Gibraltar to South Yorkshire - Home to Home.

[onlineamiga]

Hi,

I'm a British Expat living in the south of Spain.
I'm currently extremely keen on doing a tour from Gibraltar up to my home town in South Yorkshire where I am originally from.
I want to this mainly for personal reasons. I need a project, I need a mission. I want to achieve something.

Despite this, I am going to see if I can do it for charity. Mainly for two reasons. If people are willing to give money to charity because Im wanting to do this, then I dont see any harm in that. Also getting excused from my job for nearly a month would be far easier if im pushing the chairty side of things. Rather than just wanting to go off on an extended Jolly.

I am an amature cyclist. I have never even done touring before. I dont even know how to put a tent up. But every single bit of me is just craving to go out and give this a go. I've been doing full day long cycles and have done over 100km trips round the mountains of andalucia on a Rockrider 5.1 mountain bike.

So I'm now going to ask a barrage of questions.
I have been looking at the route to take, and have rpetty much worked it out. A huge thanks to Crazy guy on a bike. He did St Malo to Gibraltar, and his blog was excellent reading. Im going to pretty much follow his route through Spain. France will change slightly as Im going to to Calais and to dover and then up the UK.
If anyone has any advice of areas to avoid. I remember once getting a hotel just outside Lille and the place was hurrendous. Especially going solo, I want to avoid the dodgy areas!

Im quite limited on what bike I can get down here in the south of Spain. Theres no Dawes stockists. I dont expect to do the tour on the Rockrider 5.1. The Decathlon Riverside 7 is looking interesting. Mainly because Decathlon are all over Spain, France and the UK. If something went wrong with the bike, then there should be a decathlon nearby for parts? Just a thought. Theres a place that stocks the Raleigh Royal here too. Im wanting something thats basically going to get me there and not die. My skills of bike mechanics is very poor! Im an IT Technican by trade, so technically minded rather than mechanical!

Im going to get a tent and even head off on the rockrider and try and do a couple 2 /3 day tours round here, to get myself used to tenting etc. And make sure that I dont come up against any problems, with myself, mental state etc.

But I really want to do this. I cant stop thinking about it. Any advice anyone can give, would be great. I've been searching through the forums. I expect to wild camp/camp site / the odd B&B on route.

Thanks guys!

 

[xilios]

Hi onlineamiga, we have put together some tips on our page, check it out maybe you'll see something that might help you out.
We've also been following Sonya & Aaldrik on their around the world tour from the start, and they have put together some pretty good tips http://www.tour.tk/cycle-touring-tips.htm
You can also check out www.bikeforums.net quite a few tips there also.
I hope it helps some, good luck with your planned tour.

 

[andym]

I'm not sure about the Decathlon Riverside. Like most Decathlon stuff it's very good value, but the suspension forks are unnecessary and simply add weight. The hydraulic brakes are no doubt very reliable but if they ever did go wrong, then they would be difficult to fix (at least without going to a bike shop).

There's no particular advantage in buying from Decathlon in terms of availability of spares - all of the components should be available from, or fixable by, any bike shop. (I'm not sure you could say that about the hydraulic brakes - although any decent bike shop should be used to dealing with hydraulic disc brakes).

On the other hand it should definitely get you there. But, if the budget is tight, and you are limited for choice I'd be tempted to put slick tyres on the Rockrider and spend some money on a thorough service, and go with that .

Have you checked how much it would cost to get a bike shipped over from (say) Wiggle?

 

[onlineamiga]

Hi andym. Youre suggestion about the slick tyres on the rockrider is interesting. The rockrider as it stands is actualy pretty new. I dont think its even seen 500kilometers yet.
Is the rock rider a good enough bike for touring if panniers can be added? I kinda read that the wheel dimensions aren't so great. But I really like the idea of changing tyres or whatever on the rockrider 5.3 and tour with that. Would certainly save a lot of money on buying a new bike. Is buying something such as the Riverside going to make such a huge difference between me making this trip or not.

You say about the hydrolic breaks could be a problem if they break. I think the riverside 5 has normal cable breaks. Would this actually be better?

xilos, thanks for your sites you posted. I am going to look through them! cheers!

 

[BalkanExpress]

Hi Amiga

You can tour on almost any bike, however, the better suited the bike the easier it is If you do not need to spend money on a new bike you can give yourself a couple of reward nights in a nice hotel along the way

Two questions, can you lock out (turn off for want of a better expression) the forks on the rockrider? this would make the ride much easier especially uphill as a suspension fork can absorb energy that would otherwise be used getting you up a hill.

Second what are the gear ratios? I see that on the fromt the smallest ring is a 24 tooth. How big is the biggest at the back. This will give your lowest gear and a better idea as to how easy it will be to climb hills and I guess at some point there will be a few of those

 

[xilios]

Have you checked out the Trek bikes FX series? http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/bike_path/#fx and I believe there are around 5 dealers in Costa del Sol.
Very good bikes and reasonably priced.
My wife has been touring with the FX 7.2 WSD since '06 without any problems.

 

[onlineamiga]

Hi Blakan, yes on the Rockrider 5.1 you can lock the front suspension. When riding on the road I usually have it locked. Im not so sure about the amount of cogs on the back. Will have to count hehe.

I will check out the trekbikes. Thanks!

 

[Anthony]

Hi,
So I'm now going to ask a barrage of questions.
I have been looking at the route to take, and have rpetty much worked it out. A huge thanks to Crazy guy on a bike. He did St Malo to Gibraltar, and his blog was excellent reading. Im going to pretty much follow his route through Spain. France will change slightly as Im going to to Calais and to dover and then up the UK.
Thanks guys!

Hi onlineamiga, are you talking about my journal on crazyguy?

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/gibraltar2008 If so I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful.

I would definitely recommend doing the trip, I had a great time. It doesn't really matter too much what bike you get but I would suggest being able to do a few basic repairs (i.e. change tire, adjust brakes/gears) as there are not many bike shops in the middle of Spain. But this is not hard to learn there is plenty of help on the web: http://bicycletutor.com/

I look foward to reading your journal of the trip to see how someone else experienced it. If you have any question just ask.

 

[andym]

Hi andym. Youre suggestion about the slick tyres on the rockrider is interesting. The rockrider as it stands is actualy pretty new. I dont think its even seen 500kilometers yet.
Is the rock rider a good enough bike for touring if panniers can be added? I kinda read that the wheel dimensions aren't so great. But I really like the idea of changing tyres or whatever on the rockrider 5.3 and tour with that. Would certainly save a lot of money on buying a new bike. Is buying something such as the Riverside going to make such a huge difference between me making this trip or not.

You say about the hydrolic breaks could be a problem if they break. I think the riverside 5 has normal cable breaks. Would this actually be better?

xilos, thanks for your sites you posted. I am going to look through them! cheers!

The short answer to your question about whether buying the Riverside would make a huge difference to you making the trip is that I really don't think it would affect it at all.

As far as wheel size is concerned. I personally don't think that having 26-inch wheels is any disadvantage. There's a wide enough choice of good road tyres for 6-inch wheels so you shouldn't have any problems finding decent tyres.

In any case looking at the spec of the Riverside 5, Decathlon don't say how large the wheels are - but it's quite possible that a 'trekking' bike would have 26-inch wheels.

The Rockrider has 24 gears but the range 11-32 is the same as you'd find on many 27-speed bikes. You have a slightly narrower choice in between, but I doubt it'll be an issue.

The rest of the kit is pretty reliable: it's been around for years, and it sells to a market where bikes get used and abused. The only question mark I would have would be over the bottom bracket - but that's only because I had a friend who had a Decathlon bike and his bottom bracket went early. If it were me I'd probably replace the BB with a Shimano UN53 just for peace of mind (but you don't need to - if the BB ever did go wrong you would have plenty of warning and it could be easily replaced by any bike shop en route).

The Riverside has a dynamo hub. These are definitely very useful for a commuting bike but if you are touring in summer unless you are planning to put in some very long days then you may not have much need for them - apart from trips out in the evening - and a pair of decent battery-powered lights might do the job. (But some people sear by them for touring).

According to the Decathlon website the Rockrider can take panniers.

My advice would be, if you get on with the Rockrider, to spend a bit of money on servicing and judicious upgrades to the Rockrider rather than buying a new bike. My shortlist of things to consider would be:

- a pair of decent 'slick' tyres ('slick' in inverted commas becasue they come with different amounts of tread pattern);
- a good service and maybe replace the BB;
- get the wheels checked and tightened (the rims are by Rigida a French firm with a reputation for making sturdy rims);
- possibly change the forks for a pair of rigid steel forks - you can get a decent pair for £50 (although shipping costs maybe an issue) - eg from www.On-One.co.uk - not by any means essential but would make the bike a bit lighter;
- maybe a new saddle (depending on how you get one with the one you have).

And then spend any money you save on a good-quality rack (eg Tubus Cargo - if the budget will stretch that far).

As far as the hydraulic brakes are concerned - if anything they are less likely to go wrong, but the problem is if they do then they are more difficult to fix. I don't think the Riverside 5 is would really be a step up from the Rockrider and not enough to justify spending £350 on. (Ditto the Trek 7200fx - tough reliable bike that it is).


My advice would be to get out on some short tours on the Rockrider (with or without new tyres) and just see how it works out.

 

[onlineamiga]

andym youre advice is really appreciated. I'll have to look up some of the jargon you spoke about such as the bottom bracket and the dynamo hub. Im still learning bikes really!

The Rockrider does seem to be doing me well. Ive done some long distance road biking on it already. I think I would want to replace the saddle. So will start researching something better, and yes fit a pannier to it.

Im going to do some short tours on the rockrider. 1 night and 2 nights when the chance arises for sure.

Thanks again for your advice its much appreciated.



On another note, this trip seems to be getting more of .. going to happen thing. Rather than just talking about it. I emailed my managers today to tell them I want to do it. And they said they would support me but need to speak to HR and stuff about the extended time off work. So yeah. Am I jumping hte gun a bit? Ive not even tried a 2 night tour yet! lol! I generally do tend to jump in at the deep end in lots of things I do in life. But once I get my bike fixed up with panniers and get a tent, i will do some overnight runs to get used to it. But plenty of time yet. im aiming to go in October.

 

[Greenbank]

This is worth a read:-

http://www.aukweb.net/mag/I15NGgAg__StevePoulton_Sun_Sep_14_15_15_16_2003.pdf