On a whim - advice needed!

[PercyPedaller]

Hi all, new to the forums and hoping you can help.

After watching Long Way Round for the second time, my housemate and I have decided to do a budget, shorter (actually nothing like it) version of the trip next year on bikes.

Brief - Cheap, European, 2 weeks max, camping out

• Neither of us have bikes, so we are looking for good cheap recommendations.
• Anything ESSENTIAL we'll need (I imagine something to carry the gear)
• We also dont have a clue where to go so any routes in Europe recommended?? - ideally somewhere we can fly/train to cheaply, camp around and get bikes to. France being the obvious choice.

Thanks in advance!

P

 

[vernon]

Hi all, new to the forums and hoping you can help.

After watching Long Way Round for the second time, my housemate and I have decided to do a budget, shorter (actually nothing like it) version of the trip next year on bikes.

Brief - Cheap, European, 2 weeks max, camping out

• Neither of us have bikes, so we are looking for good cheap recommendations.
• Anything ESSENTIAL we'll need (I imagine something to carry the gear)
• We also dont have a clue where to go so any routes in Europe recommended?? - ideally somewhere we can fly/train to cheaply, camp around and get bikes to. France being the obvious choice.

Thanks in advance!

P

If you are buying new and want something competent and affordable, you can't doe worse than the Edinburgh Bike Co-operatives touring bikes. Alternatively you could try to buy a tourer second hand.

A Channel to Med ride is perfect for a fortnight's ride. There's even a coach service that will carry you and your bikes to Calais and pick you up from the Med for around £200 not exactly cheap but there again there's no faffing about stripping your bike down for flights or fretting about getting the bikes onto trains.

You'll also need pannier bags - Altura are affordable and decent Halfords ones are also ok for the money.

Tents if you get on well with your housemate then a one three man tent will do you both else get a brace of two man tents. Statrt with www.cheaptents.co.uk and then google for more tent retailers.

Cooking equipment - stove, fuel storage. I use a Trangia meths fuelled stove others prefer gas - it's down to personal taste.

Hope that will do to get you started.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

..erm...how fit are you and how many km a day are you happy to ride day after day? I have just done the ride to the med and one down through germany and they are great rides, but to be honest I did work hard on getting cycle fit before I went and I did prepare well (as peeps on here will know).

You will need bikes you can rely on and camping gear you can rely on. Nothing worse than getting stuck out in the back of beyond in bad weather with only a cheap summer tent for shelter....my advice is to really do your homework.
Others may say different prefering to go on a 'wing and a prayer' which is fine, but not for me as the bottom line is that when something goes wrong YOU are the only one faced with dealing with it.

Calais to the med is easily doable in 14 days. I would make sure you know exactly which campsites yu are heading for each night and where they are. OK somebody is going to say that in France every town has a site and there is never any problem...well that is not my experience. Campsites are not always where you want them in France.
Get all your gear together and do several test weekend ride/camps in the UK...that will soon show you what to expect and highlight any areas of need before you go.
Learn how to fix the important elements of you bike so you can keep riding if something goes wrong. Bike shops are not always in each town/village and even then they can often be shut. The bike shops are better and more frequent in germany than in France from my experience.
Get some good maps and plan your route in advance. I drew a line down my route with a highlighter pen. On the ground you may deviate from that line (I did) but at least it kept me focused and on track as it were. I used 1;180,000 scale road atlas maps...but apparently the yellow michelin maps in france are pretty useful as well.

In germany and holland you have a cool cycle route/path system which i sclearly signposted for the most part. They are also both countries where most people speak english if you can tspeak german or dutch. In france if you can tspeak the lingo (at least a little) my experience was that the peeps dont give a flying f*** what you are trying to say.
Get the correct tyres for where you are going. Thin road slicks are not good for the German radweg (cycle route system) as it has some rough dirt track sections. Franc ehowever has some great out of town road surfaces for the most part and thick fat tyres would likely slow you down.
Make sure that your ATM cash card will work in the country you choose. I had problems with a visa card in the small german towns and had to go to the large town centres to get cash out of a 'real' bank.
When buying /packing gear to take thing WEIGHT WEIGHT WEIGHT...I am the typical example of a cyclist who takes to much on tour and feels it in his knees...you'll be surprised how little you actually NEED on a cycle tour.

Know how to get home..sounds dumb but make sure you know which airports en route fly (with bikes) to you home airport. Same with trains, know where the main stations are that can get you home if needed.
get insured and take an EC health card with you.

...there is so much other detail I could list here...just ask if you need any specifics about gear etc from me.

Although I havent done it myself yet, for a short break, easy cycling in a cycling friendly land ...with good accomodation/camping, clear routes, easy uk ferry access and a good mixture of beaches, inland and towns worth seeing how about Holland? I have jus tbought the Nederlandse kustroute maps LF1 & LF0, they are simple, detailed and show routes, camping and hostel locations.

For me it would be a weeks tour perhaps..but I am sure to do all of holland would take two+ maybe?

 

[Andy in Sig]

I live in Germany and cannot recommend it enough for cycle touring. Have a look at the two route suggestions I put on Bonj's "What Country" thread on this page. Should you require further details, I'd be happy to supply.

 

[Cathryn]

Some great advice on here already, so I won't add much more - just that you should go and do it, you won't regret it!!

For starters, maybe try Austria or Switzerland as they're so set up for touring, although as Andy said, Germany is pretty perfect too. I think it's nice to cycle 'from somewhere to somewhere' rather than 'around' somewhere - it gives you more of a purpose which I personally like.

I'd also recommend France - top to bottom or something similar.

Get waterproof panniers....and Assos cream Enjoy the tingles.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Don't bother going, cycling's rubbish. Get a cheap flight to the Greek Islands and spend two weeks getting sloshed on Ouzo and spending the days sobering up on a poolside lounger.....joke.

Just do it. Go to Germany, through Holland. The cyclepaths/routes are fantastic. If you speak French then go for France, but if you don't speak any foreign languages, go for Germany, it's much more suited to tourists of an Anglo-Saxon origin.

 

[vernon]

Don't bother going, cycling's rubbish. Get a cheap flight to the Greek Islands and spend two weeks getting sloshed on Ouzo and spending the days sobering up on a poolside lounger.....joke.

There's nothing wrong with that. It's what I did between cycling the Coast and Castles and the Lon Las Cymru Sustrans' routes. The original poater could omit the Greek bit and be satisfied with cycling in three countries within 10 days.

It will be worthwhile doing some mini UK tours before discovering that the choice of equipment is wrong when using it for the very first time abroad.

There's no need to be anal about the organisation. There's plenty of folk who will suggest equipment lists but do give some serious thought to trying out some local weekend camping expeditions or even pitch your tent in your garden if you have one.