I did Liverpool to Leeds along the canal for charity a couple of years ago and apart from a couple of sarnies in the middle of the day survived on gel sachets / energy bars / energy drink.

at the end (apart from the worn skin on my perenium,very ouch)inside my mouth felt really sore and I also had bad acid for about 3-4 days , it's probably the energy stuff causing it. Try some milk of magnesia or similar and if there's no improvement in another couple of days go see the doc's.

you won't get lost , there's enough in place with a few laminated sheets too to follow it all ok.

LOL , it's almost inevitable that I'm going to have an accident when I ride solo such is my bike handling prowess :lol:

Having toured with only rear panniers I'm only too aware of how light the front end is when the rear is weighted.

It's a bit of a stretch when the harness is holding them in the back of the seat , Luke could only just reach at 3 1/2.

With the Weeride that can't happen as there's a guard tower in front of the child that also keeps mud/splashes away from their faces (check my picture).
Also I wouldn't personally ride in such a way that I would be likely to have an accident with my child on board , some might risk it , not me.

I'd worry more with a rear child seat wheelying up a hill and landing on them as the bike went backwards , I think a central seat is more balanced.

We've got a Weeride that we're also about to put on ebay , similar to the adventure cf1. Personally I think this design is a much better idea than having your pride and joy bouncing about over the back wheel with a wonderful view of your bum , it's much easier to interact with your kids and they get a great view.
pictured on my P7 on the left when we did the camel trail in Cornwall last year.

'Seek and Destroy' Metallica.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Falling-Head-first-Out-of-a-Moving-Car-into-a-Parked-Car-20

This is better instant karma!

No swapping to a carbon or lightweight bike won't make you faster , it might help with fatigue but the only thing that will make you faster is better/more specific training.At the end of the day both bikes would be running on the same engine (you).

SammyC,

the rewards you will reap from being able to spend the extra time with your son will far outweigh any loss of earnings.I work 5am-12.30pm and my wife works 1pm-5pm .For the 1st 2 or 3 months it was really hard when she dropped 20 hours a week from her pay packet but you soon adapt.

My son starts school in September and as much as I'll enjoy being able to get out riding in the afternoon again I'm gonna miss our extra time together.

But no other company apart from royal mail has the infrastructure to actually deliver over 70 million letters daily , thats why they all forward their letter via royal mail!

My brother in law was an electrical engineer earning around 35k a year with overtime at 25 years old.

While he and friends were travelling to a site for work one morning a car they were following was involved in an accident and ran of the road overturning in the process , they pulled up sharpish and pulled everyone from the car which soon after burst into flames.

He decided later he wanted to do something worthwhile and meaningful with his life and joined the fire service , hours are a bit all over sometimes but not 9-5 apart from when he's on smoke alarm fitting duty. He loves the job and gets loads of riding time during the week , but most importantly doesn't feel part of the rat race.

Went up to Gisburn for the first time yesterday and thought it was pretty good , not mind blowing but for somewhere around an hour away from home I'll definately go back.Next time I'll take the XC bike though as my 6" travel FR bike was a bit overkill , but at least I got a workout. :D

Did the slab without even thinking about it , it's nowhere near as steep as it looks .It's a bit Dalby forest(ish) in a few places but overall the place gets a big thumbs up from me , thanks to those involved in building everything.

Met a family about half a mile after the big berms section who's young lad had fallen off and injured his wrist , if you're reading this I hope he's ok and it was just sprained like I thought.

1st 2 weeks in Sept you should be ok , the French holidays are usually the first couple of weeks and Italys the last couple of weeks in August.

you could try looking on tourist info websites for the areas you'll be passing through to find where campsites are, we used to contact them and they'd send it all through the post but that was with a couple of months notice.

Do get a phrase book and try to speak a little French , it will be appreciated even if it's as bad as the policeman on 'allo allo' ,just try the basics (hello,goodbye,please,thank you, can i have bread/beer/ect) ignore this if you ever go to Brittany as they'd rather you spoke English as most of them don't speak French but Breton(bit like a French Welsh)