Generic Touring Thread

Did Basel to Vienna, so I'm no use to you, but I do have the guide book if you want to borrow.

Yes! Absolutely beautiful, really bicycle friendly. It's a relatively easy course, nice and flat.

Visit lake balaton if you have the time

Excellent sounds good. Was thinking on just boxing up my London commuter (stripped of mudguards) and taking that so sounds like 69 GI would be fine.

Has anyone done any solo touring? I want to go somewhere this weekend but none of my friends are around. So I was considering some sort of micro-tour; 1 or 2 nights camping and ~200 miles. But I've never done anything like that by myself; just wondering if anyone has any advice?

Off the top of my head there are a few "issues" to consider;

• motivation and boredom might be a problem
  
• I need to take every single tool and spare myself
  
• I have to do all the navigating myself
  
• if I'm in a hit-and-run/crash there's no one to call an ambulance for me - I will obviously let my girlfriend/flatmate/parents/etc. know where I'm going though
  

solo touring is awesome.

you decide what you want to ride, when you want to ride, what you want to see, etc.

if it gets unendingly boring have no shame in packing up and going home, i've done this loads.

just take what bike/kit/route seems good to you, no need to impress or compete with anyone

I have, a couple of times. Boredom and motivation weren't a problem; it is a pain when something breaks (I had a broken cleat which was a nightmare) but even if I'd been with more people I wouldn't have had the necessary stuff, and would have felt worse slowing a group down.

Trickiest part for me was finding places to sleep as I was wild camping - when you're actually doing it, it seems really stressful as you need to feel relaxed enough to actually fall asleep!

@platypus sounds great! Thanks. The route goes approximately along a train line so easy to turn back like you say. (I was going to try to ride to Newcastle from Edinburgh)

@andyfallsoff yes, I'd be wild camping too. Or maybe in my bivvy bag if the weather forecast is nice. I suppose with no one else around I'd just go to bed/get up early so hopefully less worry about the bike being stolen, people bothering me, etc.

Maybe I'll go for it then!

For a couple of days you shouldn't need anymore tools than you'd take on a sunday ride, chance of major issues is supremely unlikely.

I like having some audiobooks/podcasts to listen to for solo touring, helps me with motivation on those long headwind days.

Navigation is fine, as you can stop for a couple of seconds to check and carry on, it's worse with groups as you end up stopped for 10+ minutes every time someone stops to check directions.

Definitely wild camp, paying a campsite pitch on your own is usually exorbitant.

Stop posting on the forum...and if you want to do it, just do it.

It's the UK, not Mongolia.

Definitely go for it - I've loved my trips, especially when weather was good. Don't do what I did and forget sun cream though, Dorset was hot and day 2 with fullscale burn was tough going. If you can get a few planned places you think would work for rough camping, that probably helps to reduce stress too - I found that scouting out a campsite in the light, cycling to nearby town for food, then cycling back as it gets dark worked well for me

Alright mate, I was just bored at work and thought I would do some research and get some advice - like "definitely bring this thing" or whatever. e.g. suggestion from @laner of an audiobook/podcast is a good one that I wouldn't have thought of, only adds the weight of my headphones to my bags, and might save me from 2 hours of sitting in the cold/dark by myself on Saturday night.

2 hours of sitting in the cold/dark by myself on Saturday night.

That's the joy of it.

That's a normal weekend in the flat, I wanted this trip to be different

I’m thinking about doing a 3 day cycle from Brighton to ashdown forest and back. Does anyone have any places I should visit and or camp? I’ve no idea where to really

I'm planning on doing this as well at some point.
I'm not going to do Calais though, but do Dunkirk. Calais to Dunkirk just looks really bollox so just skip it.
Plan to take in Bruge, Antwerp and Amsterdam.

North Sea route with Bruges https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27153074

So my kid brother just texted me asking whether I fancied a weekend tour to Utrecht (NL) at the beginning of July. Anyone got a good route from the Olympic Park to Harwich, or should I just use cycle.travel?

Brouter is great for planning nice routes avoiding the shit stuff as well.
http://brouter.de/brouter-web/

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/23522492

This may also help. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/22735974

@laner Did you fix gear tour around Hungry / Albania / Serbia? How you go? Think of doing the same in the summer...

I rode Macdeonia to Hungary, via Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia. Haven't been to Serbia yet. Albania is one of the prettiest places i've visited, I'm a fan.

Hungary and Croatia were super flat and easy on my route following the Danube. The rest had not quite Alpine but some definitely testing long hills.

I enjoyed it and would do it again, but don't know if i'd advise it for a first fixed gear tour. But then I'm sure @TM would say it was hard on gears too.
If it went again i'd probably not bring a tent, we hardly ever camped as hotels were so cheap.

Was a great trip, Montenegro was the toughest in terms of terrain - agree I wouldn’t bother with camping, some hotels were cheaper than camping and included breakfast. Bike would have been more fun without the added weight of tent, mat, bag, stove, cookware etc.

Did you just rock up or book online in advance? Might take a bivy just in case