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Making bicycle trips, what do you need in preparation and in equipment?

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What sort of bicycle do you need for long bicycle tours?

Any bicycle will do. I made fairly long rides in the Netherlands long ago, of about 50 km + later that day 50 km back, several times, on a bicycle with 3 speed Sturmey Archer gear hub. The low gear is useful for hills, 3rd gear is only useful with a tail wind when riding fast. I was riding mostly in gear 2. If you have a single speed bicycle you can use it for a long tour. With a bicycle with more gears you have more options and can ride up hills where otherwise you need to walk, but that is fine.

Your speed determines how far you can ride on a day

The first long trip I made was 140 km. My sister rented a holiday days for a few days, I thought "Why not go there by bicycle" and I just did it. I left very early in the morning, I think it was around 8:00 in the morning, because it was going to be hot that day. Well, 30+ degrees, which is not that bad but rare for NL. so I didn't have much experience with it and I didn't know how I would deal with that on a long trip. I had some short breaks to eat something, average speed was 21.5 km/h which includes stops to eat and to look at where to go because I used maps at that time and the signs in and at the edge of cities of where to go to a certain city (I could have gone faster, but I didn't know how fast I should go). So I was travelling city to city towards my goal, rather than follow a route without even thinking about city names as can happen these days with GPS based navigations. Before this trip I had made trips of up to about 100km, but those were in 2 parts. First 30-50 km to visit someone, for example I went to visit someone in Delft who had old HCC computer magazines that he wanted to get rid of (which are a fantastic resource for computer history), then talk a bit etc. and an hour or so later I went back home. I think that trip was 80-90 km.

The main thing for me is that long rides can get boring so a stop in the middle is perfect, it removes that issue. For a long ride you can easily ride at say 14 km/h, and do that all day so if you leave at 8:00 from Kremenchuk, then go to say Nagirne (about 45 km) that will take a bit more than 3 hours (ca. 11:15). Then you can stay there, have a picnic at the beach, go back 3 hours later (14:15) and return in Kremenchuk at ca. 17:30. I ride faster but effect3ively I also travel slowly because I make a lot of stops to make pictures of everything that is interesting to me.

Recommendation: Leave no later than 8:00 in the morning, so that you have enough time while there is light. If it gets dark you will need good lighting, especially to notice the potholes in the road.

For someone in average condition, who doesn't ride long distances normally, 18 km/h should be possible over many hours on good roads. On bad roads, such as in Ukraine, I would not count on more than 16 km/h. What is a factor that slows me down is that I want to make photos of interesting statues, spots in nature that I encounter. Instead of 20 km/h I end up with averages of 16-17 km/h a lot of times because of this, and I don't count the time I take to make pictures.

Recommendation for someone new to long tours: take a speed of about 14 km/h and calculate how far you can go. Example: You leave at 8:00, you want to spend 4 hours at your destination and you want to be back before 20:00 when it gets a bit darker in summer. Then you have 8 hours for cycling, to the destination and back, which means you could ride 112 km, which means the destination can be 56 km away. However, to keep it fun, have breaks and drink and eat something every 15-20 km or so. If you take a 20 minute break every 15 km or every hour, then instead of 1 hour you need about 1:20 for every 15 km. So you ride 0.75x as far. This means 42 km would be the maximum. Actually a bit more because the last break isn't needed, it is at your destination or back home from the return route:

    Speed 14km/h, having a break every hour:
     
     8:00 start
     9:00 14 km cycled, have a break, 20 minutes
     9:20 continue
    10:20 28 km cycled, have a break, 20 minutes
    10:40 continue
    11:40 42 km cycled, at destination
    15:40 going back
    16:40 14 km cycled on the return route, break of 20 minutes
    17:00 continue
    18:00 28 km cycled on the return route, break of 20 minutes
    18:20 Continue cycling,
    19:20 42 km cycled on the return route, back home.

Where to take breaks and wait for rain: Bus stops!

I usually take a break at a bus stop so I can sit and eat and drink something and on a sunny day in a bus stop I can usually stay in the shade. I did this in Kiev once and got a question about a bus/schedule! :) I then said that I didn't know, and I was just taking a break from riding on my bicycle!

Bus stops are also good places to take cover when it rains... When I think it may start to rain I look out for bus stops and already go there to wait a bit in advance. Interestingly in Ukraine rain is often accompanied by strong winds and besides dark clouds that is a sign though rain starts fairly quickly after that so you need to find cover quickly. IN the Netherlands there is no strong wind before rain. I think it is related to rain being stronger and of shorter duration, usually, than in the Netherlands. My sister said that in Greece there is the same phenomenon as in Ukraine.

Riding: Preventing punctures

Punctures are caused by 2 things:

  1. low tyre pressure and a rock hitting the rim via the tyre and inner tube, or even the rim hitting the road surface when the tyre pressure is very low. These 2 situations often cause what is called a 'snakebite', which is 2 punctures close to each other.
  2. something sharp going through the tyre such as glass or thorns.

Preventing this means:

Skills: Fixing flat tyres (punctures), replacing inner tubes

Fixing a flat tyre is the essential skill. You can try to find a bicycle shop and let them fix a puncture, that is an option in the Netherlands, but it is not an option when you are many kilometres away from a big city in Ukraine. I always take a puncture repair kit and pump with me on any longish trips (by which I mean a distance of more than ca. 5 km. You can walk 5km in an hour, that is just about okay, but 10 km is already 2 hours walking which is too much so I want to be able to fix any punctures distances longer than 5 km. Fixing a puncture + riding is faster than walking).

You need tyre levers, patch kit (patches, sand paper or similar, glue), pump.

How to repair a puncture

  1. Put the 3 tyre levers (2 is possible, but I prefer 3) between rim and tyre, each about 10-15 cm from the next one, then pull the tyre over the rim with first (=middle) lever, then do the same with the 2nd and then the 3rd tyre lever. The tyre should now be loose on that side such that you can remove the rest by hand from the rim. So just 1 side of tyre gets pulled over. just leave the 2nd side of the tyre on the rim. you should be able to remove the inner tube now.
  2. You do not need to take out the wheel, you can rotate the inner tube after taking it out of the tyre to find the leak. you only need to remove the wheel from the bicycle if you need to replace the inner tube. If you have a bicycle with quick release axles then it is easier to pull out the wheel to find the puncture(s).
  3. You can pump up the tube when it is out of the tyre and hear where the leak is, usually. You can also use your hand to feel where the air is coming from. Move your hand along the tyre until you feel an air flow. This is useful on noisy roads where you may not be able to hear the air escaping. You can also put water on the tyre or put it into a bucket (at home) to find especially small leaks.
  4. When you found the leak, note that there may be more than 1! So check for more leaks.
  5. Also make a note of where the hole is and feel on the inside of the tyre at that spot where the inner tube was punctured (keep track of where the inner tube was placed, which direction), whether there is something sharp there that went through the tyre! This avoids the annoyance of fixing a tyre and immediately getting a flat tyre again.
  6. Use sandpaper to sand the inner tube at the place of the puncture and a bit around it, a bit larger area than the size of the patch to be stuck on later. If there are ridges (which are places that connect 2 sections of a tube), sand not in the same direction as the ridge, but at 90 degrees to it to sand that ridge down to almost flat.
  7. Put glue on the area around the leak, a bit larger area than the patch. Wait 5 minutes, take a patch, pull off the protective plastic or aluminium, put it on the glued section of the inner tube, press hard, wait several minutes, then remove the other protective layer. You can also just leave that, it will eventually get loose in the tyre and won't do any harm.
  8. Put the inner tube back between the rim and the tyre. Start with the valve...
  9. Pull the tyre bead across the rim to get it back to as it was.
  10. Pump up the tyre just a little bit to make sure the innner tube is completely inside the tyre and not pinched between rim/tyre somewhere. Push on the tyre towards the centre at the side where you got the inner tube out and back in again, then move 10 cm further and do the same until you have done this for the entire circumference.
  11. Pump up the tyre to full pressure (say around 3 bar, if you don't have a pump with pressure gauge, just feel and look whether the tyre is not too wide when riding on it, this is a sign that the pressure is too low.

To replace an inner tube you will need to remove the wheel and for that you may need a 15 mm wrench, especially for city bikes. Many sports bikes have quick release axles.

Food, water, getting tired

On a hot day water is important to avoid dehydration. The more you sweat the more you need to drink. I drink a few litres per day. If you run out, buy something like Zhivchik yabloka :)

Food is less important. You can ride without carbo hydrates, then you go into fat-burning mode, but that is not very likely to happen if you eat just a little bit. I have had it a few times on 100+ km rides. It feels then as if I can't get myself to go fast at all and I get hot (presumably from the inefficiency of fat burning). This slowness + feeling of not being able to go fast is annoying, the ride is no longer fun. Normally some food such as a few sandwiches or a banana will prevent this.

Getting tired is normal. In fact for me the main issue is not getting physically tired but when I find a ride boring, getting mentally tired. Then it is a struggle to put in the effort (at least to ride fast) to continue, it is no longer fun. You can ride at 14 km/h almost without effort for almost any distance. The issues are more:

Equipment

Essential:

Less essential:

For multi day trips also the following:

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