I rode across from France to Ferrara eighteen months ago, and don’t recall any issues with road quality (on 38mm tyres IIRC).
Don’t miss Ferrara – small but delightful world heritage city centre, not too touristy, more good restaurants than you could shake a stick at, and the most bicycle-y place I’ve ever seen.
Search found 1564 matches
- 24 Mar 2024, 9:39pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Cycling the Adriatic Coast of italy
- Replies: 3
- Views: 263
- 20 Mar 2024, 12:30pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Eurostar and SNCF - packing bikes
- Replies: 24
- Views: 1474
Re: Eurostar and SNCF - packing bikes
"Travelling between Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany
You can take your bike on board our European routes. It must be disassembled, including wheels, and stored in a non-rigid cover no larger than 135x85x30 cm."
Those dimensions seem to refer to routes on the continent.
"Bikes between London and Paris
Your bike will need to be disassembled and stored in a bike box/bag."
Eurostar's help page doesn't specify dimensions for London-Paris, but I believe they are much more restricitve.
- 19 Mar 2024, 8:31am
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: Would it be unreasonable … ?
- Replies: 42
- Views: 1693
- 18 Mar 2024, 5:52pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Something to bear in mind when choosing a ferry company...
- Replies: 1
- Views: 303
Something to bear in mind when choosing a ferry company...
"P&O Ferries has paid some crew less than half UK minimum wage
Company is using legal loophole UK government promised to close two years ago, Guardian analysis suggests"
Company is using legal loophole UK government promised to close two years ago, Guardian analysis suggests"
- 18 Mar 2024, 4:29pm
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: Would it be unreasonable … ?
- Replies: 42
- Views: 1693
Would it be unreasonable … ?
I went for a nice ride along the towpath today, sunny afternoon, lovely quiet space, everything just starting to burst into leaf. The only (small) fly in the ointment was the occasional cyclist coming towards me with a dazzling flashing front light. There’s always one or two. I mean. Part of the reason for going to such places is to get away for a bit from that twenty-first-century sensory overload; so would I be out of order, or over the top, or unreasonable if I stopped them, pointed out the incongruity, and politely suggested that they turn it off?
- 17 Mar 2024, 1:34pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Avenue Verte (French section)
- Replies: 11
- Views: 524
Re: Avenue Verte (French section)
I’ve ridden it a few times. Dieppe to Forge-les-Eaux is a very pleasant converted railway line; after that, as I recall, it’s quiet French back roads and then suburban Paris.
“a lot of the info was about doing it on a Brompton and the UK section.” – that’s true at the start of those search results, but have a look at e.g. page 15.
“a lot of the info was about doing it on a Brompton and the UK section.” – that’s true at the start of those search results, but have a look at e.g. page 15.
- 15 Mar 2024, 5:12pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: crazyguyonabike site
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1650
Re: crazyguyonabike site
The things you learn on this forum! I thought meiosis was a purely biological process, but apparently it’s also a synonym for litotes. And of course everyone knows what that is.
- 14 Mar 2024, 2:49pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Tour Plans for 2024
- Replies: 78
- Views: 9633
Re: Tour Plans for 2024
Not sure if I’m still up for long-distance solo touring. I can still manage back-to-back forty mile days (at least, I could last year!) but it’s that sense of “out on my own, thousand miles from home, don’t know where I’ll be sleeping tonight…” that I’ve loved ever since my teens, which at seventy-six starts to feel a bit too edgy. So I’ve got a five- or six-day London-to-Leeds ride set up for next month, I’ll see how it goes. And an autumn plan for France-to-Italy, with herself along to keep an eye on me.
- 19 Feb 2024, 4:54pm
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: Importing a new or 2nd hand bike into the UK from the EU.
- Replies: 50
- Views: 4149
- 14 Feb 2024, 1:42pm
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: Cheap oil.
- Replies: 82
- Views: 4790
Re: Cheap oil.
I’d imagine that with each turn of the pedals, a small proportion of the oil on the chain would be deposited on the teeth of the various cogs, to then be picked up by another part of the chain, reducing the value of the experiment. You could perhaps control for this by adding different coloured dyes to the two oils, and checking with a microscope. Or maybe using a radioactive marker?
However there may be better ways of spending your time.
- 12 Feb 2024, 9:58am
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: The staff of life - best served packaged?
- Replies: 50
- Views: 3374
Re: The staff of life - best served packaged?
At the risk of being sent to stand in the pedants’ (or pedant’s?) corner, a comma would have helped make the meaning clear. At first reading, I genuinely took that to mean that ‘some drugs’ would be the RIGHT answer.
- 5 Feb 2024, 3:36pm
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: On pedantry?
- Replies: 81
- Views: 4560
Re: On pedantry?
Yes, I think you're right. Oh my effin Gee though, shouldn't we have something better to do with our time?
- 5 Feb 2024, 11:31am
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: On pedantry?
- Replies: 81
- Views: 4560
Re: On pedantry?
Definitely not. That -ee ending (which I suspect derives from the French past participle) denotes the recipient of the action (e.g. a payee is the person who gets paid, not the one who does the paying). So a peevee would perhaps be the person the peever is peeved at.
- 28 Jan 2024, 11:46am
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: Cheap oil.
- Replies: 82
- Views: 4790
Re: Cheap oil.
On tour last year, I realised I was carrying three bottles of different oils - chain lube, olive oil for picnic salads, and King-o-Shaves for shaving. Time on my hands in the tent at night, I started wondering if I could save weight by finding a single oil that would do all three jobs tolerably well. Any suggestions?
- 26 Jan 2024, 5:48pm
- Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
- Topic: Keeping the chain on the chainring
- Replies: 7
- Views: 529
Keeping the chain on the chainring
I converted my partner’s bike from 3x9 to 1x10 (she couldn’t get on with the front shifter). I didn’t change the chainset, but just removed the inner and outer chainrings. It works nicely, except that the chain comes off the chainring occasionally (I think ‘unshipping’ is the term, though I can’t see what it’s go to do with ships) - not very often, but too often, and I haven’t been able to reproduce the problem to see why.
I thought of using the little ‘dogfang’ device that fits to the downtube to prevent this, but being sized to reach an inner ring, it’s not big enough to reach. So I’m thinking to cobble together a similar homemade thing. Or I could fit a front mech, locked into its middle-ring position somehow. Or…
Any other suggestions?
I thought of using the little ‘dogfang’ device that fits to the downtube to prevent this, but being sized to reach an inner ring, it’s not big enough to reach. So I’m thinking to cobble together a similar homemade thing. Or I could fit a front mech, locked into its middle-ring position somehow. Or…
Any other suggestions?