Cycling Techniques that help when bicycle touring

No matter how heavy the load keep loose when riding.
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It never fails to amaze me how me people insist that only one kind of cycling is the best kind. This may be true for many but for me it's absolutely not the case. I cycle in a variety of ways and although I've come to appreciate the special aspects of each form of cycling I haven't yet found any one type that is so clearly superior as to make the others irrelevant.

For clarity I currently cycle offroad using a mountain bike, in winter conditions (icebike), on the road using a touring bike and when I can find time, I descend hills using a Dirt Surfer. I intend to further round out my cycling experience by riding a fixed-gear singlespeed in the immediate future.

So what exactly have I gained from each of the cycling "disciplines"?

Off road riding on a mountain bike:

Riding offroad using a mountain bike has given me a number of important skills that cross the gap from off road cycling to bicycle touring.

The first skill that comes to mind is learning how to loosen up on the bike when approaching obstacles like rough roads and potholes rather then increasing the tightness of my grip on the handlebars. When you loosen up you allow your body to absorb much more shock without any effect on you and you seem to protect the bike in the process as well.

My definition of loosening up refers to not locking the elbows or knees and not tightening your grip on the handlebars. Although I never completely let go of the bars I have a much looser grip when going over big bumps and, when I absolutely can't avoid them safely, potholes.

Another important skill is the ability to visualize where my backwheel will be when traveling through terrain with lots of obstacles. After some time spent on winding technical singletrack you will quickly learn how to do this. The big advantage is obviously the ability to easily miss that branch or rock on the road etc.

Off road riding tends to feature short and nasty hills. These hills tend to be really steep, far beyond what you will find on your typical road and when this is the case then using proper hill climbing technique is not only desired but required. Failure to slide your butt back on the seat and get your head close to the handlebars can easily result in you being thrown off the bike as it comes down over you thanks to the force of gravity.

Winter riding:

Riding in the winter means that you tend to experience snow and ice. Although a good set of studded tires can really help they don't mean that you have a free ride. You are still very likely to learn better bicycle handling as the snow provides it's own steering inputs for your bike. If you ride offroad then you will also learn how to handle bumpy, shifty terrain. This directly assists with riding on gravel and fire roads as well as those times when you need to make a fast exit from a paved road on to a gravel covered shoulder. At those moments you will be glad of all the winter riding that you've done that's prepared you properly.

Road riding:

When riding an unloaded bike on paved roads, especially the very quiet farmlanes, I've been able to really work on my cadence. I find that for me a higher cadence works very, very well when touring to let me end the day with power left in my legs. For whatever reason it seem to take a bit of time for my brain to remember the speed that I should be moving my legs. It's much nicer to relearn this while doing day rides rather then during the first few days of a tour.

Dirt Surfing:

A DIrt Surfer is very much like a two wheeled skateboard. You need to carry it to the top of the hill or use a land kite to propell you but once moving, when your feet are strapped to the deck you need to focus on your body movements to be effective at riding it.

As time progresses and your skill improves you will find that many of the moves learned descending hills at high speed wearing body armour actually carries over to other types of cycling including bicycle touring. This skill is especially useful to have when it comes time to do a high speed turn to avoid a pot hole on short notice.

Fixed gear singlespeed:

This will be my next adventure. It will be interesting to see how well the fixed gear bike works as a training tool to help get me in shape for a tour. The experiment won't end there either. I intend to go on at least one tour this year using a fixed gear bike.

I am looking forward to coming back to this page and discussing the techniques that riding a fixed gear has given me.

Unicycle:

Although I will be the first to admit that I am a terrible unicycle rider I can indeed see how it could be beneficial at helping you to improve your low speed balance on the bike. Although this could be useful in a number of ways the one that readily comes to mind are those times when you have to climb a long, steep hill in a very low gear. The steadier that you can hold the bike with the fewest number of handlebar movements the more energy you will have to get up that hill.

Summary:

I am certain that this list is not complete and in fact I encourage you to contact me with some additional items as you think of them. As time passes I will update this page with additional thoughts from myself and others to show how other forms of cycling can be enjoyable while also helping you to prepare more effectively for your next bicycle tour.

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