possibly helping with a charity bike ride in france…ill be needed to mainly transport the bikes kit about…whats sort of money will be needed for fuel? ill be in a large sprinter type of van.whats the best ferry to take cost wise as its all for charidee…

http://en.mappy.com/

http://fr.mappy.com/

Try Aferry Freight for comparing ferry costs. Its important to know the actual vehicle size though, sprinters come in lots of sizes. The very smallest of which can just sneak in as a car, sometimes.

As a rough guide my SWB sprinter manages about 450 miles or so on a full tank (about £110), but there are few different engines and specs and gearing. A longer van might not cost much more but a taller one will and a luton will cost loads and loads more in fuel. If its a rental rather than your own van its difficult to gauge. I sometimes have 3 or 4 seemingly identical vans out on hire and they all seem to be specced and geared differently and give different mpgs

That will not be a fun drive.

We did Edinburgh to Morzine in a diesel Primera. Took 22 hours, Nice is 5+ hours further on. We slept in turns and on the ferry, not sure we could have done much further without a proper stop.

On top of that you’ll have a lower speed limit in the van (60 on the motorway) and a lower cruising speed than we sat at.

Fuel will be around 30mpg if you’re careful in that big a van plus you have road tolls in France that a large van may be a bit more expensive than a car.

Rough guess you’ll be around £600 in fuel (1400 miles each way) £100+ in tolls, £140+ for the ferry (car was £40 each way I think).

Easy Jet charge £50 return for the bike on that flight, takes 2.5 hours from Edinburgh. Unless you’re carrying 15+ bikes I’d be very surprised if a van works out as the cheapest option before even factoring in your time.

yep good tips ta….its gonna be 25 bikes and gear…easy jet arent saying they’ll take all the bikes…hence the van idea.i dont mind the driving.may get a ride in when im down theyre!

i’ve driven to near nice and back (admittedly from London not Scotland) more than once, and one return journey in a van. I found it pretty enjoyable, to be honest.

That will not be a fun drive.

I think it depends on how much you get on with driving, I love a road trip
I volunteered to drive a works van to Athens once – superb trip 🙂

There is (or was) a coach running from Scotland down to the south of france for cyclists that trailers everyones bikes. Not sure if you could block-book them – but given your 25 cyclists need to travel as well as the bikes it might be a sensible way to do it

Might be these guys I’m thinking of, or it might be something similar. I’m sure who ever it was set out from scotland.

Nice has the highest crime rate in France, there are much more pleasant destinations on the south coast where you may find your van complete with wheels and contents after parking it for more than five minutes. How about St Tropez, equally famous, much nicer.

This will calculate your costs

awesome guys! thats a great help….down to geneve drop the bikes(they cycle geneve to nice) then down to nice to meet em…then back up…im guessing a wee bash in essex then back to scotchland..thats the rough plan i think

We often take the Hull-Zeebrugge ferry when travelling between Scotland and the Alps (shame the Rosyth-Zeebrugge one has been cancelled again).

When you look at the fuel costs to drive the length of England plus potentially the cost of an overnight stay, the longer (overnight) crossing starts to make a lot of sense.

Fly with bikes, rent local van… ?

longer (overnight) crossing starts to make a lot of sense.

I’d echo that, with 25 bikes either sleep on the ferry or in the van – insurance is unlikely to cover that much stuff in an unattended vehicle over night. I’ve got a special goods in transit policy but even for that to be valid the van needs to be in secure parking at night.

id have to pick the bikes up in essex i think so it would be a southern trip across the channel…ive got a great quote on insurance so far…

is it going to be a rented van?

yep got a account with a local firm….

I usually use Arnold Clark – I’ve sometimes done a switcheroo to save driving too far with a big empty van – hire something small in scotland, then swap it at their Stafford branch for the big thing to use down south then swap back again on the way north.

Make sure the hire co knows you’re taking the van abroad

If you see a 1999 vintage silver Orange P7, with Manito front suspension, and Orange Rider bars, and possibly stillwith panniers attached, could you please steal it back for me. I liked that bike enormously.

Second the theft thing – I left my bike locked up at the Railway Station for anhour at the end of my trip, (after sleeping on beeches for a week chained to the bloody thing) and in that time, middle of the day, it was gone, from among hundreds of others.

The thief might possibly have a really loud yellow shirt on – or even a turquoise flowery short sleeve number – they were in the panniers too!

Bastards.