Hebridean tour in April

Don’t bother with a lock – or a lightweight one if you must. wild camping – If I am worried I tie a guy rope to the bike

Teetosugars – Member

Just found the first issue with taking a rack- My Cove has no Rackmounts…

Arse.

You can get seat clamps with rack mounts and axle mount kits – also look at the tubus stuff – better than P clips

That was kinda what I was wondering. I’m just slightly paranoid after having had a bike nicked from inside a tent I was asleep in.

TTS – what size seatclamp does the Cove have? You can get seatclamps with upper rack mounts built in.

Lightweight camping setup:

p-clips aren’t sufficient at the lower mount, no doubt better solutions exist tho.

Druidh, Its 30.0mm..

Think I’ll head to the LBS and see what they can come up with as I’m useless anay type of bodging.. 😳

want to go touring now….

My favourite is a couple of Ortlieb front rollers on a rear rack plus bar bag or roll up front to balance weight up. Plenty of room for anything you might want to take, including a decent size tent. Trailers are handy if you want to go out for the weekend and don’t have can’t/can’t be bothered fitting your pannier rack before then!

What do folk do for bike bags on flights then?

Cling film 🙂

😆

Wander into the nearest bike shop with a quick spiel scribbled down from google translate along the lines of “could I please have a couple of cardboard boxes from bikes” – trying it in the local lingo seems to be appreciated. I’ve done it twice now and you usually get a funny look and handed a box or directed to the bins 🙂

Teetosugars – Member
Druidh, Its 30.0mm..

Hmm, can’t find one in that size.

New frame time…..

Nick I’d post up here for help re. adding a rack – it’s fairly specialist stuff and they may be clueless…

Ta Andy.

as for frame without rack mounts; I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – freeload Merida Germany import them so you should be able to get them online from a German retailer if you don’t want to import from NZ

mustard – SJS are selling Freeload racks now.
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/page/find/?name=freeload&page=1

I knew they wouldn’t be a cheap option…

We have camping toured for 4 months on our tandem with just four panniers. I’m a bit anal about what we take and owning pukka l/w kit. On a single, I can easily get my kit into 2 rear panniers and summer backpacking, 4 nights into a 35l sack without compromising. (i.e. no silly bubble wrap mattresses or ladies tights instead of troos).

Less is most definitely more.

Less is most definitely more.

Not convinced – I have done a fair amount of touring. On a bike weight is not so critical as when backpacking and its nice to be cofy. For example we have the thermarest chair gadgets, it nice to carry a decent coffeepot, full set of normal cutlery and decent town clothes as well as something else to wear on your feet

We play it different ways depending on where and how long we are travailing for. Mind you we still don’t carry as much as the dutch or germans

My only tip with a bob is to get two of the rear skewers that the trailer attaches to the bike with. That way you can share the towing…

Mrs GDRS does the flat bits…….

TJ +1. I would take certain luxuries if just randomly cycle touring. A battery powered central light for example, and thermarests. I have a 3 man tent which weighs about 2.7kg ish. Much ligher tents are available but the extra space is lovely. Also a pan set instead of a billy can which allows you to cook properly rather than just heat stuff and some MSR folding utensils. And a teapot and thermal mugs. Little things 🙂

we will be waltzing down the Danube yet 🙂

I take all those as well, I really mean we’re not silly about leaving stuff out. I take a Tadpole for 2 camping, proper Thermarests, a Whisperlight, pan, kettle, RAB 500 each, full waterproofs, spare togs etc etc.

But.. I don’t take lots of ‘extraneous’ stuff. I do take an MP3 palyer, phone, maps etc but we are really careful about adding stuff to the basic pile.

I took a cheapie IKEA frying pan with nice deep sides to cook with – stove was another story 🙄 – we had clothes for the evenings, were in Spain and Portugal so every litle bar does GOOD coffee (50cents or less in Portual). Tupperware boxes are very versatile; bowl to eat out of, lid as a plate, store leftovers for lunch the next day etc.

My tent is huge and weighs v little, albeit it is a single skin tarp tent. Tall enough for me to sit up comfortably, in fact they say that four can sit up and play a game of cards comfortably if the weather is grim.

I think carrying a teapot is taking things to extremes though.

I’ll see if i took a before pic of all our kit when i get to the laptop tonight

Wife and i cycled part of the route Teetosugars is proposing last year, the section from Orleans to Chinon, apart from one or two sections where the sign posted cycle route took you up the valley sides, cycling was relatively flat and easy going. quiet roads/cycle tracks and don’t recall any chicane type barriers you get on the cycle paths here so trailer is no problem.

We rode a tandem and borrowed a trailer from my LBS, first time i used it was getting on the ferry at portsmouth. takes a bit of getting used to, but fit all camping kit clothes etc for me an the wife. the only time we noticed it was going uphill, where the bike felt draggy and trying to get around in town. Tight turns or trying to reverse the bike ended in jack-knifed frustration.

I did find a rack bag useful in addition though (for shopping, easy access tools, puncture kit etc) roll top bag was a faff if you needed anything on the move.

we will be waltzing down the Danube yet

God I feel sick.

Wanna go touring now after reading all this, cant wait for it to get a bit warmer. I use racks and panniers but try to keep it all as minimalist as possible, not tried off road touring wi the panniers on yet, could be a plan for this year.

Only experience of touring is a magical mystery month long tour with mustard, using two rear panniers and a small bar bag (plus two extra water bottles on the forks) I liked the panniers, however, when running very late for our train connection to Madrid (train in the station, on the other side of the platform, down one set of stairs and up another) I disliked them immensely! Some kind stranger helped me lift my bike as we legged it. Never had an issues with an unweighted front end – we did a 20% hill from cold after we crossed into Spain which was nasty but i didn’t have an issue with the front wanting to come up. Can’t really see why a trailer would appeal.

Less is most definitely more.

As a girl who takes her entire cycling wardrobe for a weekend away, i was surprised to agree with this – two sets of cycling clothes and 1 set of normal clothes was more than enough for a month.

Ah, brings back happy memories. I want to go away now! 🙂

yeah, i’m getting pretty psyched reading all these threads too!

I’ve got 3 days off next week (finish one job on tuesday, don’t start my new job until monday), but the weather is unlikely to be great, and I really should prepare for my new job.

I wonder if I could fit a sneaky tour in….

Dave

I wonder if I could fit a sneaky tour in….

Yes, yes you could, sod the weather and do a wee credit card tour of some nice pubs…

When I tour with my girlfriend I have a bar bag and a trailer, my girlfriend has a bar bag and rear panniers. We each carry our own clothes and sleeping bags%pads, I carry the tent, stove and a larger portion of the food in the trailer. We have found that this nicely evens up our paces on the bikes, making it more comfortable to ride together with neither of us getting more tired than the other.
To get around the flying problems I have a bob-esque trailer from TW-bents that folds flat. I can then put it alongside the frame in a nylon bike bag.

Paul

Yes, yes you could, sod the weather and do a wee credit card tour of some nice pubs…

You are a bad man. I’m telling teacher.

You are a bad man. I’m telling teacher.

😈

Yay, another excuse to use my favourite smiley!

Hmm there’s a hell of a lot of inspiration in here! Starting to plan three years in advance now as the ideas accumulate…

More prosaically in the first instance though: has anyone any experience of touring in Dorset? We’re planning to get the train down to Bournemouth over Easter and then head west via Poole and the ferry through the Isle of Purbeck and along the coast. Any suggestions on routes and sights to see very much appreciated!

Hmm, can’t find one in that size.

Salsa do one that size.

So they do!!

Of course, they call it a collar, not a seat clamp 🙄

if you are camping don’t make the mistake I did – take a therma rest. I was bloody freezing for two nights in Scotland last year. wasn’t particularly cold outside more the damp and cold creeping up through the floor. I even lined bottom of tent with all my clothes etc in plastic bags and it made little to no difference.
Couple of weekends later I used an self inflating sleepmat andit made a hell of a difference.
as for panniers vs trailer – panniers would always win for me.Lot easier to sling your panniers off the bike andup and over gates/onto trains/pick up trucks etc.

I use a freeload on FS and bikes with no mounts. Has been awesomely brilliant. FREELOAD RACKS

Take some tips from this guy: http://ultralightcycling.blogspot.com/

I doubt you’d even get a trailer on a train – tandems are not allowed.

Trailers can be taken on a train – a friend of mine does so. Tandems can go on some trains – not scotrail but east coast mainline and some others

Good to know, I am guessing an officious guard could cause difficulties if they are not explicitly allowed on?