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Bike Adventure Guide zine

bike fitting, Bike Repair and maintenance equipment info, Camping tips

journal entries and photos from eastern canada tour

illustrated and written by: Jason roussel

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I wrote this zine after a two month bike trip in Quebec and the Maritimes. I spent 2 months on the road alone, camping and couch surfing my way around. I had worked in bike shops for about 6 years before, so I was feeling pretty confident, but along the way realized that I was a little un-prepared. It took more than a year for me to open the files again and look through my photos and journal to put this zine together.

It can seem pretty intimidating to cover hundreds of kilometres on a bike, but I find cycling is one of the most gratifying ways to travel. Some cycling trails follow old rail road tracks, wind around rivers and valleys, giving you a totally different narrative of a place, and people. Touring lets you end up in places where you would have never seen in a car, bus or train, and lets you improvise your journey.

Its also pretty cheap, and obviously environmentally friendly if you’re not over consuming cycling and camping gear. I made this zine with that in mind, and offer lots of ways to save money, where to sleep, how to fix your bike, and what to eat.

I’d like to acknowledge the fact that I have only cycle toured in Central and Eastern Canada as a white able bodied dude in my 20s, any advice that I give is given from this perspective, but I hope it can be useful to a wide range of people and places.

Saddle, Tires, Odometer, Map 6Riding, Bike Repair, Tools, Parts 8

Truing, Brakes 12Camping, Stealth Camping 14

Food, Cooking, Water 16Online Resources 18

5 Bike Fitting7 Clothes, Cargo

11 Chain, Flats, Broken Spokes

15 Squatting17 Wildlife

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The right bike:

A bike that is in good working condition is absolutely needed. Find a road bike that is comfortable, take it on a few long rides before departing to make sure you are comfortable. I would not recommend a bike with sus-pensions, or one with big tires.

There are touring specific bikes made with sturdy frames and lots of braze-ons for mud guards and other attachments, and angles and lengths for comfortable long rides. Its great to have one, but not essential, my trip was done on my city fixed gear road frame conversion. People have done long trips on three speed cruisers. Original touring bikes were fixed gear cruisers with flip flop hubs for two gears ratios and little maintenance!

Fitting your bike:

The more you are leaning forward the more leg muscles you can engage making pedalling easier, and you are also more aerodynamic.

You torso should be at a 45 degree angle from the ground, and you arms also, making a 90 degree angle at your shoulders. This is the basic posi-tion but bodies are made different so start from there and adjust depend-ing on what your body tells you.

You seat should be high up enough so that your legs almost fully extend when you pedal but completely.

If you hands are getting numb try bringing your handle bars up higher or move you saddle more forward on the rails.

If you crotch or genitals are getting numb find a saddle with a hole down the center. There are two large arteries that run in between your legs and sometimes saddles will cut the circulation in some people. Saddle pitch can also help alleviate pressure.

If you legs or feet are getting numb, try adjusting the pitch of your saddle forward, bringing your seat tube down a little, or pushing your saddle back on the rails.

Its very hard to diagnose problems with riding positions.You can pay hun-dreds of dollars at a fancy bike shop for a bike fitting with cameras and 3D imaging, or find a friendly bike shop, or co-op and do some trial and error before your trip, sometimes a few millimetre adjustments can make a big difference.

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Saddle

Avoid wide saddles on a road bikes, you want something narrow enough so your legs and move freely or else you’ll get chaffing in your inner thighs. The more you are leaning forward on a bike, the more narrow you want your saddle, vice versa for upright bikes. The right saddle is the hardest thing to find. No need to spend big, I found the right saddle for my crotch for 20$.

Tires

You’ll want something small enough to get rid of rolling resistance, but not too small or you’ll get pinch flats and a rough ride. A little bit of tread is a good thing, especially if you’ll be riding unpaved paths and trails, too much tread will give you rolling resistance and make pedalling harder.

Look at the side of you tire, there will be two numbers separated by a “X”. The first number is the diameter of the tire, the next is the width of the tire. For a 700 wheel I’d recommend a 28 or 30 width for touring, for a 27 wheel at least 1-1/4 and 26 at least 1.0. Most bike shops and co-op can help you out with this if you are still unsure.

Odometer

A cycling computer is helpful on long trips, and will help you keep track of how far you’ve been, how long until the next stop, access to water or food, and how long/far you can expect to bike in a day. Cycling computers start around 20$. Don’t let the bike shop sales person try to sell you some fancy wireless over priced gizmo unless you really want it.

Maps

Road maps can be found in pretty much any tourist office for free. Don’t bother buying one. In Quebec every region has its own cycling specific map and they are amazingly useful, other provinces are not so kind and you might have to use a combination of local, tourist, and provincial maps find you way around.

Clothes

Don’t skip on bike shorts, get some with padded crotch, it will avoid crotch chaffing and blisters. Second hand is probably not good because the pad will be worn down, you can get a decent pair for about 50$, and trust me, chaffing and blisters in your crotch is NOT worth saving the cash. If you are still getting chaffing, a little bit of petroleum jelly or baby powder might help. They are meant to be worn without underwear.

Bike jerseys will keep you dry, protect you from sun burns, and are long enough in the back to hide your butt crack. They also have convenient pockets on the back for water bottles, or food or your cellphone.

Gloves are not necessary, but will keep your hands dry, sweaty hands suck when your trying to pull on your handle bars to go uphills. They can also help if you are getting numb hands and fingers and avoid blisters.

I brought one change of normal clothes along with me, which was great at night when I dried the sweat off my bike clothes, and when I stayed a few days in a city. I also had a top and bottom base later, good for cool nights and chilly mornings.

I had a rain coat and rain pants. Rain gear is not super great when you are cycling because you just end up sweating inside of it, but useful when camping out.

Avoid cotton.

If you don’t have bike shoes with cleats, find something breathable with a stiff soul.

Cargo

If you’re carrying a lot of gear get panniers for the front and rear of your bike. This will distribute the weight over your bike and make you less prone to pinch flats and your bike will be much eas-ier to control. When you choose a size, make sure your heels clear the rear bags when you pedal! Bring bungee cords!

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Riding:

Try keeping you back straight and your head up, don’t arch your back, bend at the waist, this doesn’t work for everyone, but for most people will avoid back/torso problems.

Keep a steady cadence, you will loose speed by coasting, and you use much more energy building up speed than maintaining it.

Drink water constantly and before going up hills, trying to drink while out of breathe at the top is a horrible feeling. Zig-zagging up hills can make the climbs easier, watch out for cars.

Don’t let yourself get bullied by cars. You have just as much right to be on the road as they do, and chances are you will have priority in almost any situation. Bikes are traffic, so obey the same traffic laws as cars! Turning left? Get in the left lane!

Tap your brakes when going downhill. Holding onto your brake for along time will heat up the rims and may cause a blow out of your inner tube, dangerous!

Basic Bike Repair and Maintenance:

I won’t go over everything here, only what you might run into on your trip. Inspect your bike often, before heading out for the day, at night while camping. The last thing you want is bike failure and potential accident hundreds of km away from home. I skipped gear adjustments, make sure they are okay before you depart, and you should be fine.

Tools and spare parts check list!

□ Compact bike pump□ Plastic tire leavers□ At least two spare inner tubes□ Patch Kit□ Bike multi-tool□ An extra tire (foldable packs nicely)□ Brake pads□ Spoke wrench□ Chain lube□ Utility knife □ 15 wrench (for bolted wheels)

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Chain:

Keep your chain lubed up, but not over-lubed! After a rainy day, add some lube to your chain. Pedal backwards with one hand, dripping a bit of chain lube onto you chain on the back gears. Wipe off the excess with a rag. Too much lube may gunk up your bike, even end up on your rim and reduce your braking power!

Flats:

Remove your wheel off your bike, (1) use your tire leavers to remove the tire off the rim. (2) Take the inner tube out of the tire, (3) use your pump to find the leak and inspect it to find out why it is flat.

If the hole is near on the outside part of your tube, where it would be touch-ing the tire, something probably poked through. Inspect the it carefully, inside and out, chances are the object is still lodged in your tire and will cause another flat if you don’t remove it. Patches work well with these kind of flats if the hole is not too big.

You may have a pinch flat if you hit a pot hot or went down a curb or hit a rock. Pinch flats will show up as two small holes side by side on the inside part of your tube, where it would be touching the rim. Patches are less ef-fective with pinch flats, you can try, but I’d recommend a new tube.

If the leak on your tube is frayed, and kind of looks like a star, you might have a blow out. Check the side of your tire for a hole, you might have to change tire, and a patch will most likely not hold up so change the tube also.

Once you’ve fixed or changed the tube, (4) pump a bit of air back into it so it takes its shape, place it inside the tire, place the valve of your tube in the hole of the rim, (5) and using your thumbs only, slide the side tire one wall at a time over the rim. (6) Then use your bike pump!

Broken Spokes:

Broken spokes can happen. One broken spoke is not a huge problem, and you can ride to the next town to pick a new one up. If you don’t have a spoke wrench to remove the broken spoke, twist and bend it around other

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spokes for the time being. Multiple broken spokes is a problem, and will affect the structural integrity of your wheel, you should probably try to hitch a ride or walk to the next town.

Truing:

Find out where the rim is bent, using the brakes pads as visual guides. Placing your bike upside down standing on the saddle and handle bars is best way to do this so the wheel can spin freely. If the rim is going to far to the left, you want true it towards the right to center it. Loosen the spokes going to the left side of the hub, and tighten the ones going the the righ side. Vice versa for the other side. Take your time, only turning a quarter or half turn at a time, picking an odd number of spokes to work on, with the middle spoke being the one where the bend is the worst. You might want to practice this before your trip, it can get confusing.

Brakes:

Changing pads is simple, there is one screw, usually an Allen key screw. V-Brakes will have multiple washers, take note of which goes in what order. To adjust the pads, loosen up the brake pad screw, hold down the brake hand leaver with one hand, align the brake pad to the rim, making sure it does not touch the tire, and then tighten screw. To tighten loose brakes, unscrew the adjustment barrel until satisfied. You can also unscrew the anchor bolt, and pull the cable tighter, squeeze the brakes arms together to help you out, then tighten the anchor screw back up. You can loosen up brakes by screwing in the adjustment barrel, or loosening the cable on the anchor. V-Brakes adjustment barrels are on the hand leavers.

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Camping:

A 30$ tent will provide you with shelter from living things, but won’t do very well for rain. The best tents for rain with have a rain cover that goes over the entire tent, not just the top or netting panels. If you can’t afford a good tent and you are stuck in the rain, avoid touching of having any objects against the walls of your tent, or else, water will seep through the fabric. Hanging a tarp over your tent during the rain is a cheap option.

Camp sites:

Most are overpriced, but shower and bathroom facilities, Wi-Fi, electricity, and other services can be a welcome break from the road. Some national and provincial parks are really pretty, but they are fairly over priced, and you’ll be spending 30-50$ a night per person. Wildlife is pretty smart, and you more likely to encounter raccoons, or other foragers in these areas where there is a high concentration of human food and garbage.

Stealth Camping:

Stealth camping is the act of camping out in a stealthy fashion were you are not supposed to, and its really easy.

Safest place to stealth camp is on public property. Getting caught in a park, baseball field, or rest area, may get you a ticket for being in a public place after hours, getting caught camping on private property might get you arrested for trespassing. Its much easier to talk your way out of trouble if you don’t have a tent set up when people arrive to ruin your fun, so set up at sunset, take down at sunrise. Night time will provide plenty of cover, keep your fires small and out of sight.

Find a spot were you can’t easily been seen from a road, the side of bike paths, side of highways, sport fields, those weird places between highway off and on ramps, road stops, bike path road stops, shores of rivers, lakes, or oceans, abandoned plots of land, overpasses, behind a structure, in a deep corner. In my experience most people will not bother you.

In rural areas sometimes you would be surprised how friendly people are, try asking people with large plots of land if you can set up your tent for the night.

Bridges and overpasses also offer great shelter, especially if you aren’t using a tent. Watch out for tides if you are near the ocean! Also, watch out for the water gutters in the structure, especially if its raining.

Squatting:

A roof, inside an abandoned building, or a not abandoned buildings, a boat, whatever, set up late, take down early, and you have much less chance getting caught. Look for signs of human presence, some people live in these spaces and you don’t want to take over their homes!

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Food:

Dumpster diving is a great option for touring. Rural areas are less likely to lock their dumpsters, or have trash compactors, unless you are in a area with lots of wildlife. Truck stops & rest areas are great places to dumpster and table dive.

Foraging is an option, but risky. You can easily find books, zines, or info online about wild edibles. Raspberries, blueberries, black berries, apples, fiddle heads, chokecherries, are all easy to recognize and plentiful de-pending on the time of year. Fungi and mushrooms are very risky, but chanterelles, agarics and puffballs are pretty common and easy to rec-ognize. Do not eat wild things unless you are 100% sure they are edible.

Dehydrated food is great if you have the money. Its light weight and I usually carried one pack of it in case I ran out of my other food supply or couldn’t dumpster anything.

Cans and other non perishables are great too but most of the time heavier. Bread can easily be compressed to take up less space. Carry a container to keep left overs or foraged food. You are going to want to eat a lot of carbs in the morning and during the day to keep your sugars high, and in the evening; protein so your muscles can recover.

Some of my favourite & convenient things to eat on my trip; can of beans or stew, pasta, trail mix, pb&js, dried fruits. Mostly dollar store stuff.

Cooking:

A fire is an obvious choice for cooking, but may blow your cover if you are stealth camping. Camping stove is an option, but heavy and expensive, and gas sucks anyways.

There are other camping specific fuels to use, some in solid forms, some in gel forms, but they are expensive and usually full of chemicals.

Fire starters are my choice. Dollar stores sell packs of 12 fire starters made of saw dust and paraffin wax. One is enough to heat up a single can of food, or bring to a near boil a cup or two of water, they burn for about 10 to 15 minutes each, use two at a time for big portions.

Water:

I carried at least two bottles with me at all times and ran out a few times. Fill up often, even if you aren’t empty. Drink often, I drank sometimes 6

bottles a day! Drink before hills, trying to drink while out of breath is hor-rible.

Get water in government buildings, malls, restaurants, museums, outdoor plumbing on houses if you want to be a little sneaky, and most people will fill up your bottles if you just ask nicely.

You might have to buy bottled water in rural areas where there is no drink-able tap water, terrible I know. Water from lakes and rivers is tricky, you can boil it for one minute (full boil, not small bubbles), there are camping specific chemicals and filters to clean water, but these methods might not be safe if there is a factory or other pollutants upstream.

Rain water is safe outside smog ridden large urban areas and away from air polluting factories.

Add lemon, fruits, cucumber slices to water to sneak some nutrients, and taste to your water. Hot beverages will make you feel cooler on hot days.

Easy Sports Drink Recipe:

1 part water1 part juicepinch of salt (for electrolyes)

Wildlife:

In the wilderness, try not to keep your food in your tent, hang it up in a tree with that bungee I told you to bring, on a branch a couple of feet away from the tree trunk and at least 6 or 7 feet off the ground.

Cooking supper earlier in the day, then biking a few more km before set-ting up camp will avoid wildlife from smelling their way to your camp site.

A bear bell is pretty useful, or any loud sounding bell will do, I kept it on my bike frame when I was cycling through rural and wilderness areas and in my tent at night.

For pretty much any dangerous wildlife, bears, coyotes, wolves, the same rules apply upon encounter. Makes you presence known, but not in a threatening way, speak loudly and firmly, but don’t yell or startle the ani-mal. Use you bell, gently at first. Make yourself look bigger, hold you bag over your head, open up your jacket, whatever. Walk away backwards facing the animal, Don’t run away, that will increase the risk of them chas-ing you.

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Make your presence known at your camp site when you are in the wilder-ness. A fire is an easy way, playing a radio or music not too loud is another.

Dogs in rural areas can actually really be threatening. I got chased by a dog about once a week on my trip to Halifax. You’ll probably be able to out-run most dogs, they will stop chasing you once you are past their property. If you can’t, try to be the alpha dog, talk loudly, and try to scold the dog. If you are dismounted keep you bike between you and the dog.

Other random tips:

Rechargeable batteries! If you’ve got a camera or other electronics, its pretty easy to find the side of a building to plug into for the night.

Camping soap is biodegradable and not really expensive, you can wash yourself, dishes and clothes with it!

Online Resources:

Hospitality:Warmshowers.org (cycle touring specific), Couchsurfing.org, Hospitali-tyclub.org, Couchwiki.org

Cheap accoms:Hostelworld.com, Hostelbookers.com

Travel info:Couchwiki.org, Wikitravel.org, Use-it.info (Europe)

Bike paths & trails:Routeverte.com (Quebec), Waterfronttrail.org (Southern Ontario), TC-Trail.ca (Canada), EuroVelo.com (Europe), SusTrans.org.uk/ncn/map/National-Cycle-Network (UK), AdventureCycling.org (USA), CycleTrails-NZ.com (New Zealand)

Bike info:http://sheldonbrown.com/

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