George K.
A bicycle trip is a perfect chance to get away from the hustle and bustle of your everyday life and immerse yourself in the peace and quiet of nature. However, before you get to enjoy your trip, you’ll need to plan out this little adventure first to work out the kinks you might face along the way.
You might think that you won’t have to do much to prepare for a bicycle trip, but you could still miss some important details. To ensure that you are fully prepared, check out this guide on how to plan a perfect bicycle trip.
Get a Bike
Finding the bike that fits your body proportions is an important factor in your cycling experience. A bike is actually the main factor that will decide whether you’re going to enjoy every moment of your cycling trip or suffer through a muscle-straining session that will leave you fatigued for the rest of the week. If you don’t have a bike that fits, paying a visit to a bike shop is a good idea. The salesperson should help you find a bike that suits your needs and help you with the adjustments, but if you want to make these adjustments at home, be sure that you change the seat height and reach.
Find a Nearby Route
Finding the best route for your bicycle trip shouldn’t be hard. You should choose a route and calculate the required time it will take to bicycle through it based on your speed and its length. Naturally, shorter routes will take less time to get through, but certain regions will pose a few challenges, making your rides longer and more exhausting than others. The cycling experts at PedalSteady.com explain that choosing the right route is also dependent on your fitness level, the route’s surfaces and challenges, as well as how smoothly your bike runs. In any case, planning your route at least 1 week beforehand is important to know what to expect and prepare for it.
Navigation
Once you’ve got the route and your bike, you’ll only have to start planning. This when you’ll decide when you’re going, what type of equipment you’ll bring along, and how you’re going to navigate the roads. Navigation can be easily done via your smartphone; Google Maps is excellent when it comes to identifying nearby routes and deciding which one to take. Smartphones can be easily affixed to any bike. All you have to do is get a mount for your bike’s handlebars, which will help you move around easily and save the costs of purchasing a whole navigation system. However, if you’d like to go about this the old-fashioned way, you can get a map, which will be useful, especially if you’re going on a longer trip. Smartphones are useful up to the moment when they run out of battery, so getting a printed-out map anyway is like making a backup plan.
Do a Maintenance Check
You may not feel that it is necessary to do a maintenance check when buying a brand new bicycle. However, if you’ve just pulled your bike out of the garage, it is best that you do a thorough maintenance check to avoid any problems while on the road. For example, squeaky brakes, misadjusted seats, and handles can pose serious threats to your safety while on the trail, which is why you should check up your bike before starting to save time and energy. If you don’t know how you can run a maintenance check, you can go to a specialist to do it for you days before your trip.
Pack up
What you’re going to pack up depends on how long your trip will be. For example, if one backpack will be enough for a one-day trip, you should increase your packs accordingly if your trip is going to last for several days.
With that said, you’ll have to create a checklist of the following items: food, water, spare bike parts, on-the-bike clothes, sleeping bags, a tent, and plastic garbage bags. Of course, you can pack more items, especially if you’re going on a longer trip, but make sure that you minimize your carry weight as much as possible. Your on-the-bike clothes must be lightweight, packable, and suitable for the weather conditions.
Now that you know how to prepare for a bicycle trip, the only thing left is to take your bike for a test run. You might think that you’ll be able to carry all your gear, but once you take your fully loaded bike on a test run, you’ll probably change your mind. Minimizing your gear isn’t going to botch up your trip, but will rather make you feel more lightweight and comfortable throughout the ride.
