Tour or a trudge

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
PH
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by PH »

There's a lot of comment "40 miles a day", "50 miles a day", "100 miles a day"....
It is of course possible to mix it up. My E2E was over 11 days, longest 130 miles, with 100+ mile days either side of it, through the English Midlands, areas I'm familiar with. Shortest days were the last couple in Cornwall, less than 50 miles each.
My last Scottish tour was on Orkney, 350 miles over ten days, with no riding at all on a couple of days :shock: Followed by two days to cover the 230 miles down to Fort William for the sleeper home.
Your tour should of course be whatever you want, it doesn't necessarily follow you'll want the same thing every day. Being comfortable and confident about long days in the saddle should add to the options rather than detract from them.
Lastly plans - i like to make them, I enjoy the research, I'd consider it a shame to have passed within a few miles of something that would interest me and not known. For me not making a detailed plan would be as unlikely as feeling I had to rigorously stick to one.
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Sweep
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by Sweep »

keefwaddo wrote: 30 Jun 2022, 11:51am
Sweep wrote: 30 Jun 2022, 9:36am
keefwaddo wrote: 30 Jun 2022, 1:14am I used to hitch hike internationally for 2-3 months every summer. Nothing was planned. Wild camped every night.

When I moved to Japan we would buy Lonely Planet and plan every detail: sightseeing, hotels, campgrounds etc. Now for our tours, google earth and maps with street view allows me to choose the exact kind of road I want, as well as finding sightseeing places that are not well known. Combined with general internet research there is no reason to have a bike tour where you basically just ride.

Any one who has seen any of my vids will know that using modern internet tools allows us to see, visit, ride and camp in absolutely amazing places.
link to your vids?
https://www.youtube.com/c/waddo
ta keef - looks nicely chilled - will check out more.
Sweep
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CJ
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by CJ »

Jdsk wrote: 23 Jun 2022, 8:48pm
CJ wrote: 23 Jun 2022, 8:42pm A favourite quote of mine is by Mark Twain on the game of golf, which he desribed as: "a good walk, spoiled"!
I like the sentiment but I doubt the attribution.
Thanks, apparently you're right to doubt it. In future I'll simply assert that the game is commonly thus described!
Chris Juden
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Jdsk
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by Jdsk »

: - )

That still leaves him with many wonderful intersections of wisdom and humour!

Jonathan
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CJ
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by CJ »

keefwaddo wrote: 30 Jun 2022, 1:14amNow for our tours, google earth and maps with street view allows me to choose the exact kind of road I want, as well as finding sightseeing places that are not well known. Combined with general internet research there is no reason to have a bike tour where you basically just ride.
Absolutely! I organise and lead tours for groups of 20 or so. When that many people will benefit, it motivates me to put a great deal of work into finding the best possible itinerary for sightseeing and cycling enjoyment. But do I go on a reconnoitre tour? No way! I'll generally have toured in the same country before, so as to be familiar with how things work there generally, but to attempt to find the best route by riding around the area is IMHO a complete waste of time! Thanks to Google Streetview one can sample ALL the possible ways from A to B in a few hours - something that would take a month of Sundays to do in person - even in a car.

Even where only 'Satellite' view is available, one can - with experience - tell a lot about how the scenery will look, the amount of traffic and even the surface of the road. Strict protection of privacy in Germany have unfortunately eliminated Streetview from all but the biggest roads in that country - where I particularly like tour. But fortunately Germany has much better cycling facilities and cycling maps than UK, so that's all okay!
Chris Juden
One lady owner, never raced or jumped.
Biospace
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by Biospace »

ossie wrote: 23 Jun 2022, 9:55pm Some people 'cycle to tour' and others 'tour to cycle'...I can't recall where I read that but its quite apt. I'm kind of in the latter. I haven't done a LEJOG but without doubt would try and get the damned thing over as quick as possible as most seemingly do. You can do similar mileage down (or back from )Spain or Switzerland and actually have fun.
I think I do both at the same time if that's considered possible, but don't push distances too high between anywhere which is pre-booked. For me, touring should be fun, not a daily endurance test.

The first longer tour I ever organised was about 8 days, a few of us from school cycled around the Lake District then North Wales (train from Grange-o-S to Betws-y-Coed), YHAing it at the grand age of 14 - I'm left wondering how I'd feel with my kids doing this today in another few years, no mobile phone and internet. I think we had to call home to at least one parent every night, they presumably then called each other!

How far we could safely manage in a day took some careful consideration, it worked out to be 3 to 4 hours cycling between overnight stops. This was enough of a physical challenge while allowing plenty of spare time for leisurely stops and sight-seeing, creating a good feel of balance by the end of the holiday between fun and achievement.
skeltrike
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by skeltrike »

I 'Tour' but my trike tends to 'Trundle' at 50-80k/day which is my physical limit, a pleasant pace, leisurely lunch and the odd beer, by no means a 'Trudge' I guess it depends on your perspective, I'm just out to enjoy the scenery/culture at my own pace with nothing to prove.
RobinS
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by RobinS »

When we tour for several months at a time it is very much a "Tour" not a "Trudge". We get up in the morning, eat breakfast,pack the tent away and get on the road - keeping an eye open for a bakery/boulangerie/backerei etc for elevenses and stuff for a picnic lunch. At the lunch stop we have a look at maps.guides etc and decide where to head for the night, usually trying to time a food shop just before camping, and maybe a bar for a cold beer! This sees us doing anything between about 30km and 100km per day, depending on weather, terrain etc. This, along with a rest day every couple of weeks or so enables us to tour without any strain or tiredness for months on end.
Jdsk
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by Jdsk »

RobinS wrote: 11 Jul 2022, 9:50am When we tour for several months at a time it is very much a "Tour" not a "Trudge". We get up in the morning, eat breakfast,pack the tent away and get on the road - keeping an eye open for a bakery/boulangerie/backerei etc for elevenses and stuff for a picnic lunch. At the lunch stop we have a look at maps.guides etc and decide where to head for the night, usually trying to time a food shop just before camping, and maybe a bar for a cold beer! This sees us doing anything between about 30km and 100km per day, depending on weather, terrain etc. This, along with a rest day every couple of weeks or so enables us to tour without any strain or tiredness for months on end.
Lovely description.

When we discuss our tours with people who don't we often find ourselves explaining that they aren't some massive athletic endeavour, and that the rhythm of the day and knowing roughly what we will be doing the next day has an element of something close to relaxation.

Jonathan
RobinS
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by RobinS »

and that the rhythm of the day and knowing roughly what we will be doing the next day has an element of something close to relaxation.
This absolutely - I find three months or so "on the road" to be the most relaxing and de-stressing thing I can ever do. Modern life brings so much stress, but on the road all you have to worry about is finding somewhere to buy food, and to camp.
Jdsk
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by Jdsk »

RobinS wrote: 11 Jul 2022, 12:00pm
and that the rhythm of the day and knowing roughly what we will be doing the next day has an element of something close to relaxation.
This absolutely - I find three months or so "on the road" to be the most relaxing and de-stressing thing I can ever do. Modern life brings so much stress, but on the road all you have to worry about is finding somewhere to buy food, and to camp.
The Guardian's advocacy of cycling continues with:

"Wales on wheels: bikepacking for novices":
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2022 ... -snowdonia

" ... I realise I don’t want the ride – and the simple, repetitive pleasures of packing, pedalling, unpacking and camping – to end."

Jonathan
pete75
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by pete75 »

Wild camping makes a really good tour possible. If you rely on booked campsites then you have to do a distance fixed at the start of the day. If you wild camp you can dawdle and have unplanned stops if you find interesting stuff during on the way or if you feel ok to push on a lot further than you planned it's ok for that too. Within certain limits you can stop where you fancy.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
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Sweep
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by Sweep »

pete75 wrote: 20 Jul 2022, 7:14pm Wild camping makes a really good tour possible. If you rely on booked campsites then you have to do a distance fixed at the start of the day. If you wild camp you can dawdle and have unplanned stops if you find interesting stuff during on the way or if you feel ok to push on a lot further than you planned it's ok for that too. Within certain limits you can stop where you fancy.
exactly - I once bivvied in a wood as it was starting to get dark and I wasn't sure I would get to my planned campsite - the farmer at the campsite was a bit bemused I think when I rolled up about 8:30 in the morning.

For me cyclecamping trips and wildcamping have the spirit of my youthful inter-rail trips - never knew for sure where I'd sleep much of the time but always worked out.

ditto in years gone by when I sometimes wandered/toured around by car camping or BBandBBing - never knew in the morning where I'd be sleeping that night. Relaxing - allows me to focus on whatever turns up.
Last edited by Sweep on 21 Jul 2022, 9:20am, edited 1 time in total.
Sweep
mattheus
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by mattheus »

Jdsk wrote: 20 Jul 2022, 6:55pm The Guardian's advocacy of cycling continues with:

"Wales on wheels: bikepacking for novices":
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2022 ... -snowdonia
Cycling between campsites ... sounds like cycle-touring. How did this "bike-packing" term get shoehorned in?

<sigh ... >
RobinS
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Re: Tour or a trudge

Post by RobinS »

" ... I realise I don’t want the ride – and the simple, repetitive pleasures of packing, pedalling, unpacking and camping – to end."
On our last tour, St Malo - Nantes - Bratislava - Prague - Cuxhaven - Hook of Holland, on the morning of day 90 our ferry docked in Harwich. We could have ridden home in one day from there, but didn't feel like it so bimbled along back roads to camp at Saxmundham. Next morning, easy ride home, no, we decided if we went up via Beccles we could take one last ferry, the Reedham Ferry, and camp at the site behind the Pub there. By then we were only 15 miles from home, so next day we really couldn't think of an excuse to extend the tour any more - we were so close to home people we know had already spotted us riding reluctantly homewards.
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