Who knows advantage and disadvantage of traveling by bike
 

Hi
The fiest time i want to travel by bike, New Zealand is my target.
I dont have any experience of cycling a country, but apparently, cycling could have my weight lost. Please, tell me more, thanks for any suggestion!

Explain? Cycling could have your weight lost?

Hi,
go to the Touring forum, and read some of the posts there. That will tell you a lot about touring. Go to the training forum, and read some of the posts there. Buy a good bike, ride a lot, eat a healthy diet, get a visa and some maps. Get on a plane :)

I have a friend that cycles in New Zealand every year- but he does do a supported tour as opposed to solo touring.

I haven't asked him a lot about it, but he did say that New Zealand was very hilly and challenging, and that was without the extra gear on his bike. After his last trip, he went out and got the latest Lemond- he needed to lighten his bike so he'd be better on the hills.

I think the only disadvantage to riding a bike is that if you want to go to lots and lots of places, you may find that you can't fit it all in unless you can somehow hoist your bike onto a train. Otherwise, I enjoyed doing my trip by bike- you meet a lot more people than backpacking, you stay in shape, you see a lot of the countryside, and I think at the end of the trip, you have sooooo many more stories to share with people.

Go for it! Keep posting your questions in the touring section- a lot of people have toured before and can help you to prepare.

Koffee

I' m biassed.

The only problems I see are related to distance:

- long distance between services, things to see, ...

- lots of backtracking to do because there are few roads around.

Touring Newfoundland was wonderful, as the scenery on the Rock as especially wonderful. HOwever, it was also a fairly hard tour because of extreme wind and of 50-150 km between food joints (groceries or restaurants, take your pick). And many of the most beautifuf coves are served by 10-50 km spurs with 12% grades.

Regards,

If you want to go to NZ to cycle, I'd suggest you talk to a few of a our NZ forum members, like NZLcyclist (sp?) :beer: I'm sure they could give you a few handy hints about touring in their nation.

Someone called?
also there is greywolf, nutz4bikez, BMW_maniac, Zub Zub:love:, and one or 2 others....

and people are correct about the hills!!

Brendon

Three out of the four cycling tours I have completed have been sag supported. Purists say sag supported is not turing?
I have never felt the downside of either. Moving about on the bike was just very rewarding. Except on rare ocassion exhaustion- the sense of reward overwhealmed the negative.
No downsides to my experience. rolling into camp, downing a bottle of wine and sharing the day under the stars was estatic.
Will say, w/o sag you really feel you are on your own and wonder how that splendid isolation could result in having to solve problems of like potential abandonment out in the middle of nowhere.

NZ's a great place to ride. Beautiful scenery, and the people there are very friendly.

And it's cheap, too. Their dollar's about half of a greenback, but for many services the prices in NZ dollars are what you'd pay in U.S. dollars back in the U.S. So, you can live at half-price. Good hotels, good restaurants, all at cheap prices.

The road quality there is not as good as in North America, though. Outside of the cities, their roads are very rough. Think of (what we in the U.S. call a) gravel road, with a thin layer of black tar sprayed on top. So, wider tires than you'd usually ride are a good idea.

It's very hilly, as well. In fact, I think the North Island is tougher than down near the Southern Alps. In the North, the up and down is constant, and steep. It's as if NZ had a week to get all the roads done, and so just laid them out in a straight line. If there's a steep hill, the road goes straight up and over. No switchbacks. In the South, often the inclines are longer and gentler. A lot of climbing either way, though. LOW gears are a must if you've got a load.

There are many motor-campgrounds, particularly on the North Island. You can use a microwave there, dishes, silverware, and often take a shower. So, you don't have to bring cooking gear if you plan.