If only everyone would read this gem of a free eBook before planning an epic bike ride. Bike Touring Basics, published by Friedel and Andrew Grant of the TravellingTwo.com cycle touring community website, tells you everything you need to know if you’re a newcomer to the world of bicycle travel. It also very wisely sets out what you don’t need to know.
An awful lot of cycle tours one hears about on the social web suffer from bloat, from concept over experience, from too much planning (a bit like my first one). I’ve written before about our tendency to cover up with information the simple fact that very little of a cycle travellers’ daily life can be planned in advance, short or long term. For the first-timer, it’s a scary thought. But the truth is a typical bike tour needs very little planning.
Bike Touring Basics, from the very first page, re-casts the bike tour as a gentle, rewarding, non-intimidating pursuit, accessible to all with relative ease, and with near-unlimited adaptability to one’s ambitions. This portrayal is badly needed, and says a lot about the authors’ wisdom, earned through their first-hand experience of a slow and meandering round-the-world tour.
I get my fair share of request for advice from new cycle tourers. From now on, I’ll have no hesitation in pointing them in the direction of Bike Touring Basics. I’ve learnt plenty myself from reading it!
The fact that it’s free belies its real and great value. Thank you Friedel and Andrew. Please spread the word!
Check out TravellingTwo.com for everything you could ever want to know about cycle touring.
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