The question where to go on holidays is constantly raised among people of all ages and family status. For all of them the following option will be true: spending your free time on the fresh air is probably the best alternative for a successful weekend and holidays. One of the ways to rest and at the same time take care of health is to go to the bicycle tour.

Bicycle touring is an excellent way to keep fit and tanned without exhausting workouts in a small gym. Besides, bicycle traveling allows making lots of stops for landscape viewing, small picnics, swimming and simply breathing fresh air, which most of us, city dwellers are deprived of. This is impossible to underestimate the effect that nature has on one’s mental and physical health.

Decide upon your holiday goals

Once you are decided to start this little adventure and go to the bike journey, you’ll find lots of questions arising. Planning a bike trip is not so difficult. Simply decided for yourself what you enjoy most and what do you think the perfect holiday on the bike should be like.

Some people enjoy staying on their own, so that they do not depend on physical strength of their company and can plan expenditures according to own income. Others enjoy the company of the close ones and are eager to share all the hardships and pleasures of bicycle touring with them.

This is better to decide whether you are planning to take a tent with you and sleep somewhere in the woods, or you prefer to stay at some nice inexpensive motel that will definitely happen on your way. This is also desirable to plan your meals. Some people enjoy cooking for themselves; others prefer having a dinner in some hostel or neat restaurant. However, this is not necessary to plan all your bicycle tour day by day. This is nice if you can take both: camping gear and some money with you so that you can vary your journey upon your own mood. Don’t deprive yourself of some flexibility.

What kind of bicycle to choose for journey?

Depending on your type of the bicycle this is necessary to think of all the stuff you are planning to take with you and decide upon your nightly accommodation.

Traveling by mountain bike will allow you going off road on the rough grounds. This means that you will need a tent and a sleeping bag, because motels might not be available in such areas. You have to consider though that this type of the bike is usually little heavy, so long-distance races are probably not your choice.

Racing bikes are much lighter, so you can manage a long distance bike tour. However, you won’t be able to take lots of stuff with you, so plan some expenditures on hotels. You have to consider though that rough grounds are not really suitable for this type of the bike, so most of the landscapes will probably be missed on the way.

Hybrid bike, which is also often called a multi-purpose bike is probably the best choice for the bike touring. Having this type of bike you can carry some stuff with you and be more flexible about where your sleep and eat.

What kind of gear should I take on a bike tour?

If you plan to stay in motels or hostels, then you definitely do not need to take much gear with you. However, if you are intended to do some camping, this is necessary to consider taking:

• a tent
• light sleeping pad or air mattress
• light sleeping bag
• a stove
• a bottle of fuel
• one large pot
• matches
• can opener, knife and spoon

This is the necessary minimum using which you can cook your own food and sleep comfortably on the bank of the river or in the woods.

Enjoy your holidays!

The most important thing though is to be as flexible in your journey as you can. Even if you planned to ride 60 miles this certain day this does not necessarily mean that you have to sacrifice enjoying the best of landscapes for the sake of your schedule. Enjoy every minute and then you will be able to say that you’ve just had the best holidays of your life once you get back home.

Multi-Purpose Bicycles

Hybrids

Unless you plan to exercise in some sort of bicycle parkour, travel a lot off-road and do all kinds of dangerous tricks using your two-wheeled friend, you will most likely go for a multipurpose bicycle. They suit perfectly to explore country landscapes and distant farms, go camping by bicycle and ride for your own pleasure in a gently manner, then a hybrid bike is an ideal choice for you.

Hybrid bicycles are capable of being ridden on off-road surfaces on a good speed and can manage quite rough surfaces if driven carefully. These bikes are a mixture of mountain bikes and road bikes. Thanks to a thinner tires, they are easier to ride on the road. They are also little lighter than mountain bikes, because they don’t have to be that strong and lighter materials are used in them. However, manufacturers usually do not economize on powerful brakes, and hill-climbing gears.

These bikes can be ridden in a relaxed upright riding position which makes them a choice #1 bikes for most bike travelers.

Comfort Bicycles

Not so long ago the new sort of bikes was presented on the market – comfort bikes. This is something in between a hybrid and mountain bike which means that it was adopted for a comfortable upright riding to its best. Manufacturers use slick and fat tires and extremely comfortable saddle. These bikes are used for bicycle tourism as well as hybrids, yet they may turn out to be little slower.

Urban Bicycles

Urban bike suits perfectly for usage in modern cities. This is reliable and safe bicycle which can easily cope with bouncing off kerbs and buses. Basically this is a variation of a mountain bike with slick tires and no suspension at all. Unlike hybrid and comfort bikes a low handlebar position is used in urban bikes. They can easily cope with unpredictably rough road surfaces without any limitations in speed.

However, urban bikes are not really suitable to cope with slippery surfaces, so its better to think of a real mountain bike for hard off-road riding.

Mountain Bicycles

The Price of Mountain Bikes

At first this is desirable to decide about the price you are willing to pay for you mountain bicycle.

Even though many bike stores will offer you extra cheap mountain bicycles for as little as 100 dollars, this is not desirable to consider this as an option unless you do not really care about how long his bike will live.

Let’s say the price of 350 is a minimal amount you’ll have to spend on a light, but reliable mountain bike.

Disc Brakes in Mountain Bikes

Disk breaks are becoming a popular but expensive feature of the modern mountain bikes. Such breaks are more powerful and less affected with bed weather. Unlike usual brakes, these are not affected if the wheel rim is damaged and basically require low maintenance. However, if such brakes get damaged, you’ll have to pay quite a big amount of money for repair. The other consideration – this is difficult to get them repaired on your own or even in a less modern bike shop.

The good news is that this is possible to lower the cost of disk brakes if you choose cable operated ones (more expensive models use hydraulic system). Such brakes are little less powerful, so you have to decide for yourself.

Suspension in Mountain Bikes

The basic concept is that you will not cheap and light mountain bike with full suspension. Full suspension bike will be either very heavy and of a poor design, or quite expensive (over $1000).

Suspension front forks can now be found on quite cheap bicycles (less $300), even though few years ago they were available on the top quality bikes only. They allow riding with extra comfort on very rough off-road grounds. The only problem is that they can make the bike pretty heavier. So mind the balance of quality and price when making a decision.

Road Bicycles

There are quite a lot of varieties of road bikes available on the modern market.

Dropped handlebar racing bicycles

The bicycles you might have seen in bicycle racing are road bikes: tarmac-only, extremely light and very fast. These bikes are used for speed racing on nice roads and are not suitable for carrying luggage. If you want enjoy wind in your face and high speed, this is your choice. For camping purposes you'd better consider a multipurpose bike.

Traditional dropped-bar touring bicycles

For tourists who prefer long distance journeys on considerable nice road surfaces traditional touring bike will be the best choice. These bikes do not use hydraulic brakes or other expensive and heavy technological know-hows, so it keeps the cost of the bike at the reasonable level. Lightweight straight-bar road bicycles

This is the choice for bike tourers who prefer traveling on the road and carry some luggage with them. They are comfortable for long-distance journeys and are very light.

Heavy-duty, straight-bar road bicycles

Heavier duty road bikes are still not very suitable for off-road surfaces, but if you plan a bicycle tour to a third world county or simply know that the road surfaces where you like to travel are not very good at times, this is necessary to consider this type of a bike.