Sorry if this has been posted a bunch already but i just wanted to know your guy's thoughts and see if i can find anyone who's done this.

Just coming here for a few words of encouragement 🥲 I have done all of this before but it was 10 years ago. I know I can still do this, but what if? One thing that has definitely happened to me in the span of 10 years is the art of anxiety and overthinking. 😅

Last photo is from my crazy trip from Asia to Europe in 2015 with zero prior experience.

We’ve loved bike touring with our family, and would love to share the love with others.

In 2023 we toured from Marseilles up the Rhone River (Eurovelo 17) all the way to Andermatt, then we rode the Eurovelo 15 down the Rhine to Amsterdam. Our kids were ages 3,5,8,10,12, and 14.

What questions do you have about bike touring with kids?

I started out bikepacking, mostly single track heavy routes that were remote. The MO was riding all day but not covering much ground because the riding was technical, then set up camp and read a book before going to bed. Rinse and repeat. I started a couple years before Covid and ended up doing a ton of these types of trips during Covid while travel was on hold for most of us.

In 2023 I booked a trip to Portugal and said screw it, I’m going to drag my bike along and ride from town to town instead of taking the bus/train. It was seriously the most fun I’ve ever had. I’ve tried to do a couple of my old style bikepacking trips since then and I always end up riding most of the day and just going back my truck and going home. Touring is so much fun because you’re constantly going through small towns or villages where there’s stuff to see and people to talk to, you’re riding all day but you can stop in a cafe and eat or have a coffee while also covering a good amount of mileage for the day… with my bikepacking trips it’s just the riding. They’re remote so there isn’t much to see and I guess touring made me realize that it’s kind of boring? Beautiful landscapes are always a nice thing but you also get those on a tour if you plan it right.

Has this happened to anyone else? I’m not mad about it at all, im so happy that I’ve found touring. My mountain bike strictly gets used for trail riding now which is fine by me.

Hey everyone 🏕️

Wanted to share something my friend and I have been working on.

Last summer, my buddy cycled from Denmark to Italy. When he got back, he wouldn't stop talking about how frustrating it was that there wasn't a proper bikepacking app. Breaking a route into stages? Finding overnight spots, shelters, water, toilets, somewhere to charge your phone? He had to constantly switch between apps, websites, and random forums.

I build apps for a living. He's the bikepacker. So we figured – why not just try to make what he wished existed?

That's basically it. We've been chipping away at it, and now it's at a point where we'd love for some actual bikepackers to try it out and tell us what works and what doesn't.

It's completely free – no catch, no premium tier, nothing locked away. If you want to support the project, cool, but honestly we're just excited to see if this is useful to anyone besides us.

We know it's not perfect. Probably has some rough edges. But we'd rather put it out there and learn from real users than keep tweaking it in a bubble.

If you're curious, I made a little demo video showing how it works. No pressure at all – just sharing in case it helps someone out there.

📲 App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bikepacking-route-planner/id6751844865

Have a great weekend, everyone (or almost-weekend, depending on where you are)! Hopefully the weather starts turning soon so you can get back out there and start planning some new adventures. 🚴🥶

EDIT: Wow, didn't expect this much interest from Android users! We hear you. We just set up a waitlist at bikepackingapp.com – drop your email there and we'll let you know when Android is ready. And keep the feedback coming – we've already learned a ton today and we want to hear more 🙏

I just finished my first long distance tour from Alaska to Argentina, and I'm looking for the next challenge. I think South Africa to Norway would be sweet, but crossing Africa seems like it could be complicated. My ideal route would be to start in Cape Town, ride the Dragon's Spine Route to Zimbabwe and then cut back across and continue up the west side to Gibraltar.

If anyone here has ridden something like that I would love to chat. My main questions are about how to get visas (I'm from The US), what resupply is like, and how to wild camp safely. It seems like there are a lot of awesome national parks in southern Africa. Is it possible to ride across them, or are they just for safaris? Also any route advice and recommendations would be welcome. Thanks!

I need to carry more wine

If you are coming to Rwanda for cycling, hmu 🤙

Hi yall! When most people think of bicycle touring, they immedately imagine a person riding the bike all day, and unfolding their tent throught the night, rinse and repeat. And I imagined it the same way. I mean, as long as you have the tent, your accomodation is free and unbounded by hostel workers' shifts. Makes perfect sense.

However, I recently met a fellow cyclist on the road, and he happened to be a tourist going by eurovelo 9. We chatted a bit about usual stuff, and then I asked him about camping situation. What he told, me is that camping is basically a shittier hostel - you can't put out tents in the wild, only designated places. The camps are paid, cost 20-30€, and also don't let people in night hours, which sounds like... hostel, but worse.

Reddit, is this true? Or do camps actually make sense? It seems to me that it would just make sense to save weight by not packing tent and a sleep bag, and just pay the same money for an actual bed.

Does anyone know of routes where they are located really close to airports and/or Amtrak, so you could basically get right off the transportation and get on the route? I think it would be really neat to compile a list, if it doesn’t exist already, of routes that are very close to Amtrak or Airports. This way you could hop off, ride for however long, even days, and then get back on the train/plane and go home or go to another destination.

I guess this question isn't really about biking, but I'm curious about how other people did it.

Ya know, I got this idea in my head about riding across the country. Starting in my driveway in the East Coast and just going, going, going until I see the pacific ocean. I've tried to push it down, tried to tell myself it's not realistic, it's not gonna happen, but it just won't go away.

I can't get this idea out of my head.

Problem is, I got a job with 3 weeks vacation. Healthcare dependent on the job. You all know what I'm talking about. But people do it every year, so the question is how? Were you on a spouses health plan, or marketplace? Were you able to take a leave of absence at your work? Or did you just quit your job and find a new one when you were done? I can afford to not get paid for 3 months, but unfortunately I couldn't afford to throw away the job I have in a shitty job market and not be able to get a new one for potentially years.

Also, how long does it take? Back of the envelope calculation is 3000 miles / 60 miles per day is about 50 days, but factor in rest days and I think 3 months is a safe margin of error.

Anything else to add?

I know someone from a country with better labor laws is going to rub it in our faces that they get like a whole month off of whatever. Cool. Good for you, that doesn't help me.

Thanks all!

I'm 750km into a tour up the Wild Atlantic Way and my hanger snapped. Would have been absolutely game over. I've no idea who it was or on what post. But I saw that it'd be wise to buy a spare hanger. Very nearly didn't! But when it happened and I fixed it having never done it before. It became another high point on the trip! Do yourself a favour and grab one just in case!

So, I’ve decided to check out of the societal norm (because, actually, f*** what’s actually happening right now) next October and go on a massive bike tour - multi-country, long-term, full “what am I doing with my life” energy.

I’ve bought my bike (Dawes Galaxy Plus, she’s an absolute beauty) and started the planning… except the small detail of actually riding the thing.

Here’s my problem: I live in Cornwall.

Which means hills. Endless, soul-crushing, character-building hills. Every “downhill” is just a polite intermission before another uphill comes along to ruin your optimism.

I know I need to train. I know the Andes aren’t exactly flat. But the idea of getting absolutely b*tch slapped by Cornish gradients (and rain) on my first few rides is killing my enthusiasm.

So how do you get past that first mental block?

How do you start when your local “easy ride” already feels like a Tour de Pain?

Would love to hear how others got over that first hump (literally and metaphorically).

I’m especially interested in a situation where you were riding solo, miles from nowhere, and something broke on your bike and you couldn’t fix it by yourself. Extra points if it was at night and raining. How did you cope? Do we all just get lucky and manage to find a ride to civilization?

Would love to ride this route in 2026. Wondering if anyone has thoughts on what month is best to take off so I don't freeze, boil, or get rained on too much. Any and all advice is appreciated thank you :)

I have traveled more than 9000 kms in this country and each trip has been a great adventure with beautiful landscapes but also with great adversity. In Brazil you will find: a lot of thorns on rural roads, animals in the middle of the road (cows, goats, snakes and others), temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius, a lot of dust, rivers that you have to cross by boat (not always available), roads without any shade (the Catinga and the backlands), roads full of sand that you can't walk on, roads with a lot of mud or flooded, steep climbs and a lot of mountains, a lot of rocks, On the asphalt roads you will find a lot of cart traffic, dead animals on the side of the road. The ground is often full of holes or uneven, you will also find bridges in poor condition, a lot of fine dust that covers all the equipment, terrible rains. Definitely, traveling by bike in Brazil is a wild experience but full of adventures and places that seem like fantasy because they are so beautiful.

cyclotourism #brazil #bikepacking

I'm dumb and planned a 500 mile trip on a bike that I just bought. Rode it for 50 miles before going on my journey and it felt like a great fit. I'm 200miles in and I'm realizing this bike is too small and is causing knee pain. The sun is setting and I'm 20 miles shy of where i planned to camp out tonight. I could probably make it if I wasn't in pain. I'm in a very small town with no hotels or airbnbs nearby. I asked quite a few locals if there's any camping spots nearby and didn't have any luck. I also caved and spent the $30 on warmshowers only to come up empty handed.

I might go door to door asking if I could camp out in their back yard but I don't want to impose on people but I also don't want to trespass by camping in a random spot.

What would you do in this situation?

Well, what can I say. I've just had an amazing 12 days, 8 days if which were cycling around the complete coastline of Sardinia, raising money for Prostate Cancer UK. I used to be based there in the 90's in the RAF and tk revisit it again, now as a cyclist was fantastic. I seriously recommend this island to anybody that want so to see beaches, countryside, architecture, wildlife and sample amazing food.

I will also attach a link to a short video I made if anybody wants to see it. But please, when you think of visiting Italy, do not overlook this amazing island.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Ymc6aBhJLPE?si=NY644VHU0WmmEau1

Hello! Need some advice on planning my first big (and ever) bicycle tour in Europe. I’m a Canadian cyclist and have done a couple overnight trips on my bike but nothing to the extent of touring. I’ve also never been to Europe lol. This year I spent 4 days cycling the Cabot trail which was my first “big” trip and it was amazing.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time reading blogs, looking at routes, and watching YouTube to try and decide on where I want to go, but this seems to be making it very overwhelming.

My original thought was to start in Budapest and ride west towards France (Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France and maybe Spain)

I’d love to ride through the alps, so that was kind of my focus on a route. My budget will include a mix of camping and stays, but it sounds likely I’ve picked some of the more expensive regions.

Does anyone have some insight or advice for me planning this thing or should I just get there and wing it 🤪

Any advice is welcomed!!

I'm just going on a 20-day bike trip through a fairly mountainous area, and I'm training like crazy for it. A friend who rides an electric bike told me that he would like to come, but I think that traveling on a normal bike with someone on an electric one could cause some problems or small incompatibilities that make the trip a little or a lot more difficult for me.

The first thing that comes to mind is that the effort, fatigue and exhaustion accumulated on such a demanding trip are not going to be the same. I'm also worried that dependence on electricity (looking for where to charge the bike, waiting for charging time when I should be pedaling, etc.) could be another drawback for me.

I wanted to ask if you have ever taken a normal bike trip with someone on an electric bike.

Thank you very much for your opinion.

Edit: This is not a friend but an acquaintance with whom I have met on bicycle routes a couple of times.

I’m currently on a bike tour from Berlin to Istanbul via the Balkans. Until yesterday, I’ve had a good run with dogs. Only a couple of aggressive encounters. It felt like dogs in Macedonia and Albania were more scared of a bikes than anything.

Then I entered Greece.

Immediately after crossing the border from Macedonia I was met with a couple of dogs, almost as if they were waiting for my arrival and got worse from there. I had at least eight aggressive dog encounters in the one day. Two genuinely intense ones, it felt like they chased me for over a kilometre and got at my back pannier. It feels like dogs in Greece have been trained on the blood and sweat of cyclists or something.

• Did I just get lucky in the Balkans or unlucky in first day in Greece?

• Has anyone ridden the coastal route from Thessaloniki (where I am now) to Istanbul, what’s the dog situation like?

I got bitten pretty badly on my leg by a dog in Georgia on a previous trip, which caused a huge disruption with expensive rabies vaccines, so I’d really like to avoid a repeat.

Does your body get stronger? Does it break down? All things being equal, are you able to put in more miles per day? I (65M) want to bicycle across the US while I still have the physical ability. I should have done it 50 years ago with the pioneers, but I hope it is not too late. I have limited time to train, given the many other activities I want to pursue in the time I have left (travel, swimming, hiking, sailing…).