Cycling UK Forum

Once you are in the Schengen zone you can go where ever you want as long as you do not exceed your visa conditions. No point in booking every night and no point in the authorities asking you to book every night.

scragend wrote: ↑2 Apr 2024, 1:21pm Worth pointing out that the 10-year thing is only relevant for entering the Schengen area, so the expiry date isn't entirely worthless.

Of course the majority of British people who travel "abroad" do go to Schengen countries, but if you had a passport that was over ten years old but within its expiry and you wanted to go somewhere else, you still could.

As long as you have 3-6 months left depending on which country you are going to.

RickH wrote: ↑30 Mar 2024, 11:11am Here is another recent article more specifically about passports.

When do I renew my UK passport and what is the 10-year rule?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68675348

I think it is:

You cannot use a passport which is more than 10 years old. The UK used to allow passports to be topped up with the time remaining on your old passport (up to a maximum) meaning your passport could be valid for 10 years 9 months (say) meaning that if you try to travel during the last 9 months you won't be allowed into the EU.

Paulatic wrote: ↑29 Mar 2024, 6:36pm Komoot say

To change the starting point on the website you can open the Tour on your profile, select “Replan Tour” and choose “Select starting point”. A preview of the Tour will open and you can then move the starting point along the tour line.

Make the route a round trip route, then you can click on the waypoint you want to start at and select 'change start'. It then reorders the way points from that point.

Fantastic Paulatic. Thank you.

I have Komoot premium.

I use the guidance on my Wahoo Elemnt.

I also have a circular route which I want to do but I want to start at point different from the route on Komoot. For example the route is circular A-A with 27 Waypoints. I want to start at Waypoint 21.

Is there a quick way to change the start point to Waypoint 21?

I had the same issue in Athens. I knew I would have a few days in Athens so looked at roughly where I wold find accommodation then searched for bike shops in that area. I then messaged one on FB messenger and asked if they could/would box my bike. They responded the following day and said it would be 20EURO.

On the day of arrival I took my bike there and collected it a few days later.

Much easier than finding a box, tape, cable ties and soft packing.

I have one journal on CGOAB which I had stumbled upon whilst planning my first long tour. I thought it was great and ended up using it, coupled with a FB Group, to create a journal and share my progress over 3 months in Europe. I loaded lots of photos and regularly shared links to my journal on CGOAB on FB feed.

Out of the blue I recently got the funding email and, because I appreciated the website so much, I sent 50USD. I got a thank you and exchanged pleasant emails as I described earlier in this thread.

Then I saw a reference to Cycleblaze so I decided to have an explore. Compared to CGOAB it has a more modern look and the functionality seems to be similar although it's achieved in a different fashion. @MelW captures it precisely with the "stuck firmly in the 1980s early 1990s" comparison. Cycleblaze doesn't handle GPX files in such an easy way as CGOAB. I posted a few things in the Cycleblaze Forum and was given warm welcomes and help. There was a passing comment from someone suggesting that other journals could be transferred into Cycleblaze. The CGOAB "forum" function is hidden away and is very cumbersome to use.

After a day or so playing with Cycleblaze I asked about the transfer of a journal making no commitment but I did comment that I liked the feel of Cycleblaze.

This evening I received a Paypal email returning 50USD to my CC and then an email from Neil saying that following my comments on Cycleblaze he was returning my donation. He had archived my journal and provided a download link. He asked that I let him know when I had completed the download and he would close my account.

My donation was for the journal already hosted, not for future stuff and I hadn't reached a conclusion on my next trip journal. It's so sad that someone has this attitude but I suspect it will result in the complete demise of CGOAB which is a shame as he has a lot of interesting, and potentially useful, information there.

Looks like I am moving to Cycleblaze!

RecumbentRide wrote: ↑24 Mar 2024, 3:15pm I think we need to be careful how we label people especially when it's unsolicited and not all that important. Simon, I'm not going to argue the toss on this it's simply not worth it so let's just park it.

There is no need for an apology and there are no hard feelings.

You called him out incorrectly. It was Matt who said he used it anyway NOT Simon.

Simon said he used some of the Journals (by others) for information and that some had disappeared.

matt2matt2002 wrote: ↑17 Mar 2024, 2:40pm Quite agree. It's my go-to site for touring info and I've contributed 6+ tours.
I've also had some err... exchanges of views with the owner. On balance I decided to stay and contribute a modest amount of ££.

I decided our conflicting political views weren't a deal breaker.
He appears totally up-front about his personal life and issues and is intent on keeping the site going without ads or outside assistance.
Fingers crossed he doesn't meet a bus.

I think we need to be careful about reading posts before commenting and criticising.

RecumbentRide wrote: ↑17 Mar 2024, 7:10pm
Simon in your contributions you've not said one postive thing about the site or it's owner but you happily use/used it. That's what pisses me off. Some people are too quick to criticise and knock others.

I am not sure that Simon does use Crazyguy. I have searched for him and found nothing.

Simon has been very helpful and supportive to me in planning my next long tour, even spending over an hour on the phone just before Xmas. We haven't met but my interpretation is that he is not a journal type of guy so I would guess he hasn't use crazyguy at all.

I may be wrong tho'.

I have one journal on Crazyguy and in response to the recent fundraising email I donated. I also replied to the email with some questions. He replied and was very helpful. The email exchange went on for a wee while.

However I am not wedded to Crazyguy so I will have a look at Cycleblaze and see if it will be any easier to use on the road.

MrsHJ wrote: ↑21 Mar 2024, 8:23am There are some Facebook forums. Tends to be a higher proportion of people who haven’t toured before and some of the pages are area specific.

A lot of the Touring Groups on FB are full of beginners which is fine but so many of them are asking basic questions which could be answered quickly by a web search.

I think Forums, like this one, are a much better source of advice because the information is not "lost" within a day or so and the search functions tend to be better. I like this forum and the Thorn Cycles forum.

mjr wrote: ↑29 Jan 2024, 11:02am

Audax67 wrote: ↑29 Jan 2024, 10:24am

Pebble wrote: ↑29 Oct 2023, 4:46pm silly plastic outer cracked up and blew off some time ago (don't think they are meant to be used in the sun)

Since the object of the silly plastic outer is to protect the polystyrene from UV I'd say it had done its job.

I thought the purpose of the rigid shell was to distribute a kerb corner impact across a larger area so it's more likely to crush the polystyrene instead of split it. Splitting absorbs less energy, so is less protective.

My understanding is that the outer plastic shell had to be developed to help protect children in a fall. They found that plain polystyrene has a high co-efficient of drag when applied to tarmac meaning that forward sliding applied a rotation to the helmet (amplified by the helmet lever arm) and that undeveloped necks, in youngsters, were liable to worse injuries. UV protection was a bonus.

How are you contacting ScotRail?

I have found they respond better on FB MESSENGER.

Note, better goes not mean well.

JohnI wrote: ↑11 Mar 2024, 3:22pm

Watch HRM are still Emporer's clothes territory but Garmin don't wan't you to know that.

That reminds me of a podcast/radio programme I was listening to just yesterday.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001wqdw

Thanks for that. Good timing.

I wouldn't lose too much sleep over what your Garmin watch is telling you. The accuracy of the HRM function is pretty poor in my experience.

I had an earlier fitness model, Vivoactive 3, which I tried to use for fitness stats but when on my turbo trainer it was telling me my HR was 90-100 when I was knocking my pan in. I knew it was north of 150. I reverted to my Wahoo chest strap and, sure enough, it was reading 150+ for a 90-100 watch reading. The watch then just became a watch - it told the time but the battery life was so poor I couldn't use it for cycle route recording. I could, and did, use it to record 10km runs.

I gave up using it until I started to read reports that new technology meant watch HRM were more accurate. I wanted a watch I could use for my golf and fitness so I opted for a Fenix7. Battery life is much better, great for golf but the HRM is not much better. The chest strap comparison still shows a significant, but not as much, discrepancy. 90-100 on the watch equating to about 130 on the chest strap. The watch improves if I tighten the strap but I have to release it when my fingers start to turn blue.

Watch HRM are still Emporer's clothes territory but Garmin don't wan't you to know that.