General advice on touring
It is compulsory to take at least one picture of your bike leaning against a roadsign.
You need to be reasonably fit and cycling regularly to go touring. Other kinds of fitness don't necessarily transfer into cycling. You might be able to run marathons, but cycling uses different muscles so you will be a mess of pain and exhaustion after the first day.
If you are commuting regularly and can ride 10 miles and not notice you should be fine.
Daily mileage
There's always the temptation to plan to do huge distances every day. Remember that a loaded touring bike is slower than you are used to, 10mph being a typical average. About 50 miles is a reasonable daily distance. Any further and you stop being able to remember it all.
The first hour or two aren't that much fun. Whether it's because you need to warm up, or are cycling on familiar roads near home, it gets better the further you go.
Don't get chilled
Towards the end of the day when it gets cooler stop and put on an extra layer. I didn’t do this once, thinking "I'm only half an hour from home, I'll keep going" and got very cold. After a long time in the saddle on a hot day your body is set to lose heat, and can start to do it too fast.
Camping Equipment
There are many guides to camping gear on the internet, and this is my contribution.
Get half decent stuff. A festival tent is no good; the very expensive gear is wonderful but you don't need to spend huge sums starting out. Go mid range and you should ne fine. Vango isa reliable brand.
Self inflating sleeping mats are great.
The very basic folding metal solid fuel stoves were cheap, reliable and boil water very fast. Sadly hexamine fuel tablets are now effectively banned in the UK for national security reasons.
If you are commuting regularly and can ride 10 miles and not notice you should be fine.
Daily mileage
There's always the temptation to plan to do huge distances every day. Remember that a loaded touring bike is slower than you are used to, 10mph being a typical average. About 50 miles is a reasonable daily distance. Any further and you stop being able to remember it all.
The first hour or two aren't that much fun. Whether it's because you need to warm up, or are cycling on familiar roads near home, it gets better the further you go.
Don't get chilled
Towards the end of the day when it gets cooler stop and put on an extra layer. I didn’t do this once, thinking "I'm only half an hour from home, I'll keep going" and got very cold. After a long time in the saddle on a hot day your body is set to lose heat, and can start to do it too fast.
Camping Equipment
There are many guides to camping gear on the internet, and this is my contribution.
Get half decent stuff. A festival tent is no good; the very expensive gear is wonderful but you don't need to spend huge sums starting out. Go mid range and you should ne fine. Vango isa reliable brand.
Self inflating sleeping mats are great.
The very basic folding metal solid fuel stoves were cheap, reliable and boil water very fast. Sadly hexamine fuel tablets are now effectively banned in the UK for national security reasons.
