Developing a Bike Tour Route
8 April 2007 | touring, how-to | No Comments
There are no hard and fast rules for developing a route for your bike tour. The resources you use for traveling to Vietnam is totally different than traveling to Italy for a tour. Because of the diversity of information you can get about any given place, I will focus on two trips- The U.S. and Italy. These are probably two of the most popular destinations in the American bike touring scene. I will also assume this trip is for an individual or small group. Larger groups face several challenges outside the scope of this article. Here are the individual cases, and resources that will help you along:
Bike Tours in the U.S.:
Adventure Cycling Association Maps, Books, and Magazine- If you’ve decided well ahead of time that you want to take a long bike ride in the U.S., then this is the place to get technical knowledge and inspiration. ACA provides incredibly detailed maps on at least a dozen major routes. I suggest getting a subscription to this magazine. The magazine gives the inspiration with a number of articles each month focused on people’s experiences on the road.
Online Forums- Forums offer a wealth of opinions about your rides. The forum I often use is called the Thorntree on the Lonely Planet website. You may also want to try CyclingForums.com. How does it work? Simple. Once you’ve created a password, you can begin to ask questions on the cycling forum. You may want to tell people when and where you want to go, tell them about your proposed route. Usually, you will get back very useful information about perceived weather patterns, fun places to stay, big hills or obstacles, and a host of other information. I also highly suggest searching the forum on your topic. Forums continue to build huge knowledge bases and don’t get refreshed often, so there may be tons of information on your route buried deep within past posts.
Google Earth- Google earth is a free tool Google offers that will allow you to view detailed satellite photos of the entire world. The U.S. photos are far superior to other countries’, though. Why use this tool? Because of two powerful features. First, you can turn on the terrain function and see very quickly where all the major hills and obstacles will be on your ride. Google Earth literally creates a 3D view of exactly the hills you will face along any given route, and they do this for free. Second, you can search for where all the services you want are along that route such as restaurants and bike shops. If you don’t mind paying 20 bucks, you can also get Google Earth Plus that will allow you to estimate tour lengths very quickly. This is very handy!
Getting Local- Let’s say you’ve got the maps from Adventure Cycling and tapped into the forum, what’s next? Get Local. Start calling or emailing the local bike shops that you’ve found on your route. This is important for two reasons. First, if they begin to get to know you, then you will have a bit of a base to stop at and discuss cycling plans with the owners. Second, bike shop owners and employees often know the best local routes and can suggest great local excursions.
Bike Tours in Italy:
Lonely Planet Cycling Guides- Start with a Trusted Source: Lonely Planet- Their cycling series of books are hot off the presses, and have impressed me quite a bit. They provide dining and hotel options, ride excursions, trip routes, elevations, the whole deal! However, don’t stop with just their book. Let’s dig deeper.
Michelin Atlases and Green Guides- The Michelin Atlas is invaluable. Buy the most detailed one you can get for the region you are going to. 1:200,000 is the common scale if it’s any less than that, you may want to look for other options. There is a key in the front of the Michelin Atlas. Learn it well. You would be surprised at just how much information you get from the atlas when used in combination with the green guides.
Kompass and other map makers- One thing people forget about completely when cycling in Italy (or any European country) is to wait to get the best maps in the country they go to. Many regional maps in Italy are only available in Italy. For instance, in Italy you can purchase Kompass maps for most of the really beautiful areas. These maps dig deeper at 1:50,000 scale. They also show mountain bike routes, trekking routes, fire roads, cattle trails, and anything they can cram on the map at that scale. If you’re biking around a region like Tuscany the whole time, these maps are perfect. However, if you are biking long distances, you’ll find you’re on and off a single map in the course of a day.
The Trento Bike Pages- There are several great internet resources available on bike tours in Italy and Europe. I prefer the Trento Bike Pages. This website is not the prettiest or most well organized, but it has tons of cyclists’ experiences recorded on every country in Europe. I found that before Lonely Planet came out with their cycling series, that the best way to get info was to contact these riders directly and email questions back and forth.
This article, by no means, is meant to be comprehensive. I have left out recommendations to favorite tour guides, accommodation resources,picture books, and local consulates. All of these factors will shape your tour route. But for the technical, and geographic aspects of route planning, I’ve given you the basic tools. I found each of these resources to be completely invaluable to the enjoyment of my tours, and I hope you will, too.
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