Why tour on a bicycle?
If this question has been haunting you ever since you were introduced to the weird world of bicycle tourists, you can be assured of getting it answered here. There are many reasons why people tour on bicycle. In fact, most bicycle tourists travel for a variety of reasons. Following are the main reasons why people tour on bicycles.
One Of My Reasons For Bicycle Touring - Discovering Beautiful Empty Roads
* Traveling on bicycle is one of the most pleasurable activities you will ever encounter in your life. The very fact that you may not be able to enjoy five star luxuries while you are on such a trip makes it so fulfilling. People who sleep poorly at night and have poor appetites sleep like a baby as they are lulled into a dreamless state by the music of the insects and the darkness of the camps. After you wake up in the morning to the chirping of birds, you quickly pack your sleeping bag, tent, mattress and other gear into your panniers and set on for the ride. You stop at pretty points on the way, especially scenic areas like lakes, gardens and parks and enjoy the atmosphere. If you love history, you can park your bike on the side of the road and hop over to museums and historic sites. At lunch time, go into the nearest supermarket, buy yourself sandwich materials and sit at a park and have lunch. You can then start riding your bike again. When the lights slowly disappear, think about where you can spend the night, prepare a simple meal, have your supper and read or listen to music. Then as night falls, you can just go to sleep. Isn’t the whole day so simple yet so satisfying? This is the main reason why you will find so many bicycle tourists going on long tours.
* Another important reason why people tour on bicycles is the freedom. You can decide whether you want to go fast or slow, whether you would love to go inside a particularly interesting historical site or not or which diner you want to eat dinner at. Bicycle tour is all about you and what you want. You can rest frequently on days you feel a little lazy or you may even go for a complete rest day whenever you want or you may decide to ride 180 km in a single day! Do what you want. Can you expect this kind of freedom if you travel by bus, train or air?
* People on bicycles are an instant icebreaker. You will not have any difficult spotting a fellow bicycle tourist on the way. Striking up a conversation, sharing a laugh and generally meeting lots of new people is so much fun on bicycle tours. You will also find that there is no shortage of curious locals who would love you to tell them where you are coming from and where you are headed. You will also get used to sudden unexpected offers of cold beer, meals and hot showers from complete strangers.
* Whatever traveling plans you make involving rails, planes, and buses, it will require a substantial budget. A bicycle tour lets you travel on a really tight budget. If you are really pinchy with money, you can tour the country with almost no cost incurred other than your meals. But if saving money and travelling on a shoestring budget is not really why you want to tour on bicycles, you could spend money on good meals at nice restaurants on the way and stay the night at decent hotels.
* Touring on bicycles is environment- friendly and the best way to travel.
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I wrote the following and it was published in our local online paper. Here it the link to the story that has a couple photos attached http://www.columbiamagazine.com/index.php?sid=40140 It may not address the question of “Why Bicycle Touring”, but it does try to explain some of the joys of traveling by bicycle, even though the my last sentence may say it all.
Diane and I took a late morning ride to Holmes Bend today on the tandem. Other then the 13 -15 mph headwinds on the way home, it was a great ride. We were able to experience the autumn day up close and personal. The leaves falling from the trees, the squirrels running through the leaves along side the road. The Hawk aborting its landing as we passed by the fence post on which it was attempting to land.
A coworker asked me the other day why I like to ride a bicycle. My response was “It’s fun.” I then went on to explain the health benefits and other reasons I enjoy cycling. Furthermore I told my coworker about the great times I have had while riding and what he would experience while riding. All of this was met with a blank stare. After we went our separate ways I began to think about the question and that maybe I could have given a better answer.
I can’t think of a better way of escaping life’s pressures then riding my bicycle. When I come home from a long day at work feeling frustrated and frazzled from a marathon meeting, I jump on my bicycle and discover that it is not my body but my brain that is tired.
After a few minutes of getting my blood supercharged with oxygen, the burned out feeling is gone and I feel refreshed and invigorated. At this point it is hard to stay upset over the piddly problems of the day like the messed up order of office supplies or the person that left me on hold.
The other day I had a ride that I will remember for a long time.
This was a route that I have ridden many times before. This was not a long ride; in fact it was one of my shorter rides that I do.
On this ride everything just worked, as it should. I climbed the hills as if my bike had a motor. Car traffic was almost zero.
I had just a couple of dogs to deal with. It was a great autumn afternoon, not hot, not cold. There was no head wind. No mechanical problems.
It is not often that everything comes together and works as it should, but this is not why this ride is special. It was the Whitetail buck that crossed in front of me and then gracefully bounded through the recently harvested cornfield, and as it looked over its shoulder at me, I got the feeling that he was trying to say, “Life is good.” and right then life was good.
All of the pressures and problems of the day were gone.
The problem is, there is not a good way to explain the joys of riding a bicycle because the joy or riding has to be experienced to be understood.
Great Article Gary and also great comment!! Life is good
and yes you can not explain the joys of cycling and/or cycle touring to a person that has never toured, if 2 people with bicycle touring experience get together the conversation usually goes much deeper. Cycle touring is a highly spiritual experience for me aside form a ton of other benefits 
Thanks Leon and Toni.
There are as many different reasons to ride as there riders. None are better then the others, they are just different. Even though Diane and I both ride and we frequently ride a tandem, we have different reasons why we enjoy riding.
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