First 'Tour'

[deeaimond]

So I've always wanted to ride my bicycle around and tour, but I'm a lone female and I don't have female friends who are into cycling like I am. Also my parents would totally freak out if i were to go touring on my own. My country is really small, so any real touring is to be done in neighbouring countries. Malaysia is easy, since you just need to ride across a causeway and you're there.

Recently I met a guy in my cycling grp who likes touring too and has some prior touring experience. It helped that we get along well. We decided to do a one week tour of the east coast of the malaysian peninsula, but before that we had an opportunity to go on a short 3 day (1 day ride up, 1 day mooch ard town, 1 day ride back) trip to a town called Mersing, about 130km north past the causeway.

I put a rack on my road bike, it was abit cramped and I didn't wanna spend a whole lot of money, my bike has no braze-ons for attaching a rack so it sits really high, but its not too bad. It's not even my rack. hahha, it belongs to tour partner.

So ride was a success, having only ridden out of Singapore once, used to the relatively flat roads, and quite unfit (extra 8lbs in the last year), we rode pretty slowly. sun was brutal, and I'm glad I covered up every inch (including face, I wear a buff like a balaclava, keeps out road dust and sun)

Took us 10 hours to cover the 130kms there, with hour long breaks at least 3 times :p (I was on VACATION!)

Same timing coming back, but we got caught in heavy rain etc and spent some time waiting for rain to go away (hoped but it didn't. buff is also good for keeping muddy spray from yr tour partner's bike from spraying into yr mouth when u have no choice but to ride close behind him)

So this was the prelude to my first 'tour'. I'll probably write another post upon successful completion of the real one week deal :D

[shootingstar]

Great deeiamond! Once bitten by touring, it won't quite leave you alone. Keeps on nagging me..to do a little trip by myself for a few days by bike. My partner and I have done a number of our own little bike trips ranging from weekend to 3 wks. 'Course he's done alot of solo bike touring.

We started off camping first few years, but thereafter it just was more comfortable going to places with a real bed.

Maybe one day I can plumb you for advice on your area of the world. I haven't even been to Asia yet.

If you scroll down the page of this link, 2 of the women in the photo, have each done solo, loaded bike touring. Woman in middle biked in the United Kingdom (and I think France or Netherlands) and Iles de Magdelene off the coast of eastern Canada. These islands belong to France, not to Canada. They both did their own self-loaded bike trip together in the Canadian Rockies.

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=7782&highlight=aging&page=13

Woman in orange did 5 days solo on her Bike Friday in Quebec on Velo Quebec routes. She loved it and wants to try a different route again soon. (She was a bike courier just after university for a year. She must have been one of the very rare female bike couriers in Toronto of Asian descent at that time..nearly 30 yrs. ago.)

[Tri Girl]

WOW! The picture riding on the road is so beautiful!!!! Congrats on your first tour. I think I would love to just put all my belongings that I'd need for a few months on my bike and go away for a couple months: no pressure to throw down specific mileage, no planned destinations, just ride.
Your week long tour will be so GREAT! How neat that you found a touring partner who you can go with. I was reading a journal from a woman on CGOAB ( www.crazyguyonabike.com ) who rode all around central Asia by herself. She never had any trouble. From the journals of lone women I've read, it seems like Asia is not as worrisome a place as some others for a woman alone. I don't live there, tho, so I wouldn't know for sure.

[deeaimond]

Hi Shootingstar,

yeah I remember reading that thread, full of admiration for women like that. Cycling has given me alot of independance in a sense, (not to mention gives me alot of confidence about my body - alot of my image issues got better since I started cycling)

There are several things about touring solo that I feel isn't so suitable as of yet. I'm 25 yrs old, female, and look local. It's too easy to attract alot of unwanted attention because people/men think you're some young chick. They'll at least give it a try. In malaysia there have been cases of lone female drivers stopped on the road by gangs, raped and killed. If that can happen to someone in a car, I can't imagine on a bicycle. My parents won't sleep for as long as I'm gone, and even if I feel perfectly safe, I know they would be worrying themselves stupid about me, so I won't do that right now. (even riding in a pair I have people telling me to get more people to ride with but I absolutely refuse on that count. Two is the magic number)

Tri-girl,

definitely when I become an expert on the area I'll share all I know. Central asia and southeast asia is abit different I think in terms of amount of traffic and also population density. From backpacking in SEA, i know trunk roads are often heavily used by buses and heavy goods vehicles. Roads are not well-maintained and when the road passes through any small town, there are no stoplights or anything, people just crossing the street, markets, children playing, the occasional animal...

actually, I think lone women who make it halfway across the world to tour on a bike won't have a hard time anywhere... just my opinion hahha.

my tour partner is a photographer by profession, and takes these off the bike. My bike wobbles like crazy if i so much as let my hands go. I let him take all the pictures so I have lovely souvenirs.:D