Cycling UK Forum

Hello Everyone,

I have put this post on Sales and Wants, someone might be interested.

I am selling these on behalf of North Birmingham CTC, the proceeds will go back to cycling not me

Ortlieb Small Bar Bag with attachments, but not the wire and carrying shoulder strap. An old model, with the thick material (that's good, better than my own modern one)) £12 plus postage https://photos.app.goo.gl/zMD4BkCh8mZfZ8g96

Karrimor Global EL 50 Panniers, like new, never been on a tour, probably been attached to a bike to check fit. With spare clips £30 plus postage.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/XZp3AnG9N3s9Hoi78

Karrimor Dark Green Panniers. Have been well used but in good condition, All zips work £15 plus postage
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vHLhnKYy6RvMPzLN9

Karrimor Green and Yellow Panniers, Marks on the Yellow Top, I think from storage. Looking at the back, I think they have hardly been used. Has front and end pocket. All zips work https://photos.app.goo.gl/ddUQdhTJXdf6uBi78 £20 plus postage

Please message me if you are interested. I have tried to be honest with description, I have spent many years cycle camping and would willingly use any of these.

If you live not far from North Birmingham. then I could possible arrange a collection/delivery

John

Hi everyone

Until this year

Ortlieb back rollers (on the back, of course) Carradice front panniers.

BUT I wish I had bought the Super C for the front all those years ago, they are just so good. My Carradice Carradura front have fallen apart and cannot be repaired, Always buy the Super C.

I also use a medium Ortlieb Rackpack for tent, poles, sandals etc, The small size would been fine, I wasn't sure about tent pole length.

To replace the front Carradura, I have just bought half price from Evans online, A pair of Ortlieb front City Rollers. (Was £100, bought for £50) for next year's big Germany tour. I currently use them as rear panniers for day trips. I am very impressed with them. Ortlieb stuff is so good. Don't look a the upfront cost, work out the cost per day and they are very affordable and very tough and always keep your kit dry.

And yes, I always cycle camp.

Hello Chums

Off message but slightly relevant.

By reading this thread you must be interested in cycle touring Germany

Free to a good home.

1. The Bikeline Radweg 1 Cycle Guide.

From Arnhem through Berlin to the Polish Border. I've cycled much of it but will not be using it again. In the Eastern part of Germany not many campsites unless things have changed in the Harz mountains.

2. The ADFC BVA guide to the Romer Lippe route.

Not many Brits do this wonderful ride. Its only 300km and starts at Detmold and finishes at Xanten.
Good campsites along the route. If you have seen the film Gladiator where the well known roman general Russellius Crowsius says "Let hell begin" That is the site of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest near Detmold. The ride starts at the monster statue of Herman the German (the Victor) and you follow the centurion helmet sign along the route of the Roman army retreat to the Rhine at Xanten. Good campsites all along the way. From Xanten you can follow the Rhine back to Hook and the ferry. I thought this ride a a cracker. Following the River Lippe (approx) It uses some of the Route of Industrial Culture ( old name the Ruhr Cycle route) a little bit of Radweg 1 above and some canal paths. The route surface is generally good but slightly crunchy in the Ruhr District

If you do it, go to the Xanten museum. I thought the Roman Park OK but you don't have to enter the park to go to the museum. ADFC guides, in my opinion are better than Bikeline but then, we all dance to different music.

Would appreciate you making a small donation to a charity of your choice. I don't look a this forum that often but if you want them send me a private message and next week I'll see if anyone is interested before they go to a charity shop,

John

Old age starts about 85 anyone younger is not old.

Always go for a 2 man tent. I use a Vaude Odysse i picked up at the Cotswold sale years a go. Why? it is just over a metre high in the tent and has a huge porch for spreading out and for cooking in bad weather. Not made anymore but their are plenty of good tents with porches out there.

I always take my beloved Trangia, an Exped down mat, my trusty Snugpak bag and an Ergolife stol chair, probably one of the most comfortable pieces of kit I have ever used. I know some will say too heavy, but it isn't. it wraps around my tent in my Ortlieb rackpack. You never get backache, always comfortable, great for reading, cooking and generally watching the world go by. Cycle touring is about enjoying your life at your own pace.

Take the minumum of clothes, I just wash and wear but never skimp on waterproofs I once had hypothermia in Germany in July!

Always keep some food in the bottom of your front pannier: coffee, pasta, onions, curry powder. You can buy eggs and mushrooms anywhere and make a fast easy meal. Having a full tum is part of being comfortable.

I haven't bought any cycle camping kit in years and this will take me to my old age about 85 (so only 10 years to go)

PS Always value you kit, not on its original cost but the cost per day. So my tent has done 150 nights, so about £1.30 a day. Cycle camping is so cheap and as an added bonus you have total freedom thrown in! What can be better? John

My Exped mat failed after two trips. I returned it to the distributor and by return of post I had a brand new one which has been brilliant for the last five years and it will do my Germany tour next year.

John

My last tuppence here,

I do use a compression bag, in fact it comes with a compression bag but I only compress it on tour. When compressed my Softee is quite packable.
In my standard back roller classic. I have the bag, my exped mat, pillow (compressed) spare clothes (I never take much, just wash and wear), first aid kit. Down the bottom are a couple of spare inner tubes and a folding 700x28 tyre, which I've never used. On the top, my waterproofs.

There's loads of good kit out there, if you're happy with your own then great.

The most important thing is to have fun on a bike. Camping touring for me is the ultimate freedom: no parking fees, no petrol pumps,no grotty hotels, you get up and get your head down whenever you want, park anywhere, eat at any time you like. Do what ever you like.

All this on an unladen machine that weighs less than a car wheel, what is there not to like about cycle touring with a tent?

John

Hello Sweep

i wasn't really clear. Its a Softee 3, the black military version that was being sold off cheap somewhere. Having said that I didn't notice them in the Sandhurst shop many years ago but then everything in there was olive green!

What I meant to say and will say now is that I have one or two items of Rab kit and I like it. BUT I am not going to change my bag. It has not been used for winter camping but has been used March to End September and that includes frost but not snow.

I think weight for cycle touring is an overworked criteria. Utility/cost/bulk/reliability is equally important to me. Get a good piece of kit and keep it.
I have tried lightweight kit but it doesn't last and I suffer from angina of the wallet. Buy carefully and look after it. If i wanted to be lightweight my doctor keeps mentioning the 10 kilos I ought to lose!

The pictures are of the Carradura bags. Light in weight , well made and have lasted me years. They are not waterproof but mine have never leaked.

The asking price is fair,

John

I always keep a couple of onions, some rice/pulses and some curry powder in my front pannier.

The onions travel and keep well. together with rice and pulses you can always cook up a warming meal after a day riding. The locals have to get their food from somewhere so you only need to have something in your bags for emergency or to supplement what you buy and forage.

Always make sure you have water. I carry an Ortlieb water bag in addition to the water bottles if the temperature id very hot and the conditions arid.

I've never been hungry or thirsty

John

Hi

I've been using my Snugpak sleeping bag for 10 years camping touring and have never been cold. I have pushed through the fabric at the bottom but it is merely a cosmetic tear

I have no intention of replacing it.

I have a Snugpak jacket and that really is bulky but the sleeping bag compresses down. I store it loose in a wardrobe until i need it and always send it for cleaning after every trip. It goes in my back roller with an Exped mat and still have room in the bag for lots of other gear.

If I were to replace it i think I would buy a Rab

John

Thanks for the comments everybody. I cannot do wider than 28mm and it seems the Marathons are still a touring choice although I've never had a pxxxxxxx using them. I started on continentals because they came with the bike but had many of the p words so went tot he Schwalbe brand.

Looking at my tyres today I think I have enough mileage until next June when i put the bike on the ferry so have plenty of time.

Enjoy your cycling

john

hi

My Orbit is going to need new tyres in 2017.

I've been using Marathon 700 x 28 for what seems like forever but I don't think they use Kevlar anymore. Has anyone any experience of this size by Continental? I use Mavic rims with reduced-tension spokes.

I have one bike that has to do everything. That is: shopping, day rides and most importantly cycle camping (usually in Germany) Don't let anyone tell me that the cycle paths in Germany are like the M6. Most are pretty good, many are brilliant but when you have done a few K on power station waste or been half way up to your hubs in mud on the North Sea coast you know you need a good set of tyres.

What it all means is I need a tyre that is a good all rounder: good on tarmac but can also takes weight and can cope with rough stuff paths.

Anybody got any experience of buying touring tyres recently? A pair of new high quality tyres is not cheap and I want the best combination of ride-ability and puncture protection. The Marathons have been brilliant but maybe there might be better out there? You do need quite strong muscles to get Marathons on and off.

Advice and experience from you is very welcome

slowpeddler

Hello

There are new lifts to every platform at Brum New St and you can get a fully loaded tourer in. Can get crowded and you might have to wait a tad but its OK.

john

The Tourist Office in Albert has routes and maps around the sites and they are all easy to bike to from Albert.
So much to see there and all accessible by bike, some sites at first thought don't sound that interesting but the South African memorial and museum was really good.

I camped at the Albert municipal camp site about 5 /10 minutes pedal from the church with the golden Madonna. It is also easy to cycle over to Perrone to visit the Historial of the Great War (really good as it gives a broad view rather than the usual Anglo-centric one ) and down to Cappy to see the narrow gauge railway.

I used the Major Holt's Guide to the Somme Battlefield which tells you everything but the accompanying maps are only useful in that they identify everything worth seeing but are not that useful as a cycling map so use the book and map to plan the day but use a proper map for the cycling.

It is easy to put the bikes on the train from Albert to Compiegne (via Amiens) and cycle through the forest to see the Armistice clearing: you may not have enough time but it makes a great day out on the train and bike.

Check out
http://www.sbpartner.fr/somme_battlefie ... ds_partner

http://www.historial.org/

John

Something new to me this year in Germany.

At 2 camp-sites, the office asked to see my bike lock. It appears that in Western parts of Germany and certainly at Cologne, a gang is targeting bikes at camp sites. The last hit took place in June at Cologne.

The sites there now offers to securely lock all campers bikes up from 11.00 to 6.00am in the kitchen area. I usually don't take a heavy lock but I went down the Radstation and bought myself a 7 rated lock for 30 euro. The site is OK and I's stay there again.

It is a gang, not an individual and they take several bikes at once.

Interestingly, on the way back at the Dunkirk camp-site, they too commented that my new lock was what they would recommend there as well.

I've been camping donkeys years in France, Belgium and Germany but all this seems new to me, unless I've been very lucky (or naive)

John