Planning first multi-day ride (solo)

[Kumar Pratyush]

People, 

I have been riding for almost a year now. I have done a few century rides and am a regular office commuter. I own a Btwin rockrider. 

I have been planning a multi-day ride for quite some time now and have zeroed in on doing this trip in February. I was thinking of this : Bangalore -> Mysore -> Bylakuppe -> Mysore -> Bangalore. I have 4 days in hand (15-18 Feb). 

However, I have no idea where to start my preparations from. Starting from pannier rack to accessories to points I should be aware of. I want this trip to be absolutely thrifty and want to avoid any unnecessary expenses. 

Could the oldies please pour in their experience on to me? I would love to know if my plan is on the right track. Also, if you guys have some alternate route/destination in mind, please fire away. I want to visit a place (have always wanted to visit Bylakuppe and spend a day or two there). 

But mostly, the questions nagging me would be : 
1. What all accessories should I be carrying?

2. What all accessories do I need to buy?

3. What service/repair tasks should I learn? (I can fix punctures, dissemble/assemble bike, fix gear indexing)
4. Any pointers to keep in mind? (It could be trivial for you, but a mammoth for me)

P.S. - The round trip for this route comes to around 500 kms. Would that be overkill? 500 kms in 4 days. I usually do century rides on weekend but don't feel too tired the next day. 

Eagerly anticipating your responses and suggestions. 

Thank you.

[suman paul]

Hi Pratyush

My first brevet route was Mysore-Madikeri-Mysore 200 kms and it was a fantastic rolling terrain for a newbie. So you will not have any problem doing that since you have done many century rides. 

My plan could be :

Day 1 - Bangalore to Mysore and halt in the night. 

Day 2 - early morning start and get in to Bylakuppe by noon at the max and sink into momos. 

Day 3 - start late afternoon from Bylakuppe and reach Mysore by evening and halt the night. 

Day 4 - Mysore to Bangalore leisurely ride back. 

In terms of tools, may be puncture kit with a multitool will suffice. 

Fix a rack on your RR and take all your luggage in a pannier for a comfortable ride experience. If you are a minimalist then probably you can fit everything in a handlebar bag and saddle bag also accompanied by your jersey pockets. You will get good enough food options along the way so no need to carry with you. For cramp protection, you may carry some salt with you. 

All the best and have a safe tour. 

thank you & regards

suman

+ 91   9886300685

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[Prashanth Chengi]

Five hundred km in four days is really not overkill; don't go overboard with packing too much stuff though. You are going to be going through places with plenty of opportunities for resupply, so you don't have to pack too much food. With a bit of planning, you can even decide where you'd want to stop for each day. 

What you don't need:
1. A set of clothes/underclothes for each day of the ride; you are doing a bike ride, not going on a trip in a SUV. Keep things minimal.
2. Too much food. Fresh food gets spoiled quickly in the hot sun/humidity and is needless weight. A few bananas and munchies like peanut chikkis should be more than enough fuel on the move, and you can always stop and eat a decent meal, when you can.

What you need

1. Padded shorts, preferably bib shorts. Just one will do. 

2. Spares and tools: a multitool, spare inner tubes, puncture kits, spoke wrench, perhaps a couple of spare spokes, chain-tool, some kind of synthetic oil (machine oil), not vegetable oil, a rag for cleaning.

3. Proper lighting. Dynamo is best, but otherwise, lights that can run off AA batteries (which you can buy practically everywhere). High visibility jacket, reflective leg bands.

4. Helmet: a must.

5. A few strips of bandaid, a small bottle of dettol/antiseptic powder (even cooking grade turmeric should be fine, not the pooja stuff). 

Dress to stay cool, not warm; even if it's cold, you'll be generating a lot of heat while pushing hard. If you are feeling cold, push a bit harder ;) Don't wait till you are really hungry or thirsty, before you eat or drink, or you'll end up bonking. 

All the best, and don't forget to write a detailed account of your ride, to share with all of us!

Regards

Prashanth

--

[Prashanth Chengi]

Also, keep spinning all the time; if you have to stop pedalling, lift your butt off the saddle. If you start coasting while sitting on the saddle, that's when you end up getting a really sore butt, and if you do it for a while, not to mention on a multi-day ride, you'll be done for.  Opendro has the best advise for the butt; clean with clean, cool water often (if possible, at all your stops), and wipe dry. Moisture down there, due to sweat is not very good. If you use chamois cream/contact gel, use sparingly, and only after you clean yourself well first.

/Prashanth

[Opendro]

Yupe. Cleaning in the first 12 to 20 hours is even more crucial than later because the initial sweat seems to be more damaging in my experience (may be because I usually don't do that much long ride in my trainings). Sweat acidity/alkalinity seems to be stabilized after 24 hours. Depends on the heat during the day too.

[Kumar Pratyush]

Thanks guys. This has been a boost to my dwindling confidence. Regarding Bangalore -> Mysore, any particular route that you guys suggest?

[berkeleydb]

Re: Bangalore-Mysore route -- Kanakpura road is more scenic, and less traffic, but it can still be a bit tricky, being undivided on many stretches (though I think that has changed on many stretches in the last 1-2yrs). I would vote for it, over the Mysore highway. So you could do Kanakpura Rd in both directions.

Additionally, check Pipeline rd, off Kanakpura Rd, on google maps. It is a very good route (road is bad in some sections close to Bangalore). But I think it goes upto Kanakpura (maybe bit beyond?), so you can avoid the Kanakpura rd traffic as well. You should definately consider it in one direction. Might want to avoid it close to dawn/dusk, since it might be isolated.

Talking of routes -- use www.plotaroute.com, to check the elevation profiles of various routes/sections, beforeand, and also on-the-go (esp if you are making change to the route on-the-go). Being very familiar with the elevations profile of your daily route, can be very big help in pacing yourself. Also, you can avoid the trap of "I should be able to complete the next N kms in time T, and then hitting a climb and finding out that your estimates were completely off".

Try to keep a backup SIM (ideally, one BSNL SIM), so you have good assuarance of mobile data connectivity. Unless you really plan to "rough it out". That can help you not just with route planning, but also planning stays. Using MakeMyTrip, OYO, AirBNB, (& Google maps)... you can book a stay, few hours in advance, in many cases. That will give you a lot of flexibility (if needed) in your rides.

Re: gear -- for a short ~4day tour, basic panniers like the one available in Decathlon, should suffice. If you don't have a rear carrier, I would suggest the XMR(?) alloy one; RR Cycle Madiwala (or various other LBS) should have it. Very good balance of price/durability/design/weight. For clothes, I would suggest 3 pairs of riding T-shirts & vests (incase you use those) -- you can wear them at night as well, so you don't need to carry anything separate for night wear. Keep a wind cheater (aka, wind breaker), which should help with cold & light rains. Or a light jacket (preferable), which is better at keeig water (and cold) out -- so you can probably handle moderate rains as well. Good padded shorts; 2 pairs, ideally, so you can wash the used one each night, and use the other next day, if the first one does_not dry overnight.

Other than that, keep basic tools, etc., so you can fix punctures. And a handpump too, then.

Rest, I think whatever you did during your other long day rides, just follow that -- water, food, etc.

-{db}.

[Kumar Pratyush]

Well then! 

This trip happened; not quite as planned though. So I took the kanakpura road route (via the pipeline road) to mysore on day 1. Apart from some weariness, I was feeling fine. A good night's rest and I was ready for day 2. I rode from Mysore->Bylakuppe and covered the ~90 kms in ~4 hours. Cycled another ~50 kms within Bylakuppe discovering the city. 
By night time, I could feel some pain in the knee (front of the knee). I never skipped any stretching session and yet the pain was increasing while pedalling. 
I thought a good night's rest would repair the exhaustion and I would be ready to ride back. However, on day 3, I rode from Bylakuppe -> Mysore with the knee pain which kept increasing with time. Eventually, I took airavat bus from Mysore bus stop to Bangalore. 

I can't understand as to why the pain started. Was it lack of practice or was it lack of stretching. As far as I know, there is no issue with saddle height (properly adjusted) and I did stretch pre and post the ride. 

Could you guys shed some light as to how I can prevent this from happening again. 

P.S. - I came back on sunday night and cycled to office today - the pain is still there. Slight discomfort, but there. I guess I have to give them proper rest before I start riding again. But any clues as to why this happened would be great. :)

Thank you :)

[Naresh V.]

looks like a bike fit issue. might require some foam roller usage and stretching especially for quads, inside-thighs and IT bands.

[Ravindra BR]

Hydration

unusually high seat position

My son had similar case

Regards

Ravindra BR

[berkeleydb]

What bike were you riding? The quality (& bike fit) issues can start to become apparent, as you do long rides on consecutive days. Same applies to your fitness as well.

Also, how much stuff were you carrying, & how did you carry it?

Depending on various factors (temperature, elevation, road/traffic conditions, ...), ~100kms+ on consecutive days, can be quite taxing. Also, on the specific days, if your physical/mental conditioning is a bit low, that can cause issues.

I would say don't focus too much on a single experience. Do a few multiday rides, scaling up from say 70-80kms/day. You should be able to see what tends to trigger problems, & then look at addressing them.

-{db}.

[Kumar Pratyush]

I was riding a Btwin RockRider 520. The bike frame is of `S` size. I am 5'3" and decathlon suggests size S for people between 4'11" to 5'5". 

Regarding the stuff that I was carrying - I had a small frame bag which contained all puncture repair kit and the mobile phone. I had affixed a carrier (aluminium build, very light weight) and a one sided pannier back hanging on the rack. The bag did not weight more than 6 kgs (of which water amounted to 2 litres)

Regarding my fitness, I hadn't done any long rides for at least 45 days prior to this. I had however been running long distances up till the ride. 

It was hot all 3 days, the route from mysore to bylakuppe was a rolling terrain with a bit higher gradient compared to pipeline road. Also, roads inside Bylakuppe are of rolling terrain with even steeper gradient. 

Yes, I do plan to do few more such rides covering lesser distances and increase accordingly. I talked to the bums on the saddle guys. They mentioned that MTB isn't meant for such long rides. They suggested to switch to a road bike. If that is the case, I guess I should start saving :D