bike across Canada

How I did it: I'd had some backcountry camping experience, which helped, especially in the first few days that we were out and camping each night.  It's great to have someone to do the trip with, but I know many who do it alone also.

As far as training goes, I just rode my bike around town, mainly.  My usual part-time work gave me the opportunity to do two 45-60 minute rides each week, which included a few hills, one of which was the ride up to UBC.  I think that taught me how to ride efficiently up hills.

Beyond that, I did try to do some longer rides; I rode Vancouver to Victoria with a friend, which worked well to give me confidence.  I did some 100km rides just around the area, and those were great for testing out whether I had the right saddle.

But the real training started when the trip started.  And once you get going, you fall into a rhythm and you figure out how to survive on the road.

How do you get across Canada on a bike?  One pedal stroke at a time.

(Or by taking one step, according to this map/rug I found in St. John's airport at the end of my trip.)

Lessons & tips: Give yourself enough time before the trip to test out your gear and get comfortable with your bike.  This is especially true of your saddle.  The one that came with my bike had been great for riding around town, but when I started doing longer rides, noticed it was giving me a numb crotch.  Riding for 8 hours a day is pretty different from riding for an hour.

If you're just out to do it and enjoy things, it's better if you give yourself more time.  Then you won't do stupid things like pushing 150km days when you really shouldn't.  Plus, it'll give you a bit of time to explore things, but to really explore stuff, you'd need a lot more time...there's a lot to explore in this country!

We met all sorts of cyclists on the road - from seasoned bike tourers to a couple who were doing it for the first time on bikes they built themselves, wore whatever clothes they already owned, had a huge camping sleeping bag.  It's all about just getting out there each day, and riding whatever you can.  If you don't think you can do it, think about how you'd walk across Canada.  We met one person doing just that.  Now think about how much more efficient it is on a bike!

Meet people!  This country is full of amazing people with fascinating stories and generosity pouring out their front door.

Make sure your bike is well tuned, your wheels are nice and true, and you know basic repair skills.  The roads in Canada are largely good compared to South America or some Asian countries, and you're not in the complete wilderness.  But be comfortable with changing a tube, how to rig a punctured tire until you get to the next bike shop, adjusting your brakes, basic gear adjustment.

Eat lots, and drink lots.  Stretch whenever you can!

For those of you who aren't well-off enough to be hotel-staying every night, get a good sleeping system.  For me, this meant splurging on a down bag and Thermarest that rolls up tiny.  Those were two things I was very, very glad I put the money out for.  You want to be well-rested for the next day's ride.  Having down bags also meant making sure I had a good tent.

You don't need to carry instructions on how to get there.  At each province, we visited the tourist information centre and got their map and camping guide.  Some provinces have better resources than others.  We also made good use of a Canada mapbook - it showed enough detail about secondary highways that we knew where to go, especially in the eastern half of the country.

Resources: warmshowers.org is a fantastic resource and allowed us to skip the occasional motel stays we'd planned originally.  We also got to meet incredible people, many of whom had their own bike touring stories to share.

I was visiting MEC regularly leading up to the trip for general bike and camping clothing and gear.  The cyclone tights were my favourite for cold days and wet days.

The Ortlieb backrollers were fantastic: they take a bit longer to get into and seal up properly, but I didn't have to worry about stopping and putting on rain covers nor did I have to always have rain covers on them (which is what one of my buddies did to avoid the former).  Very durable, one large pocket makes it easy to pack stuff into a smaller space.  When I fell I ripped a hole in one of them: patched it up with a friend's Thermarest patch kit and it was totally fine.

There's a lot of information on the Internet.  Google is your friend in finding it all.

Dec 05, 2008, 01:12PM PST | 1 comment | 1 cheer