Tjs recovery ride: advice, routes, rides n beer

That’s a lot of clothes. If it were me, even on a long tour, I’d take minimum one spare pare of shorts and base layer, and wash the ones I’m not using and whatever else is dirty. That presupposes a bit of summer weather from time to time; but persistent bad and/or cold weather is hard to deal with.

I mean, you can take what you like, but if your whole kit weighs 18kg then that’s a pretty big weight penalty and it’s going to slow your progress. If you’re ok with that, then I am too, but I probably would go lighter.

you need 3 to be sure of a clean one most days
I get cold but I will ponder the layering for going south

I’m fortunate, I’m very warm blooded so I can put on a damp base layer that’s been washed and hung out and put up with it until it dries.

Full week tour before summer officially starts and plenty of photos. Good job TJ 👍
Enjoy your own bed and looking forward to the next chapter.

Hi TJ, great trip and thread – looking forward to reading about the next legs! Hope it is warmer and dryer too.

I haven’t done any serious bike tours but like you I have done a lot of long distance walks. A few years ago we walked across Europe, from London to Rome. We spanned late summer, autumn and winter so got a lot of different weather, from scorching hot to snow and sub zero temperatures. Quite difficult to pack for! Anyway, we picked up kit on the way and sent stuff home that was redundant. We picked up extra thermal, gloves and beanies from decathlon, fleece blankets from lidl to boost sleeping bags and even an umbrella when the rains came. All in all we managed to keep our total weights without food down to about 5.5 – 6kg each including rucsacs. I was cold twice when it was minus 5 in Italy so we sat in cafes till the sun warmed up. A couple of hours in a laundry sat naked in goretex is to be savoured

If you don’t have one get the edilrid gas cannister adapter that allows you to run a threadless camping gaz cannister. The gaz is pretty easy to find – supermarkets and diy stores and we never had a problem over 3 months of walking. I never bothered looking for screw on cannisters

Bon voyage mon ami

I can and have have have used a base weight of 7 kg for backpacking. There is an couple of kilos to be removed from that list. ( spare jumper, lock shall be reviewed and also lighter waterproofs)

slowol – it was 13 days

I have mapped out what I rode. 300 miles well over half of which was offroad including dozen miles of hikabike. 25000+ ft of climbing

TJ great thread, enjoying the updates.

Few things I would say:
Shoes, you only mention camp shoes and SPDs. You are going to see loads of great places, are your camp shoes comfy and durable enough if you decide to do some walking and sightseeing without the bike? If not What about some walking boots/shoes? You will spend a lot of time on the bike, but also a lot off it. You may want a few days rest without cycling, and comfortable shoes for those days would be welcome.

Strava or similar, looks like you don’t use it as above you said you mapped out your distance afterwards. But it’s something I wish I’d had for a lot of my earlier touring. In years to come, you can see your routes where you had been and what distance etc you had done each day. You can add pictures to each days activity. And if you don’t want to you don’t ave to share it with anyone, as you can keep all activities private, but you have that history you can see for years to come.

Bar bag or small frame bag, consider a small bag, just to keep items that you want to get access to quickly, somewhere to put phone, camera, snacks, wallet, etc. without going into your main bag.

Thats just my suggestions, but you seem vastly more experienced in this than me, so I’m sure you already know what works best for you.

Anyway, enjoy your trip and hope you have a good time

You are going to see loads of great places, are your camp shoes comfy and durable enough if you decide to do some walking and sightseeing without the bike? If not What about some walking boots/shoes?

I always find this a real balance. the lightest boots I have are far too heavy to take at 800g+ a pair. These sandals are the lightest I can find that are actually usable for walking at 400g the pair. I could walk a few miles in them.

Can’t stand anything on the bars. I have an easy access easy detach small saddlebag. I didn’t use a frame bag to protect the paint – and promptly kicked lumps out of the paintjob!

I tracked the first day on my phone and it used its entire battery so did not after that because I had 3 or 4 days between recharging to manage with a powerpack. I am gong to look into better ways of doing this

If it was just the cycling I understand, but an extra 800g is just a large water bottle. Do you notice much difference when you have a full bottle compared to an empty one? If not just take the walking boots. If it turns out you don’t use them, you could always post them back.

I say that as an over packer, I’ve never been able to do lightweight, apart from the very steepest climbs I don’t generally notice a few kgs of extra comforts.

Even using something like a GPS computer instead of a phone, you will run into issues with charging.

I would maybe add, for the Ireland leg at least, spare spoke(s) and a spike key. Bike shops on the west coast can be a bit more few and far between and odd spokes can be very hard to find. Obviously if you’ve got tired and tested bombproof wheels you may decide against this but might be worth considering.

Sorry @tjagain. I wasn’t counting and the posts just said 1 week ago. That’s 2 week tour before the start of summer!
Space here if you’re ever heading down England’s East coast.

sbtouring – its the incremental effect. many folk would think I have too much anyway. I certainly wouldn’t mind cutting a few kilos. those sandals are the lightest things I can walk a few miles in but I bet Moley thinks them too heavy 🙂

” If a fork why not a knife and spoon? If salt then why not pepper?” and before you know it you have got 40kg to carry!

good call kilo

I had front and rear lights as well – missed off the list

As well as the spoke have some form of cassette tool. On our 3 month tour of France I broke driveside spoke in the middle of nowhere on a French public holiday. We managed a bodge with a leatherman but a proper tool would have been much easier.

rohloff hub. No need

For shoes I would take some SPD compatible shoes that are comfy to walk in. There are plenty around.

Such as? A decent SPD shoe has a rigid sole that is crap to walk in as are cleats. I have nev3r had spd shoes that you can walk properly in. Remember this is not for a couple of nights in the hills – this is for months on end camping in campsites

I had a a pair way back but there are shoes aimed at Enduro riders who often push a lot. There are SPD Five Tens and a load of others along similar lines. They have a softer sole than of school shoes. Get down to a bike shop and try some or start a thread.

softer sole = inefficient pedalling. I have tried loads. I could just ride in approach shoes on flats but a rigid spd shoe is better for efficiency

Soft soled spd =- pointless

Well they’re not totally soft just not rock solid. But whatever.

One day I hope to buy you a pint TJ.

Yeh I have 5.10 kestrels with spd . Fine for walking in. Soft ‘steath’rubber, but a stiff sole.

Re tracking on your phone. Do you have it in airplane mode? Or atleast data, WiFi, blur tooth off unless you need it? I use my phone for everything and track with Strava. Having it in airplane mode unless I need to makes a massive difference, though a 5800mah battery does too.

Good luck with the rest of your tour!

I was using memory map in airplane mode but high accuracy which I guess uses more battery. Its something to sort out. maybe I have to submit and get strava

I’m on Android and use maverick gps navigation on my phone for navigation. Have done for years in UK and abroad. You can use different layers including OSM and full OS (goes between 1:50k and 1:25k depending on your level of zoom). Can up load gpx files to follow.

You just need to scroll through the area you’re riding/walking at whatever ever scale you want when you have WiFi/data and it caches to the phone for use when you don’t have or.dont want a data/WiFi connection. It will track and record too.

Free or £6.99 for the pro edition which allows more waypoints https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.codesector.maverick.lite

The only draw back with it is you can’t actually plan and plot routes on it (other than by adding waypoints), you have to upload gpx files from another source.

Aargh, can’t believe I missed this thread, sorry TJ! Would have loved to have met up around and about Stirling, also delighted to see someone still using a BoB trailer, I have fond memories!

Good luck with the next stages, let me know if you’re enticed back north into Perthshire, but I wouldn’t blame you if you weren’t, bloody wet and windy summer so far 🙄

Shoes are a real pain when long distance touring. I agree that shoes for riding and walking more than a few steps to the shops just don’t mix. So this is what I have and use on my three week long trips in Franceland.
Much against my better stylistic judgement I got some of these:
https://www.lyst.co.uk/shoes/crocstm-mens-swiftwater-wave-sandal-6/
Sorry I haven’t ever learnt how to do pictures! Anyway they are great if you can find them. Light, good to do gentle walking/ambling/exploring in, and when on not to grim to look at. Also there are no issues with getting them dry of course.
Can’t believe I’ve said this in public! My kids will punish me but you will thank me.

I was also thinking @tjagain now you’re home you can arrange a dynamo hub to charge your electronics.

Ihave a pair of lightweight sandals – Do you know how heavy they are wingnuts?

Molgrips Having had issues with dynamo hobs they do not fit my need for unbreakability. Maybe in my head that one. I did think about speccing it with a dynamo but decided against

Just weighed them and its 450gm for a size 10. Surprised they were that much when my Bontrager raid shoes came in at 850gm. They will remain my go to shoe for touring. Going across Germany to Copenhagen at the end of month to see the start of the tour with some guys from the Edinburgh Road Club as it happens!

Ta wingbuts

If you can find some to try on have a look at 5.10 Kestrel Pros. SPD compatible, sticky sole and reasonably stiff for pedalling in but are also comfy to walk in.