Originally Posted by
fixedup
Im almost 20 now and I feel the need to break away and go do something worth while ( while im young right?). Bikes have been the best thing for me the past few years and im fully consumed in it, more and more each day. Touring seems like something I should do and something I feel like I need to do. Im already trying to plan my first one. I dunno I'm bored and rambling and need ideas and such.
There are some ideas and inspirations in Heinz Stucke's story. He describes how he began touring here,
http://www.bikechina.com/ct-heinzstucke1z.html
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..."Why does he do this?" "Why by bicycle?" "Why for so long?" The answer lies quite a few years back.
In school I was always interested in geography. I read a lot of books about other countries and about people who had travelled and had adventures. Soon I wanted to do the same. During the time I was apprenticed to a tool and die-maker I made short trips through Europe by bicycle. After finishing my apprenticeship I cycled around the Mediterranean, covering about 10,000 kms. At that time I was 18. These tours gave me some experience about how to travel and the will to see more.
By that time I did not particularly like my job and I did not see why I should spend the rest of my life doing something I did not care for very much .... just to make a living. "Is this all there is to life?", I asked, "I might as well go around the world’. Perhaps, too, I had opened my mouth a little too wide about all the things I was going to do and my friends teased me about it. So eventually I had to do something about it — if only to save face!
I came to use a bicycle on my earlier trips, partly because I felt more independent, it was the cheapest form of transportation and also because I found it to be the ideal way to see the world. It was slow enough to permit me to study each country and its people and it was fast enough to cover large distances relatively quickly. I admit that later on, most of my income came from the fact that I had used a bicycle for the tour....
He continued touring for quite a while. (Last I heard he is still.)