> Recently I scored a few "Cycing" weeklies from the late 30s and early > 40s and a lot of the touring they talk about are rides of 2-3 days at > most, with a few things in a saddlebag and staying in hostels and > B&Bs. The kind of touring I would find appealing, actually, rather > than riding a two wheeled Winnebago around the world. Modest scope in > terms of mileage, large scope in terms of experience.
Both types of trips are fun. Long tours with at least some time spent sleeping under the stars is a wonderful experience. If you can find the time to plan and go I cannot think of a better way to spend it. Short B&B or hostel trips are much easier on time demands. A lifestyle that incorporates at least one or two such trips annually has many benefits both physical and mental. On Dec 22, 11:16 pm, Tim McNamara <tim...@bitstream.net> wrote: > On Dec 22, 2009, at 8:36 PM, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery wrote: > > > I've long thought that bike touring should be a broader, more > > inclusive term, not limited to multi-month expeditions with 100 lbs of > > extreme survival gear on the bike. I'd go a step further and include > > my usual non-competitive day rides with no overnight component in the > > "touring" category. > > I agree that the definition of "touring" in the US tends to be > extremified and implies round the world, across the country, etc. > type rides. A touring ride is any ride where your goal is to go > somewhere and see the place (versus riding to work where the intent > is to get to work, or racing where the intent is to win, or brevets > where the intent is to complete a specified ride within a time frame, > etc.). It doesn't even have to be a ride in unfamiliar territory. > My personal definition of a "tour" would be a ride that includes > sleeping away from home with the intent of exploring some place and > learning something about it. Grant's notion of an S24O certainly > falls into that category IMHO. I've done a grand total of two tours > by that definition and had a *wonderful* time on both. Definitely > want to do more. > > http://www2.bitstream.net/~timmcn/tour2000.html > > http://www2.bitstream.net/~timmcn/alps2002-1.html > > Recently I scored a few "Cycing" weeklies from the late 30s and early > 40s and a lot of the touring they talk about are rides of 2-3 days at > most, with a few things in a saddlebag and staying in hostels and > B&Bs. The kind of touring I would find appealing, actually, rather > than riding a two wheeled Winnebago around the world. Modest scope in > terms of mileage, large scope in terms of experience. > > > Anyway, I imagine that Grant figured the "touring > > bike" market was limited by the narrow connotations of touring, so he > > advocated a more accessible thing (S24O) people can do with the > > touring bikes and gear he is trying to sell. ACA also stands to gain > > from expanding the definition of bike touring, and it's good that they > > publish stuff like this. > > I'm sure that's true, too. The market of people who want to ride > 3,000 miles in a month is probably fairly small. The people who'd > ride 40 miles to another town, stay overnight, and come home is > probably larger. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
