Cycling UK Forum

I'm planning to ride from home (London) to Switzerland (Berne) next year. For common-sense reasons, reinforced by advice from this estimable site, I decided to do a shakedown trip to visit a friend in Somerset recently. In the spirit of sharing, here are some observations from a newcomer to cycle touring. There are also a few questions buried in there, on which any advice/comment would be welcome.
1. It was a 450km round-trip to Somerset, completed in 4 days of cycling. Each way involved in the region of 1800m of climbing and was done at an average speed of 19kph. (My GPS is set to metric, you'll have guessed.) I was in the saddle for between 5 and 8 hours per day. Max speed was 61kph (wheeeeee!) and minimum speed was 0kph on the one occasion (honest, only one) where a short steep hill on a country lane was just too much. (I tell myself I could've done it without luggage and if the back wheel hadn't been slipping on mud.) I really have no idea whether this performance is average at least for a moderately fit 62-year-old who commuted 14 miles a day in London for 25 years but hasn't cycled much for the last 6 or 7. My own belief is that it is evidence I should be able to make it to Switzerland in 8 days or so. I'd be interested in views from this vastly more experienced community.
2. Specifically, if anyone knows Oare Hill on the A345 travelling N towards Marlborough, Wiltshire and/or the hill on the A343 near Highclere travelling S away from Newbury - how would they rate? I found them quite challenging.
2. I used a combination of maps and GPS. The maps are difficult to interpret in town; the GPS (mine anyway) can send you off on a bizarre roundabout route (see A343 point above) if you're not careful. Conclusion: use both judiciously - and don't ignore road signs... and the position of the sun!
3. I stayed in B&Bs. Even with only two front panniers (hung on the back) and a bar bag (all Ortlieb Classic - that's over 2kg for the bags themselves), I felt as though I was lugging quite a lot of extra weight - and I had minimised clothing and extras. How people manage through the Alps with some of the loads I've seen here (where you can barely see the bike) I can't imagine. I failed to weigh my whole caboodle but what do people think is a 'good' (i.e. light but practical) weight to have for a credit-card-type tour over 8 days? Including or excluding the bike.
4. I wore road shoes (Look Keo pedal system) with carbon soles. I like the stability and fit but they're terrible to walk in - more than just into the pub anyway. I had flip-flops to change into and another light pair of real shoes for evenings and doing tourism with my friend. I'm in two minds about whether to repeat this approach for the longer trip next year or to switch to SPD walkable shoes plus flip-flops and save the weight.
5. Two 800ml bidons were invaluable. One with plain water, the other with energy drink. Or, if you don't have powder sachets of that, I found pubs were very willing to add a dash of lime juice to the water to make it less plasticky. Drinking regularly and eating energy bars (or equivalent) really does make a difference. I now know two meanings for the word 'bonking'.
6. Other things I wish I'd had: a spare plastic bag or two (low weight, multiple uses); ibuprofen; sunglasses without dark lenses (it's not always sunny, even in t'South, but eye protection is good); a head torch (since a bar bag makes a front light problematical); waterproof cover for the GPS; stronger legs.
Despite, or because of, the challenges I found this first tour very enjoyable and rewarding. No punctures and no near-death experiences - for me, at least, though one van-driver nearly put himself into a head-on by overtaking me too fast on a blind bend.
Must finish now; off for a training ride... without luggage!

6. Other things I wish I'd had: a spare plastic bag or two (low weight, multiple uses); ibuprofen; sunglasses without dark lenses (it's not always sunny, even in t'South, but eye protection is good); a head torch (since a bar bag makes a front light problematical); waterproof cover for the GPS; stronger legs.
Despite, or because of, the challenges I found this first tour very enjoyable and rewarding. No punctures and no near-death experiences - for me, at least, though one van-driver nearly put himself into a head-on by overtaking me too fast on a blind bend.
Must finish now; off for a training ride... without luggage! [/quote]

Since i don't know and you don't tell us how far it is to switzerland, i couldn't possibly make a guess if you could do it in 8 days.

Unless its a large town, you don't need maps to get through them. You just need to keep track of those that say Centreville when you ride through France. And how difficult it is to use them in another country depends on the maps you have. I have heard it said that getting into french cities is difficult on a bike. For that reason, you might want to avoid the cities. I didn't go into many myself.

Weight issues. I love that question but can't answer your very sensibly phrased question only because i dont tend to weight stuff. I'd say just take the minimum you can get away with. Take what you need and don't leave stuff out just because you want to get the weight down. Don't take more than you need. For your style of travel, you should be fine with the pannier system you describe. Tackling the hills amounts to building up knee strength. I have just come back from my first mountain climbing trip in France. It took me much much longer than necessary to get fit for the pyrenees because i avoided riding up mountains. Finally, on my last col i changed tactics and i think i would have been fine on any col after that and i had a 4kg tent and probably 1kg sleeping bag as well. The idea is, ride until you can't any more, get off, recover, ride again. Continue until you get to the top of the mountain. You will be quite a bit stronger by the next one. If you are training at home first, then you have lots of time to develop your knee strength without injury. I mean you can take rest days after a long climb.

If you want to save baggage weight, then its a no brainer as far as i'm concerned. Skip bike shoes. I don't use them anyway. I take only two pair of shoes. One for riding in and sandle or thong shoe for anything else. This trip i took my birkinstocks and loved having them. But i believe that once people start wearing clip on shoes, they find it hard if impossible to back to riding with ordinary shoes again. I have toe cages on my pedals to stop my foot sliding off.

I totally disagree with this approach to food and drink on the road. I drink water and eat normal food. I do not eat energy bars or drinks. I always have enough energy. Its not good to add lemon or lime juice to your drinking water unless you down the drink in one go and rinse off the acidity with straight water after. Doing what you did all the time will take off the enamel of your teeth. If your bottles taste like plastic, there is something wrong with them. I found in france that most of the time one drink bottle is enough. YOu can always get refills though if you don't know from where, its tricky to know where to find a tap. One place is in cemetaries which are usually near the edge of town. There is always a tap inside the gate. Obviously public toilets are also a source of water but sometimes there are fountains in town as well.

If you eat three meals a day, you will have plenty of energy. In france you should take advantage of the lovely formule meals which are two or three courses and only cost about 12 euros. If you go for 15 euros you will dine very well indeed. If you don't want to do that, "une tradition" baguette with cheese will take you a long way. Its a shame not to eat proper french food whilst you are there. I only tried an energy bar once. It was disgusting. Its just not food and its for athletes not tourists. If you like your food in bar form, french supermarkets sell those breakfast bars. I"d suggest about three for breakfast though. They are high in sugar. I preferred to have a coffee with plenty of milk, and a french tar tine or croissant for brekky. Dinner at night was something delicious from the supermarket but as you will do B&Bs then they will probably cook you dinner.

I missed your last point. Yes plastic bags are essential part of the touring cyclists kit. I like ziplock bags for some little things or food things and i used smallish garbage bags to waterproof my sleeping bag sac. I keep my food in them. I separate dirty things from clean things using them. Make sure you choose stronger ones to take with you.

Why do you need ibuprofen? In terms of first aid stuff, i would suggest headache tablets because it might not be convenient to get to a chemist to buy them when you need them. Paracetamol is good for colds (which i got from the plane) and if you have too much trouble getting to sleep. You don't really want to cover up any pain in your knees with painkillers because then you will just worsen your injury, unless its just for sleeping at night. If you have sore knees you need to take regular rests and not push yourself too hard. Most first aid stuff can be bought as you go along as things turn up. The only issue i had was athletes foot that developed after about 5 weeks. But this i cured in a hot sulphur pool, unexpectedly, after having just spent more than 20 euros on a treatment that i never had to use.

I didn't wear my sunnies at all in France. Not that i am recommending you do the same. One reason why i didn't want to wear them was because they cut into the quality of what you see and i just didn't find the light that strong in france, except in a couple of spots and usually not on the bike. I did have quite a few bugs fly into my eyes but nothing really did any damage.

What are you going to use a headtorch for. If you are riding in summertime its light until about 10pm. At the b&b you will have a light switch.

Yes touring on a bike is enjoyable and rewarding. I never had a puncture in two months on french roads. Pump your tyres up properly and they will be good until you ride over a thorn or a tack. I tend to do to about 10psi less than recommended maximum pressure.

Back to the weight of your gear, if you write out a complete list of the stuff you took, we may be able to tell you what else to leave out or add in.

@newislander
Thank you. Interesting. I am of course looking forward to lots of normal French/Belgian food and I agree this must be the basis of one's daily energy output. As for energy bars (or anything else for that matter), I'm not sure I would be quite so militant after only trying one, once. I do know a brand I like (High 5, I think), they are convenient, supplementary and I don't feel particularly anti-athlete. On the contrary, it's quite nice to pretend to be an athlete once in a while . Ibuprofen is good for headaches, curing them, that is - I'm aware of the risks of using painkillers to mask serious conditions. Yes, I know about lighting up times too and in all likelihood it's true I could do without lights altogether; I simply meant that if I do take lights (and I probably will) then a head torch type might be more practical than trying to cook up some Heath Robinson arrangement to get round the bar bag problem (I've seen other threads with a few thousand words devoted to this issue). Sorry, I was assuming everyone knew how far it was to Switzerland! To Berne, it's about 800km (all depends on the route though, I suppose), so 100km a day for 8 days, average.

I'm not going to plunge into the shoe debate, other than to say I cycled for many years with toeclips but I wouldn't go back to them after having tried clip-in shoes - thus I confirm the belief you already have! For me, it's more a question of which type of clip-in (oddly known as clipless) shoes to use.

And finally weight. I like your first advice, which I'm sure is what I'll end up following - ie. minimum I can get away with. I'm not inclined to list all the items a) because I value my privacy and b) because everyone will have their own individual take on what 'essential' means. I was just mildly interested in what the 'typical' spectrum of weight is for this type of touring. Clearly, only those who actually do weigh their kit will have a view on this.

I don't recall seeing anything on your gearing. In my experience off the shelf touring bikes, for example, are too highly geared for me. You can get up any hill, within reason, if the gears are low enough. So a small front chain wheel of 22 teeth married to say a large rear sprocket of say 32 teeth would be a good starting point for me.

@Beekeeper

You can get up any hill, within reason, if the gears are low enough.

Ah, the all-important qualifier: 'within reason'! This will mean many different things to different people. I think what you mean is: low gears are helpful for going up hills. I wouldn't argue with that. But in a few months since resuming cycling, I have already found two hills I couldn't get up: one in Curbar, Derbyshire and the aforementioned lane in Somerset. I'm pretty sure there are more out there waiting for me.

Checking my bike papers, I see I have a 50/34 chainset and a 12-34 cassette. These were not part of the original spec but were put on for me to cater for: old legs and pushing luggage up hills. The bike itself is based on a Pearson 'Easy Come Easy Go' frame, customised in various other ways to produce a vehicle that is both fairly sporty (unloaded) but capable of carrying some loads when a rack is added.

Cheers.