Cycling UK Forum

Thanks Gaz ... I thought I'd remembered a CTC offer for one of the companies ...

I still think they're exhorbitant tbh - you can get a car day trip with 4 passengers for £25 but a 2 day bike trip for one and no car costs about the same ..

Wonder if one of the papers are doing anything .. someone I met last year said the Daily Mail were ... also may be possible with our local the Kentish Gazette ??

Andy

Hi all, I've just had a look at prices of tickets for moi plus bike to France from Dover to Calais, and found they were £20 Seafrance and £24 P&O for going out one day and coming back a few days later.

Anyone know of how to get - if you can - across more cheaply ? Ie, any promo codes - does ctc have one ?

It seems crazy that people who aren't using cars pay almost as much as those using the damn things !

Andy

Go to the sncf site and look at the timetables ( 'horaires' ). If the TGV carries bikes it will have a bike symbol on the information page for a particular route / time - the down side is that you can only get the standard €10 ticket for each bike journey by actually going to France and booking at a station !

The info in the 'fubicy' website posted above by Andy Miller is a good overview but not 100% acccurate in my view - it's still pretty good though !

As it says, you have to book your ticket and the bike at the same time and so can't do it via internet. I've taken my whole bike on around 20 TGVs now and - since I live near the Channel and frequently go over for the day - have booked my tickets at Calais Gare.

There are trains that run from Paris to Strasbourg etc as stated above but many many more too. I've taken bikes on the out and back routes from Lille to Bordeaux, Toulouse and Biarritz; Marseilles to Valence and Lyon; Paris to Le Mans and La Rochelle .. at various times in the last few years. In all cases I booked as explained and the bike went in a 'fourgon' - basically a compartment with 4 big hooks hanging from the ceiling. See the following link from Crazyguyonabike website for more details and pics ..

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/andyjef

.. and look at the last pages on the Calais - Cassis journal or the 1st Boulogne one at the end.

If you're going a fair distance in France it's better to change in Lille rather than Paris as you simply switch platform ( 'quai' ) rather than stations as in Paris.

Finally, if you can try and get a 'Prems' ticket .. these are released 3 months before the day of travel and can be very cheap indeed. If you're taking a bagged bike and don't need to book in France, then get on the internet at 11pm the day before 3 months before the day of travel - as it will be midnight in France so you are first in the queue !! ( If that makes sense ?? )

Andy

Just returned from a week in the Loire Valley at 'La Semaine Federale'. ( This is roughly the equivalent of the CTC annual rally ) There were around 13000 cyclists there and it was a well organised event generally. Bumped into a few CTC members on the rides too. Think there were a few groups from the UK there though my wife and I travelled independently as we were on a fortnight's holiday anyway and it coincided with where we were going to be at that time.

Have to say that it may be called the FFCT ( supposedly 'cyclotouristes' ) but on many of the rides we went on, it was out and out racing !

Also the blurb that the CTC put out on it suggested shorter rides ( my wife is a beginner and hasn't done more than 20 miles in one go ) whereas the shortest were around 40/50 on each day. We simply took short-cuts as the maps supplied were very clear.

The evening meals - 800 people in one marquee - were fantastic and great fun.

Andy

Thanks for replying Si, and yes, you've made very logical and practical points there. I will send a mail asking if there are any plans to update the structure of the sections I've been disappointed with certainly.

Andy

Seems like I opened a bit of a can of worms !

Being serious though, I *do* think CTC should look hard at certain parts of this website - ie the routes sections in particular. There have been some very good - and relatively cheaply implemented ! ( ie Cycletourer's, Skiddie's and AndyScot's ) - suggestions made earlier about taking on board the best ideas / structures of other cyclists sites ...

Come on CTC - wake up to these points and do something about it !? At least respond to the many good and practical points being made here. ( Is there no-one from CTC actually reading any of these posts ?! ) We don't expect you to change things just for one member but I paid you quite a lot of money and I'd like to see some thing a little more user friendly and modern. More modern / easy to use = more postings and routes sent in = more up to date etc etc

Rant over ! Apologies for being quite new but a bit critical and thanks to all who gave their views and opinions. I take on board many points made.

Andy

Thanks for all the views.

I've no doubt that there are a variety of reasons why people join and variety of benefits to being members.

In a way that wasn't the thrust of my comments and reactions - it was more disappointment at the state of what CTC was offering. It's our National Cycling organisation and yet the sections I looked at looked really tawdry and old-fashioned. Why aren't more people contributing their routes ? I don't know ... but it doesn't exactly inspire anyone to post when you look at it. Compare it to the www.crazyguyonabike.com site, the Trento bike pages or Bikely and it's pretty clear they're miles ahead in layout and design ( although I'm not a web expert ).

Perhaps CTC should look at them .. ?

Nice in S of France is great .. lovely tarmac cycle only road right into the centre via the sea front .. almost a bike ride on it's own !

Andy

Hi, I've just joined the CTC in the last few days and have looked for information about routes and other stuff in France as my wife and I are heading there this summer to do some touring and also attend the Semaine Federale.

I have to say that we're a bit disappointed with what seems to be available. Some of it looks massively out-of-date and ill-informed. For example one bit about cycling in Paris is reputed to have been updated in 2007 and says words to the effect of 'don't even think about cycling in the city .. '. I've cycled through the centre of Paris several times in the last couple of years and found it generally to be a great experience - definitely contrary to the CTC advice. Like many cities in France, Paris has some great cycling through incredible areas .. not all of course, but a growing selection of very good cycle lanes and pistes - and a clear and informative map to boot. I wonder who wrote the CTC info' and who checked it ?

The whole format for giving route information also looks very outdated. When was the whole web site and presentation of the route info last updated ? I have been using the 'crazyguyonabike' web site and it so much more lively and easier to use than the CTC one ( and free ). I can't imagine young people looking at the CTC and being particularly excited about starting to cycle. The maps and info seem to often be just straight lines drawn on a google map. Surely there must be better ones than this ? Also, the dates on a lot of the French routes are around 10 years old and sometimes 15 or 20 ! There seem to be very few submissions by named people and most by 'CTC Touring dept' or whatever.

I've just spent over £50 on joining and it doesn't look like it's been worth it from this angle at the moment to be honest. Am I being too critical ? I could also be jumping the gun as I've only spent a couple of hours on the first couple of days of my membership. Perhaps I should post an update on my views in a few week's time ? I'd be very interested to hear what other people think.

A slightly disappointed, but hoping it will improve, andyjef

Hi all, this is a bit late but just joined and am interested in the topic ...

Pinky wrote:Can I switch the thing off while I am travelling -- and then switch it on again occasionally for it to know where I am.

I have a similar question to Pinky, if you switch a GPS unit off to conserve battery power - I'm doing a week's touring in France over Easter - does it still keep logging where you are / speed / altitude .. , and then switch it back on again later in the ride, so that you can save and download the details to your PC back home at the end of the tour ?

I suspect the answer is 'no' so I'm thinking of buying a spare battery for the Mio P350 or 550 PDA / GPS I'm thinking of buying to take with me. Anyone know if you lose all stored data when you switch batteries ?

I want the GPS not necessarily to tell me where to turn etc but to have (a) a large number of preloaded maps so I don't have to carry them all with me ( I tend to do a fair bit of wandering off my planned route ) and (b) an accurate record of where I've been - with all the stats that go with it. I also want a larger display than Garmin etc so the 3.5" pda's are what I'm looking at.

AndyJef,
Kent.