Cycling UK Forum

biscaystorm wrote:There are prevailing South Easterly winds in Northern France which make north-bound cycling tough going
at times.

Did you mean NE winds? A SE wind would help north-bound riding, surely?
Otherwise I would agree that going North to South makes more sense, to get acclimatized to hills. Many have said (here and elsewhere) that the French coastal strip is boring, but you could go inland more (across some of the prettier parts of Dordogne and Lot valleys) as we did, if you have time. More hills though!

I don't know if the conditions have changed (i.e. is there now a decent cycle route into/out of Bilbao?) but four of us went from Roscoff to Santander 8 years ago and we all agreed that getting into and out of Bilbao was the worst bit of the whole trip. Seemed to be just big roads full of lorries. (City itself, when you got there, was very nice!)

Mick F wrote:I had a Meccano set as a kid. Bikes aren't really much different.

Having Meccano definitely helps you to learn bike maintenance....
(Full size, 26" tyres....no, I couldn't ride it )

On a Dartmoor sportive a couple of years ago, there was a shortish but steep section (just south of Peter Tavy) which many were struggling up by pedalling but I decided to walk. About 2 miles further on, up the long drag to the top towards Princetown (not quite as steep but much longer) I was riding again and overtook those who had just passed me while I was walking. So in that case the short walk was beneficial. Different muscles, so the riding ones get a bit of a rest.

Thanks for suggestions. MJR, I had already come to dead ends on the 'official' site. But, Elizabeth, searching for 'fahrradverleih' instead of 'cycle rental' certainly gives more hits! I have now contacted a couple by email so we'll see what happens. If no luck I will take my own but was trying to avoid logistics of bikes on planes.

Lots of comments here about buying parts from Rose but has anyone purchased a complete bike from them? I'm considering this http://www.rosebikes.com/bike/rose-activa-pro-v-carbon-drive which appears very good value but I have found few reviews of their bikes anywhere.

I see from OpenCycleMap that there are cycle routes both sides.There are plenty of bridges so you could mix and match, perhaps eating and sleeping in Germany to keep costs down. No customs controls any longer so you can cross the border as much as you like. As part of a longer trip I cycled from Schaffhausen to Lake Constance last year (north of the river) and crossed the border at least 5 times, but I wouldn't have known I was crossing it. The only way of knowing what country I was in was looking at car registrations parked in people's driveways!

Anyone know somewhere to hire a reasonable bike (road bike, touring or trekking hybrid, rather than a 'city bike') in Salzburg? Nearest I can find is in Passau or Munich. I need it for a week.

During 50 years of cycling (perhaps the last 20 or so using padded shorts, on various saddles including Brookes) I would say they lead to a more comfortable ride, except perhaps when the weather is hot. What I don't understand is that one is recommended never to wear underpants (not cotton ones) with padded shorts. Doing so means touring is easier because underpants can be washed (and dried) so much more quickly. As to saddle soreness, I never suffer on day rides; on tours I find that Savlon antiseptic cream works well (mainly as a preventative), it's cheap and easily available.

It doesn't yet exist at all between Plymouth and somewhere near the Eden Project (just E of St Austell). This is a pity because I remember back in 2000, when route 3 was opened from Land's End to Bristol, we were told that route 2 would be ready in 5 years' time. Still waiting 10 years further on....
p.s. if you'd like a GPS file of my favourite route to fill in the missing bits, I'll provide one.

If you are comparing Sportive costs with Audax costs, I think (ironically perhaps) it's because of numbers. An Audax event (for up to a 100 or so riders) can be just about run with local club volunteers. When the numbers get higher (much higher for some Sportives) the logistics of providing everything required (and extra things like electronic timing equipment) just make it impossible to be run with only 'amateur' volunteers: people need to be paid for many tasks, hence the costs rocket.
p.s. forecast for the 9th is not good, so I wouldn't bother for this one!

CTC seem to cover repatriation, if you go for the 'premier' policy - https://www.ctc.org.uk/insurance/ctc-cyclecover-travel-insurance

james01 wrote: I'd still suspect some kind of lateral movement in the block - perhaps only detectable under load?

Yes, there is some lateral movement here: about half a mm. The cassette is tight on the freehub, but removing the cassette shows that the freehub itself is a bit loose. Researching this for a Shimano freehub suggests that it should be some play here - but no values mentioned.
Anyway, rather than doing tests with limiting the indexing range as suggested, I just changed the whole rear wheel, swapping in my road bike wheel (with its 11-speed cassette ) and going for the same test ride resulted in only two 'autoshifts' and they were both positive, i.e. they changed and stayed put. And one of these I knew it was going to change because there was that familiar grinding noise just before. These shifts are not surprising running a 11-speed cassette with a 10-speed chain and shifter.

So it's clearly nothing to do with shifters, cable, derailleur or frame! it comes down to the wheel or its hub or freehub. I'm not going to start messing about with the freehub; I'm going to buy a whole new wheel, I was thinking of some lighter rims anyway....

Interesting thread, and useful for many solo tourists I suspect. I'd add two bits of advice:
Firstly, I wouldn't eat at a restaurant where it's busy; sometimes you'll get bad service because you're taking up a table where 2 or 4 may have otherwise sat, and they'd bring in more money that a solo. But if you eat around 6:30 or 7, most places won't be busy by then.
Secondly, if you're staying anywhere near one of the 'chain' hotels (Travelodge, Premier Inn etc) during the week, then any pubs/restaurants next to or associated with them will easily cater for solos because they rely on people staying on business trips; these are often solos. Not likely to be fellow cyclists though.

An update on my original post.
I have now fitted a 10-speed Dura-Ace (thanks for quick service, FarOuef!). There is perhaps a marginal improvement but the problem persists. In the workshop the indexing works fine, but out on the road there is an autochange every once in a while for no apparent reason (it probably shifted about 10 times in a 10-mile ride just now).
So I'm beginning to think I have geomannie's problem:

geomannie wrote:. Firstly, the old steel frame is quite flexible and when you kick down you slightly bend the frame which puts tension on the gear cable.

which sounds like a new frame (or new bike )