FNRttC The Fridays Tour 2016

[redfalo]

Eurostar bike policy update: According to a PR guy quoted on the road.cc report (in an update) the Evoc and Scicon bags are OK for the allowed space (though someone should tell him they exceed the published allowed dimensions). The bike boxes they will supply from November are custom made and padded, not just cardboard. Internal dimensions 126 x 79 x 25 cm. In all other aspects operation will be as the current setup- you'll go to Euro Dispatch,same fee as now, but the bike gets dismantled and goes in the box, and you'll of course have to reassemble at the other end. This will increase the bike capacity, not reduce it, which is nice...

That's good news if you want to travel with a road bike. But getting a proper touring bike equipped with mudguards, racks and all the rest of it into a bike box is probably quite a faff.

 

[velovoice]

To put a bit of flesh on the bones, drawing on ideas upthread and trying to make it different to The Lowlands 2015 and to a future Dutch Tour:

Calais has more ferries than the others so start and finish there.
First head for Ghent, perhaps via Ypres again.
On to Maastricht - we'd have to decide whether to go via Antwerp or Brussels, or neither.
Then Aachen & Cologne and up the Rhine via Dusseldorf, Krefeld & Xanten (as suggested by @frank9755 )
West to Tilburg & Breda or to Turnhout
Then to Bruges either through Antwerp or to Middelburg & south via the Vlissingen ferry (a section from this year in reverse).
Back to Calais via Ostend & Dunkirk.

Here is one option sketched in with ridewithgps http://ridewithgps.com/users/417919/routes that skirts Brussels (via Grimbergen! although Heineken & Carlsberg brew the brand elsewhere these days) & returns through Turnhout & Antwerp.
Flat apart from a section around Aachen; 970km = 600 miles.
Will need a recce to find the best routes but can first take advice from @redfalo @swarm_catcher @frank9755 etc.

I love this: I have 4 friends within a stone's throw of that route, scattered through Belgium and Germany, who I just don't get to see very often. At least one of them would without a doubt come out to cycle with us for part of one day, which would just be brilliant.

And of course meet up with @Auntie Helen OTP

ETA: The only downside is, er, as Olaf as already point out: cycling in Belgium. Sorry.

 

[StuAff]

That's good news if you want to travel with a road bike. But getting a proper touring bike equipped with mudguards, racks and all the rest of it into a bike box is probably quite a faff.

Indeed. I have a feeling I'll be popping into St Pancras at some point to see if I can check one of these new boxes out. As convenient and capable Chutney was in May, the new one would be quite handy for tackling pavé...

 

[StuAff]

What was so wrong with cycling in Belgium? Wasn't that where cars automatically gave way to us? The pool of places where one can cycle in complete safety seems to be shrinking by the minute .

Absolutely nothing AFAIC. Well, some of the cycle lanes SE of Brussels are terrible and the scooter thing's crazy, but apart from that....

 

[redfalo]

What was so wrong with cycling in Belgium? Wasn't that where cars automatically gave way to us? The pool of places where one can cycle in complete safety seems to be shrinking by the minute .

I don't thing there is anything particularly wrong with it. My suggested route also includes 200 or so km in Belgium. But I find cycling in the Netherslands even better. Belgian cycle paths are quite often rubbish, but yet compulsory; while Dutch ones are always ace and compulsory.

 

[totallyfixed]

Cycling in Belgium is fine, providing you stay away from the cycle paths that run alongside major roads, use minor roads, canals and rivers.

 

[velovoice]

What was so wrong with cycling in Belgium? Wasn't that where cars automatically gave way to us?

In Belgium, if there is cycling-specific infrastructure, it is mandatory to use it, regardless of condition etc. Hence motorists honking at us for using the road when the path through Kemmel was crowded with people leaving the market. Hence using those horrendously mis-aligned slabs of concrete heading into Ypres, when the traffic in the road beside was very light.

The pool of places where one can cycle in complete safety seems to be shrinking by the minute .

Nope, that's the Netherlands where they have this thing called legal and visual priority given to cyclists over most side roads and even many main roads.


ETA. Oops, TMN to @redfalo

 

[frank9755]

I love cycling in Belgium! It has wonderful canal paths (the best one of all that I've found is between Bruges and Ghent). And the food and beer are the finest there is.
But I do, nevertheless, agree with Olaf that I'd prefer going, at least one way, via Hoek: it gets you to a far better location, saves a night and is such a low-stress, zero-queue way to cross the channel.

 

[Gordon P]

It's also 250km shorter than the route suggested by Gordon

But I'd suggest lengthening it by heading more due east from Hook towards Xanten as suggested by @frank9755 then via Dusseldorf to Cologne.

 

[Gordon P]

As in http://ridewithgps.com/routes/10792631 = 750km

 

[User169]

But I'd suggest lengthening it by heading more due east from Hook towards Xanten as suggested by @frank9755 then via Dusseldorf to Cologne.

Top boozing in Dusseldorf and Cologne.

 

[StuAff]

Eurostar bike policy update: According to a PR guy quoted on the road.cc report (in an update) the Evoc and Scicon bags are OK for the allowed space (though someone should tell him they exceed the published allowed dimensions). The bike boxes they will supply from November are custom made and padded, not just cardboard. Internal dimensions 126 x 79 x 25 cm. In all other aspects operation will be as the current setup- you'll go to Euro Dispatch,same fee as now, but the bike gets dismantled and goes in the box, and you'll of course have to reassemble at the other end. This will increase the bike capacity, not reduce it, which is nice...

Update to the update: Eurostar have now, quite sensibly, that there will be no size restriction on bike bags and boxes. Of course, you still have to get bike and bag there and back......

 

[mmmmartin]

What was so wrong with cycling in Belgium?

After cycling in the south-east of England, Belgium is very heaven

 

[Flying Dodo]

Update to the update: Eurostar have now, quite sensibly, that there will be no size restriction on bike bags and boxes. Of course, you still have to get bike and bag there and back......

More info here. Although Eurostar say they'll provide the boxes..........

 

[User10571]

I don't thing there is anything particularly wrong with it. My suggested route also includes 200 or so km in Belgium. But I find cycling in the Netherslands even better. Belgian cycle paths are quite often rubbish, but yet compulsory; while Dutch ones are always ace and compulsory.

I think I saw Olaf earlier this evening at our *usual* Westferry riverside spot.
I was too much in-the-zone to say hello