Cycling UK Forum

I've stayed in a b&b in in Carlisle where the proprietor reckoned End to End traffic made up 70% of her trade, considering there were at least ten rooms thats a lot of contribution to the local economy!

My travels around Germany have had me staying in various hotels / b&b's across the country, cyclists are always welcomed and its unusual if i am the only self propelled arrival. Indeed on the Rhein there has often been flocks of cyclists arriving! By comparison when camping the self propelled are sometimes almost ignored and are clearly not valued.

Cyclists very often spend more during the day than either walkers or car drivers in cafes and shops the former preferring to be away from civilastion, the latter taking food from home so often the only contribution to the local economy will be a grudging payment of car parking fees. Bike riders are much more likely to stop at a cafe, use the local shops, even stop for a pint!

Cyclists using real beds generally have good appetites so why wouldn't we want to buy good food at the accomodation? Some hoteliers value us, some never will, maybe we should start a similar list to those for campsites with recommendations - hey didn't the CTC used to publish such a list?

To be honest the tales of my parents and grand parents of touring in the mid twentieth century rather put me off touring - all that Hebden cord, YHA accomodation and long hours in the saddle on lumpy touring bikes. Wasn't i more of a racing whippet?

So for twenty five years my riding consisted of whizzing up and down dual carriageways, hurtling around wooden bowls and chasing around the countryside in a bunch of likewise deranged individuals. Of course there were long day rides and even centred bike based holidays but it wasn't until after such a trip to Germany that the seeds of an actual tour were sewn. I'd been working selling touring bikes for a few years and it only seemed right that i should experience what it was all about.

No little loop around the wolds or the awful prospect of the End to End, no i was going to cycle camp from Bonn to Innsbruck over three weeks using the Romantic Strasse as the basis for the longest stretch down through Bavaria. Talk about in at the deep end, too much kit, too long days, too little money but an experience that had me hooked! I ended up doing 1800km plus, going an extra 300km all the way to Salzburg when my return travel arrangements were changed while i was away.

Since then i've done a two week plus trip each year covering a good chunk of Germany, Denmark, Austria and bits of Switzerland. The kit has been refined, the bike upgraded, the planning extensive (its half the fun) and whilst tame by some peoples standards, it suits me. This year its mid-east Germany, next year, a significant birthday year, its Switzerland, i want to go back to Denmark, there's more of Germany to explore and, and....

Whilst i started out racing about, and i still do the odd sportive, these days the annual tour is the main focus of my bike riding.

olney_ben wrote:on the question of bikes, would you recommend a hybrid say a £200 carrera from halfords? or could i find a used bike cheaper? i have noticed bikes hold their price pretty well so was wondering whether to get a new decent bike with some accessories thrown in and then sell it after the trip for a small loss. rather than buy a used bike and have more chance of problems.

Only buy the Halfords bike if you don't want to get there! You can get something that works, from a bike shop for @ £300 fitted with rack and mudguards! Cheap set of Altura panniers, ditch the back pack and Bob's your mothers brother!

Don't think anyone mentioned a waterproof jacket - don't set off without one!

I take a kettle. Everything i cook can be either cooked in it, water boiled for dried stuff, tinned food is heated in the tin directly on the stove - a Markill Ti jobby.

Anything more complex - well i'm on holiday and thats what restaurants are for.

Many campsites in Europe (which is where i do most of my camping these days) have a kitchen often with pots and pans at your disposal so i have sometimes utilised a frying pan on their stoves!

So no cooking pots for me!

Lets face it, you need more than a week to do Yorkshire, there's a ton of stuff to see and do even if you leave bike shops out of it!

I'd suggest staying in the Ripon/Thirsk area, have a day in the low dales, Leyburn, Richmond and so on, a tougher day out to Helmsley and the western moors, pootle down to Knaresbrough and Harrogate another day, York would be a nice flatish ride which would leave you a day for the lanes up towards Teeside.

More interesting bike shop to visit would be Cycle Heaven in York - all manner of weird and wunnerful stuff.

The riding down where i'm based is perhaps a little too manly for flatlanders!

just kidding, we have some downhill bits.

Not having a great deal of choice for my Airnimals 24" wheels i've settled on the Pasela tourguards in 25c. I've had a few punctures, one split side wall and a chunk of tread removed - on the other hand that is over in excess of 12000km of loaded touring, about 4000km of which wasn't surfaced or very poorly so. The biggest downside is how long they last, 1800km and they are shall we say, mostly canvas! They are fast though and even the one that suffered a split sidewall did a further 250km with a tyre boot to complete the trip.

If only they had a little more rubber........

I use a very light, 18gram, compact bit of kit from some ultralightweight company which is effectively a pertex bucket.

http://www.ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk/ ... r_bag.html

Holds @ 5l but does have a tendency to lose its contents by osmosis! Never been an issue though, no cleaning to worry about either unlike the assorted latex and plastic containers i've used in the past.

My 105 unit was fitted last September, its making a lot of terrible grinding noises, the prelude to failure i'm sure as i've tried all the usual tightening. Maybe 4000 miles - not happy

I use an Ultegra triple with my Italian triple which copes with my 52/38/26 combo better than the Campag's i've tried with it.

hey, i didn't say don't take a mat just that it is possible to spend a single night without one.

I camped without one for 20 years without issue but i've got soft in my old age and always take one on multi night trips now. There again i'm using real beds on my summer trip this year so perhaps i really am getting soft.

willem jongman wrote:This is a pretty light bike. Are you sure you want to load it with so much that you need both front and rear panniers? And check that your carbon fork is not one that was subject to a recent recall.
Willem

The recall was not exactly recent and had nothing to do with fork strength, rather it related to the brake mounting boss coming adrift from the fork leg. Our shop was badly affected, we had @ 70 customers with affected bikes, all of which had new forks supplied and fitted in short order. If anyone is unsure if their bike is affected hit the Specialized website and then hit your dealer, he should have contacted you!

Light bike does not mean weak, my cycle camping bike weighs under 10kg including the racks and given that the Tricross is a 'designed for all road touring' machine there are no issues in loading up. In fact i'd rather load a Tricross than a Galaxy any day of the week!

The Tortec rack will easily fit the Vita, you could always use the slightly wider Tour Ultralight. You could save half a kilo by dumping the Altura bags and getting a pair of Ortlieb front rollers which you can easily move further backwards on the rack to give you more heel clearance.

The best alternative might actually be one of those nifty single wheel pannier carriers, not quite a trailer but seems to be very practical.

Try Berlin / Brandenburg - plenty of choice of flights, there is cheap accomodation to be had, plenty of bike hire opportunities and easy countryside to ride in.

Catch a train out to Potsdam to do the lakes or down to the Spreewald where you can investigate the local history at leisure. Lots of other stuff to do too of course. The roads are pretty quiet with a good network of cycle routes, some well surfaced, some not but all very enjoyable.

Go to the Switzerland tourist office site and go to Bike Switzerland - routes, accomodation, shops etc.

Great place to go but camping is the cheapest way of doing it!

If you have the bolt holes you can fit a low rider without issue. Some 2011 Tricross were supplied without low rider bosses but even then its possible to rack one up.

I'd go for the Tubus Logo, i've had one for 10 years, its easy to fit and adjust, will take most bags and will help stiffen the front of the bike up too.