Touring - Any tips for a 50 mile ride to a campsite and then back?

a few friends and i are riding to go camping but i believe a few others are driving. ive done rides around this before but with a stop or two for drinks/snacks. my main problem in all of them was the bottom of my feet starting to hurt towards the end, with that being my main reason for wanting to get off the bike for the day. the 10 of us or so are doing it on track bikes.

does anybody have any advice for making this disaster proof?

i have a seatbag with tools/extra chain/tubes/and a kevlar bead tire. and pockets for shot blocks or whatever. chamois butter for sure. and i was thinking about getting some dr' schools inserts given that i still love toe straps and cages. i have no problem with the endurance part of it, its just that my neck(from the dropbars) and my feet start to kill.

What kind of shoes and pedals are you using?

I haven't had foot pain, but have had foot numbness problems. I use platform pedals, and switched to shoes with more rigid soles and that helped that issue.

One thing I've gradually learned is that I need to ride at my own pace. So sometimes I'm out with some pretty fast guys, and if I try to keep up, I can do it for a while, but suffer the consequences later (ie, too tired later on). So I just have to let them go and then go on at whatever speed I feel comfortable with. I mention this because possible solutions would be to drop your gearing a bit (ie, slow down and take some of the pressure off your feet) and get off the bike more (also slows you down).

Supposedly with clipless pedals, you can pull up on the pedals which lets you put out the same power without as much downward force. Possibly paying more attention to your pedaling technique would help some.

that could be it. they dont go that fast really at all, i mean, i know my limits and when im trying too hard its making me uncomfortable. but that rarely the case with this group. i have some leather double straps with mks sylvan track pedals. those little succkers cut right into my adidas gazelles.

If you are using a track bike, I'm assuming it is fixed gear. My uneducated guess is that you are putting too much pressure on your feet from pedaling hard. Get a bike with gears, or lower your gearing to allow spinning with lower force.

Also, take a break once in a while. I've done a few weekend camping trips and hauled all of my food, clothes, and camping gear. I stopped frequently to take pictures, eat a snack, etc. If it is just recreation and you have no where to be at a specific time, enjoy the scenery and the trip.

I also am one of the few people who still rides with platform pedals. The platform pedals allows you to move your foot around so that pressure is not always applied to the same spot on your foot. Most people say that platform pedals are bad for long distance, but I see no reason to change to clips or clipless. I just rode a century yesterday with platform pedals.

The shoes I'm wearing right now are North Face brand and were from REI. They're basically a casual-type low-top shoe, not a hiking boot or anything. But the soles were stiffer than normal. I understand the regular cycling shoes have very rigid soles, so you might consider going to clipless pedals just for that reason.

ill start lookin at shoes. anything else?

ill start lookin at shoes. anything else?

- Make sure your toe clips aren't too tight; sometimes you feet can hurt like crazy, and -- even though it feels like the pedals are doing the damage -- it's the fact that your toe straps or shoes are too tight. That can lead to a lot of pain. But, as noted above, stiff soles make a big difference, too.

- For a 50-mile trip I wouldn't carry a spare chain and tire. I'd have a few extra chain links, and a tire boot in case I cut a tire. But I wouldn't bother with the weight of a tire. I'd save the weight for a spare tube + a patch kit.

Have fun!

The Sylvan track pedals are fairly unforgiving that way. They're a copy of an old Campagnolo pedal that was designed for riding in rigid soled shoes with slotted cleats. The Sylvan touring pedals are a bit better, but you're still supporting your feet with the two pedal "rails." Either one is fine for tooling around town or on short trips, but start to make themselves known the longer and harder you ride. Stiffer shoes will help. Clipless will too, but mainly because the clipless shoes you get will likely be stiff to begin with.

As for the neck problem, are you using a threaded or threadless stem? If it's threaded and long enough, you can try raising it for the trip to help alleviate the strain from being in the more aero position for so long. A threadless stem can be raised and/or flipped to get similar relief.