Bike Touring?

[ravenplague]

Not really overland as I think the definition relates more to vehicle(gas or diesel )dependent travel but wanted to see if anyone else is into this.
I have ridden my bike along the U.S. from Canada to Mexico a couple of times, through Japan and from Copenhagen to Portugal. Camping every night.
Really makes you realize how little you need to survive and how powerful our bodies can be. Im no spring chicken and not in the best of shape, so it takes a bit of time to get places. But the pay off is so great. Really makes you in touch with nature that you can never feel in a car.
Im so used to light weight camping that I end up with tons of space in my Landcruiser when I go on a trip!
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[Steve]

True bicycle touring (as opposed to credit card touring) is the epitome of vehicle-based exploring! I've got a touring bike ('93 Bridgestone RB-T) but have only been on half a dozen or so overnight trips on it. I bought it specifically for the low gearing to pull a kid trailer.

 

[Kelly]

I rode my Mountain Bike from San Francisco to Mexico in 5 days. Lost the feeling in several of my fingers for 6 month. Now I ride this... :-)

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Not as fast, but 10x more comfortable!!!

 

[ravenplague]

Nice!! SF to Mexico in 5 days is pretty intense...let alone on a mountain bike!!

Sweet rig! Two panniers on the rear rear wheel? It must have a rack on it to then , right?

 

[Kelly]

That's correct. I had two racks. WAY too much weight :-)

 

[ravenplague]

View attachment 7375 My camping setup somewhere in France!

 

[BeardedOverland]

Tip my hat to those who travel under their own power, wish I had the discipline and the stamina to do that myself.

 

[Kelly]

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[Vyscera]

More power to you. after 20 miles on my mnt bike I'm ready for a couch.

 

[Travel2Learn]

Love this thread! I really like to bicycle tour!

www.BigGuyOnABike.com

Last year my wife and I were in Australia for a wedding, but couldn't take our bikes. So we took our camping gear instead and rented a car for a couple of weeks. After the wedding we traveled from Melbourne up to Sydney simply meandering wherever we wanted to go. We missed our bikes, but really enjoyed this type of travel (what we now know as Overlanding). We liked it so much we are in the process of planning a long-term overlanding adventure that will include shorter bicycle tours mixed in. The best of both worlds so to speak! That is how I found Overland Bound. I sure would enjoy hearing if anyone else has mixed (or wants to mix) bicycle touring with overlanding.

Thanks for the thread and for any common experience/goals that might be out there in the OB community.

Mark

 

[Socalhodaka]

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[T4RZAKK]

YES!!!! I have a salsa vaya, so far only some over night trips to local state parks. But my dad and I are planning to do the katy trail in Missouri.

 

[Kyle & Kari Frink]

Have yet to do a camping trip on a bike but I do ride myself and with the fam quite a bit, my furthest journey so far was riding the entire perimeter of the Island of O'ahu a few years back, 132 miles over an 11 hour period. I was sore to say the least lol!

 

[Smileyshaun]

I was just doing some reading on bikepacking in Oregon, found some nice looking routes that I would love to try some day . I enjoyed hiking some of the pct but covering some more ground in a day seems very appealing .

http://www.bikepacking.com/locations/northwest/