Thoughts on a Round Europe Trip

[MacB]

we wild camped a lot. we did not wait around for the light to go dark. Sometimes we stayed and ate our meal before putting up the tent, but we rarely bothered with even that! It wasn't a problem if you find the right place out of sight. All you needed to do was make sure you didn't get seen 'going in' and stayed reasonably quiet if you were in a busy area...

We also called out tour our 9-5 job... we were usually on the road for 9am and off the road for 5pm... until daylight saving changed and then it became an 8-4 job instead!

As for camping wild in countries that permit it, being seen also had its advantages because people would often come over and talk, say hello and offer to fill flasks with hot water, coffee, tea etc and on one occasion resulted in 1/2-1kg of cloudberries that had been freshly picked, taken home, washed and picked over and the guy then drove back to us and gave them to us. They made a very nice addition to our porridge the next morning.

I'm on day 174 page 190 of your write up on crazyguyonabike so you'll need to look sharp, there will be questions and possibly a sainthood nomination for Stuart

 

[MacB]

Still stuck on the pannier/trailer debate...thanks @GrumpyGregry .....and I've decided to actually go down the route of buying the kit and then seeing how it fits in either option.

Some of the trailer negatives don't apply. in particular getting them on off transport, but the ability to ride where you want is a consideration for the two wheeled options.

 

[rich p]

Incidentally, I know you haven't got into the fine detail of kit yet but I'd recommend a chair of some sort. I use a lightweight 3-legged stool but for a fat bastard larger person like yourself you may be better off with a better quality chair.
@Dave Davenport and @jay clock may have better suggestions.​

 

[slowmotion]

I would resist a trailer. With one, I suspect there is a tendency to take too much stuff. We used to do long distance mountain walking and got quite obsessed about cutting down weight. We didn't saw off the handles of toothbrushes but we were heading in that direction.
I'm hopelessly envious of your plans! Splendid.

 

[rich p]

We didn't saw off the handles of toothbrushes but we were heading in that direction

A bit of salt on a finger is fine!

 

[slowmotion]

A bit of salt on a finger is fine!

We had already lopped them off.

 

[Tigerbiten]

I pull a large Carry Freedom trailer behind my trike.
On tour I use it for four reasons.
1:- Being disabled I'm on a few tablets per day. So it's easier to start the tour with a full load of tablet rather than trying to get some more along the way.
So the trailer is about one quarter full of tablets at the start.
2:- Being disabled means I cannot pack things down really small in stuff sacks. So I need slightly more volume than an able bodied rider.
3:- Packing gear in the trailer means I'm not altering the CoG of the trike. So silly speed downhill corners are still safe-ish. I've only crashed once in almost six years due to the trailer jackknifing.
4:- Pulling the trailer behind the recumbent trike makes mt rig even more strange ..... . So a better WTF factor, so safer overtakes.
Downside is it does add 10 kg to the weight of the rig and there is no way the trike-trailer combo will go on a plane/train/bus.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Still stuck on the pannier/trailer debate...thanks @GrumpyGregry .....and I've decided to actually go down the route of buying the kit and then seeing how it fits in either option.

Some of the trailer negatives don't apply. in particular getting them on off transport, but the ability to ride where you want is a consideration for the two wheeled options.

Bobyak... go anywhere. I've done the trans-cambria towing one. Loads of US off-road tourers use them (and frame bags) On the trans I fell off in exactly the same places as I do/did without a trailer but of course I blamed the trailer.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I'm on day 174 page 190 of your write up on crazyguyonabike so you'll need to look sharp, there will be questions and possibly a sainthood nomination for Stuart

I would imagine that anyone reading my journal either needs nominating for a sainthood or should be watching for men in white coats arriving at their door! Have we made it to the top of Norway yet?

 

[MacB]

I would imagine that anyone reading my journal either needs nominating for a sainthood or should be watching for men in white coats arriving at their door! Have we made it to the top of Norway yet?

and it's done, a pretty decent effort for someone learning to ride distances and tour at the same time, far better than I think I'd be able to manage. But I did say there would be questions so some mechanical to begin with:-

Being a bit of a rohloff fanboy I notice that you lay the bikes down on their sides a lot whereas I've always avoided this, particularly drive side down, as I understood it could create/encourage an oil leak. Even to the point that I try to minimise wheel horizontal time when I change a tire.

I had already decided to run 38x16 as, with big 700c tires this still gives a top gear of 96" at which point, especially laden down, I'd be more than happy to spin out - did you find you used gear 14 much either on the 42x16 or the 38x16 setups?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

and it's done, a pretty decent effort for someone learning to ride distances and tour at the same time, far better than I think I'd be able to manage. But I did say there would be questions so some mechanical to begin with:-

Being a bit of a rohloff fanboy I notice that you lay the bikes down on their sides a lot whereas I've always avoided this, particularly drive side down, as I understood it could create/encourage an oil leak. Even to the point that I try to minimise wheel horizontal time when I change a tire.

I had already decided to run 38x16 as, with big 700c tires this still gives a top gear of 96" at which point, especially laden down, I'd be more than happy to spin out - did you find you used gear 14 much either on the 42x16 or the 38x16 setups?

You are mad! I hope you enjoyed it!

My bike has never had a issue with oI'll leaks, my Oh's is another matter... His leaks even vertically and is going back next week to be looked at. We always lay them chain up which helped to keep the oil away from the sprocket. That was the theory any how.

Consider 38x17 or even the 40x19 which I believe rohloff now allow wrt warranty etc. You will never have enough low gears! Yes we span out on downhills but I do that on all bikes. Running out of low gears is much more of a problem than having too many high gears and the rohloff hub is designed so that you should be using 11th on the flat at your cruising speed with whatever weight you are carrying. Also the more teeth at the rear means less wear on the chain, though I got 14,000km from one chain as it was! Gear 14 does get a surprising amount of use on even the slightest downhill in our experience.

 

[MacB]

Bobyak... go anywhere. I've done the trans-cambria towing one. Loads of US off-road tourers use them (and frame bags) On the trans I fell off in exactly the same places as I do/did without a trailer but of course I blamed the trailer.

Greg, I keep looking at the Yak, or the Ibis, and I'm uncomfortable with the weight restriction compared to the Carry Freedom, the coupling system, the lack of freestanding ability and, on a theoretical aspect the reports of handling effects in particular shimmy and difficulties for out of saddle riding. All of which aren't a concern for the 2 wheel options but then they have the big drawback of not being anywhere near as happy off the beaten track. They also have the two track footprint which won't help on rougher roads.

Both a positive and negative is the greater on road footprint, not so good for parking/manouvering but better for overtakes. I also like the claims, especially having read @SatNavSaysStraightOn , the idea that dogs tend to go for trailer rather than rider. I think the biggest attraction for me is the ease of packing compared to distributing across panniers and the ability to take on board that bit extra when you need to(cases of beer spring to mind for some reason).

If using a trailer I'd plan on essentials in a bar bag and tools/spares in the rackpack so the bike would be good to go minus trailer at any time.

 

[MacB]

You are mad! I hope you enjoyed it!

My bike has never had a issue with oI'll leaks, my Oh's is another matter... His leaks even vertically and is going back next week to be looked at. We always lay them chain up which helped to keep the oil away from the sprocket. That was the theory any how.

Consider 38x17 or even the 40x19 which I believe rohloff now allow wrt warranty etc. You will never have enough low gears! Yes we span out on downhills but I do that on all bikes. Running out of low gears is much more of a problem than having too many high gears and the rohloff hub is designed so that you should be using 11th on the flat at your cruising speed with whatever weight you are carrying. Also the more teeth at the rear means less wear on the chain, though I got 14,000km from one chain as it was! Gear 14 does get a surprising amount of use on even the slightest downhill in our experience.

Hmmm, I know the rohloff changes but I exceed the weight for going down to 38x16, which I've ignored, let alone the new lower permissables. I would expect to ride myself within their weight limits for 38x16 but would worry about voiding warranty or something if I pushed beyond. Also I know that 38x16 gives me my laden cruising gear 11 at 65" which should be about right for me. 38x16 is also the setup I based my custom frame around with regard to chainstay length and tension adjustability(moveable dropouts), it puts a new chain almost at the start of the adjustment range without need for a halflink.

This is a disc brake setup so I think I worry more about oil in either direction.

 

[MacB]

Now here's a good example of the dangers of considering a trailer, it's got me looking at other tents:-

http://www.vango.co.uk/gb/2-person-tent/15-stelvio-200.html

with panniers I don't think I'd consider 6.6kg but the ability to store the bike is very attractive

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We have pretty much settled on 38x17 as being what we are happiest with. Weight wise we never met a single person who could lift my oh's bike and that included all the macho males in eastern Europe! Next time i have to buy parts I may drop down one more combination for me but we also off-road on our bikes so sometimes lowers gears are rather useful! But even with only 2 panniers and rack pack the uk inclines made my oh get off and push his bike up a couple of the passes in the lakes recently ...