Long distance cycling.

Lukey

Lukey

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Lukas
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Hey everyone, next year a friend and I are planning something quite insane (by my standards, I've never done anything like this) we're planning to cycle around Iceland:eek:.

I've been to Iceland many times now, I've just come back after a month out there! My girlfriend is Icelandic so we visit quite a lot and see her family and such. It's just such a beautiful country I'd love to see more of it hence the plan!

The ring road follows the circumference of the island and allows you to see a diverse amount of scenery (apparently:D). The road is about 1500km and the trip should take about a month and then some for relaxing afterwards!

I cycle quite a bit, but my real question to anyone who's done long distance cycling before is, have I got enough time (around 11-12 months) to be fit enough to accomplish this? Any tips anyone could give me such as exercise routines or just general long distance cycling tips would be much appreciated!

I also plan on taking my camera and a tripod if weight allows, or maybe just a bloody good compact!:D

Sorry for the long post I hope I haven't bored you all to death!:D

Regards Lukas.
 
Plenty of LSD required (long slow distance). A road club or the local CTC should have Sunday rides, but you'd want to combine that with a midweek evening and Saturday ride, plus commuting, if possible.

Get your contact points sorted out: saddle/padded shorts under lycra or thermal longs; pedals/shoes; handlebars/track-mitts (over thin Meraklon gloves).

Merino or lambswool requires less frequent washing than man-made fabrics. You can get colder than expected when heavy touring, but when your body has switched over to fat- burning after a couple of days you should be fine, but will lose weight.

Keep camera and lenses in salad boxes. Carrying a full-size tripod can be a problem. You don't want metal-to-metal contact. Protective strips can be cut from old wellies.
 
photon said:
Plenty of LSD required (long slow distance). A road club or the local CTC should have Sunday rides, but you'd want to combine that with a midweek evening and Saturday ride, plus commuting, if possible.

Get your contact points sorted out: saddle/padded shorts under lycra or thermal longs; pedals/shoes; handlebars/track-mitts (over thin Meraklon gloves).

Merino or lambswool requires less frequent washing than man-made fabrics. You can get colder than expected when heavy touring, but when your body has switched over to fat- burning after a couple of days you should be fine, but will lose weight.

Keep camera and lenses in salad boxes. Carrying a full-size tripod can be a problem. You don't want metal-to-metal contact. Protective strips can be cut from old wellies.
Click to expand...

Those are some fantastic tips, very helpful! I don't currently have a job, but should in 2-3 months so I have quite a lot of free time to get out there and ride! About the tripod I was thinking of a carbon fiber with lots of padding:D.
 
You've got loads of time to prepare, I don't know how much cycling you have done but a few simple rules should get you round.
Start off slowly and don't build up the mileage too early during training, otherwise you will be bored of riding by the time your trip comes along.
Get 3 pairs of the best shorts you can afford (One you wear, one drying and one pair dry and ready to wear, I use Assos but there are cheaper alternatives) and use chamois creme (to put onto yourself not the chamois.)
Buy and test all your kit well before the event as it all takes a while to get used to and bed in.
Stay well hydrated during the ride and make sure you eat enough whilst you are on the bike, as depending on the schedule you will be mostly eating for the next day.
Take a decent tool kit, lights, spare innertubes cables and tyres, nothing worse than getting a massive cut in your tyre miles from the nearest bike shop and learn basic bike maintenance.
A decent light waterproof is a must!

Thats all I can think of at the moment.
 
Yeah pretty much all covered up there, only thing id point out is i ride (kinda) every day. It is always nice to get a short very easy ride in the day after a very long. You should be able to up your mileage by around 5-10% a week.

A couple of points to make about the bike is to make sure its fitted right, to low a saddle or to far forward/back can really screw your knees up. Along with you back if your reaching to far for the bars.

One thing alot of people also forget about is there core strength, i am not talking about building a 6pack here (if you do thats a bonus according to the girls) talking deep abbs and back, well worth getting into something along the lines aof yoga or pilates ideally a pilates class, your back will love you for it in the long run.

Your diet will become pretty important, in making sure you actually eat enough, for cycling you will need to enough protein to repair the muscles, and lots of carbs to refuel the glocogen stores which is the profered fuel of the muscles, depleting it is one the things thats causes soreness in the muscles.

More thight but stretchy layers is far more comfortable over long rides then lose, it can feel your leaving the house the naked at times but you soon get used to it.

Best bet is to try out both chamois (sp) lined and foam padded shorts weather you opt for lyca or baggys, personally i hate foam padded lycra so stick to chamois lycra.

Always best to have s nice sweat absobant base layer no matter how hot or cold, then add layers to sort temp, if its cooler then a nice wind proof layer is nice, i use gore wind stopper tops, but i am still cold after that, i put a thermal layer under that, or if its raining i use a Gore-tex outer, which is wind and water proof, meaning i normally drop the wind proof layer. Personally i wouldnt be without my goretex layer in rain but despite the claims it can still make you sweet alot even though its breathable, but its still the best wet weather gear i have used to date.

Saddles the firmer the better, for the longer you ride. Soft padded saddles feel nice for short rides but on longer ones you sink into the padding, that can/will cause pressure points to appear on your backside, that will become more and more uncomfortable the rider you ride. loads of different types so best have a look a read up them before buying as the right saddle will in part be down to the shape of your pelvis.

Id also reconmend always taking a couple of engery gel packs with you at all times, as you will find out in time that you can just all of sudden lose energy/feel tired for one reason or another, the gel packs will give you an instant lift, can make a huge difference to weather you can ride back home or make a safe location to be picked up from.

As said though inner tubes and pump are a must, as is some electrical tape, why i hear those that dont carry it, its all very well having a spare tube to repair that puncture, but what it the tyre is acutally split? Electrical tape can be used to great effect, but id reconmend wrapping a couple of layers of it with the sticky surface pointing to the road if a big split to maintain some grip (i use on racing slicks) it also comes in handy if you do run out of tubesi used in the past to fix holed tubes to great effect, ok didnt hold the pressure for ever, but i got home, which i would have done. Its great on cuts to if you should fall.
 
russdaz said:
Yeah pretty much all covered up there, only thing id point out is i ride (kinda) every day. It is always nice to get a short very easy ride in the day after a very long. You should be able to up your mileage by around 5-10% a week.

A couple of points to make about the bike is to make sure its fitted right, to low a saddle or to far forward/back can really screw your knees up. Along with you back if your reaching to far for the bars.

One thing alot of people also forget about is there core strength, i am not talking about building a 6pack here (if you do thats a bonus according to the girls) talking deep abbs and back, well worth getting into something along the lines aof yoga or pilates ideally a pilates class, your back will love you for it in the long run.

Your diet will become pretty important, in making sure you actually eat enough, for cycling you will need to enough protein to repair the muscles, and lots of carbs to refuel the glocogen stores which is the profered fuel of the muscles, depleting it is one the things thats causes soreness in the muscles.

More thight but stretchy layers is far more comfortable over long rides then lose, it can feel your leaving the house the naked at times but you soon get used to it.

Best bet is to try out both chamois (sp) lined and foam padded shorts weather you opt for lyca or baggys, personally i hate foam padded lycra so stick to chamois lycra.

Always best to have s nice sweat absobant base layer no matter how hot or cold, then add layers to sort temp, if its cooler then a nice wind proof layer is nice, i use gore wind stopper tops, but i am still cold after that, i put a thermal layer under that, or if its raining i use a Gore-tex outer, which is wind and water proof, meaning i normally drop the wind proof layer. Personally i wouldnt be without my goretex layer in rain but despite the claims it can still make you sweet alot even though its breathable, but its still the best wet weather gear i have used to date.

Saddles the firmer the better, for the longer you ride. Soft padded saddles feel nice for short rides but on longer ones you sink into the padding, that can/will cause pressure points to appear on your backside, that will become more and more uncomfortable the rider you ride. loads of different types so best have a look a read up them before buying as the right saddle will in part be down to the shape of your pelvis.

Id also reconmend always taking a couple of engery gel packs with you at all times, as you will find out in time that you can just all of sudden lose energy/feel tired for one reason or another, the gel packs will give you an instant lift, can make a huge difference to weather you can ride back home or make a safe location to be picked up from.

As said though inner tubes and pump are a must, as is some electrical tape, why i hear those that dont carry it, its all very well having a spare tube to repair that puncture, but what it the tyre is acutally split? Electrical tape can be used to great effect, but id reconmend wrapping a couple of layers of it with the sticky surface pointing to the road if a big split to maintain some grip (i use on racing slicks) it also comes in handy if you do run out of tubesi used in the past to fix holed tubes to great effect, ok didnt hold the pressure for ever, but i got home, which i would have done. Its great on cuts to if you should fall.
Click to expand...

That is very very helpful, thanks a lot I'll be saving all these in a notepad for future reference!

One thing I'm concerned about is the bike I'll need, I know the ringroad is mainly asphalt but there are lots and lots of amazing small roads that lead off to unseen beautiful scenery, and most of these roads are often very rough and I'd hate to miss out on them, so I was thinking of using a mountain bike.:shrug:
 
What are you currently riding?

If you planning on cross country stuff then a full road bike wont last long, ideally a cyclo-cross bike would be way to go, but they are hard to handle off road, but are major fun once mastered.

Otherwise a full on none suspension moutain bike, with semi slicks possible with armadilo inners, with a big ratio front gearing and broad range rear cassette, you would most likely have to change the standard stuff to make that happen, as its not the ideal of road bike, and not the most ideal road bike.
 
I haven't got anything fancy at the moment, I've got a Giant Roam XR, which has been excellent for what I've used it for so far a small bit of offroad and normal cycling on road, but I'm not too clued up on bikes, I've got a while to learn though:D
 
Id stick with that tbh, fit some slicks though running it throught the winter, then Jan Feb buy some lightweight XC light weight 'racing' wheels with a cassete with something with a fairly large granny ring, and large big chainring up front, then replace the brakes and shifter before going away. Unless your after mega speed of course.
 
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