Dawes Super Galaxy Touring Tandem

We're at the most brilliant campsite. There are only five pitches and only one other is in use. The owners welcomed us with beer. I might stay forever. Anyway, bragging aside, if anyone's going to France anytime I highly recommend getting a Joe Mobile SIM - I've paid 30 euros for a month for all the internet ever (far more than we'll need) plus calls/texts. So handy being able to find remote campsites in obscure areas/supermarkets.

Phone off now though, time to cook coq au vin :D

You find campsites in obscure supermarkets? Damned Frenchies think of everything!

So much win, I am beyond jealous

super build. this thread has been a great read. good luck with your tour, hope you post some pictures of your adventure.

Is that an actual cow in the reflection of Aux Saveurs Limousines?

(reference to the blog)

I thought that too, either it's a picture from the windows, or the most perfectly timed snap I've seen from them.

Had to get the captain's drive side bb cup tightened today. Nothing else has gone wrong or fallen off. In fact it all feels surprisingly all right still. A day off tomorrow I think and then we begin our leg towards the Pyrenees (where I really hope nothing goes wrong).

Also, wasn't an actual cow. But I did have a bird fly into the tent the other morning.

I'm guessing that was the side I tightened? Sorry about that.

Also, day 13. Looks brutal. Chapeau.

Minor update - the rear Schwalbe Marathon that saw us through last years tour wore through after a combined total of 40 days use, picked up a cheap replacement and put it on the front, then swapped the new-for-this-tour marathon to the back. Hopefully they'll see us home.
We're a day out of Santiago so making good progress about the place really, having a rest day today because my legs feel shot. It currently looks like we''ll be camping somewhere in Sussex on the 19th and then riding back to London via the Bexly 10 again on the Wednesday 20th. So, hovis, if you and maria have ties/weds off and fancy a mini camping adventure let me know.

You're going to be nice and brown when you finally come home! Epic adventure so far! Keep up the good work! #welljel

Racist.

Hey man. Thanks for the invite, would have been awesome but not sure it can work, as we go on our own mini tour leaving the 19th. If you get in a day earlier, we should definitely aim to high 5 at some point.

Actually just re read. That could actually work, depending on what time you intend on getting into sussex as we need to get the ferry that day.

Just read the thread in full, was a fun read! I own a (single rider) Dawes Ultra Galaxy but now I want a tandem, I just need to find a friend/girlfriend to join me on it!
If you get a chance try to get a photo (bike and panniers, no people) for this site.
Also, it may be a bit late for your trip, but when I was touring I used couchsurfing.com once in a while and always had amazing experiences, may be worth a look if you fancy a shower some time.
Enjoy the tour and thanks for the thread

I've just picked up a Super Galaxy Tandem as a direct result of linking this thread to my girlfriend a month ago- yours is a truly inspirational bike. Here it is:

Anyway, I don't want to hijack so I'll keep it for my own CP thread one day, thanks for the inspiration and I hope you're enjoying your trip. My mum seems to approve:

Blog is looking amazing! Trip looks proper tom!!

http://tourdetandem.tumblr.com/

And welcome back I guess! Nice day to ride here.

Need to update it a little - I think it's my turn to write the bit to santander (ended up on a motorway (again), many hills) and the final leg back from susssex this morning (calm, pretty). Just going through the gopro footage now so over the weekend may put together a mega-edit.

Worn through the second Marathon on the back - tried to get a replacement in Santander but the first shop had nothing in 32/35c and we couldn't try any more as had a ferry to catch. Couldn't be bothered replacing it in the UK and it got us home, but it's going in the bin.

@MichaelG I'm so happy for you! I hope you get as much enjoyment from it as we've gotten from mine. Any questions or queries, don't hesitate to ask. There's a tandem owners thread in here somewhere (or there used to be), and there at the moment enough of us active that it could do with reviving.

This is what it ended up looking like. 2,236 miles, ish, which works out at a little over 50 a day, every day. In reality we had around 7 days off the bike, normally coinciding with either weekends or rubbish weather or both.

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Welcome back! Even the gf has enjoyed the blog, though she's told me she's never riding a tandem with me again, with an added ever for good measure... She is keen for touring though!
2,300miles, that's incredible! So jealousy.

Yep, welcome back! I want to meet you guys soon to hear stories about the grumpy french peoples!

We've just posted a hefty kit report on the blog so thought we'd stick it on here in case it's useful for anyone. Sorry about the tl;dr nature of it (and for inevitable typos/formatting mess).

Bike parts and stuff on the bike (saddlebag, frame bag etc)

Phone with French sim
Passports
Money/credit card/ehic card
Hand held camera
GoPro Garmin
Tent (on the rack) - Hilleberg Nallo 2GT
Solar charger (on the tent)
Leatherman (Wingman)
Opinel (number 7)
Water bottles x3
Cleat covers

We started off just using the GoPro and R’s phone as a camera, but the battery life is so shoddy on the phone (and the focus is a bit broken) that we ended up ordering a digital camera that we picked up in France. The GoPro’s great on the front, but not that easy for the stoker to use as a quick point and shoot, so having both worked well. Didn’t use the wifi remote at all, as it was within reach most of the time and didn’t want to unnecessarily drain the battery.

The French sim was through Joe Mobile, ordered via http://jmsim.eu/ (I think they charge £1 to cover postage). I opted for the 30 euros a month package - we had far more data than we needed, even though we used it a lot for routes/campsites/supermarkets/blogging/uploading photos etc (would’ve been fine with a cheaper package) and it was easy to turn on Europe mode for data in Spain.

Solar charger - worked well, though the phone devoured its charge faster than the sun could replenish it and the cables are very fragile. Could handle Garmin and GoPro just fine.

GoPro - Worked well once we’d figured it out (footage to follow!). Every now and again would refuse to turn on until I’d taken the battery out and put it back in again, blah. No idea why 60-second auto-off isn’t default, things were much simpler I’d enabled it. Originally had stuck mounts on the side of rear pannier and front pannier for some slightly odd viewing angles, but these bounced around so much the footage was awful on anything but the smoothest roads, so ordered a K-Edge bar mount which we picked up in France. The camera spent the rest of the holiday mounted out front on the bars (under the garmin, effectively) and was excellent.

Tent - given how expensive they are you wouldn't really expect to have any complaints about it, and we don't. "It's big and lovely" says Tom.

Bike stuff

Tubus front and rear racks:
Rear rack shed its tidy mini bar end things (think we’ve only got one left), which is a shame. No practical change in function, but doesn’t look as proper now. Will chase them up to see if they have any spares. Both racks performed admirably. The front was much more rigid than the old blackburn and I felt much more comfortable using it than with the previous. Also held the panniers clear of the front QR which the old rack failed to do. No comments about the rear, which is as good as you’d want really.

Wheels - these stood up just fine. Hooray! Though France and Spain was less demanding on them than all the kerb hopping we were forced to endure with German/Belgian cycle infrastructure last year. Think there may be a slight hop on the rear one now, but that’s not bad for 6 weeks of beating them up and loading them down.

Tyres - the Schwalbe Marathon on the back had got us around 2 weeks of touring last year, but was reasonably fresh. There was a new one on the front. We got about 3 weeks out of the rear one until we hit the different coloured rubber and sought a replacement. Due to mudguard woes, the 35c new tyre went on the front and the now-not-so-new marathon went on the back. By the time we got to Santander we were down to the cloth, but it got us back to London without exploding.

Garmin 810 - seemed to be quite insistent about generating turn-by-turn directions for pre-plotted courses, and then refused to turn on while the course was active if I’d turned it off for a lunch stop. In the end, just set the courses to show on the map, no problem. It had a few wobbles, but generally consistent and reliable. Reasonably good at routing us from place to place if asked, but its ‘direct’ routing mode is sometimes a little too direct. Battery life adequate (2 days per charge, as long as I turned it off while we were messing about/lunching/supermarketing/resting), the solar charger kept it going all holiday, leaving the backup 705 untouched. SRAM outfront mount a much better option than losing bar space or trying to get a clean mount on the quill stem as I’ve done in previous years. Not fully tightened so I could angle it up and down depending on sun/reflections. No problems.

Rear pannier (left)

Pump (Lezyne micro floor drive mini pump)
Tool wrap (proper tyre levers, 8/10mm spanners, screw driver for eccentric bb bodge adjustment)
Multitool (actually in frame bag - included chain tool, torx and spoke key, and smaller allen keys than the ones R lazily shoved in for the photo which we didn’t actually take)
4 spare spokes + nipples
Snazzy little mini cassette tool (nbt2)
Better spoke key, just in case
Inner tubes x 3
Lock (Kryptonite mini evolution D lock plus Krptonite Kryptoflex cable
Drawstring bag of kitchen stuff:
-Washing up liquid and sponge
-Bottle of olive oil
-Boots stacking make up pots containing salt, pepper, chilli flakes etc;
-Small bottles of chilli sauce, balsamic vinegar;
-Coffee and teabags;
-Cutlery (Sea to Summit lightweight aluminium knives, forks, spoons); one serrated knife; one extendable plastic spoon
-Plastic plates x2; plastic bowls x2; titanium mugs x2; corkscrew
Trangia (lightweight aluminium 25) in Trangia bag, with multidisc
Trangia fuel bottle
Helinox folding table

The Trangia bag broke fairly quickly (it has a drawstring and the plastic around the spring snapped - pretty disappointing.

The Trangia itself was brilliant though despite its claims about being non-stick I am never cooking scrambled eggs in it ever again.

The multidisc is really good - not sure why Trangia don’t supply one as standard with the stove. It works as a chopping board (very useful if you don’t want to mess up your frying pan by using that as a chopping board) and colander - though this does mean it has holes in one side, so we ended up spilling quite a lot of food (e.g. juice from onions, tomatoes etc) on the table.

This was the only problem with the table - really hard to keep it clean. Other than that it was very satisfying having something to prepare food on and eat off.

Cutlery was great (having had prongs of plastic forks break off in the past I am a big fan of metal) though the plastic long handled spoon was a bit useless as it started melting. Think we’ll stick with wooden next time. It is useful having something like that when cooking though.

I (R) remain unconvinced by the titanium mugs; I think the plastic ones I had from the Army surplus store last time were probably lighter and took up no more space, and were a hell of a lot cheaper, even if they do make things taste a little bit plasticky.

Plates and bowls are cheapo plastic ones bought years ago; no complaints or plans to change them next time.

Having chilli sauce was a bit of a luxury, as it’s incredibly hard to find in France. Would do again.

We didn’t really use the Kryptoflex cable; we intended to use it to wrap around a tree/fence or whatever was near, but we were rarely camped near a tree narrow enough to use it, so we mainly just used the D lock and free locked rear wheel to frame. I don’t think we ever camped anywhere we felt the lock was essential - in fact we didn’t bother with it quite a few nights - but it’s not much weight for some peace of mind.

This pannier was also the ‘food pannier’ - ie where we stashed everything after a supermarket trip. Though it did sometimes have to be spread over two panniers.

Rear pannier (right)

Drawstring bag containing electronics:
-Kindles
-Spare phones/chargers/cables
-Headtorches
-Lantern
-Batteries
-Bike lights

Drawstring bag containing useful stuff:
-Wet wipes
-Mini gaffer tape/electrical tape
-Clothes detergent
-First aid kit (Savlon, plasters, antihistamine cream)
-Sunblock (p45)
-Insect repellent
-Handwash gel
-Bin bags/freezer bags
-Pen
-Chamois cream
-Lighter/matches
-Washing line
-Electrical tape
-Cable ties
-Maps/Way of St James book
-Toilet roll

Helinox folding chairs x2
Tent footprint
Bungee mesh

Kindles were (as usual) brilliant - we got loads of reading done and I think they only needed charging once over the whole six weeks, despite pretty much daily use.

I (R) bought a back up budget HTC with the intention of using it as the main phone for photos/navigation, but had a change of heart last minute and ended up taking my newer HTC, and the budget one as a back up. Consequently the back up phone was a bit of a waste of money, though good to have when my newer one emptied itself of battery life and refused to charge (though looking back I suspect that may have been a cable issue rather than the phone).

I bought a fancy lantern this time - a Black Diamond Orbit which packs down and is both a torch and a lantern. It’s very good, but was a bit of a luxury item (£30 - not sure it was really worth it considering the £5 one I had before was fine and it’s not that much smaller/lighter). That said, we could have left the headtorches at home - we didn’t really need them because the lantern was bright enough for reading in the tent and worked as a torch for night-time toilet block excursions.

We only used the bike lights on the way to Portsmouth (11pm ferry), but that’s not something I’d be prepared to leave behind even if we hadn’t needed them for that - you never know.

Of the useful stuff (first aid kit, cable ties, gaffer tape etc) - we didn’t use much of it (apart from bin bags, we used lots of them) but again, useful to have just in case. Gaffer tape came in very handy last year when our front rack sheared, and we had to splint it with a tent peg!

Toilet roll is absolutely essential in France as none of the campsites have any, though I think all the Spanish campsites had it.

I’ve been told handwash gel is unnecessary but I (R) used it loads (before food prep, when removing contact lenses etc) - very few campsites have soap and a bar of soap is more hassle for negligible weight/space saving.

We didn’t use the tent footprint as a footprint as we didn’t need to, but it works very well as a tandem cover - we used it every night.

Bungee mesh was really useful for shoving damp laundry into and attaching to the top of the tent/panniers - will definitely be taking that again.

Front panniers

(photo not strictly accurate as all our non black clothes have just come out of the washing machine, and I’m too lazy to locate the shoes)

R: (including stuff worn on departure): Merino base layer, tech hoodie, 3 jerseys, underwear x2, bikini, socks x3, shorts x3, ballet pump type shoes, 2 vest tops, dress, non-cycling tights, shorts, belt, hip pouch, buff, waterproof jacket, micro towel, contact lenses, glasses, sunglasses shampoo/conditioner, shower gel, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, hairbrush/mirror, sleeping bag (PHD minim 400), sleeping mat (Thermarest NeoAir XLite), pillow (Mammut Ajungilak).

I ended up buying a pair of flip flops - glad I did as ballet pumps don’t like getting wet and are therefore fairly useless in campsite shower blocks. Consequently could probably have done without the pumps altogether, though nice to not have to wear flip flops when going to a restaurant in the evening.

Was quite pleased with the hairbrush/mirror - one of these) - quite handy if you need both (my hair matts itself into knots that have to be cut out if I don’t brush it, and I need the mirror for contact lenses, so I sort of did).

I probably could’ve done with one top or jersey fewer, though the weather was quite changeable (a few drizzly days, a few days above 30 degrees) so I used everything I took.

I’ve had all the sleeping kit for a few years and I’m very happy with all of it - the sleeping mats pack down to water bottle size and don’t take long at all to inflate.

T: Swrve musette, shoved at bottom of pannier and used maybe twice. bike clothing: mesh baselayer x 2, merino baselayer for cooler days x 1, 2 lightweight jersey and one normal jersey, 3 pairs of bibs (assos warehouse bargain ones not as comfortable as hoped, rapha lightweight ones better than expected, old favourite assos mid-range ones as excellent as always but now purple due to uv damage), 3 x bargain endura coolmax socks, white, mavic £15 gloves - lasted longer than last years ones but now pretty wrecked. arm/leg warmers. rain jacket (worn twice, but thankful I took it).
normal clothing: 2 x merino t-shirts, 1 x shirt (for really humid afternoons when t-shirt was too heavy), hoodie, shorts, 2 x boxers, 1 pair of vans, relatively knackered now but useful when the 1 x pair of flip flops weren’t appropriate. swimshorts, used twice but glad I took. Could probably have culled 1 t-shirt, but everything else was useful really. deodorant, showergel, toothbrush, razor. Sleeping bag (Mountain Equipment Xero 350), sleeping mat (Thermarest NeoAir XLite, pillow (Mammut Ajungilak).

tl; dr.

:l

I'm still sitting in the Helinox. Despite there being a perfectly good sofa in here. Think I've gone a bit wrong.