'Credit Card' touring

[zimzum42]

Has anyone done this?

I've heard it spoken of. Seems you set off in your lycras with no panniers and other bags, and just charge everything to the card and wash your lycras each night in the hotel...

Sounds good, because the one thing that puts me off doing a long multi-day ride is the thought of carting all my gear around....

 

[Darryl]

I have completed a couple of multi day trips with just a pair of shorts, light-fleece, sandles, toothbrush, phone and credit card. Even using hotels I have found that I need to carry quite a bit of kit unless you want to sit in your room all evening

 

[rich p]

I don't think it refers to a tour that minimal! I think spare clothes are de rigeur!

 

[zimzum42]

I can understand the shortcomings, but the idea of riding with panniers and/or a rucksack is just horrible. Riding through the alps or somesuch, I would want to be able to ride like the pros, and they don't have a Thorn with a rack!

 

[snorri]

You meet up with a much better class of person when touring with a heavy load.
Touring in lycra:?:. No thank you, I like to fit in with the locals and not look like some alien creature.

 

[Redvers]

I am not quite so minimalist but I can recommend light weight touring, although it’s a bit of an art to get right.
We’re just back from 7 days touring around Brittany, staying in Gites and B&Bs. Total luggage weight including rack and rack pack 3.2 Kilos.
The trick with clothing is of course clever light weight layering and stuff that doesn’t get smelly. Merino wool is the key, forget cotton, forget all those hyped up synthetics and definitely no lycra.
Also take cash carefully concealed rather than credit cards, it’s cheaper and you can use it anywhere.

 

[andym]

I can understand the shortcomings, but the idea of riding with panniers and/or a rucksack is just horrible. Riding through the alps or somesuch, I would want to be able to ride like the pros, and they don't have a Thorn with a rack!

No they have a huge support team with vans.

If you really don't want to carry any luggage then look at the companies that do supported tours. These come in either the 'self-guided' flavour where you get a route map and they ship the luggage to your next hotel, or guided where you have one or more guides plus a driver with a 'sag' van. Of course you pay for the backup and convenience, but you may decide it's worth it. Supported tours can also be very sociable.

 

[HJ]

In some places there are luggage services, where to pay someone else to take you bags ahead for you. Just turn up with your credit card in the evening and book in...

 

[andym]

In some places there are luggage services, where to pay someone else to take you bags ahead for you. Just turn up with your credit card in the evening and book in...

Or local taxi firms - but it's pricey if you're on your Jack Jones.

 

[benborp]

I've gone to south west France from London and back with all that I could carry in my jersey pockets. My journey was simply about getting from A to B by cycling as quickly as possible. Leave work in London cycle to Portsmouth and eat donuts on the promenade. Free accommodation on the Ferry overnight, fuel up before docking, cycle beyond the Loire consuming energy bars and gels from the pockets and bananas bought en route. Overnight stay in a Formule 1 hotel - rinse (kit) and repeat. I was staying with family so had no issue with obtaining clothing for a weeks stay. On the journey back I bought a pizza in Normandy to supplement my replenished supply of gels and bars.

I think I could manage a week or so of this sort of routine with well planned refreshment and replenishment stops.

 

[simon_brooke]

I can understand the shortcomings, but the idea of riding with panniers and/or a rucksack is just horrible. Riding through the alps or somesuch, I would want to be able to ride like the pros, and they don't have a Thorn with a rack!

I used to tour on a light race bike with a trailer. It's OK except you work harder uphills, and, when you've got to your resting place of the night you just unhook the trailer and you have your lovely light race bike back. I've just bought myself a new trailer - the co-op's single wheeler, which should arrive here Friday - so I may be taking this habit up again later this summer.

 

[PaulSB]

Has anyone done this?

I've heard it spoken of. Seems you set off in your lycras with no panniers and other bags, and just charge everything to the card and wash your lycras each night in the hotel...

Sounds good, because the one thing that puts me off doing a long multi-day ride is the thought of carting all my gear around....

This is what I do, though hesitate to call it a tour as there are people far more serious about touring than myself. I have a rack, which is easily removable, and an expandable bag which sits on it. One of the great things about the bag is the side pockets can be unfolded to make mini-panniers.

I have two views on the whole thing; my interest is to ride, not sightsee etc, for as long and as far as possible. A nice B&B and evening meal helps! Secondly if I went for an 80-90 mile ride from home I wouldn't carry anything other than the first six items so why do I need the kitchen sink? I can as easily get into trouble on a 50 miler from home as on the ride to Berwick I hope to do next week!

I take the following:
2 x tubes
P*nct*re repair kit
Pump
CO2 canister
Phone
Cash and cards
Energy gels / bars
compass
orienteering whistle - round neck when have broken leg in ditch!!
Relevant pages from motoring atlas
space blanket - in pocket - see whistle!
2 x bib shorts
2 x shirts
base layer
micro fleece
arm / leg warmers
2 x socks
waterproofs
trousers with zip off legs
t-shirt /polo shirt
flip flops / sandals
iPod loaded with talking books
pain killers
toothpaste / brush
insect repellent

This will sound wasteful but if I need anything else - clean shirt perhaps - £2 in Tesco gets a new one! On a nice evening I go to a pub perhaps buy a paper. If it's wet, cold or I feel anti-social I listen to a talking book.

 

[dellzeqq]

credit card touring is easy-peasy when you're on your own - it's when you get hitched that it starts getting complicated.

My approach is a tad more hefty than Ben's (chapeau). I have a five litre mini saddle bag (Carradice do them for about £25) that I can just about cram in
- spare shorts
- spare shirt
- spare socks
- lightweight waterproof
- mini-pump
- lightweight lock
- puncture repair kit, levers, multi-tool
- two spare tubes
- CO2
- maps torn out of a road atlas
- phone and charger
- credit card and cash

then, when you arrive at the hotel or B+B, slip in to your clean cycling gear, wash out the stuff you've just taken off, hang it over the shower rail, and take dinner dressed in lycra. Nobody minds.

However....the upcoming Simon and Susie's Super Summer Suffolk Safari has prompted me to buy a 16 litre aero saddlebag (again from Carradice, about £65), and prompted her to say 'we're both going to need one of those'. And to realise that she needs a new wardrobe of lightweight silk tops and trousers. Watch this space....

 

[jimboalee]

Yup, done this.

Did a 'Tour de Travelodge' a year or so ago.

PRK, Wallet, phone, underpants, light shorts, tee shirt, flipflops. All in rear pockets.

Tip. Wear one 'really light' jersey ( airtex from the USA ) under a top layer cycle jersey. You've now got six pockets.

 

[andym]

and take dinner dressed in lycra. Nobody minds.

Dinner in lycra? Yikes? Even dinner in shorts is beyond the pale *shudders*