I’ve wanted to get into bikepacking for years, but I’ve always been concerned about how I’d be able to ride for multiple days. I was on a cycling team in college and the longest ride I’ve done is about 70 miles, after which I was toast and my butt was really sore. Obviously this is different than bike touring, but it still makes me wonder how others do it.
Do you take a lot of breaks throughout the day? Or is it more just conditioning yourself and building “callouses” (for lack of a better word haha). I’m pretty sure my pelvic bones are positioned right on my saddle, but maybe I need a different one.
Since i do casual cycling only when i’m not touring, i try to get something like a weekender in before i go on a longer tour, or two longer day rides, to get my butt used to it. It will be a bit sore after that but after some rest days i’ll be ready to go and it’ll be fine. So yeah, conditioning myself to build “callouses” :)
I’m riding a brooks b17, no cycling pants. It is super comfortable now, best saddle i ever had, by far, but it took about 1000km to be that way. Before that it sucked and hurt and i almosted wanted to sell it, because i never had these problems with other saddles.