People who have done solo bike tours, do you find not talking to anyone for days on end a problem?

I’m thinking of doing a four day ride to Denmark, starting in Cambridge. Tips welcome!

Sounds like heaven to me. I might never come home.😃

In practice, I find that when solo touring I chat to lots of folk. Pubs, cafes, shops etc all present an opportunity to hear some local colour and issues. That supposes you are proper touring and not just chasing distance/ speed.

Four days is a warm up. You’ll get talking to people if you need that contact. I used to find I’d usually lost my sense of excitement after three months on a trip, and that would be the time to knock it on the head. These days a week is quite enough, thanks…

However long too long is, it’s a lot more than 4 days 🙂

Sounds awesome, go for it. You can put up with anything for 4 days.

Tried touring with a mate , much better solo!

Limiting factor for me was how many nights I can sleep on the mat.

Sounds like a great ride. It really depends. I’ve done solo tours from a weekend to 9 months. In my experience it’s times like the evenings when I notice being alone, particularly if I don’t speak the language or are camping remotely. Sometimes it takes a little while to get your mindset in to being alone, but then you can go weeks and it’s fine.
Why not find a warm showers host for one of the nights? I always found the social aspect of it much more needed than the warm shower and bed!

Ive done 4 out of the last seven weeks riding. Im hundreds of miles from home and hope to get further. All solo and my first ever solo trio
You do meet folk to chat to. Other tourers and random bams. Social media helps as well

I aim to be away another 8 weeks. Yes sometimes its a bit lonely but you are also free with no need to compromise

As above 4 days is really not along time, after all it’s a only a long weekend. Bike touring is seldom that remote especially in the countries you are going where more of the population will have better English grammar knowledge than most people you meet in The uk.

On another note I think it’s important to be comfortable on your own. If you’re not comfortable on your own what are are you uncomfortable with? Take the opportunity to work that out

OK, I’ve booked a ferry crossing.

All the overnight ones have gone, so I will need to do a night ride from Cambridge to get to Harwich for 9am. Should be interesting if nothing else.

And I kind of need to be in Aarhus for a meeting on Thursday afternoon, so that means I need to be doing a bit over 200km/day, which I think is just about doable, but if not, I shall call upon the services of Deutsche Bahn.

I’m now thinking this is possibly one of the maddest things I’ve ever done in my life.

As above, not sure what the length is but it’s a lot longer than 4 days!!

Hostels and crowded campsites are much lonelier places than pitching up by yourself in a remote area.

I disagree
On campsites i often find folk to chat with..again imo 200km a day is far too much. I do half that or less

Too many folk spend their life dithering and worrying about ‘what ifs’,sometimes you just have to get on with it.Yes,shit can go south,but if you have a few good back up plans in place then it’ll (usually) be fine.We are all different but I find big solo rides can be the best type of meditation in the world,following thoughts and ideas way past the time that the usual day to day allows.It is awsums 😉 😀

First time i ever attempted any kind of solo trip I ended up meeting my future wife.

… i’m not suggesting you do that of course, but you’ll find you meet more people alone than you do with someone else.

Yeah, 200km a day is pushing it unless you really are superlightweight bike backing/bivvying or doing it on a credit card.

It’s going to be some long days in the saddle. And then long mornings/evenings pitching and breaking camp!

Last long tour i did (not solo) was 500km in 4 days. Even with BnBs it was a bit much.

With 200km a day how will your day be structured ie, how long in saddle average speeds and breaks.

Longest I’ve done is 3 nights riding from Edinburgh to home in Chesterfield. It was great. As above, you meet folk to chat to, sounds like you have a story to tell – I did and got myself an invite to join for dinner. At the end I met my sister and a couple of pals and I downloaded the whole trip. I’d love to do a month, then probably longer.

Getting away from it all, riding where you want and at what speed / distance etc etc all sounds very calming, although I’d imagine having a target like 200Km a day for a meeting is exactly the opposite of what solo riding is all about.

Each the their own of course and the deadline bit might be what encourages oldnpastit, fair play if so 🙂

+1

125 miles a day is just a slog, IMO. I’ve just done Venice to Prague and we did 50-75 miles a day, and that was about right. This was fully-loaded on mixed terrain though, so you could do a bit more on pure tarmac. Each to his own but it sounds like you ‘just wanna get there’, rather than actually enjoy the ride.

I talked to other people most days when I cycle toured solo. Typically did 100 miles or more a day when I had gained the fitness.
Pre mobile phone with internet for most of the tours I did so I was limited to post cards and phone boxes for home communication and paper maps for navigation. I used to spend more time in bargain bookshops buying cheap maps than I do now.

A colleague who lives in the Netherlands recommended the coastal route, and offered me a coffee on the way, since he lives on it.

So, I’m going to ride that until I run out of time and then take the train the rest of the way.

It’s cheating obviously, but I think trying to push to make a particular time and place could get a bit more stressful than I really want to deal with.

That’s not cheating, that’s ideal.

Cheating would be using an ebike 😂

Too much of a plan is actually limiting. You can’t speed up or slow down as things take place, you’re stuck to a schedule

My last 3.5 day trip was solo and that was ace, could take my time or push on without having to worry about anyone else, could be entirely selfish. Spoke to a few folks along the way, but quite enjoyed the peace. Didn’t feel lonely at any point, could easily have done more time without thinking about it (but had a fixed window and family commitments etc)

I did Caen to limoges then train to toulouse and rode from there to santa Susanna in spain over 8 days cus I was meeting the fam for our holidays if Id have had longer I’d have done it all by bike, I’m not the most sociable but spoke to someone every day if you really enjoy speaking to people you’ll find plenty of people to speak with if you have the time with your mammoth millage…. 😄My tip would be, as I was told if using Google maps ad 20% to millage which was about right on my trip. Do it… Best thing I’ve ever done…

3 weeks is my longest, on the Colorado Trail, it was quite lovely as there weren’t many folk around and I was younger and shy.

Can also be lonely if you don’t speak the local lingo.

As above I’d want to do about half that mileage so you have time to stop and enjoy things and not wear yourself out.