that's the plan - I'm hoping if the weather isn't too crappy to cycle to London (where i work) from Bristol (where i live) over 4 days in 3 weeks time - will be a good oppurtunity to get back into the touring rhythm, play with new kit, test that everything works, and get used to the handling with front panniers (even though i wont really need them for this trip, i'll load a few bits in them as a dry run). I've still got all of my camping and cooking gear from last few seasons that has worked brilliantly, so wont be updating any of that. It's more to check how the bike is doing after a long winter of not much use beyond errands and a few short commutes to my second job in Bristol, plus getting a routine down with the front panniers aswell as the rear. The main thing though is reminding myself i can cycle 50 miles a day - its been a while, and my last longish cycle was cycling to glastonbury festival last summer fully loaded in 30c heat after getting off a plane from malaysia 12 hours beforehand which was a slow slog but doable. Climbing the mendips while extremely jetlagged with a loaded tourer when you havent cycled any hills or decent distances in about 3 months was brutal!
And as you say, if i dont end up cycling to London I'll def load the bike up and do a run to bath and back, will prob loop round bath too to get some slightly less nice surface cycling done as well as a bit of hill and road over coombe down. It's great having such good cycle paths minutes from my house!