bicycle touring
I enjoy driving. I’ve always enjoyed it and I think someday I might even own a car again. But right now, in the heart of the gayborhood in Chicago, a car and I aren’t exactly a matched pair.
But now I own a bicycle.
I’ve been thinking and reading a lot lately about touring on my bike. It feels like I’m always on the ‘Net trying to soak up as much advice as I can on the subject.
I’m determined to do it. But there’s a few hurdles.
1) The mechanical
I don’t know how to change a bike tire. I don’t know a hell of a lot about my bike aside from adjusting the brake pads and tightening some bolts. Nor do I have a set of tools appropriate for travel that could potentially help with any troubles I might encounter. This all can be fixed with some research and some practice. But it needs to be done. I need to be able to take my bike apart and put it back together again. Not all of it mind you, but some of it.
2) The physical
Yes, it’s true, I’ve been riding about 50 miles per week for the last few weeks. My body is still changing as it’s adjusting to this new way of living, but I’m by no means ready to travel a few hundred miles by bicycle. This will get better in time, but I’m going to have to work hard at it. Somehow I’ve got to get more than 50 miles under my belt every week. When the hell I’ll get that done, I’m not sure. But it needs to be done.
3) The mental
Vacations, in my mind, work best with a handful of planning mixed with a handful of spontaneity. And while I can think of many ways to PLAN a 100% bike trip, it’s the handful of spontaneity that scares the shit out of me. The only way to stay that fear will be to get out there and do it. I can’t lie. It’s scary. I can almost taste it. Prepare, prepare, prepare is my mantra. But you can prepare for only so much. Then you just have to react.
So it’s not like I don’t know what it’s going to take. I think I do know a bit at this point. But it’s going to take a while to get around to it. In the mean time, I’ve decide to create a category called bicycling. Wonder what I’ll be posting under that category a year from now…