'Credit Card' touring
- Thread starter zimzum42
- Start date
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Married to Night Train
- Location
- Salford, UK
dellzeqq said:
And you have the money....
bigjim
Legendary Member
- Location
- Manchester. UK
How do you get a talking book on to your i-pod? And keep your page? My talking books are on tapes.
PaulSB
Legendary Member
- Location
- Chorley, Lancashire
bigjim said:
Sorry only just noticed this. I use my local library and borrow talking books on CD for 50p each. Load the CDs on to your PC in iTunes in excatly the same manner as a music CD. The only thing to be careful about is naming the CDs and tracks to make sure the iPod stores and plays them in the right order. Therefore I use the following naming Book Title CD 01, Track 01, 02, 03 etc. If you don't put a "zero" at the front it will store as 1, 10, 11, 12 etc instead of 01, 01, 03 etc. Newer CDs are properly indexed but it's still worth keeping an eye on as occassionally the CDs indexing goes haywire and you end up listening to chapter 1 followed by chapter 10!
As I have a lengthy commute by car and never seem to have time to read a book I listen to talking books on the iPod each way most days. The commute flies by.
Only downside is choice is a little restricted but the local library have kept me going like this for the last two years.
Personally, I don't care for hotels and restaurants - I spend too much time there already. However, I think light weight camping is a serious alternative. How much does the extra kit weigh, after all? Tent (Hilleberg Akto), 1.5 kg., mattress plus sleeping bag (Neoair plus a PHD bag) 1 kg, stove plus fuel (Trangia 27 UL) 1 kg. So altogether about 3.5 kg more than what you already carry, at a cost of some 750 pounds. So money wise, you can earn that investment back pretty quickly by the savings on hotels and restaurants. And if you want to go really lightweight there are decent alternatives to bring the weight down even further, to about 2.1 kg, if you are prepared to give up a bit of comfort and bad weather capability: Terra Nova Laser Competition tent (940 grams), a lighter (colder) sleeping bag such as the PHD Minim Ultra (345 grams) with a slightly shorter medium size mattress (370 grams), and a more minimalist cannister stove with just one pot.
Willem
Willem
Bodhbh
Guru
Nowadays you can try something like Audible to download them as MP3s and just copy them to your player:bigjim said:
http://www.audible.co.uk/
I don't think it's bad value, last I checked audiobooks on CD and tape used to cost an arm and a leg.
The sound quality on audible.co.uk is really poor because they still record at 64kb/sec - OK for audible books but really rubbish for drama/comedy. Going to the library, or even buying the CDs is a better option - or try http://radioarchive.cc
You can also get public domain audio books of books that are out of copyright - try the human-read audio book category on Project Gutenberg
Oh and on the subject of books, if you have an iPod Touch/iPhone it's well worth downloading Stanza - which gives access to thousands of free public domain books and a growing number of paid-for eBooks. for other devices check out Mobipocket.
EDIT: Oh and when it comes to making the audiobook remember your place:
- open iTunes
- click on the track or tracks you want to make bokmarkable
- press ctrl-I (on a Windows machine, cmd-I on a Mac)
- when the info dialogue appears click on options
- you'll then see a box that says 'remember playback position' check it and then save
- sync the iPod with iTunes.
You can also get public domain audio books of books that are out of copyright - try the human-read audio book category on Project Gutenberg
Oh and on the subject of books, if you have an iPod Touch/iPhone it's well worth downloading Stanza - which gives access to thousands of free public domain books and a growing number of paid-for eBooks. for other devices check out Mobipocket.
EDIT: Oh and when it comes to making the audiobook remember your place:
- open iTunes
- click on the track or tracks you want to make bokmarkable
- press ctrl-I (on a Windows machine, cmd-I on a Mac)
- when the info dialogue appears click on options
- you'll then see a box that says 'remember playback position' check it and then save
- sync the iPod with iTunes.
Riverman
Guru
- Location
- sur de Inglaterra
After having my bike nicked, the second hand replacement I bought developing loads of faults, getting a massive puncture, the tyres wearing out I've lost interest in cycling abit. Not to mention my bad claustrophobic experience with a single man tent I have also gone off the idea of touring
The plan was to do a tour from Southampton to Cheltenham. It's 85 miles. I haven't done a ride yet over 30miles. I guess I could do that in one day provided I don't get lost but maybe I should head for Swindon (55miles) then if I feel too tired, just get the train the rest of the way and headout with a change of clothes in my rucksack.
The plan was to camp half way but alas I can't really afford a new tent or the panniers to go with it.
The plan was to do a tour from Southampton to Cheltenham. It's 85 miles. I haven't done a ride yet over 30miles. I guess I could do that in one day provided I don't get lost but maybe I should head for Swindon (55miles) then if I feel too tired, just get the train the rest of the way and headout with a change of clothes in my rucksack.
The plan was to camp half way but alas I can't really afford a new tent or the panniers to go with it.
PpPete
Legendary Member
- Location
- Chandler's Ford
willem said:
Or Laser Photon tent - 740 grams.
Ditch the mattress. Use a piece of bubble wrap - 50 to 100 grams depending on size you can manage with. Or balloon bed (100g including pump)
MSR Pocket Rocket Stove & Titan Kettle/mug
Whole camping kit about 1.2kg - and what you can't fit in your pockets you could probably fit in bottle rack or bungy cord to frame?
I've been giving some serious thought to this zimmers as it's something i'm thinking of doing.
My instinct is to take my audax bike with racktop bag on the train, cycle an A-B route, over several days, staying in B&Bs, and get the train back.
My thinking is thus:
The touring i want to do is in france, which means getting the TGV to "A" and back from "B", and a bitof research tells me that they don't like bikes on unless they've got the wheels off and in a bag. So you at least need to carry the bike bag with you.
Plus, I think wearing the same shorts for say 5 days is going to get a little uncomfy.
So therefore I need at least the racktop bag, the full panniers if i'm camping instead of B&Bing. which means i need the audax bike not the racer.
What you're suggesting would be possible on three conditions: (1) is that you're comfortable wearing the same shorts for however many days you're going, (2) that you can get breakdown insurance/some sort of rescue arrangement should a mechanical happen, (3) that you can transport the bike to "A" and back from "B", i.e. you don't need a bike bag or that you can somehow get it from "A" to "B" without having to carry it.
Further musing on these conditions:
(1) I've never tried it so I don't really know, but if you do try it and find it to really chafe it would be a really bind to have to turn back. You'd have to keep buying shorts and chucking the old ones away, which would make it more expensive a trip than you'd planned.
(2) You might need this anyway. Beyond punctures and broken chain, which can be fixed with what you can carry on the racer, what mechanicals are you likely to have?
Something like a broken spoke you'd be able to replace if you have chainwhip, cassette tool and spare spokes, they're no way carryable on the carbon blingmobile but possibly are on the full tourer, but anything else you'd want to have breakdown insurance anwyay. Broken saddle? Split wheel rim? Can't really recover from that very easily.
(3) You could, with a bit of arrangement and faith, post it.
Another possibility arises though: whatever area you're thinking of going to, you could simply have multiple bases and from there go out on round-trip rides, leaving your stuff at the base. From looking at maps, it occurred to me that you *might* be able to achieve a higher concentration of the good riding to the boring 'grind' - the interconnecting trunk roads.
My instinct is to take my audax bike with racktop bag on the train, cycle an A-B route, over several days, staying in B&Bs, and get the train back.
My thinking is thus:
The touring i want to do is in france, which means getting the TGV to "A" and back from "B", and a bitof research tells me that they don't like bikes on unless they've got the wheels off and in a bag. So you at least need to carry the bike bag with you.
Plus, I think wearing the same shorts for say 5 days is going to get a little uncomfy.
So therefore I need at least the racktop bag, the full panniers if i'm camping instead of B&Bing. which means i need the audax bike not the racer.
What you're suggesting would be possible on three conditions: (1) is that you're comfortable wearing the same shorts for however many days you're going, (2) that you can get breakdown insurance/some sort of rescue arrangement should a mechanical happen, (3) that you can transport the bike to "A" and back from "B", i.e. you don't need a bike bag or that you can somehow get it from "A" to "B" without having to carry it.
Further musing on these conditions:
(1) I've never tried it so I don't really know, but if you do try it and find it to really chafe it would be a really bind to have to turn back. You'd have to keep buying shorts and chucking the old ones away, which would make it more expensive a trip than you'd planned.
(2) You might need this anyway. Beyond punctures and broken chain, which can be fixed with what you can carry on the racer, what mechanicals are you likely to have?
Something like a broken spoke you'd be able to replace if you have chainwhip, cassette tool and spare spokes, they're no way carryable on the carbon blingmobile but possibly are on the full tourer, but anything else you'd want to have breakdown insurance anwyay. Broken saddle? Split wheel rim? Can't really recover from that very easily.
(3) You could, with a bit of arrangement and faith, post it.
Another possibility arises though: whatever area you're thinking of going to, you could simply have multiple bases and from there go out on round-trip rides, leaving your stuff at the base. From looking at maps, it occurred to me that you *might* be able to achieve a higher concentration of the good riding to the boring 'grind' - the interconnecting trunk roads.
bigjim
Legendary Member
- Location
- Manchester. UK
Not very enviro but I am considering taking the car + tent to a area I have not visited in detail before. Find a good campsite, erect my frame tent complete with carpets chairs, table, cooker etc and spend 2/3 days doing different circuits from the campsite on a light racer. I've also considered just taking the [estate] car and using car to wild camp and as a base. Anybody done this?
Jim
Jim
mcr
Veteran
- Location
- North Bucks
bonj said:
He did say he was prepared to wash them each night...
And some of the newer TGVs (eg the TGV Est Strasbourg) often take bikes whole, if you reserve a space in advance
snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
You have described my introduction to cycle touring, but I used B&B instead of a tent.bigjim said:
After discovering new and interesting places on the bike, I found it frustrating to have to return to base where the car was parked each night, so I bought panniers and just left the car at home in the following years, using train and ferry to get to my starting point.
There are of course advantages of touring with little or no luggage.
