10 Things I Hate About Bike Touring

11 Jun 10 Things I Hate About Bike Touring

99.9% of the time, I write about how bike touring is so great and so awesome. For the most part, I absolutely feel this way, except for the 0.1% of the time. These are the things I do not like about bike touring. It is good to take a look at all angles of this hobby / sport before you really want to jump in or not. So without further adieu, let’s see what are the top 10 things I hate about bike touring.

Entrance to fan farm

1. Headwind

Headwind on a loaded touring bike can possibly the worst thing in terms of riding conditions. Here you are trying to get to your destination with 60 lbs to push some considerable mileage and then BAM! The head wind hits you!  Your eyes water, your nose runs, and you are forced to shift to a lower gear and spin your way through. The fact that you know you could be making better progress had there been no headwind at all is a huge deterrent. It is worse than any possible climbs because with climbs, you know you will reach the end at some point, but headwinds can last for hours if not days. There is nothing more demoralizing than looking down at your cyclometer and realizing you’ve only gone 1/10th of the way with the same amount of effort that would’ve taken you the entire way.

On both occasions when I traveled back from Joshua Tree, we faced headwind like none other. It is no wonder that wind farms are set up in the area to take advantage of this phenomenon. To battle through, my brother-in-law, Sang Hyun, and I took turn shielding each other in front. It became almost a game of who can block the wind out longer. At the end, we were both losers as we were both exhausted both physically and mentally. We also took as many breaks as possible under the protection of the large billboards along the road.

2. Non-stop Rain

The next riding condition that is just miserable is when you have to deal with rain that just doesn’t let up. We’re talking about downpours that will soak you to the bone and all your gear is constantly wet or damp. You try to set up camp in the rain, and it becomes a muddy mess. You try to stay warm and dry. Hopefully, your waterproof gear is holding up for you in keeping all your dry clothes and sleeping bag dry for you to use at night. The soaked tent with mud weighs you down some more. At first, you don’t mind it, but it becomes worse as the drops continue to fall from the sky.

At some point, finding shelter at a home, either through Warmshowers, Couchsurfing, or a hostel may be your saving grace here. Give yourself an opportunity to recover and dry off your clothes. Spend time underneath overpass to regroup your thoughts and avoid the wet conditions. Luckily on our Pacific Coast trip, we had about 3 days of off and on rain in Canada. We were fortunate that the storm clouds didn’t follow us down the coast.

Photo Credit: Out at Bob’s via Compfight cc

3. Raccoons

One of the most common problems of bicycle tourists in camp are not other bicycle tourists – it’s our four-legged friend, Mr. Raccoon. Appropriately dressed as a burglar, you wonder if they inspired the look or if it’s the other way around.  I had a run-in with this little vermin on my very first bike tour. My touring partner, at the time, had a baguette in his pannier sitting outside of his tent vestibule. In the middle of the night, a really fat raccoon sauntered over and swiped his bread.

On our trip down the Pacific Coast, we had 2 raccoons chewing really loudly outside of our tents. They were snacking on apple cores that we threw in the fire pit earlier that night. Luckily, that was the only time that we encountered raccoons on our month-long journey, so it wasn’t so bad, but I’ve heard of these run-ins from several other bicycle tourists.

4. Sore Rear-ends

When I don’t put in enough saddle time prior to a tour, having a sore rear-end is inevitable no matter how you position yourself or sit, or how much butt butter you put on, it just doesn’t help. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen too often now that I ride more frequently, but in the beginning, it was one of the worst things to endure. Luckily, the pain goes away after you put in your time or when you find your perfect seat. Even the best seat will bring some uncomfortable feelings, but it will help in the long run, so be patient and ride it out (no pun intended).

Fixing a bent chain

5. Mechanical Failures

It doesn’t matter what kind of failures, but just having any mechanical failures on your bike really puts a damper in my mood. Stress-level goes up as you try to figure out what went wrong, and then you can only hope that it isn’t so bad that you can’t fix it on the road. Knowing a few things [link to article] to repair can go a long way in helping you stay on track.

It doesn’t matter if it’s just a standard flat tire, being sidetracked and forced to address the issue is not something I like doing. Fortunately on most of my trips, the worst things to happen were just flat tires. I do notice the bolts on my racks can become loosened, so I check those once in a while. Anything that takes me away from having fun and enjoying myself is irritating,but I suppose it could be worse.

6. Airlines

Having to fly with your bike is a necessary evil if you want to ride your bike on a bike tour in other parts of the world. It is both an expensive and stressful ordeal. You don’t know how much an airline will charge you. You don’t know how the baggage carrier is going to treat your bike and equipment. Having to do this twice already was enough to have S&S couplers installed so I can break the bike down to smaller dimensions, so I will not be assessed charges.

An alternative is to have it shipped using services, like Bike Flights or Ship Bikes who will ship your bike for you. These are great solutions if you’re living in the United States and would like to ship to other places in the US. They often sell shipping boxes for you to use. It’s a bit difficult to do this when you’re traveling out of the country. Even in Canada, it was hard to do this as there were possible taxes or fees that needed to be collected because they consider the bike a merchandise.

On top of this, you need to reassemble your bike when you get to your start point. This was difficult at first as it took me about 2+ hours to assemble my bike in Vancouver, but with a bit of trial and practice, I can do it under an hour now. Remember to practice before you do it for the first time there. It will certainly help you to know what to do and makes things a lot easier.

7. Dealing with Know-it-alls

Having to justify your gear choice to a gear evangelist can be exhausting. There will be people who think that they’re giving you advice even when you’re not asking for it. They will tell you why you’re doing it wrong and you should use this and that. Most of the time, they may not be touring as often as you do, or they don’t realize that you may have special needs.

This reminds me of something I witness on my California Coast Classic tour down from Santa Monica. We were riding with a gentleman who had arthritis in his knee or leg, so he had to flare out his legs while riding. Someone rolled by and suggested that he keep his leg straight while pedaling, and the gentleman told him that he can’t because he has arthritis. That ended the conversation real quick.

I typically just listen to them and offer my point of view or reasoning of why I do what I do. It does get annoying, but it’s better than being rude.

Photo Credit: Steven Vance via Compfight cc

8. Worrying About Bike Thieves

I used to not worry about this until my friend, Evadne, had her bike stolen in Ventura while she was sleeping close by in the middle of the night. It was also locked up using a cable lock, which is what I use to secure my bike on the road. I understand that things like this don’t happen too often, but I would hate for it to happen to me.

I hate having to be alert all the time and watching my bag for any mischievous activity. It is said that we live in a world where things like this can happen to anybody, and I suppose that is just life as it should be. I am not very vigilant, but I definitely think about it more now since Evadne’s incident. I have 2 options to protect my steed: bring a better lock or have it with me in my tent. There’s always this lock.

9. Repeating Myself

Part of being a bicycle tourist is talking to people about your journey. Whether you’re telling them where you came from or where you’re going, it gets old after you talk about it for the 100th time. I’m not a jerk about it. I still talk about it, but my answers may sound automatic, and I won’t elaborate much. I will also ask more about the other person’s life. I try to make the conversation about them instead of me. The 80/20 split in the beginning of trips would go to a 20/80 flip by the end of the conversation.

I suppose it might be my personality where humility and humbleness are dominant traits, so I try to stay out of the limelight as much as I can (this sounds ironic as I write this since I am promoting my blog). If you do run into me in person feel free to ask, I’m not going to be angry or grow tired about it. Just know that my answers can be curt and precise unless you get me on a good open-ended question.

Hey! No hitch-hikers.

10. Too Short

Towards the end of a trip, I always feel that it was never long enough. Traveling with a time constraint is annoying. You have to make sure you get back to work or catch a flight, so you’re never ever at ease 100%. I suppose if I was traveling indefinitely, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but I’m not there yet. Until I can do that, having a bike trip end so soon is one of the most heart-breaking ordeals. Every trip I’ve ever taken seems like they end way too soon.

Final Thoughts

This post wasn’t meant to deter you away from bike touring. In lieu of these 10 things I hate about bike touring, I’ve got 100 reasons why I love it and won’t stop doing it in the near future. It is just so good for you in all aspects of life – physical, mental, and spiritual. None of these things will stop me from continuing on. I am much happier on the road than if I was sitting at home or in my car. Find the chance to enjoy a bike tour, you won’t regret it!