A Closer Look at Armchair Bike Touring

The purpose of Armchair Bike Touring (ABT) is two-fold, fun and education. Let's take fun first. ABT is a game where players accrue points by successfully completing bike tours. To get a good score, though, you have to think like a bike tourist who often gets hungry and needs to rest when weary. Along the way, you will see lots of pretty pictures, get lost, fix some flat tires, and decide when to eat and where to spend the night. With luck, you can "tour" your way to a top score!

ABT is based on the author's real life bike touring experiences. As such, it provides a reasonable simulation of what bike touring is like without the thigh pain! ABT shows how often you have to stop and eat, how far you can ride in a day, and the effects of wind and rain on your progress. The hope is that ABT will make planning your real bike tours easier.

While there are many simplifying assumptions contained in the program (described below), a real effort has been made to keep them within reasonable limits. ABT is for entertainment purposes only. It is not real bike touring and shouldn't be confused with loading up your bike and heading off down the road.

But, whether you are trying to establish a new high score or wondering what it is like to ride 300 miles on a bicycle, the real goal of ABT is for you to enjoy yourself while you are using it!

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers

Getting Started

1. At the beginning, I'm a Bike Touring Newbie. What's that?
In ABT, players are assigned an experience level depending on how many on-line bike tours they've completed. A Bike Touring Newbie is the lowest experience level and it represents someone who hasn't gone on a real bike tour before. In ABT, bike touring experience determines many of the factors that control the game. Parameters determined by experience include types and percentages of terrain, maximum daily distance, maximum caloric expenditure, and tour length. As an example, a Bike Touring Newbie has a maximum daily distance of 50 miles, maximum caloric expenditure of 700 calories (without eating), and does a 100 mile tour.

2. How do I gain experience?
The only way to gain experience in ABT is to complete bike tours. After completing your first 100 mile tour, you will become a Bike Touring Novice. A Bike Touring Novice has a maximum daily distance of 60 miles, maximum caloric expenditure of 800 calories (without eating), and does 200 mile tours.

After completing a 200 mile bike tour, you will be advanced to Bike Tourist. A Bike Tourist has a maximum daily distance of 70 miles, maximum caloric expenditure of 900 calories (without eating), and does 300 mile tours.

3. A hundred miles seems like a long way. Why is the first tour 100 miles?
A hundred miles was chosen as it was long enough to bring all the game's limits, food and sleep, into play. In the real world, most first time bike tourists take a short "shakedown" ride to test their desire, equipment, and ability. Most shakedown tours are overnight.

4. What happens after I finish the first tour?
When you complete the first tour, you will be asked if you want to continue. If you say yes, your experience level will be advanced to Bike Touring Novice, a new 200 mile route will be created for you, and you'll be on the road again.

5. How many tours can I do in a single game of ABT?
In this version of ABT, there are a total of 3 bike tours: one each at the Newbie, Novice, and Bike Tourist level. More experience levels are available should the game prove popular and there be a demand for more, longer, and harder tours.

Tour Creation

6. How do routes get created?
Everything created in ABT is done so randomly. The four route parameters, terrain, scenery, service stops, and touring "events" are all generated when a route is created. The distances are based on numbers hard-coded into the program. For example, the distance between service stops is from 1 to 6 miles with varying degress of probability. However, the amount and types of terrain are controlled by your experience level. For example, Bike Touring Newbie routes don't have any steep uphill segments.

7. Can I create my own bike tours?
At present, all tours are generated randomly according to rules hard-coded into ABT. Should there be a demand for it sometime in the future, this capability might be added to the program.

8. Can I choose the scenery I ride through?
At present, the scenery is randomly generated by the program. However, one idea for future modification is to allow users to select which scenery they'd like to "ride" through.

9. Can I redo a tour?
No. The program only moves in one direction, forward. You can't go back to a previous day and "re-ride" the route. Note that clicking on the browser's back button will unload the program forcing you to start over again from the beginning. At the moment, there is no way to save a game, though this capability is planned for a future update.

10. Where do the pictures displayed by ABT come from?
One of the main attractions to bike touring is all the beautiful sights you get to see while pedaling through nature. ABT attempts to show this by displaying photos as you "ride" your tour. All the current photos were supplied by the author from pictures he took on his own bike trips. You can learn all about the photos by clicking on them and then going to the journal page that contains that photo.

11. Will I see the same photos more than once?
The photos are randomly chosen to match the terrain and scenery you are riding through and the program keeps track of which pictures it has displayed so far. As a result, you shouldn't see the same photo more than once in a bike tour. With the exception of flat tires and getting lost, the program is designed not to display the same photo twice in a bike tour. But, once you embark on a new bike tour, then the program's memory of which photos it displayed is cleared and you will likely see some photos you've seen before, though, not in the current tour. Also, be aware that some of the photos look similar and are easily mistaken as duplicates when they aren't.

12. Can I add my photos into the database?
The picture database is separate from the program and can be easily extended. At present, only the author can add photos to the database. However, should others want to add their photos (and links to their journals) into the picture database that capability will be provided.

Eating and Sleeping

13. What happens if I don't eat anything while I am riding?
Just like in real bike touring, if you don't eat, you will be forced to stop riding for lack of energy. This is often called "bonking." In ABT, this happens in two ways. First, if you ride too far at the beginning of a day without eating. Second, if you expend too many calories without replacing them with food. If you go too long without eating, the program will force you to eat a minimum number of calories before you can continue riding.

14. What determines when I am forced to stop and eat?
At the start of a day, you must eat something before you too many calories. Your morning "bonking" limit is determined by your experience level. For Bike Touring Newbies, it is 350 calories. Bike Touring Novices get 450 calories and Bike Tourists get 550 calories.

Note that your energy level is shown in by the Fuel Gauge:

You should think about eating when the fuel gauge shows 1/2 tank and definitely eat something it it is below 1/2. If you continue riding without eating, the program forces you to eat before allowing you to continue on with your tour.

15. What happens if I don't stop for the night?
As with eating, a bike tourist can only go so many miles until exhaustion kicks in. When you ride too far past your maximum daily mileage limit, the program will force you to stop for the night.

16. What determines when I am forced to stop for the night?
The maximum number of miles you can ride is determined by your experience level. For Bike Touring Newbies, it is 50 miles. Bike Touring Novices get 60 miles and Bike Tourists get 70 miles. You level of exhaustion is displayed by the progress bar:

Your level of fatigue is represented by the color of today's mileage line. Green means you are feeling good; Yellow that you are starting to tire; Orange that you are tired; and Red that you are exhausted. You should try to find a place to stop for the night when the mileage line is Orange.

The program will force you stop for the night when you have gone 10 miles beyond your maximum distance limit. You may be able to go beyond this as you can only spend the night where there is a motel or a campground. Rain reduces your range by 10 miles; heavy rain by 20.

17. Why can't I just stop and camp anywhere?
This is such a common practice with some bike tourists that it even has a name: wild or stealth camping. In Version 1.0 of ABT, it wasn't allowed. But, in response to suggestions, it was added in Version 2.0. To learn more about stealth camping in ABT, see Question XX.

18. Why isn't coffee available on any of the menus?
Coffee contains very few calories. As a result, the author (who always drinks coffee on tour) saw no reason to clutter up the breakfast menu with a non-nutritive (though, often necessary) item.

Stealth Camping

19. How does stealth camping work?
The idea behind stealth (or wild or free) camping is to find a place where you can pitch your tent and not be seen. In ABT, you are allowed to search for a stealth camp at every stop. This isn't always possible as some locations are too public to afford the kind of privacy required by stealth camping. Thus, you won't always be able to find a place to camp every time you try. In ABT, there is a 50% chance that you will find a place to stealth camp. If you can't find a place to camp, you will be returned to the game and have to keep riding to look for another camping opportunity.

20. What can go wrong when I stealth camp?
In ABT, three things can happen when you stealth camp. First, you have a good night sleep for free. Second, you don't get a good night's sleep and your next day's maximum mileage is reduced 20 miles, though you aren't penalized any points. Third, you get discovered, are rousted from your campsite, and you have to go spend the night in a local motel. Getting rousted results in a 1000 point penalty. There is a 70% chance that you will have a good night's sleep; a 20% chance of a bad night's sleep; and a 10% chance of getting rousted.

21. What things should I consider before deciding to stealth camp?
The addition of stealth camping turns every stop into a potential place to stay. While this provides much more flexibility on where you can stop for the night, it does add some uncertainty about what might happen during the night. If you are rousted and the local motel costs more than you have in your budget, you will also be hit with the 1000 point over-budget penalty. So, while stealth camping is free, if successful, there is a small chance that it will turn out to be quite expensive.

Since you can only find an acceptable place to camp half the time, don't wait until the last moment to look for a place to stealth camp. You should also be aware of the food options at any place where you attempt to stealth camp or be sure to carry enough food with you to eat enough to satisfy your calorie needs for this day and for breakfast the next day.

Side Trips

22. What is a side trip?
Occasionally when bike touring, you will come upon a local attraction that is off your planned route. If it looks enticing enough, you might be willing to deviate from your route to check it out. In ABT, side trips occur randomly and are announced with signs that look like this:

23. What happens when I take a side trip?
Since this is off your planned route, you don't know anything more about the attraction then how far it is. You don't know the terrain type you will have to go over to get there (and back) nor the wind direction and strength. One thing you know for sure is that there are no services on a side trip and you can't stealth camp there.

If you decide to take the side trip, you will ride there directly over one kind of terrain with one kind of wind. Once there, one of two things will happen. First, it might be closed (20% chance), in which case, you will received no bonus points. Second, it will be open and you will get between 0 and 500 bonus points for visiting. If you are carrying food on your bike, you will be allowed to eat it before you start back to your planned route over the opposite of the terrain and in the opposite wind you came in.

In order to account for the time required to take a side trip, your daily maximum is reduced 10 miles for that day.

24. What things should I think about before taking a side trip?
You need to take two things into account when deciding to take a side trip: energy and time.
Since there are no services at the attractions you are going to, you won't have the opportunity to eat any food when there, unless you have some with on your bike already. One problem you might encounter is that the terrain/wind combination on the side trip will use up all your fuel and force you to stop and eat something, triggering the "out of fuel" penalty.

Taking a side trip reduces your daily maximum by 10 miles. If you take a side trip near the end of your day, you run the risk of triggering the "not stopping" penalty by going too far over your allowed daily mileage. An example might help here. Let's say you are a newbie bike tourist with a maximum daily mileage of 50 miles/day. At mile 45, you decide to take a 3 mile side trip. When you return from the side trip, you total mileage will be 51 miles (45 + 3 miles there + 3 miles back). But, your daily maximum has been reduced to 40 miles as a result of the side trip. Since you are now more than 10 miles past your maximum, you will trigger the "not stopping" penalty and be forced to spend the night at the next possible spot (motel or campground). Note that the "not stopping" penalty gets triggered by stealth camping, as well.

Problems Encountered

25. What can go wrong?
At present, there are three things that go wrong: you take a wrong turn, get a flat tire, or break a spoke. These problems occur to all levels of bike tourists in ABT.

26. What happens when I take a wrong turn?
You don't discover a wrong turn until you've gone between 1 and 4 miles off your route. Since you are riding all this time, you expend calories based on a terrain and wind. You also have to turn around and get back on your route, doubling the mileage you have to ride. The calories expended to get back on your route are based on the terrain and wind going both ways. If you ride downhill, you have to ride uphill to get back. If you face a headwind, then you have a tailwind on the way back. You do not earn points for the calories you expend while "lost."

27. What happens when I get a flat tire?
You can't continue riding with a flat tire. It must be repaired. A flat tire can be repaired with a patch or by installing a new tube, though you have to be carrying these items on your bike to use them. At the beginning of each tour, you start with 1 patch and 1 new tube. You can buy more repair supplies at a Bike Store, which are only available in Towns. You are allowed to carry up to 6 repair items on your bike.

Note that patches and tube don't always work. There is a 20% chance that a patch won't hold and a 5% chance that a new tube will fail when installed.

28. What happens when I break a spoke?
As with flat tires, you can't continue with a broken spoke. You can only repair a broken spoke if you are carrying an extra one. As with patches and tubes, you are given 1 extra spoke at the beginning of a tour. There is a 10% chance that a spoke will fail when you try to replace it. You can buy more spokes at a Bike Store.

29. What happens if I'm not carrying the right supplies to fix a flat or repair a broken spoke?
If you encounter a problem and can't fix it, you have to hitchhike to the nearest Bike Store (Town), buy the supplies you need, and then hitchhike back. Again, you are allowed to carry a maximum of 6 repair items on your bike at any one time. You are penalized 1000 points each time you have to hitchhike to the nearest Bike Store. Since ABT doesn't deal with time off the bike, hitchhiking results in "immediate" transportation (don't try this at home!).

Calculations

30. How are calories expended determined?
Calculating the calories expended by a bicycle rider requires a number of factors and complicated formulas. To simplify, the author made several assumptions. The rider's weight was set to 150 pounds and the bike and gear total was assumed to be 60 pounds. The rider's height was set to 70 inches (5 feet 10 inches). Using these values and choosing a bike and tires from the list provided at www.noping.net, the author created a matrix of calorie values for various winds, speeds, and road slopes.

31. How are food calories determined?
For the most part, the author simply took the calorie values off food labels. For meals served in restaurants, the author used various websites (most notably the USDA's nutrition database) or simply guessed.

One issue that came up during program development was how to account for human metabolism. While the program tracks all the food you "eat" while on tour, it only calculates the calories expended by biking. To account for daily metabolism, the calories required simply to keep someone alive, ABT assumes that half of all calories eaten go to daily metabolism up to 2000 calories. After that, all calories are available for biking.

This calculation is complicated by the passage of time. In reality, a person has all day to eat the required number of calories. In ABT, there is no way of knowing, in advance, how much a user might "eat" during the day. Also, any "calorie debt" can be eliminated by "eating" more at the end of the day.

In ABT, the food you eat is allocated half to biking and half to metabolism until you "eat" more than 4000 calories. That is, when half of what you've "eaten" is greater than 2000 calories. After that, all calories you "eat" are avilable for biking. An example may help. If you've "eaten" 3000 calories, then 1500 are available for biking (identified as "(Biking) Calories" in ABT). If you've "eaten" 4500 calories, then 2500 are available for biking.

One further wrinkle is needed, though, to account for a day's worth of eating and biking. When you decide to stop for the day, a "final" calculation is made where the 2000 metabolism calories are deducted from whatever you actually "ate" and the points you are awarded for that day's bike ride are adjusted accordingly. For example, if you've "eaten" a total of 3500 calories for a day, then only 1500 of them are available to offset the calories you expended biking. At a consumption of 4500 calories, you'd have 2500 available.

Points are awarded based on calories expended that were replaced by food. Thus, if you only expended 1500 calories on a day of biking, then you would be awarded full points if you only "ate" 3500 calories. You can see the number of calories you've eaten and expended by placing the mouse cursor on the "Day # Tour Data". The calories shown on the pop-up screen are 1/2 what you've eaten until you eat more than 4000 in a day. This is done to take daily metabolism into account.

32. How does wind and rain affect the calorie calculations?
Wind is one of the required inputs for the website mentioned in question 18. To simply the calculations, the wind was limited to seven values: a tailwind of 10, 5 or 2 MPH, no wind, or a headwind of 2, 5, or 10 MPH. In reality, the wind comes from all directions and is rarely steady in either force or direction.

The weather is shown in the upper left-hand corner of the "touring" page as two images. The first one shows wind:
Strong Tailwind: Stiff Tailwind
Tailwind:
NoWind: No Wind
Headwind:
Stiff Headwind:

The second one shows sun, rain, or heavy rain:
Sun: Sun
Rain: Rain
Heavy Rain:

Rain is not used to calculate calories expended. But, in an effort to quanitify how rain affects a bike tourist, ABT shortens the maximum daily mileage limit by 10 miles when there is rain or heavy rain at the end of the day.

33. How are points calculated?
Points are equivalent to calories expended with certain "penalties" applied. Points are only awarded for calories expended when more than that number of calories are eaten that day (including the daily metabolism of 2000 calories). Points are deducted when a player is forced to stop and eat or spend the night, can't fix a flat tire or broken spoke, or goes over the tour's stated budget.

In addition, players are penalized if, at the end of the day, they haven't eaten, at least, as many calories as they expended (see the answer to question 25, above). Thus, the way to maximize points is to make sure you always eat and stop for the night before ABT forces you to do it. Points are also awarded/deducted at the end of a day's riding to account for both metabolism and calories expended biking. Total points earned is prominently displayed on the biking data page in the upper right. Placing the mouse cursor on the words "Points Earned" will display how the current point total was calculated.

34. What are the penalties for not eating or sleeping?
If ABT forces you to stop and eat, the number of calories expended but not eaten are deducted from your total points. You lose 500 points if you are forced to stop for the night. You get no credit for unreplaced calories expended if you are forced to stop and eat. In addition, if you ride too far, your next day's maximum daily mileage limit is reduced by 10 miles.

35. Are there any other penalties?
Yes. If you have a flat tire or break a spoke and aren't carrying spares on your bike, you are forced to hitchhike to the nearest bike store. You lose 1000 points if this occurs. If you go over your tour budget, you also lose 1000 points.

36. How is a tour budget determine?
The budget is set at $1.50/mile for Newbies ($150 for 100 miles). For a Bike Tourist Novice, the budget is set at $1.25/mile ($250 for 200 miles). For Bike Tourists, the budget is set to $1/mile ($300 for 300 miles).

Changes

37. How come food prices keep changing?
It was pointed out that not all restaurants or snack shops charge the same prices. Further, people were doing entire tours eating only potato chips and pretzels, as they provided the highest calorie per dollar spent. In order to change this, food prices were make to fall in a range of values. The food price ranges (after 2/10/2011) will be both above and below the pre-existing static prices. This was done in an attempt to keep the submitted scores (static prices) comparable to those submitted later.

38. Why does food disappear from my bike overnight?
Originally, food could be carried on the bike indefinitely. But, a player suggested that it allowed someone to carry cheap restaurant meals for several days, which clearly isn't right. So, spoilage was added to the game. At the end of the day, any uneaten perishable food items being carried on the bike are checked for spoilage. If they are too old, they are discarded. Note that foods that will be discarded at the end of the day are marked with an asterisk if carried on the bike.

If you have other questions or suggestions, please send me an email.

Copyright © 2011 by Ray Swartz

A Closer Look at Armchair Bike Touring

Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Started

Tour Creation

Pictures

Eating and Sleeping

Stealth Camping

Side Trips

Problems Encountered

Calculations

Changes

Answers

Getting Started

Tour Creation

Eating and Sleeping

Stealth Camping

Side Trips

Problems Encountered

Calculations

Changes