Search found 796 matches

by Barrenfluffit
13 Mar 2017, 9:18am
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Sourcing water
Replies: 23
Views: 2193

Re: Sourcing water

I've seen a few petrol filling stations with an outside tap; unless the place has a private water supply it's likely to be the local drinking water.
by Barrenfluffit
1 Feb 2017, 8:43pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Any tips for touring on the cheap?
Replies: 47
Views: 3603

Re: Any tips for touring on the cheap?

The main expense when your moving is food and drink so supermarkets and self catering is your friend.

Buying a good second hand touring bike can be tricky; you have to know a fair bit about what your looking at and even then its a bit of a punt re comfort/fit. Usually its better to look at what you have, stuff like regreasing bearings, new chain, making sure everything lines up and runs smoothly and that the fit is good.
You can get often get drinking water in town squares and graveyards.

While its not essential your level of fitness makes a big difference to your enjoyment (at least initially). A physically a bike tour is about nibbling away and time in the saddle. You should have largely recovered from the riding by the next day. Overdoing it one day and having to take a day off tends to be counter-productive.
by Barrenfluffit
26 Jan 2017, 11:07pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Amsterdam
Replies: 10
Views: 1236

Re: Amsterdam

Bmblbzzz wrote:Train to Brussels then Eurostar?

I did this a couple of years ago (but things do change). There was an hourly service but it wasn't that fast. The slight complication is buying bike tickets for Belgian trains in Amsterdam. I don't recall how this was handled.
by Barrenfluffit
24 Jan 2017, 9:45pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Xing America
Replies: 16
Views: 1459

Re: Xing America

The ACA suggest taking 3 months to cross but the 90 day visa limit is potentially restrictive. Thus you need to allow for getting between the entry/exit airports and the start / finish points. It's not a tight schedule per se but if you had other plans.
by Barrenfluffit
11 Jan 2017, 9:29am
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Night Scopes any use?
Replies: 12
Views: 1462

Re: Night Scopes any use?

Sneaking past border guards because you can't get the right visa?

Spotting danger when cycling through big game country at night?

Also struggling with this.
by Barrenfluffit
6 Jan 2017, 4:56pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Europe-wide Route Maps -
Replies: 6
Views: 1387

Re: Europe-wide Route Maps -

Most of the mapping organisations are national; detailed maps tend to be based on one countries standards. Often cycle routes are shown on the larger scale maps which are a burden for the touring cyclist.. I've used the Michelin France Atlas Routier 1:200k spiral bound atlas as a source. Its cheap but hard to navigate large towns at that scale. In addition cycle routes are not shown.
While route specific guidebooks sidestep these problems, sometimes you want/need to leave the route and then have no map.
A mix and match approach is inevitable.

In the UK Stanfords is a good source.
http://www.stanfords.co.uk/cycling?q=&E ... &orderby=0
by Barrenfluffit
27 Dec 2016, 10:45pm
Forum: Cycle Camping sub-forum
Topic: Camping Gas Canisters - How Full/Empty?
Replies: 38
Views: 4537

Re: Camping Gas Canisters - How Full/Empty?



This seems a lot of effort / risk compared to buying an adapter that allows you to use the butane cannisters with the stove.

Incidentally the first post suggested that that if a cannister was full it barely floated. This doesn't work very well as it doesn't account for the mass of the cannister.
If you have a measuring jug it should be possible to roughly weigh them by displacement.
by Barrenfluffit
24 Dec 2016, 1:12pm
Forum: Cycle Camping sub-forum
Topic: Camping Gas Canisters - How Full/Empty?
Replies: 38
Views: 4537

Re: Camping Gas Canisters - How Full/Empty?

The camping gaz CV300+ cylinder has 240g printed on it but this is the gas weight only. A full cannister weighs about 360g so the cannister is 120g
It floats with about 2/3rds of the canister submerged.
by Barrenfluffit
30 Nov 2016, 6:04pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Maps for Holland tour
Replies: 29
Views: 4363

Re: Maps for Holland tour

The A4ish spiral bound michelin atlas for Benelux and take out / copy the pages you need. It's not too many pages per day but has lots of detail when you study it closely.
by Barrenfluffit
30 Nov 2016, 5:53pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Getting 'caught out'
Replies: 32
Views: 5193

Re: Getting 'caught out'

I got a bit caught out when the hostel was closed. The campsite 8 miles on turned out to be idyllic. I don't mind the odd night of wild camping but enjoy a hot shower and electricity.

The place I really struggled with was Berlin in high summer. Huge number of hostel beds but lots with an age restriction and the rest booked. I tried about 5 different hostels from early afternoon and even the 7 story hostel was full. So I paid walk up rates one night in a business hotel and moved to the hostel thereafter. It was air conditioned and fabulous!

Amsterdam was difficult hostel wise so I tried a camping option and found it vastly superior.

Having your own transport is very helpful.
by Barrenfluffit
4 Oct 2016, 9:15pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: I plan to cycle from Bilbao to Valencia
Replies: 5
Views: 935

Re: I plan to cycle from Bilbao to Valencia

My advice would be to listen to your body and work with it. Allow more rest days to get yourself fitter and do things that make you more comfortable. The main thing is to have a fairly dogged attitude and achievable aims. Achievable in the sense that you can recover overnight and do the next day too. Dogged in the sense that its often more about applying time to distance rather than speed. Have fun!
by Barrenfluffit
24 Aug 2016, 5:37pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Train to Istanbul?
Replies: 2
Views: 408

Re: Train to Istanbul?

My experience was 7 years ago taking a sleeper from Belgrade to Istanbul but without a bike.

In practise the easiest way to book it was via an agency called "Wasteels" that had an office in the station. I understand that the national systems were quite basic and didn't really talk to each other. The agency is still about.

This was old fashioned railway travel. I heard of one traveller who made it work by bribing the guard/ticket collector; the train wasn't busy and there were spare compartments. the rolling stock was knackered.

It was a couple of coaches rather than a whole train, picked up relay style for the route. At the turkish border everyone had to get off and buy a visa while the train waited. It wasn't the slickest of services, arriving many hours late.

I think an adventurous traveller could make it work!
by Barrenfluffit
11 Jul 2016, 8:05pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Alternative to Bike Express
Replies: 7
Views: 1577

Re: Alternative to Bike Express

There's a note on the megabus site that the business has been sold to a german company as of 1/7/16.
https://www.flixbus.co.uk/
by Barrenfluffit
7 Jul 2016, 3:00pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Spares for France
Replies: 20
Views: 1764

Re: Spares for France

It's not easy deciding when to change to 700c as it always involves discarding some part used components.

I replaced a 27" wheel when the screw on freewheel failed and was impossible to remove. This was a mistake; I should have gone straight to 700c. However I did replace the centre-pulls with a calliper capable of handling 700c's. It's a cascade of expense but better to grasp the nettle and get everything is to a current standard.

I had a 27" tyre failure in france and the bike shop in Poitiers could not locate another tyre of this size. Many methods were tried to stretch a 700c tyre but it just didn't work. The only answer was to buy a new wheel from whatever stock the shop had; fortunately it was decent but we had to spend an afternoon sorting it out. A new wheel for the sake of a tyre is kinda pricey.