I plan on doing a very long trip in 8-10 months. After acquiring most of my gear, I set off this weekend to ride along the „German Weinstraße“ towards france and then an additional 20km to Lauterbourg to be able to jump in the sea.
Very refreshing!
My first trip was nice but also extremely exhausting, honestly, it being 30-35 degrees outside for the whole day wasnt helping the case.
Now I know i brought way too much equipment, but since i was „training“ for the long tour i tried to bring most of the stuff I d then have to carry around.
Now some answers and tips would be very appreciated.
I did fine the first 30ish km, even with all the ups and downs. But I was soon unable to cycle any small hill that even had a slightly to steep of an angle. There was a passage where it went 20% degrees up for roughly 100m and since this is a common bike route i wondered how people with no baggage would handle that!
But enough rambling. Some stats and things i consider changing and with your input hopefully even more.
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I ll remove my 2 front panniers and either replace them with those small fork bags, or just water. Unsure yet, but definitely lighter!
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Raising the handlebar/fork up a little bit to be closer to me since during the last 20km i got issues with my small and ring finger nerves, same when going for a drink. Unable to cycle free hand (bicycle had a strong tendency to go left) for a drink was unpleasant
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my bags were nowhere near full, and the very puffy one was just this big bc i had my air mattress, tent and sleeping bag (which is synthetic and HUGE) in there. This is will put in a dry bag on the back i think.
General questions:
How do you handle steep sections with lots of additional weight?
Any tips against wrist/nerve pain?
I had cycling gloves on and swapped hand position quite frequently. I think the handlebar extensions arent as helpful as expected.
Are there sturdy bikes that weight less than ~19-20kg? And are available for tall and heavy folks? Maybe i am just weak or spent too much time in an office with almost no physical activity.
If it helps to help. I am very tall, weigh 112kg / 240lbs, the bicycle roughly 19kg / 40lbs.
by Scolas3