found one pannier at Goodwill. For the other side I made a pannier out of a plastic kitty liter bucket. Will post up pictures with the report.
 
My one suggestion is to do your very best to make sure that your weight is distributed evenly side to side.. you may not care for 10 miles or even 20 but when you start getting more miles you start to notice the uneven distribution of weight. Other than that just have fun.
 
DOSS said:
My one suggestion is to do your very best to make sure that your weight is distributed evenly side to side.. you may not care for 10 miles or even 20 but when you start getting more miles you start to notice the uneven distribution of weight. Other than that just have fun.
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Roger that. How much unbalance to do find to be acceptable? obviously be as balanced as possible, but how anal do you really have to be? is 60-40 close enough or do you really need to be bring it in closer to be comfortable? I suppose each person's milage on this will differ, but still interested in your opinion.
 
I would say try to be within 5% of each other. I am anal though but any little thing to make the trip more enjoyable is a good thing.. kinda like loading a backpack, if you do it without thinking it through it can mean a really uncomfy hike.
 
DOSS said:
I would say try to be within 5% of each other. I am anal though but any little thing to make the trip more enjoyable is a good thing.. kinda like loading a backpack, if you do it without thinking it through it can mean a really uncomfy hike.
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Will do. I'll try to make you proud.
 
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