Cycling UK Forum

This is all great stuff... after research I'm surprised by the amount of rear camera users.. If you were only to get a front or a rear camera which would you choose? I had imagined a forward facing one was of more value, as it's motorists overtaking, then left-hooking me - or simply 'smidsy' drivers crossing my path.. and I presume a forward facing camera still records a close pass, just not to the same brown-trousered extent of a rear one..

The Fly12 looks lovely but is ever so spendy..

Hoping that this hasn't been done to death but I'm considering a bike camera to use whilst commuting. With nothing more than vague annecdotal experience it feels like cycling has become more unsafe over the course of the last 20 years commuting in London and Edinburgh with drivers becoming more selfish, faster, and taking less care of others on the road. I've yet to have an accident and I'm touching wood now, but in the event of a spill I'd like documentary evidence to help with insurance companies. The police seem to be doing precious little to stop speeding or poor driving or use of mobile phones.

So hive-mind what are your recommendations? I'd like to avoid spending a fortune and would probably need 3-4 hrs usage before recharging. Ideally I wouldn't have to wipe clean the memory card before each use. Just clamp on my bike and set off. What are you all using?

Couldn't agree more with eileithyia

After stopping smoking 5years ago the weight was piling on, and I remembered how much I enjoyed cycling in my youth..

Rather like you, I'm guessing, I was a complete cycling noob.. utterly daunted with choices.. .. in the end I settled on a new Triban3 from Decathlon, fitted mudguards and a rack.. (get a rack and panniers, really do, your back will thank you)..

I know you can get more bang for your buck with a 2nd hand bike, but at the time I reckoned new components would require less fettling/mucking around with..until I learnt what I was doing. Also as it wasn't too expensive I wasn't too scared to learn to service and repair bits as I went along. You really can learn bike maintenance from youtube, and I also used an an app called Bike Doctor+ which I learnt loads from. Saved a fortune in bike services..

When I lived in London my commute was generally 7 miles each way... Now I'd far rather cycle in the rain than be packed into a tube with damp commuters.. I lost a load of weight and gained fitness I never knew I had.

I sold my Triban earlier this year for £80 less than I paid for it new.. not bad in terms of depreciation! I'd say get yourself down to decathlon!

Good luck with it all - let us know how you get on!

What a great trip - We're just back from a perfect long weekend in Harris - our friend runs the Temple Cafe - Northton Harris (Best place to eat on the island, but then I'm biased!). We drove to Uig - left the car for free in the short stay car park (The lady at the ferry ticket office said they only start to worry if cars are left longer than a month), and took the ferry to Tarbert £6.10 each way with a bicycle. Glorious cycling and weather to die for.. A tiny breeze even kept the midges away.. Came back with tans and pictures worthy of the Caribbean

Belles Rivieres is a really lovely campsite and v cycle friendly- If you get a chance spend a day in Nantes..
Paimboef is a bit of a one horse town and that bit of the estuary is not so pretty - if you can, get further round the coast..

If you're starting in Nantes, then this campsite http://www.camping-belleriviere.com/default.asp?lang=en was lovely (and cheap). About 15-20 mins outside the city centre. Cyclists really welcome... You could also happily spend a day in Nantes exploring, a great city.

Enjoy

Was, probably still am, a complete newbie to cycle touring... me and the girl did a bit of the velodyssey .. from Nantes to La Rochelle last summer. (Ferry: Plymouth - Roscoff, train from Morlaix to Nantes). It was bliss, no day to day planning required as you can't cycle more than an hour along the route without finding a campsite. We went peak holiday season and never had trouble finding space at a campsite- cost usually about 14euros a night for the two of us. Great food & wine.. some good surfing on the Atlantic coast too..

If you're camping in Nantes - then Camping Belle Rivière is a really cycle friendly campsite - 15 minute cycle from the city centre. Super friendly -we stayed there twice going out and coming back

+1 for Capitaine trains - web app is especially good: once a ticket has been bought it sends a push notification telling which platform to go to!
much much better than the SCNF site, especially indentifying the TER routes you can take your bike on for no extra charge.

Big fan of the Moon http://www.moon-sport.com/product-detail.php?id=72 lights, great mounts and steady or flashing states

Each to their own - we used a Portapow 15w 2A solar charger (circa £30) on a recent 2 week tour in France. This charged/topped up an EC Powerbank (3.7V/22500mAh/82.8Wh (circa £15))
Didn't need to go near mains power for the whole trip - charging a couple of iPhones. Also was great for days on the beach! The variable voltage cycling through shade etc, caused iPhones (and presumably Android types as well) to disconnect and subsequently ignore the charger until they were physically disconnected and then reconnected; so a battery which allows trickle charging was necessary. This does reduce efficiency, but not so much that we noticed. A few hours a day on the back of my rack seemed enough to charge the battery.

Hi
We used Caxton as well (having read about it here last year I think) for a 2 week tour in France. Highly recommend it. Good rates and much less worry about fraud.. and you
save a lot of bank charges.

Worth noting that you can't use it to prebook hotels etc as it doesn't allow pre-authorisation.. but for day to day it was great.