ENJOYING YOUR TOUR

Fitness

You don't have to worry too much about getting fit. This is particularly true for long tours, where you just ride yourself fit over the first two or three weeks. You may only do 50km a day for the first week, but this is no big deal. For shorter tours, it's a little more important to hit the ground running to make the most of your limited time.

Before you set off, just try your adventure cycling as much as you can. Start with small runs and gradually work your way up. If you can get to a stage were you are reasonably comfortable doing runs of 100km unloaded, you will have done really well.
Speaking from experience, if you want to avoid excitement, it's best if you don't spend the first day of your very first tour learning how to pedal a fully loaded bike. Before you set off, load your bike up and go away for a weekend as a shake down for the real thing. 

Take it easy

Take it easy on your tour - it's not a race. Some people consistently manage 100+km a day. For the rest of us 70-80km per day is a more manageable figure. In the mountains or on very rough tracks this may drop to as low as 30-40km per day. 

Don't be too reluctant to cheat. If it's taking longer than expected, or you are unwell, or you are just not enjoying the road.

Challenges

Listed below are some of the the main challenges you might have to face on tour, in rough order of increasing difficulty. While all of them can be tough, none of them are show stoppers. And in fact, these are things that will make your tour memorable - this is what adventuring is about: 

Hill and mountains

Big hills can be daunting, but they're not that difficult to cope with. It's just a question of settling down in a low gear and grinding up them (don't use too higher gear - it's best to keep your pedals spinning). And it's not the end of the world if you have to get off and push. It may take a couple of hours, or in the case of a 4.000m pass in the Himalayas, a couple of days, but you will reach the top eventually. Then you get to whizz down the otherside. And the saving grace is that you are usually in stunning surroundings. Above about 2,500m you can expect to feel the effects of altitude and above 4,000m it can be very debillitating. 

Deserts

The problem with deserts is more psychological than physical - long miles of nothing at all and always a nagging worry about whether you have enough water. The heat is more of a problem when you stop - on the bike you always ahve a bit of a breeze to cool you. Pretty grim during the day, deserts can be very peaceful and very beautiful early in the morning and late in the evening. 

Bad weather

Warm and wet is not much of a problem, you just wear shorts and a tee-shirt and dry out when the sun comes out. Cold and wet is a question of having the right gear - a good base layer, waterproof jacket and waterproof trousers. The main problem with a prolonged spell of wet weather is that after a couple of nights, all your camping gear gets wet and you really have to stay in hotels or guesthouses, which pushes up your costs. 

Washboard tracks

Washboard tracks (gravel tracks that have become heavily corrugated bythe passage of vehicles) are a pain in the bum, literally, and are very hard work on a bike. There's no particular strategy for dealing with them, you just have to try and find the best line (often this is to be found at the very edge of the track). It helps if you have nice wide tyres and front suspension. After a day on washboard, I'm about ready to kneel down and kiss the next bit of tarmac. 

Headwinds

A loaded bike is about as streamlined as a combine harvester, so headwinds are a real bette noir. Spending a day slogging into a strong headwind is mentally and physically debillitating. In fact, a really strong headwind is one of the few things that can stop you in your tracks on a bike. So, checking the prevailing wind direction when you are planning your road trips is quite important.