Bicycle

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File:Foldable hitchbike.jpg
HitchBiking at Swiss alps

Hitchbiking is a mixture between hitchhiking and biking. Instead of waiting on on single spot for someone to pick you up you are sitting on a bike, already heading for your destination. Once a Pickup Truck or a big truck shows up you rise your thumb and smile. Some prefer to park the bike at a good Hitchhiking spot and wait there for a ride. Others again have a folding bike and can put their bike in a normal car trunk/boot.

Pros

  • You never get stuck in a bad hitchhiking spot.
  • You are more flexible because you don't depend on traffic. That means you can explore little beaches, rivers or villages with your bike and hitchbike further afterwards.
  • You get a lot of attention if you are running on your bike with all the luggage.
  • You can enjoy beautiful parts of your trip on a slow pace with your bike and skip bad or hard ones while hitchhiking.
  • You have a really interesting and visible story (a bicycle). User:taborda found out that people are much more friendly and helpful as they easily believe you when they see the bike and bags

Cons

  • It's harder to find someone who has room for you and your bike. You might consider getting yourself a fold-up bike, which uses significantly less space. (or to use a small bike that easily can take the wheels out and pack it in a big plastic).
  • You need good bags which should be easy to remove from the bike.
  • It's not that obvious for the driver that you want a ride. (It makes it easy to have the bike in a big bag - that will also help on not making cars dirty with chain oil.)
  • In countries with tiny cars and few trucks it's really hard.

Hitchhiking with a foldable bike

File:Georgebike.jpg
21-speed Pocket Sport

Tiny folding bikes like this one make BikeHitching much easier. For longer trips, a real touring bike that folds up into a suitcase or a car trunk, like this 21-speed Pocket Sport from Bike Friday (picture). If you fold your bike, drivers won't even notice you have more than just big a backpack and then HitchBiking works just like normal hitchhiking.

Tips to make hitchbiking easier

  • Pack your bike (with a small plastic tarp and some rope i could pack my hole bike) to avoid oil stains in cars.
  • Use a small bike that can take the wheels easy, can be useful to strip it out of not needed items (like mudguards) to make packing smaller and easier
  • Try to ask car drivers for a hitch, not only vans and trucks, people tend to be really helpful with cyclists, and you will find out a bike can fit in many cars (on the back sit). (User:taborda hitchbiking from Amsterdam to Portugal just got one hich offer where the bike actually didn't fit, on all others it was possible to fit the bike - mostly in "normal" cars)

Countries

It's better in places with lots of pick-up trucks, such as South America.

guakasite, wikitalk can confirm it's very easy in Ecuador. Hitching with 2 people and 2 bikes was very easy.

taborda can confirm hitchiking with a bike in europe (holand, belgium, france, spain and portugal - July/August 2011) was not that hard (actually as easy as without a bike - or even easier)

Bike-Hitchhiking

It is also possible to get a lift on a bike, as documented here: Bike Hitchhiking Only recommended in city centers full of bicycles, such as cities in the Netherlands ;)

External Links