1. Remember food and drink
You get a lot hungrier on a bike ride than you do in everyday life. Make sure you have enough food with you or that your ride includes stops at catering establishments. Easily accessible energy bars in your handlebar bag or jacket pocket can help keep your energy and spirits up along the way.
2. Remember a map
We recommend one of the mapped tours on this platform that suits you and your travelling companions. SykkelNorge is currently best suited for planning on a PC. If you install the Ride with GPS app and open the trip there. Alternatively, download the GPX track and open it in your favourite app or cycling computer, if it has this functionality. However, it’s always a good idea to bring a route map. That way, you’re covered even if you get out of the coverage area or run out of battery. A paper map covers a large area and shows all the roads in the area, giving you a good overview. The maps also contain useful extra information that can provide ideas and inspiration for your trip, information about viewpoints, swimming spots, attractions, fishing spots, restaurants, food shops, etc. if they are not already included in SykkelNorge.
If you are cycling in an area with tunnels, you can find an overview of cycle tunnels and cycle friendliness here
You will find a good selection of maps in: kartbutikken.no
The best info page for cyclists about tunnels can be found here: tunnels in Norway
3. Utilise the local area
It’s easy to dream of exotic cycling trips to faraway places – but the trips that actually happen are usually the ones that don’t require a lot of time and planning. The simplest trip is the one that starts at your own front door.
Be creative, try and find a route or road you haven’t cycled before. Maybe there’s a fishing lake, a viewpoint or a small side road you’ve never been on, less than ten kilometres from where you live?
Start at home, use your bike to check it out!
4. Pack light
If you decide that touring life can be something completely different from everyday life, you’ll find that there’s a lot you can do without for a few days of cycling. Be conscious of weight when packing.
Feel free to pack your bags a couple of days before the trip and take a short test ride up some hills. If it’s very heavy, you might be motivated to leave more stuff behind when you go on the real bike ride.
5. Know your bike
By using your bike regularly, you’ll learn how it works, even at high speed, under hard braking and on poor surfaces. You’ll recognise the sounds that tell you it needs servicing, adjustments, etc.
If you know your bike properly, you’ll know its technical condition and you’ll be more confident with it, both for everyday use and when travelling.
6. Remember enough air in your tyres
Under-inflated tyres make your bike hard to pedal and increase the likelihood of a puncture. The recommended tyre pressure is written on the side of the tyre. A floor pump with a pressure gauge will quickly give you the correct tyre pressure.
7. Make a plan B
On a longer trip, unforeseen things can happen to both the bike and the weather, making you want to shorten or end the trip. This could be bypassing a couple of public transport hubs or realising that you can easily shorten a planned round trip along the way.
8. Learn basic mechanics
All cyclists should be able to change their inner tubes and make basic adjustments to gears and brakes. This is knowledge you’re bound to need. There are short instructional videos for various bike repairs on YouTube, including these on changing tyres and brake pads, fixing the chain and adjusting gears from us at Syklistenes Landsforening.
9. Dress visibly in traffic
Many current cycling trips in Norway take place on roads without cycle lanes or cycle paths. Although it is easy to find roads with little car traffic, it is an advantage to be seen by the motorists who come. A jacket, helmet or panniers in a red or yellow colour, for example, will increase the cyclist’s visibility and thus safety.
10. Follow the traffic rules and be careful
This is a point that applies to all cyclists – even on holiday! We recommend stopping at red lights, keeping to the right of way, signalling and cycling with the margins on your side. This increases your safety and makes it more enjoyable for all parties. Adults who talk to children about traffic rules are also passing on important knowledge to the next generation of cyclists.
Watch videos with mechanics’ tips, presented by Mats Larsen, head of the Cyclists’ Association. As a columnist in the member magazine Syklistene, he calls himself “Mats Mekker”.