IGotABike

Bicycle camping is a fun and economical way to go bike touring. There are several ways in which it can be approached. It’s not quite car-camping and not quite backpacking, but shares a little from each. If you are already a camper, you may have all or most of the gear you need. Let’s talk about some of the special requirements and concerns of camping with your bicycle.
Gear:
The first obvious thing that comes to mind is your tent. What you need for bike camping is something small and light. A lot of times a backpacking tent can serve you well. We’ve used our four season Moss backpacking tent with great success, but while on a tour several years ago, we decided that we weren’t camping often enough to justify the nearly nine pounds of weight (yes, I was very surprised when I actually weighed it!) we wound up mailing it back home and stopping at a local Walmart to see if they had any cheap and light tents. What we ended up buying was actually a children’s tent for $14. It sounds crazy, but it had several advantages. First, it was light, about half of what our Moss weighed. Next, it had a PVC bathtub floor, meaning that we could also send home our ground cloth that we had to use under the Moss, creating even more weight and space savings. The drawback was that it was small. We have to sleep it kind of Katty-corner, but the weight/space savings is worth it to us. If you are camping alone, you could look into buying a bivvy-bag, essentially a one man tent just big enough for a sleeping bag. If you’re really bold (and cheap), you could just roll up in a tarp for the night. I’ve done it and it’s not so bad. You will end up sharing your space with some creepy-crawlies, but hey, you are camping!
Speaking of tarps, a small, lightweight tarp can be a good addition with multiple uses. You can pull it out and hide under it, bikes and all to wait out a passing rain storm, you can use it as shade at your campsite or extra dry space if it’s raining and you’re trapped in your child-size tent, and for throwing over your bikes at night to keep them dry from the weather or dew. It doesn’t need to anything fancy. A sheet of plastic will work. A sheet of Tyvek is cheap, light and very durable.
You’re probably going to want a sleeping bag. The important thing about bags is that they are appropriate for the season and that they can be compressed into a small size. We have some cheesy no name bags that weigh next to nothing and crush down to a small size. They are flannel lined inside and nylon outside and are perfect for the Summer months. They can also be zipped together. Really nice if it does gets chilly out 😉 Remember, you can stretch a lightweight summer bag into cooler weather by wearing some clothes (tights, socks, shirt) inside the bag. You can also get a sleeping bag liner. Down bags are great for colder climes and crush down considerably. The drawbacks on down are they are expensive and you can’t get them wet. If you have a particularly difficult bag to compress, you can buy a sleeping bag compression sack. On our bikes, we store our bags inside of a trash bag to keep them dry and they ride in my front panniers, one on either side, along with our rain ponchos and my flip flops. It seems to make for some pretty good weight distribution front to rear on the bike.
Along with your sleeping bags, you will also probably want a sleeping pad. Sleeping pads go under your sleeping bag. They add comfort, like a mattress, and keep you off the damp ground, keeping you warmer. You can look at these as a disposable luxury, but at our age now, we won’t even consider leaving them behind. Pads come in different lengths and materials. You can get full length, three quarter, or even half length. They are usually either foam or inflatable. Some are heavier than others and the length figures into that. I’ve used foam and inflatable over the years. What we have now are inflatable Thermarests3/4 length and they are Heaven! The only drawback to them is that they tend to slide around underneath you during the night. These live in Carol’s front panniers, in a similar fashion to the sleeping bags on my bike. Thermarests are a bit pricier than most foam. Look for them at REI or Campmor, etc. One of our Thermarests got a couple tiny holes in it (dang cats!) and wouldn’t stay inflated through the night. I found the holes and patched them with bicycle tube patches. Worked like a charm! 😉

So you think you want to give bicycle touring a spin? (hahaha!)
What do you need to get started?
First and foremost is a sense of adventure! Like so many other things in life, it’s a mental thing. You have to want to do it, embrace the unknown, the unexpected. What’s around the corner? What’s over that hill?
Next, you need a bike. Almost any decent, sturdy, comfortable bicycle in good repair can do the job. You do not need a specialized bicycle just to get started, after all, bicycle touring is nothing more than your strapping stuff to a bike, going for a ride and staying over night. It’s really just that simple. Like anything else though, the better the equipment you have, the easier and/or the more in-depth your experience can be.
Let’s start with a rank beginner bicycle touring scenario: You have a Comfort Bicycle, Mountain Bike, or Hybrid that you ride around the neighborhood after work, and maybe on the weekends you take it down to the local park bike path and ride a few extra miles. Maybe you even stop for lunch along the way. You’re wearing a tee shirt, shorts, tennis shoes and, of course, a helmet! You start thinking, “man, it would be cool to go a little farther and maybe stay overnight in the next town.”
What’s stopping you?
You have almost everything you need to get started. A comfort bike or mountain bike is a great entry level tourer. These bikes generally have fairly stout frames, multiple gears and tires and wheels designed to accommodate multiple surfaces. If your mountain bike tires are too fat or knobby, you can get smoother and/or smaller tires that will still fit your rims. Google it, then visit your Local Bike Shop (LBS). I switched from big fat knobbies to big fat slicks on my mountain bike because I was just riding on pavement. It made a huge difference in speed and rolling resistance, not to mention noise.
Something to avoid if possible, however, in comfort/hybrid bikes are shock absorbing seat posts. They tend to move as you pedal, up and down and side to side. They are a huge waste of energy and a possible source of chaffing. I don’t like them in the least. If you have one, you can get a one piece replacement seat post for less than $30. If you are not sure how to swap it out, go to your LBS. There are safety issues involved. Along the same lines, I personally would stay away from shock absorbing forks. Too much weight and wasted motion. That said, don’t let these stop you from giving touring a go!
The only additional gear required to get started touring is a rack and some bags, called Panniers. You can get a simple rear bike rack for around $40 new. Something like THIS. If you are the least bit mechanically inclined, they are fairly easy to install, mounting to the Braze Ons– a threaded insert welded, or brazed, to the bicycle frame, used for mounting such things as water bottle cages, fenders or racks. They usually use M5x0.8 screws, which means 5 mm in diameter and threads 0.8 mm apart.
If you’re not comfortable mounting the rack, take it to your Local Bike Shop (aka, LBS) and have them do it. If you buy it there, they’ll probably install it for free.
Some bicycles do not have braze ons or braze ons not in the right places. The work around is to use clamps that go around the various frame parts. Some racks come with clamps for alternate mounts. (Great for steel and aluminum bikes. NOT recommended for carbon!)
Next, you need some Panniers. Again, you can start with a cheap set. Look at the variety of styles and prices available from AXIOM, the company that makes the rear panniers that I used on my 2012 Ohio to Erie Trail (OtE) tour.
Now, mount, clip or otherwise hang your new bags off your new rack, open the bags, and let’s start filling them!
What do you need to take?
Well, where are you going?
Where are you staying?
To Camp or Stay Indoors
If you are camping, you will need a lot more gear; clothes, tent, sleeping bag, cooking gear, food, first aid kit, toiletry kit, rain gear, etc. If you are a regular camper and already have the gear and are used to the ways of camping, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. I’m a veteran backpacker and I’ve always equated bicycle touring/camping with backpacking, except that the bike carries all the weight for you! It’s the next best thing to having a mule
Here are links to specific Getting Started topics:
Getting Started Bicycle Touring: Tents and Sleeping Bags
More camping articles will follow. Stay tuned.
If you’re not comfortable with the great outdoors, the next obvious thing is to stay in a hotel/motel/bed and breakfast. Staying in a hotel will really reduce your needs, as far as what goes into your pannier(s). You’ll need your toiletry kit, some clothes, maybe a swimsuit, and some trail snacks. A rain jacket/poncho is always good insurance. Anything else you put in is up to you and how much room you have. Always pack a small first aid kit.
Either way, don’t forget to pack some essential bicycle tools, the bare minimum being a flat kit and air pump. Of course it will really help to know how to repair a flat, too. I’ll cover this in a later article and add a link to it here.
Another essential that you probably already have is a water bottle. It’s such a ubiquitous piece that I won’t spend time on it here.
Also, a bicycle lock. If you will be parking your bike out of sight, you want a heavy duty lock. Look into a good U-Lock. Kryptonite is one reputable manufacturer. If your bike gets stolen while you are on a tour, how are you getting home?
Another cool thing about staying in a hotel is that most will let you bring your bike into your room with you, giving you some added security and convenience. Some of the swankier hotels or B&Bs may not, however, so call ahead to double check if you are unsure. In our experience, most Motel 6 Holiday Inn Ramada La Quinta types are no problem. If your room is not on the ground floor, make sure they have an elevator!
How Far?
For your first “tour,” I would recommend something challenging, but within your abilities. How far do you ride every day? How far on weekends on the trail? If you can ride 10-12 miles on a Sunday afternoon on the trail, you can easily ride twice that on a trail tour. The trick is to take your time. Leave early enough so that you have all day. Try riding your usual 10-12 miles then taking an extended lunch break. Guess what? After lunch, you’re halfway there! Along many trails, you can easily ride from one town to another in 20-25 miles. There are sections of the Ohio to Erie Trail where the towns are a mere 10 miles apart.
Oh, by the way, always tell somebody that you trust what your itinerary is, just in case!
Odds and Ends
What other tidbits might you need or want?
Bicycle clothing. Bike shorts are made for the long haul. They usually have padding built into them, called a chamois. If you feel weird tooling around in spandex, you can buy bike specific shorts with a chamois that look like regular shorts, like THESE.
Bike gloves are always a good plan. They are also padded and will help absorb the shocks of the road. They will also protect your palms should you happen to crash! I wear mine always! Picking crushed limestone from the towpath trail out of your palms for the next two weeks does NOT sound like fun to me.
A helmet. If I need to make the argument for it here, then just please stay home.
Bicycle shoes. Bike shoes can make an enormous difference. Bicycle shoes, unlike tennis shoes, are made NOT to be flexible. Not good for walking or running, but a definite advantage when cycling. Any motion not committed to the transfer of energy from your leg to the bike is wasted motion. When your foot flexes on the pedal, that is effort not being transferred to the pedal. It will also tire you out and eventually make your feet hurt. Carolyn wrote a good review of some of her bicycle shoes HERE. It will give you some details of what to look for in a shoe.
Related to bike shoe stiffness and not wasting energy is the design of your pedal. Adding a cage, or toe clip, with adjustable straps to your regular old platform pedal will also help with the transfer of energy, by not allowing your foot to slide around on the pedal and also allowing you to continue the transfer of energy through the upstroke. Using toe clips takes a little getting used to. Start with the straps loose, so you can get out quickly in case of emergency.
The next step up from toe clips are clipless pedals. Clipless pedals use a cleat, mounted to the bottom of the shoe that clicks into the pedal. The pedal is of a special design to accommodate the cleat and can’t really be used without it. With this system, you are locked together with your bike, with your foot essentially becoming an extension of the pedal/crank arm. Again, they take some getting used to. You WILL crash at least once when getting used to “going clipless.”
A mirror is a piece of gear that I find indispensable. I always want to know what is coming up behind me whether I’m on the road or a trail. Highly recommended!
A bell is also great, especially if you do a lot of trail riding. It’s your responsibility to make passes safely.
A bike computer is cool to keep track of how many miles you rode that day or even the whole season. Most will also give you your speed, the time, elapsed time and maybe the date. Mine cost $13 on Ebay.
This post will be the starting point for other articles on getting started with bicycle touring. As more articles are added, this article will be updated with links to the pertinent information.