Generic Touring Thread

If anyone is interested Alpkit Ti pots and pans for sale here:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/353628/#comment15514073

Bit of a generic question, but what's people's opinions on 27 gear inch granny gear? Thinking of swapping out my cranks for a 1x 42t but worried it might be a bit high for my steel bike packing/cross bike, I mostly do European trips, a lot of Wales and occasionally Scotland. Cheers!

Sounds a bit high to me, mine's 21.7". Whenever I've wondered about a 1x set up, I've come to the conclusion I'd have a 40t for everyday rides/commuting, but something smaller (36t or less?) for loaded riding.

Are rear-facing horizontal dropouts suitable for kid trailer towing?
I have a 2015 Longitude, would like to carry my child in the future on our tours, just not sure if attaching the trailer will cause axle to slip.
Would using a bolt-on hub or 10 mm thrubolt like DT RWS prevent that or should I better look for another frameset with thruaxles or vertical dropouts?

It depends on the trailer. They have different attachments.

I wouldn't use a burley hitch with horizontal drop outs.

There's a bike packing song

A mate posted the link below; London-Barcelona is roughly equivalent to LEJOG by distance, so is it a better alternative? https://road.cc/content/blog/london-barcelona-280273

I'm literally costantly daydreaming about a trip these days

I've done both and would do both again! Different but not better.

https://cycletouringfestival.co.uk/

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/360019/#comment15820255

Any input on this project?

I've promised to take a friend on a mini "tour" from London to a friend's woodland near Colchester where we'll camp (when things open up again). She's not done much touring before, so wanted to go on quieter routes, but Google is routing me straight down the A road from Romford to Chelmsford and beyond... Looking for something a little less busy – GPX files would be great!

I have a route from West Ham to Romford planned already (my commute), so from Romford - Colchester area would be ideal. Thanks!

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28929707

I've done this before, not all the way, but to almost Colchester, generally nice, slightly busier around Maldon, at the time.

Looks ideal, thanks so much!

Planning a weekend tour over Dartmoor with a friend next weekend. We'll be setting off from Plymouth on Friday late afternoon to bivvy somewhere around Princetown on Friday eve, do a day's riding on Saturday (camp spot to be found), and need to be in Exeter by Sunday late afternoon so she can get the train back to London.

Any particular routes, trails, swimspots, views etc we should route ourselves via? We'll be riding gravel bikes, but she's new to touring and has only ever done road rides, so I don't want to route us on anything too technical.

Foggintor Quarry is a great bivvy spot and near Princetown - ruined buildings and natural structures to make some shelter behind if the wind whips up. Lots of atmosphere if any mist about. Best spots to camp are on the west of the actual quarry itself.

Phoar, that looks lush! Thanks for the tip

Looked like this when I bivvied there a few years ago. Have fun!

3 Attachments

https://www.komoot.com/collection/924932/spectacular-traffic-free-riding-through-the-north-three-rivers

https://www.sustrans.org.uk/find-other-routes/three-rivers
Thinking of trying this for an easy BnB / camping trip. What do you guys do for accommodation? Pre book airbnbs along the route and ask if there's somewhere to store a bike? Any recommendations for must see attractions in the area?

Gale-force winds and heavy rain predicted for the weekend so we're going to postpone. Fingers crossed we can get there next weekend instead!

Rode some of the Bikepacking.com Westcountry Way route yesterday (from Chagford to Princetown). It was a ride of two halves – one in glorious sunshine on gravel tracks up and over the moors, and the second half riding in heavy rain and an icy fog with minimal layers, no gloves and a slow puncture..

It's a cracking route and I'd love to do the whole thing, bivvying along the way. We found a map, compass and case submerged in a bog, and the route drawn on it was this very route... I hope whoever was riding it had a backup way of navigating.https://bikepacking.com/routes/westcountry-way/

nice! any pictures?

Couple of them here: https://www.instagram.com/p/COvzTWzD9iQ/

We found a map, compass and case submerged in a bog, and the route drawn on it was this very route... I hope whoever was riding it had a backup way of navigating

... or at least even got out of that bog... shudder

Cross posting from Brompton thread as may be interesting here as well.

I’ve always wondered about touring on a Brompton as a way to ride the nice stuff and skip the boring bits.

Came across this piece on pannier.cc with some nice photos and video on doing just that across Wales: https://www.pannier.cc/journal/brompton-­bikepacking-wales-rarebit-ramble-ride/