Finally popped my cycle camping cherry!

[GrahamG]

My girlfriend and I are planning two weeks in France in September and have been kitting ourselves out for it over the past 6 months or so as funds allow. Finally got around to a one nighter (Suzi works Saturdays) this weekend to test drive the kit. Did Bristol to Malmesbury and back (35 miles each way), the way back was an absolute killer with 25mph headwinds (according to weather stations) and me not being used to towing the trailer.

Anyway, found a nice site right in the town that was a reasonable £9. Learned some lesson kit-wise and drink-wise (two pints of beer and a pint of water right before bedtime is not a good idea!) and now just need to do a long weekend so that we can relax a bit more about the French trip.

Only major kit change will be swapping my road triple chainset for a 26/36/46 touring triple for some lower gears (with 12-27 cassette) as the trailer is a struggle up steeper hills with only a 30" low gear.

Picture of two happy campers attached!

 

[rich p]

Great stuff, Graham. My wife first persuaded me to camp and now I rarely do anything else if I can.
The feeling of waking up and being outside straight away is very liberating.
I'm sure you'll love camping in France too. Where are you going?

 

[jags]

looks like a great set up, what's the trailer like to pull.

 

[GrahamG]

Great stuff, Graham. My wife first persuaded me to camp and now I rarely do anything else if I can.
The feeling of waking up and being outside straight away is very liberating.
I'm sure you'll love camping in France too. Where are you going?

Getting the ferry to St Malo and then just winging it (aiming south!) and back to St Malo two weeks later.

looks like a great set up, what's the trailer like to pull.

Great on the flat but hard work uphill, that said it's a little easier than loaded panniers from my limited experience plus the bike still handles normally albeit with some 'surging' from the trailer if you're not very even with the pedal strokes. It's nice being able to throw the bike from side to side a little to help on the inclines!

 

[jags]

are you carrying much weight on that trailer grahamg.i hear people say they tend to overload them is that the case with you .

 

[GrahamG]

Not sure of the exact weight (I did mean to hop on the scales with it but just collapsed with a cup of tea instead!) - totting up the rough weights of gear, it should be in the region of 16-18 kilos as a worst case scenario. It's basically everything bar food supplies for two people so: waterproof bags (2kg), tent (3kg), two thermarests (1.5kg), two down bags (just under 2kg), two chair kits (600g), bushbuddy and campinggaz single stove (1kg), pots/pans/folding dinner set/cutlery (1kg), travel poker (?!) and then clothes, toiletries, bush knife, tinder cards, D-lock and cable etc.

Basically, it's under the trailer's capacity (45kg) and I had no problems with up and downhills (other than wanting some lower gears than a road triple offers!), braking etc. so I don't think we've overdone it. We were pretty brutal with the kit list and although we missed a number of little things (pegs and first aid kit spring to mind), we reckon that significant weight savings would more likely come from spending more money on kit than we're prepared to spend. The key thing for me as the towing rider, is to learn to take it easy as I'm used to fair paced riding around the 15mph average mark over anything from 50-100 miles. Need to work on pootling at ~10-12mph to conserve energy but riding for a few hours longer to achieve similar distances!

 

[jags]

sound's like you have covered everything,i had the same problem still do at times going from road bike to touring bike,average speed..yeah you definitly need to change your crankset make things so much ease'r.best of luch on the tour hope it's a good one.

 

[Kirstie]

I'm about to pop mine with my husband this weekend. Let's see if we're still married at the end of it!!

 

[GrahamG]

I'm about to pop mine with my husband this weekend. Let's see if we're still married at the end of it!!

My other half literally had butterflys but loved it thankfully.

 

[RedBike]

That looks great.

I'm off this Sunday and I can't wait!!

 

[jay clock]

Great stuff. You will have a great hols. My French trips are here if you want any ideas..... www.crazyguyonabike.com/julian

Re the late night liquid intake, a large plastic bottle helps a lot! See here for discussion on this topic..... http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=8399&highlight=bogs

 

[Kirstie]

Well I can also happily report that the cycle camping thing rocked! We rode up to the white peak and did a 110 mile round trip back over the staffordshire moorlands.

Only problem is I feel like I've been hit by a bus today! It's hard work lugging all of that weight - we both underestimated how many calories we'd burn! Two weeks of it is going to be funny...I'll be built like fatima whitbread by the end of it...!

 

[Ron]

Good luck on your trip. Call me scrooge, but if it's only the pitch you want and not all the extras, £9 is approximately twice the freehold price of the land!

I met a chap who had 'fly camped' all round Britain on a bike, and even lit camp fires!

 

[GrahamG]

Good luck on your trip. Call me scrooge, but if it's only the pitch you want and not all the extras, £9 is approximately twice the freehold price of the land!

I met a chap who had 'fly camped' all round Britain on a bike, and even lit camp fires!

True, but compared to what other campsites will rinse you for it wasn't bad. No cost for showers either. Hopefully we'll be able to wild camp a bit on future tours at home and abroad - probably according to our comfort needs at the end of a days riding!

 

[John Ponting]

kirstie - I see you more as a tessa than a fatima