Have bike, will travel. But where to? And how? Even your best intentions are doomed to failure if you don’t plan your trip meticulously. Because planning means more than just connecting dots on a map. This guide will help you to approach, prepare and tackle any kind of tour and have fun while doing it.
1. The intent
The most important prerequisite to successfully plan a tour is the actual intent.Where do you want to go? What kind of adventure are you after? Are you planning a one-day trip in your area, an exciting mission to explore new trails or a proper full-on holiday? Depending on the type of tour you’ll have take different factors into account. Whatever your plan is you have to do one thing right from the beginning: Set a goal, choose a destination (if you’re riding outside your area) and start daydreaming about what you want to experience, see and do there – and also what you don’t want to do! Be unbiased and let others inspire you, use Google’s image search, find online portals or even just go to your local book store and start roaming around. Easy hiking tours often make great easy rides too – however you’ll have to find out beforehand whether bikes are allowed in the area and on the paths you’re considering for your tour. There are very different laws and regulations depending on the country and region you’re planning on going to.
Be generous with your schedule and allow yourself plenty of time for spontaneous detours or last-minute plan changes!
2. How much time have I got?
Depending on how much time you have you can plan different types of tours — and it doesn’t always have to be a week-long holiday. Day trips in your area or train-supported tours in a different region can be a lot of fun too. However you should always be aware of how much time you really have and most importantly you shouldn’t leave the planning until the last minute – after all you want to enjoy your trip. Be generous with your schedule and allow yourself plenty of time for spontaneous detours or last-minute plan changes! If you finish your tour early or if you notice that you’re progressing faster than expected you could always use your spare time to improvise with something different along the way or even just take longer breaks in between checkpoints. On the other hand if you’re running behind schedule your “tour” could easily turn into “tourture” and the fun into stress. If you’re planning a multi-day tour you should schedule-in a number of longer breaks to experience and explore places for a change rather than riding your bike all the time — you could even go for short hikes! Setting a realistic and moderate daily mileage or a predefined riding time can be very helpful too (don’t forget to include altitude gain!). This can be an easy and effective way to assess how fast or slow you’ll have to progress.
3. The destination and the weather
The weather is always somehow unpredictable and yet modern technology allows you to get a pretty good idea on what to expect in the region you’ll be riding in. In our day and age you can check the weather forecast and temperatures well in advance and get a pretty accurate idea of what to expect. Is it going to be really hot? If that’s the case pack lots of sunscreen, wear good quality sunglasses and expect to drink way more water than you usually would. If you’re expecting chilly weather conditions don’t forget your gloves and your windstopper. If the forecast is announcing lots of rain over an extended period of time you should pack your full, high-quality rain gear and make sure you make your luggage waterproof. If on the other hand it’s unlikely to rain even a light rain jacket will do the trick — if it rains just seek shelter under a tree and resume your ride once the showers have cleared. You can use this time to eat something or even just rest and enjoy the landscape — and let your imagination wander. If you’re planning a one-day excursion the rain is not too much of an issue – don’t stress yourself if it does rain. You’re gonna be at home by the evening and have a hot shower in your own cosy bathroom.
