Originally Posted by
Thigh Master
I have traveled alone through Nepal and India, worked in East Germany before the wall fell, traveled Mexico. I could easily keep my backpack with me. But I’ve never biked, let alone depended on that transportation. Europe and the States for starters, then who knows. South America, Mongolia, China, Turkey!
thanks, from those life experiences, you aren't new to the importance of having a good "common sense radar" and having good instincts for reading the crowd so to speak.
When I biked through a good chunk of Central America and parts of Mexico, I figured the chances were a lot higher of a "wrong place, wrong time" sort of incident, where guys with guns and a pickup could take everything, compared to the bike trips I've done in the past, Canada, west coast of the States, rural New England, France, Holland or whatever.
I knew just from common sense that leaving my bike locked up in San Francisco or in Amsterdam would probably mean it would get stolen, or even with a U-lock, maybe stripped of parts.....so I just avoided the headache and worry and left the bike safely inside when doing the tourist thing--which is fun.
With the Latin America trips in mind, I bought a used Surly for about a grand, I had fairly inexpensive stuff with me, like a cheap tablet, an older digital camera I had had for years, so basically as a fortunate first world person, a disaster theft would not ruin my life, most important thing was to not be harmed.
As anyone who has traveled in other countries, or even in our own country, controlling the things we can to reduce the risk of a real cock-up is pretty much all we can do (touch wood). I personally never have left my bike locked up outside for a long time in urban settings on bike trips, but I get perhaps wanting to take a more secure lock than a coil lock. I have asked people to watch my bike as it has been locked a few times, but thats not a given either--as we see here, that's completely up to the individual what lock to bring and there is a wide range of what people bring, and in the end, a few pounds more isnt a deal breaker, especially if one can pack and plan your choices of equipment to keep weight down overall.
Despite the bickering here (hey, its the internet) there have been lots of good points and viewpoints expressed here.
What can I say, when you start trying out bike traveling, you'll have to figure out on your own what to bring, what is too much, hopefully reduce stuff if you have a lot at first or in subsequent trips, whatever....you'll figure out what works for you the best.
I really hope you do try out bike touring, it's a really fun way to travel, I still love it and my first trip was in 1989.