How to Plan for a Bike Tour

Industry magazines and fanatics will tell you that road bikers are once again sloshing on the sunblock after years of living in the long shadow of would-be singletrackers, rock-hoppers, and BMXers. It would appear that the asphalt whine of thin tires is finally finding a new audience. Maybe we are experiencing a delayed awareness of Greg Lemond and now Lance Armstrong as champions in the sport of two-wheeled road racing. Maybe it's because the high-tech appeal of knobby-tired and bouncy Y-frame cycles (and the paths for which they are designed) is too high tech for some. Maybe it's because finding and maintaining speed over very long stretches of open country is only possible on covered roads. Maybe it's because human-powered long-distance travel is sometimes best accomplished on byways along which human settlements and support networks have been built. Maybe it's all of the above. Whatever the case may be, road cycling and touring are coming back into their own.

However, along with the newly licking flames burst from the bellowed embers of this fine sport and leisure pursuit come the standard dangers of uninformed enthusiasm. While that which is in vogue attracts attention — the flash of the product (cool bikes, shapely thighs, and the much-sought-after biker's butt) and the bubble of the boast ("I just biked in from Greenwich . . .") — there is also a lot wrapped up in the preparation and production of the end result. Unfortunately, there is not always enough attention paid to these means.

Here, then, to ease our conscience and help prepare you for some of the challenges ahead, is a short list of practical things to contemplate seriously BEFORE you begin a road biking trip of any length. Just as you wouldn't (or shouldn't) launch into an involved camping expedition without studying the terrain and weighing both your bags and the options, think ahead before you assume that there are just the right kinds of ideal biking roads and resources in between you and your distant destination.