Touring - After tour riding

After finishing two tours for a total of 1000 miles, I found it hard to get back on the bike for fitness rides. However, after taking all the bags off the bike I am amazed at how light and maneuverable it is. In fact, it took a while to get accustomed to riding again. Once i started riding again, I quickly regained the joy of just riding around.

I am also amazed at how much different touring is from just riding a bike around for fun. It is important for me to keep this in mind when I plan my next tour!

Ray

Yeah, it's a bit weird at first when you ride the bike unloaded right after a trip isn't it?

Indeed touring is totally different from just riding around town, it's a whole new perspective.

when i ride for fitness i find myself worrying about traffic and hills and distance and things like that. When I'm touring I'm only concerned with points A&B, scenery in between them and FOOD!

Unloading my bike and riding it around after a tour is extremely disorienting at first. For the first day or so, I'm all over the road, especially if I try to stand to climb. Craziness! Lots of fun though, and definitely a real change in attitude about my riding.

Generally I get a couple of "unloaded" rides on each tour -- even if it's only from wherever I'm staying to a supermarket to buy groceries. Consequently I don't find the transition to be a major problem.

What I do find, however, is that after returning from a long tour, it can take a while to get back into the swing of riding my bike at the speed I "expect" after I take all the equipment off. It's not so much being tired of riding, but some kind of stupid heightened expectation of what I'm going to do to my local rides that can kill my motivation for post-tour riding.