Cycling UK Forum

Hi

Planning lejog in july with my son & was looking for advice.
Panniers or trailer?
Also i've been looking @ all the other posts & was wondering how you start to plan your route.I'm looking for quite a direct route up through England but on quiet roads, Then once in Scotland i hope to tour around the west coast doing a bit of island hoping before heading home to Wick.Roughly 14 -16 days.

I was hoping to use camp sites rather than youth hostels or b&b's , so we'll be taking quite a bit of kit , Hence the query about the trailer.

Any info gratefully accepted.

Thanks

wickwheelers wrote:Roughly 14 -16 days......., so we'll be taking quite a bit of kit , Hence the query about the trailer.

With your timescale and heavy load, I would suggest you would need to look for the shortest route, unless you're used to 60-70 mile days.
It's just a balancing act between the quietest roads which are often more pleasant to cycle on but more circuitous, and the busier roads less pleasant to cycle on but a shorter distance to be covered. There are lots of options, take a look at older posts in this section of the forum.

You might find this recent thread useful:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=60236

My wife and I did JoGLE in 16 days in 2010 on our tandem with an Extra Wheel trailer carrying all the kit - fantastic.

We could have done it in 15, but had arranged to meet up with friends, relatives and representatives of our nominated charity (Marie Curie) at Land's End.

We could have done it in less than that, didn't take the shortest route as there were places we wanted to go & sights we wanted to see! Our final mileage was 1028 according to the cycle computer.

We did it with panniers and all agreed that we would use trailers next time.

There are plenty of quiet roads to follow but they do wander a lot. We followed NCN routes where they were available but found we spent a lot of time checking maps. Maybe we just had an exceptional talent for getting lost!

We also found that some main roads had quite good cycling facilities too, much to our suprise. This was very much the case in Scotland.

Emjoy your trip.

daveg wrote:We did it with panniers and all agreed that we would use trailers next time.

There are plenty of quiet roads to follow but they do wander a lot. We followed NCN routes where they were available but found we spent a lot of time checking maps. Maybe we just had an exceptional talent for getting lost!

We also found that some main roads had quite good cycling facilities too, much to our suprise. This was very much the case in Scotland.

Emjoy your trip.

Hi Dave,
> Could you expand on why you and your group would opt for trailers over panniers please?
> Have you/the group used trailers under similar circumstances before (in other words are these views based on direct experience)?
> Were you/the group carrying lots of luggage and/or going over terrain that made trailers preferable?

Now, I've not tried trailers myself, hence my questions, as I'm considering the possibility. However, I can't get over a few self-induced inhibitions( )about trailers e.g.
a. A trailer will encourage me to take even more luggage
b. The trailer will cost a few well-earned quid and weighs in at several kilos too. Seeing as I tour at something like 15Kg (including the panniers and rack), what benefits will I get for my money?

Going back to the OP and the question of routes:
i. I found that in general terms, quiet routes equate to hillier than the main, busy routes. None the less, in planning my 2nd Jogle for this April, I've not hesitated to stick with quiet routes due to the much more pleasurable (IMO) journey that will be had.
ii. You need to get a firm grasp on how many miles per day you are going to be able to do. Expect to do about 1050-1100 miles with a 'quiet route' scenario
iii. Then using one of the on-line route planning sites (I like http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com but there are plenty of others) in conjunction with http://www.ukcampsites.co.uk you can start to match up daily miles with possible routes and available camp sites.
iv. Once routes and campsites have been determined, get yourself a good car atlas such as the Philips Navigator Britain (good, detailed maps on a large-ish scale) for well under 15 GBP (you don't need the 2012 version - go for earlier editions and save a quid or two), and armed with a highlight pen, mark up and tear out the relevant pages)

Taking your planning one step further, (if budget allows), consider a 2nd hand handlebar mounted GPS -something you can put your routes into. This will save you many stops at quiet country lanes/junctions, pondering whether its the 2nd or 3rd turning that you want? (but GPS and cycle touring are another topic best left discussed else were.)

A good fallback plan is to have someone 'net savvy' at home who can find you alternative campsites (or B&B) should your well-laid plans falter (or dare I say it,take a smartphone/tablet PC with you!)

Enjoy your trip - I'm sure it will be a journey that you'll remember with pleasure for many a year to come.

On our Lejog there were two of us and we found panniers quite sufficient for all our gear including camping equipment although we didn't take cooking equipment as we didn't think the additional weight was worth it (and I wanted to make room for my notebook computer and camera...) My friend carried the tent he had front and rear panniers, whilst I had rear panniers and a barbag. Mind you, I'm thinking that if we had used a trailer he could have pulled the lot...hmmm something to think about for next time. Having never used a trailer I am interested whether people think it's a good option, especially on untarmaced sections.

There are so many options it is a matter of personal preference which route to pick. I used Phil Horsely's guide book in combination with Camra's Good Beer Guide as a starting point, using quiet routes wherever possible. On the bike I found pages from an atlas and a highlighter pen pretty much did the job, although the lack of contours on the map led to some surprises en route.

My daily routes are here if you want to take a look: http://lejogging.blogspot.com/ then go to the 2009 pages. There is a link to a map at the end of each post. Don't follow the Shropshire section - complete **** up. Also the Lancaster Canal towpath is probably not very good with a trailer as it was mainly grass. The Scotland bits are ok though, I think, although we only hopped one island - Arran. Even through sheets of rain I could tell the west coast was very lovely.

Ellie

It depends a bit on how you are equipped already. If you have a bike without a rack and more 'racer' than tourer the Bob will take a lot of strain off the bike, and though expensive it's not so much more than a decent rack and rear pannier set and less if you add heavier tyres and wheels. Obviously if you already have a decent touring bike the sums work out differently. As for stability etc there's not a lot in it, they are different but neither should be a problem. Speed? I guess the extra weight of the Bob option would slow you more than the theoretical advantage of lower wind-drag and on poor surfaces the third wheel will hold you back a little (a lot if you are on soft cyclepaths). Reliability? A Bob is generally more reliable, I've used several for many thousands of miles both personally and in our fleet and never had any failure of any sort (though a spare skewer with Bob attachments is worth carrying) whereas pannier rack failures and hook breakages are not uncommon (one reason we only use strap-held panniers in our fleet) Personally I'm a huge fan of the bob, but I tended to use it in addition to panniers when we had small children and needed to carry a lot of stuff especially on tandems.

Thanks very much for all the replies, Looks like we're going down the route of two mountain bikes & two trailers.

Hi,
You don't say how you're getting to the start of the journey. If you're travelling by train then bear in mind many train companies won't carry trailers so check before you travel as a BOB is hard to disguise as a backpack, I know because I've tried on the East Anglia trains. Hope this hasn't thrown too much of a spanner in your plans.
Good luck and have fun.

A bit late to the party - but have you considered a trailer and panniers in the form of an Extrawheel. Seems to be cheaper than a BOB too and possibly easier to convince anyone making a fuss about getting on a train with it.

My experience with trains is somewhat different to wallyone. I've got a slightly different trailer - Carry Freedom City - that I use to get to & from supported tours and I've not had a problem on trains with it (including to & from LEJOG).

Rick

Mountain bikes and trailers? Blimey. What are you carrying? Sounds like a good idea for a round the world trip, but LeJog...
What about a Carradice saddlebag and not taking anything with you apart from the basics? Much lighter, much simpler.

Not seen this in the flesh but it looks to be a fairly straight copy of the original BOB - http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/m-wave-singl ... rc=froogle and it's stupid money...

I've used panniers and a trailer, and they both have advantages. You can carry stuff in a trailer that would be impossible in panniers, e.g. a canoe (!), so I use my trailer when I take big bags/crates to the recycling depot. However, I do feel that it reduces my mobility, so I'm happier with panniers; I certainly wouldn't fancy threading my way through traffic with a trailer behind me, although maybe I'd get more confident with experience. The Carry Freedom website have a science blurb where they say that trailers are more efficient: basically, each time the bike wobbles from side to side you have to lift the pannier weight back up to the middle, whereas a trailer will stay level behind you. Mind you, I'm not sure whether that would also apply to a single wheeled trailer like the Yak. My touring bike is set up for heavy touring, so I had 5 panniers on my LEJOG attempt last year: bar bag, 2 on the front wheel and 2 at the rear.

Careful with a light bike and bob yak trailer. I found that the tail tended to wag the dog with a my old Dawes Lightning with a load of about 16 Kilo. With a mountain bike bike this was no problem but at least it made me drastically reduce my load. I now keep to below about 12Kilo load for comfortable touring. Try before you go!