“You can do this on a bike? Why the hell are we walking?”

One of the funnier moments in the Camino movie “The Way” with Martin Sheen comes when two cyclists pass by the main characters walking the trail. Gazing wistfully at the fast-disappearing bikes, the Dutch character exclaims, “You can do this on a bike? Why the hell are we walking?”

Yes, cycling is a great option, especially for those with ambulation issues. Bad knees, metatarsalgic feet and plantar fasciitis meant neither of us were up for walking the Camino, but cycling allowed us to cover 726 kilometres from Lisbon to Santiago de Compostela – the Portuguese Coastal route.

Some claim that true pilgrims must walk the route. However, we also met many walkers who took taxis, trains and buses to the next town. Others paid to have their bags shuttled to their next hotel. So, who’s to say who the true pilgrims are? We think it’s more a state of mind than your mode of conveyance. “Everyone walks their own Camino,” was another saying we heard, and that’s what we took to heart. Don’t compare and don’t judge – do what’s best for you.

We learned a lot by cycling the whole route under our own power, with all our luggage aboard. Here are our top 10 tips to help you do the same.

1. Fly your bikes to Portugal from Canada. It’s much cheaper than renting a bike in Portugal. Air Canada charges $50 for a bike packed in a box – the same as for any checked bag even though it’s oversized. Leave the box open when you take it to the Ottawa airport, since CATSA will want to inspect it and seal it with their CATSA tape. But take a roll of packing tape as well. Pack any sharp bike tools in the box. Do not take CO₂ cylinders – they will be confiscated! Deflate the tires so they don’t pop at altitude.

2. Don’t wear standard clip-in cycling shoes. Light hiking shoes are a must for the countless times you must get off your bike and push it up rough rocky trails. Bill estimated that we were riding 80 percent of the time and walking 20 percent. Mountain-biking shoes might work as long as they give you good support.

3. Carry two or more water bottles. You can refill them for free just about everywhere at public drinking fountains and village taps (safe to drink unless otherwise marked), but it can be a long way between fill-ups. When you stop at a café to buy a coffee or pastry, ask them to refill your water bottles – they always do so for free. We bought water only once.

4. Have enough low gears on your bike. You will encounter two kinds of very steep hills: paved roads and boulder-strewn mountain paths (seemingly designed by goats). Low gears are required for the paved roads. People with legs of steel and a mountain bike might be able to pedal up the goat paths. (See more on the “right” bike, below.)

5. Buy waterproof panniers. It will rain at least once, and you will be drenched down to your underwear. At the end of the day it’s nice to put on something dry. Any electronics (camera, tablet, etc.) you’re carrying will also appreciate staying dry.

6. Check your spokes every day. They can loosen quickly on the bumpy trails.

7. Carry the tools you’ll need. We recommend a lightweight multi-tool (with allen keys, spoke wrench, chain breaker and screwdrivers), air pump, flat patch kit, tire levers, spare inner tube, small bottle of chain oil, spare chain link, and perhaps even a spare spoke. You can’t take CO₂ cannisters on the plane, but you could buy some when you arrive. We encountered many well-supplied bike shops.

8. Have good quality, relatively new tires. They will reduce the likelihood of a flat. We had none in 726 kilometres.

9. Bring a bike lock. Most places we stayed had a safe place to store our bikes at night, but they stayed in some weird spots – a hotel bar, sunroom, laundry rooms, dining room, hallways, our room, garages, garden sheds, and under a blanket in a courtyard. The lock is also useful when you want to go into a café or grocery store or visit a cathedral or museum. However, we’ve left our bikes unlocked uncountable times in small towns and villages. Portugal is, on the whole, quite safe.

10. Ferry your bikes around on public transportation. You can take your bikes on the Lisbon metro and on regional and intercity (not high-speed) trains for free. The stations have elevators to get to the right tracks, and you just roll your bikes aboard. After the Camino, this helps you get around Portugal. Bikes can also go on long-distance buses, but it’s more expensive and you can’t just carry them on. When we took a bus from Santiago, Spain to Aveiro, Portugal, our bikes got their own bus tickets as well – 15 Euros each. We also had to disassemble them and pack them in a bike bag (12 Euros each) for stowage under the bus. We took trains after that.

What is the right bike for the Portuguese Camino?

Your bike will encounter a wide variety of terrain: pavement, cycle paths, stonedust, gravel, river rock, boulders, Roman roads (flat granite rocks about 1 to 2 feet square with ruts in them), dirt trails, logging roads, cobblestones of various sizes, sandy tracks, beaches, boardwalks, and tractor ruts through farmer’s fields. We made rapid progress on pavement but spent far less than half our time on pavement. So, your bike must be prepared for this.

Companies renting bikes for the Camino supply a hard-tail mountain bike (shocks on the front only) with 45mm or larger tires. This is probably the best type of bike because the bigger tires and shocks help with the rough terrain, the extra spokes help carry the weight of you and your panniers, and low gears help with steep hills.

However, the right bike for the Portuguese Camino is probably the bike you have.

Bill’s former road bike had no mounting points for racks to carry panniers, so he replaced it with a touring bike a few months before the trip. His Kona Sutra touring bike is designed for long trips: it has many mounting points (for panniers, water bottles, air pump etc.), strong wheels to carry heavy loads, 45mm tires, and 27 gears. (It has a 3×9 drive train, meaning three rings up front and nine in the back.)

I took my Norco hybrid, even though it wasn’t ideal. We (and by ‘we’ I mean ‘Bill’) made it more comfortable by installing the biggest tires that fit and reducing the pressure to 70 psi. But I broke a spoke because my bike really didn’t have enough spokes to handle the weight of my luggage and me (my luggage was really really heavy, wink wink). Its 18 gears (2×9 drive train) meant it lacked enough low gears to handle the hills. However, it was light when pushing it up hills, carrying it up stairs, or getting on and off trains.