Have You Always Wanted To Bike Tour But Never Get Around To It?
My earliest cycling activities back in the 70s and 80s, were cycle-touring with my girlfriend-then-wife, including a honeymoon cross-country tour. Since then, I've been strictly a cycle-commuter, and sport road cyclist, mainly due to work and family lifestyle. Recently on the Fifty-Plus Forum was this thread
“What do you find hardest about cycle touring now we ain't spring chickens any more?”:
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
…Last year, I avidly read the posts on BF about a perimeter tour of Lake Ontario, and I experienced some surprising mental discomfort that struck me as a sign of getting older.
While I would still enjoy riding about 50 miles a day for an extended trip, the thought of the uncertainty of finding a place to stay for the night was unsettling. (Our previous tours were all self-supported and self-guided. If I/we were to resume touring, it would at least be a credit card style, if not an organized tour.)
One of the best quotes I have seen about the cycle-touring experience is this:
Originally Posted by
bikingshearer
A thought or two, based on personal experience.
… what's the hurry? One of the joys of touring is the singleness of purpose and absence of demands. All you have to do is get there: you don't have to get there fast or get their first - and if you are touring with camping gear, odds are you can be incredibly flexible about what "getting there" means on any given day. Embrace that. Don't let your tour become an exercise in trading one rat-race for another.
I think I can get back into that if the opportunity arises.
