Cycling UK Forum

Getting bikes onto trains in France can be very complicated - not all trains carry bicycles. A couple of years ago spent over an hour in the travel office trying to work out a route whereby husband and I could cycle in southern France and then take trains back to Brussels (and even then we couldn't find a route and had to cycle one stretch). Good luck!

I had done about 10,000 km on my previous Giant and found it to be pretty reliable, sturdy and when fixes were needed there was nothing complicated to be done. I'm not a light tourer and I'm the type of cyclist that tends to bash their bike around a bit. Haven't seen anything negative appear yet so might just go for it!

Having been on a few ferries its really useful if you pack your panniers (e.g. in the morning) in such a way that you can just take the 1 or 2 pannier with valuables/overnight stuff for the trip so that you're not having to do this on the ferry. The fewer bags that you need to carry the better as there can be a lot of stairs. You also want to keep a beady eye open for bits of rope for tying up the bike in hold - if there are a lot of cyclists then you can end up having to secure bikes with towels etc (been there!).

My last Giant Expedition - purchased in 2005 was stolen last year and I now need a replacement. To keep things simple my plan is to go for the same model again but I know that Giant can make significant changes to this bike year on year so my question is - does anyone have any experience with the 2012 model? Are there any significant reasons to avoid? I'm female but go with the men's frame for touring, not looking for speed - so sturdy is fine, tend to be loaded down with luggage and this year will also have baby in tow!

Any feedback most welcome.