We completed an 820 km cycle tour of Mongolia in 7th July to 21st (2 weeks) with a goal of 1000 km. We took an overnight train from Ulaanbaatar to Erdenet with a goal of cycling to Delangadzad. We cycled between 40 and 80 km a day (weather dependant) across the Mongolian Steppe and towards the Gobi Desert. We did not make it to Dalanzadgad as the Gobi desert has many goat head thorns, which caused an untold amount of punctures in the end.
Here's a pretty thorough breakdown below.
BIKE RENTALS 🚲
We rented our bikes from Mongolia Biking and we can highly recommend them.
POWER 🕯️
The solar panel was a non negotiable and helped us always have power, but multiple battery packs were necessary due to a few overcast days.
WATER 🌊
We got most of our water from local families (and drank through our Lifestraw/ boiled to be safe). Shops have a lot of water however they were every few days. YOU CANNOT BUY WATER PURIFICATION SYSTEMS IN PERSON IN MONGOLIA (Device or tablets, anything at all).
FOOD 🍽️
2 of the 3 of us are vegetarian, so we anticipated finding cooked food to be difficult HOWEVER we were pleasantly surprised. There were decent options in many convenience stores (pickled veg, tomato sauces, pasta, peanuts, tinned peas/carrots, noodles) and we did not use any freeze-dried meals. Anything special like lentils, oats etc you need to get in Ulaanbaatar.
SHELTER ⛺
We brought our tent (non negotiable) and our tarp (highly recommended) which provided us with a place to sleep and shade. There is NO shade on the Steppe unless sheltered at a nomadic Yert or in a town. We didn't experience much wind, but a lot of short lived thunder and lightning storms. In these instances we took shelter in a local Yert, as the rain was often torrential (and not to be struck by lightning).
by WhereasRoyal2608