Generic Touring Thread

Done Montenegro and Albania, both great. Look at transcontinental riders routes for some good ideas. Be a bit worried about going into Serbia with a Kosovo passport stamp, though maybe that's not a problem anymore

Serbia is beautiful, lots of road kill and memorials of killed drivers so watch out on roads. There's loads of trails and double track in both Serbia and Bulgaria. You could follow the (EV13) through Bulgaria. If you're planning on going from Serbia to Bulgaria following the Danube passing the Iron Gates make sure to avoid Romania

Thanks for the advice guys.

Why avoid Romania? a friend wants to ride through there.

Really hated the Danube part. Wild dogs, empty stores, doesn't feel safe, boring landscape. Going through the mountain range north of the Danube (forgot the name) should be better though from what I've heard

FWIW I've had great experiences in Romania - yes, there is a lot of very flat country in stretches (but no worse than cycling through long straight pine forested roads in southern France) but it's a really fascinating place - amazing mountains, incredible estuarine bits. Though, yes, lots of feral dogs running around in packs which can at times be a bit intimidating - especially when you see big mastiff-looking things standing rigid watching you cycle towards them. I wouldn't necessarily fancy camping there for the reason of dogs (but that's true of lots of neighbouring countries too), see also wolves and bears depending where you are - but B&Bs are cheap and fun. Also barbecue and Țuică ftw. Still got a couple of bottles from last trip - might have to break it out for Christmas in case the boiler goes.

Good to hear others didn't have the same experience... I'm sure other parts are better

tldr just avoid the Romanian Danube part and stay on the Bulgarian side of the river

Speaking of Bulgaria - has anyone else done good time there? reading a blog at the moment: Reasons to cycle in Bulgaria:

it's a chance to explore an entirely empty country now that everyone's moved to the UK.

Sounds good. And the countryside looks excellent.

The short time I spent cycling in Bulgaria was nice and easy, should be especially fun doing off road oriented bike packing I think. Most 'road' roads look like that and are OK to cycle, got a bit nervous sometimes cause there's not a lot of space

@mk1mark @Thrasher I did like the area a lot, though the bigger roads can be dangerous, as those are usually still rather narrow. But for example this road in Bulgaria was rather nice.

And in Romania the road number 76 was pretty nice and quiet, with some climbing. Some of it was being repaired, as in the street view pictures, might have more traffic when it's done. But there's not many idyllic towns if that's your thing. Transfagarasan is great too, but there was kilometers of cars, bumber to bumber, during a weekend in August. I really liked Montenegro too, especially around Durmitor.

And in that general direction, Croatian coast is unbelievable and Bosnia is really interesting but kind of rugged/ascetic, at least the countryside.

anyone ridden north/south through the Pyrenees? Something like Santander to Barcelona.

Any route advice? Obviously there'll be a lot of climbing (that's okay) but looking for the most scenic routes and roads if possible.

I rode West to East last year and loved it.
I'm kinda oldskool so don't have an online route but I've got some photos online here with the points I went through. I loved the whole thing but some highlights include the route from Jaca to Ainsa (via 3011 and the A1604) and the gorge north of Campo (N260).

There's also the Vias Verdes (which I have LFGSS to thank for) which has a couple of applicable sections for you. I loved the one from Irun headed south and Olat to Girona.

Finally there's Ed's account of the first half of his trip from Santander to Perpignan here: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/254424/

Hope that helps, any specific questions just shout/pm

Nice one @edscoble - missed this first time. Some sensational bits of road there.

Lovely, thank you. Great photos from you and from @edscoble

Ed's route from Santander to near Lourdes looks like it could be good for the start of the trip.

I'll just add that the 634 between Santander and San Sebastien has some spectacular coastal roads - really wide, great condition and amazing descents. Means you head a bit further north before you really get into the Pyrenees but that's no bad thing if it means a visit to Bilbao /San Seb etc.

I need to finish that but it was lovely barring the Spanish rain.

Do any touring riders on here want an alpkit Numo for cheap? Sat on my shelf over a year, used once
Say £15+ post?
@Tijs that tour looks amazing- I really want to do some touring in Germany once the kids are a touch bigger

Yes please! PM incoming

Has anyone combined cycle touring with an interrail pass in Europe ? Any advice ?

Come ride 4th July Gdynia Tallinn https://www.lfgss.com/events/3676/

I've not interrailed but my experience of trains and bikes in Europe is nothing but hassle. Fast trains won't accept bikes that aren't broken down in bike bags (aka can be treated as normal luggage). Some but not neccessarily all (at least in Spain) regional trains will take bikes but it can be hard to get accurate information about what the local exceptions are.
Rail replacement transport won't accept bikes unless they are in bike bags.
Consider a Brompton?

Was considering doing it on an existing road bike with a friend , neither of us have touring experience hence the reasonining to split the travel between train and bike . I did suspect that there would be problems with bikes on trains . Suppose I could try and pick and choose routes which are more bike friendly ?

I've not interrailed but my experience of trains and bikes in Europe is nothing but hassle.

I've had a few good experiences (Belgian train staff allowing me to take a bike on without the bike ticket that I didn't know I needed), but overall I know what you mean. I had a conversation once with a German ticket inspector who claimed that all train staff hated the bike compartments and she couldn't wait until they were abolished again. I'm sure she was wrong about other staff, but from her tirade I suspect that at least quite a few share her views. To be fair, she had some horrendous stories of arrogant, abusive, and annoying cyclists that I fully believed.

The TGV/ICE network is poor for cycling as it was mainly conceived for business travel and not 'ordinary' people. In the 70s, most transport planners thought of cycling as an antiquated mode, mainly an absurd sport, that was on its way out. Some still think that way. I've seen various reports that bike compartments are coming for ICEs in Germany but have yet to encounter one. I was wondering the other day if they were pushing ahead with their plans for an ICE service to London and whether that one would then have to have a bike compartment (as there's a legal requirement for Eurostars to have one).

Just looked it up again:

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/wirtschaft/neuer-ice-4-bahnfahrer-koennen-2017-auch-im-ice-fahrraeder-mitnehmen/14524454.html

Bike compartments were going to be available in the new ICE4 trains from the end of 2017. Only eight bike slots per train, though, which is not nearly enough, and inflexible given that there are seasonally varying levels of demand.

As the article says, there are many more bike bookings in the summer months and far fewer in the winter, so there'll be some proper competition and spontaneous booking will basically be impossible when it gets busy.

In fairness, it is possible to do, it's just more awkward than one would like it to be. If you are going with the road bike then I'd bring a soft bike bag where you can just take the wheels off and drop the saddle, then pretty much any train will be open to you...

Yes, I've had very good encounters with staff too. They are generally helpful but unwavering in their application of 'the rules', which is really at the heart of the hassle because transport via train is not as straightforward as you'd hope. Different countries, rules and languages all add to the 'why does this have to be so complicated?' feeling.