Cycling is like life. Cycling with no goal is meaningless. What meaning is there cycling in circles? Or living aimlessly? Meaning comes from direction and destination. Join me in my life's journey on a mountain bike :)

Blogging since 2003. Thank you for reading :))

Some touring tips

Learnt from Taiwan or earlier rides

Flexibility: don't be wedded to any one thing or method. Wearing something in the morning doesn't mean that thing will work all day. Weather changes. What matters is whether you're too hot or too cold or just nice. "Flexibility" applies to other things in life except values like "maintain core body temperature".

Equipment: buy decent, not cheapskate, things. Something that lasts, rather than capriciously fail on the road. One such thing may be even cheaper than several crappy things that fail sooner rather than later.

Maintenance: check and fix bicycle, equipment at night, there's more time to put things right, than to compromise daylight.

Form: it's hard to pedal circles when in the wrong gear. To get the form right, get the cadence right. This applies to other things in life too. If something is too hard, perhaps the form is wrong.

Safety: if you're going to do things on the bicycle such as eating or buckling, watch out with your ears too. You may be able to hear trouble coming up or down the mountain before you see it. Sound advice! Buffeted by wind? Leave a wider margin of error, in case the wind dies down or is cut off by passing traffic - like a huge lorry.
Always bring along the hotel address or business card, in case you get lost / separated from your group.

Laundry: not in a cyclist's dream hotel (see below)? Sink has no bung? Use a small plastic bag or shower cap as bung. Pack shoe laces as clothesline; they are handy to tie and untie other things too.

Cyclist's dream hotel
Other than standard requirements such as a clean room, especially a clean bed with no buzzing, biting, blood sucking creatures, towel and toiletries, toilet paper, flushable toilet, quiet (cyclists need sleep; no karaoke nearby or paper-thin walls please!):

Room: if there's four persons to a room, two double beds we can make do with. Can we have four blankets please? Or at least two big blankies.

Parking: place to park bicycle in room so there's no need to remove or unpack things from it. Hotel has a working lift, so there's no need to climb upstairs. Bonus if the lift can fit more than one bicycle at a time.

Laundry: a sink or basin to wash clothes in, clothes hangers and a place to hang laundry.

Drinking: free flow of drinking water on demand.  Otherwise, complimentary bottles of water will do.