Generic Touring Thread

If you're thinking roof rack long term anyway, I'd go with it. I'd be surprised if the ferry company kicks up a massive stink, and in a worst case scenario you could take the bikes off the roof and walk them on and off the ship?

hello,

some of you might be aware that i got Lymes disease doing the North 500 in May last year and I've been pretty debilitated since, for those that are planning on touring Scotland-or anywhere in the UK now really-please be careful and take precautions like packing a tick remover and antiseptic, as well as insect repellant and long trousers if you're wild camping-it might save you a lot of hardship later on. Some more info here: https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-livin­g/outdoor-health/bugs-and-germs/lyme-dis­ease

Also, this petition about the lack of awareness of what is now an endemic but under-recognised disease in Scotland in the UK finishes at Midnight tonight, if you could take a few seconds to sign it that would be much appreciated.

http://www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolv­ed/Petitions/lymedisease

Thanks and happy touring!

I had no idea, I've heard it can be absolutely awful and life changing, hopefully you're not suffering too badly. I will be extra aware of this thanks!

I'm not great tbh and it's cost me a lot of money (thousands) to get private testing and treatment as the NHS are useless-if they'd picked up on it earlier I might not be in this situation but as it stands I've got advanced neurological symptoms as well as an inflamed nervous system which means stiff sore neck and spinal column so no bike riding for almost a year now and generally feeling total shite.

My partner got it too and has more chronic fatigue/arthritis symptoms so it can express itself in different ways-the main thing is that not everyone gets the rash so if you get bitten and feel like you've got the flu a couple of weeks later insist on getting a 30 day course of antibiotics asap even if the GP protests ignorance or doubt, that's in their own guidelines and treatment pathways and they don't require a positive blood test to do it as they sometimes claim. I got palmed off for months being told that it was a sinus infection, stress, that Lyme 'doesn't exist in the UK' etc. Total shite.

Terrible. Hope everything gets better from here, dude.

Really valuable information.

Thank you for sharing.

Hope you and your partner get well soon Grüber. For others it is definitely worth getting a good tick remover, weighs and costs next to nothing.

This sounds terrible, my wife got it in 2012, luckily we're in Aberdeenshire where lyme's is considered a thing and she got the bullseye rash which showed up straight away along with flu symptoms. She got a heap of Antibiotics and was sorted thank god! I'm constantly picking tick off the dog but she's never had any symptoms but we do look out for it on ourselves.
As for tick removal, if you don't have a tool handy, I know not everyone would have it, I have found an old credit card with a slot cut into it, or even the a strip of plastic from an old milk bottle with a slot cut into it, will help with the removal of ticks, try and get the slot as far under the tick as possible and rotate anti clockwise, no need to pull, it should come loose after a while, hopefully fully intact (happy to be corrected, this is just how I do it). Make sure you kill the fucker after, my favourite method at the moment is boiling water, you can then make yourself a cup of tea in the satisfaction of a job well done. However, if concerned you could always keep it for identification at a later date, in which case, freeze it!

how long till she was back to normal if you don't mind me asking?

I've a three month course of antibiotics I'm on now in addition to ALL THE SUPPLEMENTS and have cut out booze/caffeine/sugar/gluten to try and reduce toxins/inflammation as much as possible so life is pretty fucking boring : /

Awful. I hope you both feel and get better asap. I pulled about 30 ticks off myself last time I was in the highlands, but happily no symptoms manifested. I'm sorry you weren't as lucky.

Yeah, I've had tick bites before with no issue when I spent a lot of time at an ex's on SkyE and did a lot of hill walking etc. I think it's just the luck of the draw-apparently 80% of people will fight it off even without treatment but one in five won't, they're not sure why. I can place it at one shitty 'campsite' at Shieldaig that was basically communal pasture land that they still let sheep freely graze but used as a resource for accommodating tourists : / I suspect it's because I was pretty burnt out at the time which is why I'd taken a holiday in the first place so my immune system wasn't able to cope with it on its own. Still, NHS response has been shockingly bad.

She had 6 weeks of Antibiotics and has been fine since, she was lucky in the fact it was caught early on so it was dealt with properly, although saying that, the first doctor she went to only prescribed 2 weeks of antibiotics and told her to look it up, at which point we found that the antibiotics were wrong and for the wrong period of time according to NHS guidelines so she went back and got a month. She never actually got tested for lymes either as it was obvious what it was, but worryingly she was also informed the test the NHS do is not entirely accurate and doesn't always pick it up. It's not a nice disease if it isn't treated properly, as you can no doubt attest to, really hope your treatment works out or you.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Lyme-disease/Pages/Introduction.aspx

More light reading for folk out there!

Encouraging to hear that she got better and happy for her too!

More awareness is definitely needed.

I did 9 days in the highlands recently, walking and cycling, and had no idea at all.
I wasn't protected and wouldn't have even realised it could have been a problem had I got a tick.

Thanks again for raising this here.

Get well soon to the pair of you.

Yeah it's strange-Polish, German, Hungarian people I know here all know a lot about it and take precautions, even avoiding long grass/gorse/heather completely and say that where it is endemic in their countries there are big public awareness initiatives and massive signs on trails etc. Here, very little awareness which seems irresponsible.

Apparently climate change, changes to farm economy have meant that it's becoming far worse and that in future it might become treated like Malaria-i.e you have to take prophylactic antibiotic treatments before going into risky areas. Lots of people with pets are also at risk because dogs act like a mop for them and can bring them into homes and transfer them to owners.

Anyway, something to be aware of but shouldn't spoil enjoyment of nature!

Anyone live west coast between Vancouver and San Francisco or due there in the next few weeks? My wife's friend (living in Vancouver at the moment) has decided, seemingly on a whim, to cycle from there to San Fransisco. She's done some tours before but not a thousand miles and not solo so I'm sure she'd appreciate a friendly face at some stage to allez her on.

FFO: Riding up 31.5% streets, vegan fish & chips.

West Coast Bike Tour episode 33!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDPn1jkla08

I've hatched a plan for next summer. The idea is Chester to Chepstow, round the coast of Wales. I would love to camp and ideally get it done in two weeks.

Has anyone done anything similar?

I did Bangor to Bristol (alliteration is key, right?) over a week in May. I keep meaning to do a write up but never have the time. Mostly just went to the top of Anglesey and then down the middle of Wales. You'd miss out on some great wilderness and scenery is you only do the coast. PM if you want some routes and stuff and I'll send over where we went when I get a hot minute...

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Looks great, amazing pictures.

Looks like you took in some pretty tough roads, inevitably I guess. Is that the Devil's Staircase in there somewhere?

I need this in my life :)

Yeah, it was pretty hard. We're both pretty strong but topped out at 60 miles with all the weight. Surprising the Welsh heat in May heat got us the most... Blazing sun every day. If it was the Devil's Staircase I feel infinitely cooler about myself! Thanks! Mostly just jabbed around on ridewithgps until I had what looked like a pretty route...