This. Ortleibs are undoubtedly well made, the 100% waterproof sales pitch (people cycling through rivers etc) have rather overshadowed that...Bmblbzzz wrote: ↑29 Feb 2024, 12:43pm One of the reasons I like canvas panniers (mine are Carradice but Alpkit and others use the same or similar material) is that they manage to be effectively waterproof but still breathable. I expect they're not technically waterproof but they're certainly proof against any rain I've encountered. However, just as waterproofness isn't the fundamental wonder, there are also not that many circumstances where breathability is a make-or-break point. Design and durability are more key elements.
Search found 677 matches
- 29 Feb 2024, 1:03pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Best Ortlieb Rear Panniers for touring?
- Replies: 92
- Views: 7597
Re: Best Ortlieb Rear Panniers for touring?
- 28 Feb 2024, 10:42am
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Best Ortlieb Rear Panniers for touring?
- Replies: 92
- Views: 7597
Re: Best Ortlieb Rear Panniers for touring?
Personally I'm not a huge fan of 100% waterproof panniers made from truck tarp. By their nature they suffer from condensation and if you've one damp sock everything in the pannier is damp and socky;-)
I, like most cyclecampers put everything into smaller waterproof bags, dirty clothes, clean clothes, wet clothes, sleeping bag etc so there isn't a lot of point in the fully waterproof type.
They are good panniers mind, but generally they have fewer pockets and being a bit 'rubbery' can be a swine to get stuff sacks into.
I, like most cyclecampers put everything into smaller waterproof bags, dirty clothes, clean clothes, wet clothes, sleeping bag etc so there isn't a lot of point in the fully waterproof type.
They are good panniers mind, but generally they have fewer pockets and being a bit 'rubbery' can be a swine to get stuff sacks into.
- 6 Feb 2024, 2:37pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Brittany May 2024
- Replies: 34
- Views: 2129
- 6 Feb 2024, 10:41am
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Brittany May 2024
- Replies: 34
- Views: 2129
Re: Brittany May 2024
Great - I'd buy a copy of this too - it gives all the campsites so you won't miss out on some little jem tucked away somewhere - frequently not on Google or other guides. https://www.campingfrance.com/uk/guideb ... -in-france
- 3 Feb 2024, 9:06am
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Brittany May 2024
- Replies: 34
- Views: 2129
Re: Brittany May 2024
If you go to that page, make the map full screen you'll see an option on the drop-down menu to save as a KML file. However that said I'd follow the written instructions and get a Michelin 1.200.000 map. It may seem old fashioned, but I don't like GPS, you lose the feeling of passing through a wider landscape - but that's just me;-)Lazybird wrote: ↑3 Feb 2024, 8:26amThanks for this suggestion for a loop. Do you have or can you direct me to GPS files for the route?bretonbikes wrote: ↑2 Feb 2024, 3:18pm Have a look at this for kick-off and PM me if you need any more help;-) https://www.bretonbikes.com/homepage/cy ... at-roscoff
If you need advice on how to do the KML stuff this vid works from 7:00 onwards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiBPQ1EBMM4
- 2 Feb 2024, 3:31pm
- Forum: Family Cycling
- Topic: 4 day family bike ride with 8 and 10 year
- Replies: 16
- Views: 3698
Re: 4 day family bike ride with 8 and 10 year
It's OK - it's been a long day and my mind has obviously fused...Jdsk wrote: ↑2 Feb 2024, 3:27pmThanks.bretonbikes wrote: ↑2 Feb 2024, 3:23pmHi Jonathan. PM me if you want some ideas for Brittany. Anything based around the Nantes brest canal might be ideal - good surfaces and interesting, safe, relatively flat cycling. https://www.bretonbikes.com/brittany/nantes-brest-canalJdsk wrote: ↑24 Jan 2024, 1:59pm On our morning walk we played our experiences with and without children against your ideas, and came up with:
1 Cantii Way, mostly off-road. Short distances between accommodation. Seaside fun and games.
viewtopic.php?t=150227
2 Brittany. It's a few years since were there. Stayed in one place, and did day trips from there. Quiet roads. Fun with little boat crossings.
3 Rebellion Way, but we haven't ridden it ourselves:
viewtopic.php?t=152128
4 Norwich/ Orford Ness/ Sutton Hoo.
Looks great, but it not me who's asking... : - )
Jonathan
- 2 Feb 2024, 3:23pm
- Forum: Family Cycling
- Topic: 4 day family bike ride with 8 and 10 year
- Replies: 16
- Views: 3698
Re: 4 day family bike ride with 8 and 10 year
Hi Jonathan. PM me if you want some ideas for Brittany. Anything based around the Nantes brest canal might be ideal - good surfaces and interesting, safe, relatively flat cycling. https://www.bretonbikes.com/brittany/nantes-brest-canalJdsk wrote: ↑24 Jan 2024, 1:59pm On our morning walk we played our experiences with and without children against your ideas, and came up with:
1 Cantii Way, mostly off-road. Short distances between accommodation. Seaside fun and games.
viewtopic.php?t=150227
2 Brittany. It's a few years since were there. Stayed in one place, and did day trips from there. Quiet roads. Fun with little boat crossings.
3 Rebellion Way, but we haven't ridden it ourselves:
viewtopic.php?t=152128
4 Norwich/ Orford Ness/ Sutton Hoo.
Jonathan
- 2 Feb 2024, 3:18pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Brittany May 2024
- Replies: 34
- Views: 2129
Re: Brittany May 2024
Have a look at this for kick-off and PM me if you need any more help;-) https://www.bretonbikes.com/homepage/cy ... at-roscoff
- 30 Dec 2023, 2:55pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Suggestions for a 10 day tour around Brittany.
- Replies: 16
- Views: 2376
Re: Suggestions for a 10 day tour around Brittany.
Hi - as I've been already mentioned here's a few ideas;-)
1 - this is a bit about the canal - https://www.bretonbikes.com/brittany/nantes-brest-canal
2 - This is a route I wrote for CTC members a while back if you're camping - https://www.bretonbikes.com/homepage/cy ... at-roscoff
3 - ditto if you prefer hotels/B&B - https://www.bretonbikes.com/homepage/cy ... ng-holiday
Whatever you choose the place is just a paradise for cyclists with something for everyone (except mountains). If you need any more advice feel free to PM.
1 - this is a bit about the canal - https://www.bretonbikes.com/brittany/nantes-brest-canal
2 - This is a route I wrote for CTC members a while back if you're camping - https://www.bretonbikes.com/homepage/cy ... at-roscoff
3 - ditto if you prefer hotels/B&B - https://www.bretonbikes.com/homepage/cy ... ng-holiday
Whatever you choose the place is just a paradise for cyclists with something for everyone (except mountains). If you need any more advice feel free to PM.
- 8 Dec 2023, 2:36pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Atlantic to Med tour.
- Replies: 20
- Views: 7035
Re: Atlantic to Med tour.
Just found this thread so hope I'm no too late - 20 years ago I led a charity ride in the Pyrenees and started and finished at Biarritz - it makes a great tour, the logistics are made simple and the start is right by the airport. Now forgive the age but the report of the ride should help a lot with planning and give an idea of what you are up against;-) It is a fabulous ride - do it! https://www.bretonbikes.com/homepage/cy ... rity-cycle
- 12 Sep 2023, 8:52pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: French Municipal Campsites Becomming Private
- Replies: 17
- Views: 3693
Re: French Municipal Campsites Becomming Private
That age group now drive camper vans and many just drive from free parking to free parking. As they make up about 70-80% of the business for a small site that's a big loss. Opposite us is a lovely free 'Aire' with 12 campervan capacity - it's only when it's full that they start coming over to the campsite. We can cope with that loss but many campsites can't.
- 12 Sep 2023, 2:32pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: 6 week tour for relative newbies.
- Replies: 37
- Views: 4368
Re: 6 week tour for relative newbies.
'No plan survives contact with the enemy'
I'm not a fan of elaborate planning - it's personal of course - but a 6-week plan with all hotels booked etc sounds like a recipe for disaster. One day in those 6 weeks (probably more than one) you'll have a breakdown, be ill, have horrendous weather (Hot, wet, windy whatever) and you then end up riding two days (or more) in one, trying to find taxis, riding when you really shouldn't, or having to move on and miss the amazing fete/show/event at town 'x' that you'd die to see but isn't in your schedule.
When camping I have a vague route with the odd 'wish list' but plan 2 days in advance, if I were doing a hotel/B&B type it'd probably be a week tops. Sure it might mean a detour to find a place to stay sometime, but away from the very touristy places in high season (where you wouldn't want to be on a bike) you'll be fine. The alternative can be stress and disappointment.
Of course some people plan like a military campaign and would think the above madness.
I'm not a fan of elaborate planning - it's personal of course - but a 6-week plan with all hotels booked etc sounds like a recipe for disaster. One day in those 6 weeks (probably more than one) you'll have a breakdown, be ill, have horrendous weather (Hot, wet, windy whatever) and you then end up riding two days (or more) in one, trying to find taxis, riding when you really shouldn't, or having to move on and miss the amazing fete/show/event at town 'x' that you'd die to see but isn't in your schedule.
When camping I have a vague route with the odd 'wish list' but plan 2 days in advance, if I were doing a hotel/B&B type it'd probably be a week tops. Sure it might mean a detour to find a place to stay sometime, but away from the very touristy places in high season (where you wouldn't want to be on a bike) you'll be fine. The alternative can be stress and disappointment.
Of course some people plan like a military campaign and would think the above madness.
- 12 Sep 2023, 11:36am
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: French Municipal Campsites Becomming Private
- Replies: 17
- Views: 3693
Re: French Municipal Campsites Becomming Private
Hate to say it but a lot of the Municipals are being converted to Aire de Camping, often with a machine for payment and no 'camping' facilities at all. Likewise many are closing.
The problem is two fold - the increasing number of free or very cheap 'Aires' has taken much of the trade from these sites as caravan owners (who pay) are replaced by campervans (that don't) so that Municipalities see them as failing and cannot justify the costs. Quite how the various authorities allowed the situation to develop from a few VW caravanettes parking in the local carpark to 30 foot campervans getting loads of facilities for free and killing off the campsites (France has lost 40% in the last 15 years) is beyond me - though I suspect that with the expected rise in fuel costs and EV's it may turn out to be a very short sighted move.
The other problem is that the incentive to make the campsite successful is limited - the cleaners get paid whether the campsite is full or not and unless someone is employed full time to do the sort of publicity and events that a campsite needs they just whither away and then the municipality has the excuse to close them and one more drain on their resources has gone.
We took over the local Municipal site on a private contract with the municipality 8 years ago at a time when it was close to closing with under 2000 campers a year - we're now at 10,000 a year, the local restaurants can't believe their luck and the whole village has hugely benefitted, but it takes a mairie with the vision to rent out their campsite to a private individual to make this work and most can't be bothered...
The problem is two fold - the increasing number of free or very cheap 'Aires' has taken much of the trade from these sites as caravan owners (who pay) are replaced by campervans (that don't) so that Municipalities see them as failing and cannot justify the costs. Quite how the various authorities allowed the situation to develop from a few VW caravanettes parking in the local carpark to 30 foot campervans getting loads of facilities for free and killing off the campsites (France has lost 40% in the last 15 years) is beyond me - though I suspect that with the expected rise in fuel costs and EV's it may turn out to be a very short sighted move.
The other problem is that the incentive to make the campsite successful is limited - the cleaners get paid whether the campsite is full or not and unless someone is employed full time to do the sort of publicity and events that a campsite needs they just whither away and then the municipality has the excuse to close them and one more drain on their resources has gone.
We took over the local Municipal site on a private contract with the municipality 8 years ago at a time when it was close to closing with under 2000 campers a year - we're now at 10,000 a year, the local restaurants can't believe their luck and the whole village has hugely benefitted, but it takes a mairie with the vision to rent out their campsite to a private individual to make this work and most can't be bothered...
- 11 Sep 2023, 3:06pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: 20 years on from the Pyrenean charity ride
- Replies: 0
- Views: 2201
20 years on from the Pyrenean charity ride
In 2003 we organised a charity ride to the Pyrenees. A month later I wrote an account of the ride - remember how low-tech things were 20 years ago so excuse the 'vintage' layout... There are at least a couple on here who went on the trip, and I hope that the account written 20 years ago will provide some inspiration for others, or even act as a rough guide on how to do it. Since then we've kept in touch with most of the riders (two of them are with us as I write). Sadly one of the stars of the trip - Meryl - died in 2021 but I know she considered the trip one of the high points of her life.
ITDG was a great charity which for some reason changed it's name to Practical Action soon afterwards but we were proud to help.
So... About time someone else did it;-)
https://www.bretonbikes.com/homepage/cy ... droduction
ITDG was a great charity which for some reason changed it's name to Practical Action soon afterwards but we were proud to help.
So... About time someone else did it;-)
https://www.bretonbikes.com/homepage/cy ... droduction
- 2 May 2023, 5:25pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Camping municiple in France
- Replies: 27
- Views: 3137
Re: Camping municiple in France
You won't recognise the old place;-)