A Guide To Training For Bike Tours

Before going on a bike tour, you need to have the right amount of preparation and be well-informed about what it takes to go on one. Before you go on a tour of any kind - no matter how physically fit you are - you need to prepare yourself for a long trip on the seat of a bike. Shifting gears, braking and maneuvering are among the things you need to know about before a tour.

Begin a relationship with your bicycle by riding in a rural area that's mainly flat for about an hour to an hour and a half (whichever you prefer) at a slower pace every other day. There are many ways you can ride your bike, so feel free to fool around. One thing you can do is experiment with how you drive with your hands. Complete about a week's worth of training before moving on to the next step.

The next step would require you to go biking in more inclined parts of town, near the hills if possible. You would need to do this on a weekend so you can familiarize yourself with the bike and enjoy the view around you. It's best to do this on Sunday afternoons, so make sure you've heated up a delicious home-cooked meal to bring with you for your journey.

So you can track how many miles you have biked over the time you have been traveling, make sure to bring a map. This can further get you prepared for bike tours, as you would now know how it would feel to travel a certain distance by bike.

Get a good feel for riding your bike up and down the hills. If you're already okay with going up and down at 10 miles in an hour (not necessarily per hour), then you can go on to the next step, at about 15 miles in 90 minutes. Bike tours last much longer than 90 minutes, though, so you'll want to get your endurance boosted by biking as hard as possible during this stage of your preparation.

Continue this process until you are able to bike 30 miles in three hours, and keep pushing harder, increasing the total distance in 5-6 mile intervals. Toss in longer hills - they don't necessarily have to be taller - just longer.

After you have reached a point where you can bike 40 miles in four hours or less, the next step would be to load up your panniers with weights of about 5 to 15 pounds, then start biking for about an hour. Get yourself used to the heavy panniers until you can carry about 30 pounds in an hour-half ride. Do this until you can go at regular speed both while loaded and not.

After completing the last step, meaning being able to bike at normal pace whether loaded or not, then it's now time for you to start biking with the gear you plan to bring with you while on the tour, then ride your bike for the expected length of the daily allotted time per day of the tour.

If you haven't visited your local sporting goods store, do so immediately and buy anything you haven't got yet - these would include both a mountain and touring bike, a bike helmet, a pair of bicycle shorts, bike pumps, gel-cushioned bike saddles and some tools to repair your bike. If you're willing to splurge, a hybrid bike as well as a full-suspension mountain bike would be a great help.