The best bike for touring is sometimes the one that's available. Many years ago, Thomas Stevens rode from Oakland, California, to Boston, Massachusetts, in a brisk 104 days. He rode 3,400 miles on an "ordinary," one of those bikes with a huge front wheel and no gears, averaging 1.36 miles per hour.
He faced a few disadvantages on that 1884 ride—there was no road network, no maps, and often no bridges. He had such a good time that he continued on east, crossing Europe and Asia before relaxing on a steamship from Japan back to the Bay Area. He rode around 13,500 total miles.
That said, most bicycle tourists choose the traditional diamond-frame, drop-handlebar road bike. It works well and is light, sturdy, reliable, and relatively inexpensive, and parts (including tires) are readily available. Hybrids sport a similar frame but with a flat handlebar like a mountain bike. The flat handlebar has fewer positions for your hands and doesn't give you the same aerodynamic advantages. Mountain bikes, if their off-road knobby tires are swapped for high-pressure slicks, ride like a very sturdy hybrid. They tend to have lower gears, which work to your advantage. All three types can be boxed and shipped via air or rail, albeit at a hefty price.
Fitting Your Bike to You
A properly fitting bike won't make you ride faster or go farther, but it will allow you to ride as easily, efficiently, and comfortably as possible.
Many bike shops cater to young, fit, and skinny late-adolescent males. Racers, if you will. They are often unwilling or unable to cope with folks outside that narrow band. If such a shop won't spend the time to find you the proper fit and accessories, politely leave and find one that will. Too many women have been intimidated onto bikes that aren't at all suitable, and too many men have been placed atop bikes that don't work for their age or desires. On the other hand, there are some really great folks out there that will go well beyond all reason to find the bike that works best for you. Hey, you deserve excellence. Don't accept less.
Step one is to measure yourself in inches. Stand with your back against a wall and your feet a comfortable 6 inches or so apart, then place a large hardback book between your legs. The spine should touch your crotch, with the adjacent side firmly against the wall. Have a friend measure the distance from the ground to the top of the book. That's your inseam. Next, measure from the top of the book to the small "V” at the top of your sternum. That's your torso length. Now hold a pencil in your closed fist with your arm stretched out horizontally ahead of you and measure from the little boney bump at the outside edge of your shoulder to the pencil. That's your reach. Finally, measure the span from the little bump on one shoulder to the corresponding bump on the other.
Let's play with the numbers. Stand over a bike you like with your feet flat on the floor. If the bike has a horizontal top tube, you should have about 2 inches of clearance. Many bikes now have a top tube that slopes down from the head tube to the seat tube, a design quirk. If your chosen bike has a sloping top tube, just imagine a line coming back horizontally from the top-tube/head-tube joint.
Add your torso length and reach, then divide this number by 2 and subtract 6 inches. That's pretty close to the top-tube length you want. Think of two people that each have a 29-inch inseam. If that was the only important measurement, they would fit comfortably on the same bike. But say one of them has a long torso and the other a short torso. Oddly enough, that's one of the differences between men and women. The man might fit comfortably on our imaginary bike, while the woman would have to stretch uncomfortably just to reach the handlebars. Good bike builders understand this, which is why bikes are made with differing length top tubes.
Remember measuring across your shoulders? That's a good width for your handlebars. Typical road-bike drop bars are as narrow as 38cm or as wide as 44cm. Too narrow a bar will constrict your breathing; too wide will put excessive weight on your hands (numbness) and allow your spine to slump from your shoulders (back pain).
Wheel your bike onto a level surface. Adjust the saddle fore and aft until the clamp is at about the midpoint of the saddle rails. Now place a carpenter's level on the saddle, nose to rear edge, and adjust the saddle angle until it's as level as possible.
Now multiply the inseam length you measured earlier by .88. Rotate your pedals so that the crank-arms are right in line with your seat tube. Slide your saddle and seat post up or down within the seat tube until the distance between the top of the lower pedal and the top of your seat matches your answer.
You should be wearing your cycling shorts and shoes for the next step. Roll your bike over to a doorway and mount up. (You can use a trainer, but you’ll have to shim the front wheel until the bike is level.) Hold the sides of the doorjamb for balance. Put your heels on the pedals and rotate the cranks backwards. Your legs should be fully extended at the bottom of each stroke with little bend in your knee, and your hips should remain level through the stroke. If your hips are rocking back and forth to keep your heels on the pedals, the saddle is too high. Fiddle the height until your knees and hips toe the mark. Once you own the bike, mark this height on the seat post for future reference. When you put the ball of your foot over the pedal spindle (or axle), you'll have the perfect bend in your knee. Put some miles in, and if the saddle feels off, adjust it up or down a minuscule amount.
You need a helper for the next step. While on your bike in the doorway or next to a wall, balance yourself and rotate the cranks until they are horizontal. Have your helper hold the string of a plumb bob (any weight on the end of a string) on the front of the bony bump just below your kneecap of your leading foot. The weight should be dead center over the pedal spindle under the ball of your foot. If it isn't, adjust your saddle forward or backward until it is.
Really tall folks that like to ride long distances with a slightly lower cadence might prefer the plumb bob to hit about 1 cm behind the midpoint of the spindle. Adjust that later if you wish, but start with your plumb bob over the pedal axle.
Off your bike and out of your cycling shoes for comfort, put a board or yardstick across the saddle and over the stem of the handlebars. Level it with your carpenter's level. Most road riders start with their bars about an inch below the level of their saddle. With experience, many riders lower their bars 3 inches or more. Recreational riders might start with the saddle and bars at the same height or with the bars down about an inch.
It might seem as if you'd be more comfortable with the bars higher than the saddle, as you wouldn't have to crane your neck to see ahead. But when you're leaning forward about 45 degrees, looking ahead is a breeze. If you raise the bars higher than the saddle, you shift your body weight over the rear of the bike and put more of it on the saddle. Every ripple or bump in the road sends your spine thumping into your brain. Lowering the bars shifts your weight forward, some on your hands and more on your legs. Your knees and elbows work like shock absorbers, saving your body and reducing the jarring on your bike.
The final adjustment is not easily made but is key to a comfortable ride: the reach, or distance, from your saddle to your handlebars. If the reach is too great, you're going to roll your pelvis forward as you grasp the bars. This takes your weight off your sit bones and mashes the tender tissues in front of that area onto the unforgiving nose of your saddle. Pain in your personals occurs not because the saddle is too hard, but rather because you are trying to reach too far. Bars that are too far away or too close can also cause hand, lower back, shoulder, and neck pains.
One quick way to identify an improper reach is to watch a tired rider on an ill-fitting bike. He or she will continually scoot forward or backward on the saddle. If your reach is too long, you'll want to slide forward on the saddle. This moves your sit bones off the wider part of the saddle and puts tender flesh on the saddle horn.
Let's check your reach. Put your now mostly adjusted bike on a trainer and make it level. While wearing your cycling clothes, get on your bike and spin the pedals until your upper body is loose and relaxed. Your back should be a comfortable 45 degrees or so, and your elbows should be slightly bent. Look ahead down the road.
Rest your hands on your brake hoods. Have your helper drop a plumb bob from the tip of your nose. An imaginary line is OK but not as accurate. The plumb line should fall about an inch behind the center of your handlebars. For a rough guide, look down at your handlebar and front axle. Your front wheel axle should be out of sight behind the handlebars. The only adjustment option if you already own the bike is a trip to your local bike shop for a new stem. Stem lengths range from 6 to 14cm.
The cleats on the bottom of your cycling shoes are part of your bike, whether or not you think of them that way. You can adjust your foot position over the pedal and the angle of your foot and the pedal. Fore and aft is easy. The ball of your foot should be directly over the pedal axle. If you pedal with the arch of your foot over the pedal spindle, you lose the power of the big muscles of your legs. You also lose a big part of your legs' ability to help pump blood through your arteries. If your feet are positioned so that the pedal spindle is between the ball of the foot and the toes, your Achilles tendons will ache and your legs will cramp. And you'll probably think about bagging cycling.
Many of the pedal/cleat combinations sold today allow for a fair amount of "float." This means you can twist your feet back and forth slightly while still clicked into the pedal. It makes for a more comfortable ride. Some hold your foot in a predetermined position, and some are adjustable. A broad rule of thumb is to draw an imaginary line bisecting the sole of your shoe with your cleat at a right angle to that line. Your foot should be in a natural, comfortable position on the pedal. Now go for some very easy miles in this position, and be considerate of your knees. If you are uncomfortable, stressed, or strained, adjust the angle. After five hours or so, check your pedals and cleats to make sure everything is still tight. Once you've worked out the ideal cleat position, scribe a fine line around the cleat or trace a line around each cleat with an indelible marker to make it easy to reposition a loose cleat or replace a worn one.
Some folks still prefer riding with toe clips and straps. They work, but consider: Your foot will be locked into one position by the cleat hooking on the pedal and the toe-strap holding your foot and cleat to the pedal. You have no "float" to relieve pressure on your knees. You must reach down and release the tension on your toe-strap in order to free your foot. Forget and you'll topple over like a tortoise on its back. For comfort, convenience, and safety, learn to ride with clip-in pedals.
Let Your Body Fine-Tune Your Fit
Cycling comfortably involves adjusting your bike to fit your body. It isn't the other way around. Learn to listen to your body. If you're not comfortable, something doesn't fit. And if something doesn't fit, you're wasting energy that could be better used to ride on down the road. For example, if the big muscles in your upper leg hurt and have no energy, the answer is in your fingertips. Shift into a larger rear cog and spin along comfortably. It doesn't matter if Lance Armstrong can spin that gear; your legs are saying you can't.
Maybe you have a headache and painful shoulders and neck. Ride without your gloves for a while. Your knuckles look like white-topped mountains erupting from your hands, and your forearms are as rigid as marble. You're clutching so hard you've created a tension headache. Relax, bend your elbows, and let your forearms wobble like jelly. Enjoy the view.
A similar headache occurs if you forget to drink or eat. A lack of fluid will also lead to painful muscle cramps. Your body is chastising you for ignoring your basic needs. Squinting into sun glare can also create a pounding headache. Wear sunglasses and take care of your eyes.
If your lower back hurts, most likely your stem or saddle is positioned wrong. If your hips wobble side to side when you're pedaling, your saddle is too high. Lower it a bit. If your hips don't wobble, odds are your stem is too low. Raise it slightly. The stem should be marked to show the maximum amount you can raise it out of the steering tube. Don't exceed that amount. If your lower back still twinges, swap your stem for a slightly shorter one.
Stem height can trigger other responses from your body. A low stem, which forces your head way back in order to see, triggers a sore or stiff neck. If your hands pain you, you have too much weight on them. Raise your stem, and the weight will go back on your feet. Your knees have a few things to say, also.
If the front of your knee hurts, you're straining to overcome a low saddle. If the back of your knee is sore, you're likely overextending your joint due to a tall saddle.
If your Achilles tendon hurts, it's because your cleat is too far forward and your toes are pressing down on the pedal. Move the cleat forward until the ball of your foot is over the pedal axle and you'll be fine. And if your rear end is sore or numb, not from over-exercise on your first excursion but throughout the ride, you likely have too much weight on your seat. Lower your stem slightly and then check your saddle height. You may want to lower your saddle a quarter inch or so.
What if you have the squirms, shifting back and forth on your saddle? If you're on a tandem, your first problem is surviving because your partner will be seriously considering murder. Every time one teammate shifts the other gets jarred. If you seek comfort by sliding forward, the nose of your saddle may be pointed down. Level it. Or your saddle may be pushed back too far; adjust it fore and aft on its rails. If you're still edging forward, your stem is probably overly long.
Perhaps you push back during the ride. The front of the saddle may be angled slightly upward. Level it. Or the saddle may be pushed way ahead on the clamps at the top of the seat post. If so, adjust the fore and aft position of the saddle. Or your stem might be too short, so you're shoehorned into place. You may have to replace the stem, or just maybe you can make do by lowering it a bit. Lowering your stem increases its apparent length; raising it shortens the length.
Most road-bike bars are flat from the stem out to where the bar turns forward and down to the brake hooks. You may be able to find a bar that comes slightly higher from the stem outwards.
Tricking Out Your Bike
So we now know that for a touring bike to work well it has to be the right size. It also has to be a middle-of-the-road design, meaning a mid-weight bike. Super-lightweight bikes are costly and fragile. Heavyweights wallow along and are no fun to ride. We don't need—although we desire, perhaps—top-of-the-racer-line components such as Shimano's Dura-Ace or Campagnolo's Super Record. By stepping down a level, we can get great performance with a friendlier price tag. But it is not recommended that you drop all the way down to bottom-end components that will wear out or break all too soon. In the bike industry quality and price do go hand in hand.
The closer to vertical the seat tube is on your bike, the more maneuverable and "twitchier" the bike becomes. A more angled frame is more stable and comfortable. If you measure the chain-stays on a number of bikes, from the bottom bracket to the slot that secures the rear axle, you'll discover a range of sizes. Short stays help shape a compact and maneuverable bike. Long stays stretch out the overall length and create a bike that wants to glide in a straight line. Long stays also mean you'll have more room over the rear wheel so you can hang panniers off your rear rack without banging your heels into them on each stroke.
Look on the front forks and on the seat stays (the tubing from the rear axle up to where the seat tube and top tube join). Down near where the axles fit in, you should find small threaded eyelets, two on each side of each wheel. One set of eyelets secures the lower supports of your luggage racks (front and back), and the other supports the struts for your fenders. Go-fast kids like the look of fender-less bikes, but after your first ride in the rain you'll love fenders.
On the seat tube and on the down tube you should find matched pairs of threaded holes. That's where the cages that hold your water bottles are mounted Next, look at the crank arms. You want three chain-rings on the front—medium-large, medium-small, and tiny. That's half your gearing system.
You also have eight, nine, or ten cogs mounted as a cassette on your rear wheel. You choose a gear by derailing your chain from one ring to another and from one cog to another. That's what derailleur means.
A racer wants gears that are very close together so she can fine-tune the effort she's putting out to stay at speed. She'll spin her pedals at 90 rpm or so, and use the gear combinations to keep her speed as fast as possible at that cadence.
A tourist needs a wider choice of gears, to allow her to maintain an efficient 80- to 90-rpm pedal cadence without straining knees or exhausting legs. If her lowest gear around 20 inches—a 24-tooth chain-ring and a 32-tooth rear cog with 700mm wheels—she can twiddle up a 6- to 7-percent grade in the mountains for half a day. She might be doing only 4 to 5 miles per hour while expending the same amount of energy as if she were going 20 miles per hour on the flats, upwards of 800 calories per hour. A 100-inch gear (a 50-tooth front chain-ring and a 14-tooth rear cog) gives her a speed of about 25 miles per hour at a pedal cadence of 80 rpm. That's the two ends of the spectrum. The challenge is to come up with cassette cogs and chain-rings that will provide a smooth jump from one combo to the next— each gear being 10 to 12 percent different than the next—along with a rear derailleur that can accommodate that large a difference. If you have a choice, opt for a 20- to 24-inch low gear and be satisfied with the largest gear that your derailleur could handle.
Pedals that lock to your shoes with cleats are much more efficient and keep your feet from accidentally falling off the pedal. When your shoe and pedal function as a unit, you dramatically increase the power you apply without increasing effort. By twisting your heel a few degrees you can release your shoe from the pedal to put your foot down when stopping.
There are two families of pedals and cleats. On one, the cleat is recessed into the shoe sole and the pedal hooks into the cleat. On the other, a cleat protrudes from the shoe sole and this clips into the pedal. They are both very good, with one huge mechanical difference. If the cleat is recessed within the sole, you can walk without marring a floor, clicking and clattering, or sliding. There are numerous manufacturers of pedals, cleats, and shoes. Just make sure that the shoe you like is compatible with your favorite pedals.
Let’s assume your bike has 700mm, 26- or 27-inch wheels. Choose aluminum alloy rims, because they are strong and provide a good braking surface. Look for wheels with thirty-six spokes in a three-cross pattern. This means each spoke crosses three others between the hub and the rim. This is a conservative wheel, and you can find good wheels with as few as sixteen spokes.
Spoking patterns range from radial—straight out from the hub to the rim without crossing another spoke—to cross-four.
A three-cross, thirty-six-spoke wheel is strong and resilient, and when you break a spoke, as everyone does eventually, it'll likely hold its shape until you get to a friendly bike shop. Highly stressed wheels, with few spokes and fewer crosses, are likely to flop into a taco shape if you break a spoke. You are going to have more weight and more air resistance with this wheel than with a high-tech competitive racer disk. If you are really light, you may get by with a thirty-two-spoke wheel. Or you could choose a thirty-two-spoke front wheel (less stress up there) and a thirty-six-spoke rear.
If you weigh 250 pounds or more, call Co-Motion Cycles in Eugene, Oregon, and ask about their Mazama. It's a single, hybrid-style bike built with tandem components and materials. It is pricey—you won't get much change from a $3,000 bill—as are most custom or semi-custom bikes, but it comes with tandem wheels, which means forty-two to forty-eight spokes.
For most of us, quick-release axles on the wheels are great. The quick release holds the axle, and thus the wheel, on your bike. It is a rod with a nut on one end and a lever-and-cam on the other, fitted through a hollow axle. Close the lever firmly and the gadget clamps on both dropouts. Most quick-release levers are marked "open" and "closed" or may be slightly cupped. When the curve of the bend sticks out, the lever is closed; when it faces the bike and the end of the lever points out, the lever is open.
Most bikes have wheel-retention tabs, little fingers or a ridge that stick out near the mouth of the axle dropout. They are designed to keep a slightly loose wheel from falling out of the dropout and bike. To remove a wheel, open the quick release and then unscrew the nut on the non-lever end until the wheel comes free.
To reinstall a wheel, center it between the frame, or fork, and tighten the quick-release nut clockwise until you feel resistance when attempting to close the lever. You should be able to push the lever fully closed, but the lever should leave an impression in the palm of your hand. If you can't close the lever, you've tightened the nut too much. Make darned sure the inside faces of the quick release are up against the flat side of the dropout and not hung up on one of the wheel-retention tabs. That misaligned wheel will come loose.
Most cyclists position the quick-release levers on the left side of the bike. That's important in the rear so the lever won't interfere with the derailleur, and it's just a convention in the front. Many riders align the lever with a stay or fork blade where it’s unlikely to snag anything.
There's nothing wrong with axle nuts that clamp your wheel to the frame. They are a little slower than quick releases when changing a flat, but they are quite secure as long as you firmly tighten them in place. The only disadvantage is that you must have a wrench for those nuts. We have axle nuts on the rear of both our tandems and quick releases on our single bikes.
You have two choices for packing your gear: a trailer or panniers. A trailer obviously holds more, but this can lead you into carrying way more stuff than you need. Trailers also weigh more than the average set of panniers. It is suspected that the total cost of a trailer and its associated packing bags is greater than the total for racks and panniers. On the other hand, panniers hang more weight on your bike, its rear wheel, and spokes than does a trailer. Front and rear bags also affect bike handling, perhaps more than a trailer. Braking with either is probably a wash, as you have to slow the same amount of weight.
Panniers should be sturdy, waterproof bags that mount on your front and rear luggage racks. Balance the weight fore and aft and left to right. The ritual is to find waterproof panniers, test them, and then wrap anything that has to stay dry in plastic anyway. By the way, you don't want wimpy racks when all your possessions are dangling from them. Pack the same way if you're towing a trailer.
If you choose to tour with a child, from a toddler to age six or seven, you have only one real option: The kid should ride within the protective envelope of a trailer. Seat belt, shoulder belts, and a helmet are absolute necessities.
Mount a speedometer, or more properly a cyclo-computer, on the handlebars. Your speed isn't all that important, but you need a reasonably accurate mileage counter to position yourself on the day's map. Also, mount fenders.
You'll appreciate them on the first damp day, and the rider following you will really appreciate not being washed down. And add a chain protector to your drive-side chainstay to keep your chain from gouging and battering the chain-stay. It is mostly cosmetic.
Get a quality tire pump with a pressure gauge and a flexible hose connecting the pump body and valve. The pump must work with the type of tube valve you have - Presta or Schrader - and it should create more air pressure than your tire needs. If your tires require 100 psi (pounds per square inch), the pump should be capable of supplying more than that with plenty of strokes. If your pump only delivers 65 psi, you'll be wobbling on squishy tires, and you'll soon wreck them.
Use biggish, high-pressure tires, 75 psi or more. That means 1 1/4- to 1 3/8-inch tires on a 27-inch wheel or 28 to 38mm tires on 700mm wheels. Kevlar tires protect against some flats, as do anti-puncture strips inside the tire. You'll still get some flats, but not as many. Never pump up your tires at a service station. Their massive air pumps can't be controlled precisely enough to keep from blowing the tires right off the rim.
The Saddle
Put on your cycling shorts and head outside, not to your bike but to the nearest curb. With your legs comfortably bent, sit down on the curb. Most of your weight is now on your ischial tuberosities, the sit bones at the bottom of your pelvis, and here on the curb you're discovering how the support should feel. When you sit in your saddle, you should feel that same level of support. Use the narrowest saddle you can find that offers that support. Wider saddles will chafe your thighs and can even splay your legs out. If the saddle is too narrow and you don't feel the desired support, the nose of the saddle will push up against your soft tissues and make your ride miserable.
Your saddle should be lightly padded. A deeply padded saddle, even at the proper width, may let your sit bones sink in to the point that the saddle rubs you the wrong way. The "anatomical" saddles with a groove or an actual cutout along the top are quite comfortable for some riders and incomprehensible for others. Variations have been around since the late 1800s. Proponents believe the cutouts reduce potential numbness, bruising, and yeast infections, as well as reducing erectile dysfunctions. Some riders never have any of these difficulties, no matter what saddle shape they ride. The important thing is to find what works for you.
A nose-less saddle might seem like a great idea—and it is on a bike mounted on a trainer. On the road, however, most cyclists control their steering and balance by pressing their thighs against the saddle.
Some seat posts hold the saddle clamp in place with a single vertical bolt through the body to the post and into a moveable clamp pressing down on the saddle rails. Others have a pair of nuts on a threaded rod extending side to side at the lower edge of the saddle cover. Both can hold a saddle in the proper position, but the single vertical bolt makes your saddle position much easier to adjust.
Last, buy a good lightweight lock. A determined thief with time can rip away any lock, but you should get one that will slow down the bad guys and save your steed from opportunistic snatch-and-run thieves. Also, record your bike's serial number, and make sure your homeowner's or renter's insurance carries a full replacement clause in the event of theft.