Generic Touring Thread

Anyone want some old maps or old Lonely Planet guides before they go to a charity store or recycling?

Any of Copenhagen / Stockholm?

Nope, sorry. Never ridden in either of those. There's a "World" and "Europe" Lonely Planet though.

moved to own thread

Make a sale thread, bet someone would be interested. Quite a collection there!

Riding Biarritz to Barcelona at the end of the month.

If anyone has a route suggestion please share!

Awesome. Are you crossing the Pyrenees? Silly question perhaps.

Funnily enough, I've been looking at the same thing recently. Check out acorn and waxwing bags too.
I've decided I'm going with an ILE rack bag instead of a boxy rando bag.

@giofox might still be selling his

@giofox might is still selling his

ftfy

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/384851/

Yeah, but no idea at which point on the route yet. Hoping to dive into the route-making next week.

Pulled together a route for the Biarritz to Barcelona trip.

It's longer and has much more climbing than I'd like, but it hopefully avoids death-tunnels and motorways.

If anyone wants to cast a critical eye over it to check if I've made any major errors, that would be fantastic!

B2B Option 1

Anyone got any meal suggestions for a two week trip, St Malo to Alicante? Would prefer not to have to go to a shop each day… there are three of us, one veggie…

Porridge or bircher for brekkie, flat breads w/ PB and jam during the day. Are you taking a stove?

It's a lot flatter if you go further south.

I've ridden some of the same roads you're on but during Transiberica where I'm picking roads for speed, not niceness. Can't really comment on any of that other than Spain is much nicer to ride in than UK so you don't need to be as wary about finding yourself on bigger roads - they often have big shoulders and the drivers aren't pricks like here.

In some spots, like 216km you have gravel shortcut rather than road. Is this intentional? I'd not do that if I was looking for speed - it's normally less drama and faster to stay on the road, even if the distance is higher.

254k too, eg 25% gravel climb rather than using the road

398km you're going through a tunnel marked "no bikes"

475km stick to bigger road, same with 515km unless you want the town?

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Yes we are taking a liquid fuel stove, currently arguing/discussing the amount of cooking we’ll be doing. I’d rather cook. One other would rather cafe and the third doesn’t care…

I've only ever taken a stove once while biking so I tend to visit shops - they can be an adventure in themselves. Having done some Scotland riding with a stove though (and fewer shops) it's quite lovely to have a hot meal by your tent without waiting for shops to open or without having to ride 50k before you find a coffee in the morning. So, if touring, I'd now take my small stove and some coffee as well as porridge sachets or premixed ziplocks of it and maybe some savoury boil-in-the-bag meals.

I've seen people do "proper" cooking but I ain't got time for that.

^ this like hippy says. Try to carry some spices/oils in minature containers though can make meals more flexible. Some good Trangia recipes on youtube, it's amazing what you can make.

@hippy @Squaredisk many thanks. Oil and spices a great start.

Cous-Cous is a great base as you can add basically anything you like into it

Amazing, thanks for taking the time to look over it.

216 - A little gravel is ok I think that should be a pretty simple deviation, we have 5 days to cover the distance so it should be fine to get a little lost
254 - 25% on gravel, no thanks! amended to the road
398 - Well spotted, luckily there's a bike path around the outside
475 & 515 - noted and amended

All relatively easy fixes, I feel a bit more confident with the route now - just need to map out potential stops and wild camping spots, then we're golden.

Really, thanks again!

Cous-Cous is a great base

I’ve often wondered if you really need hot water for couscous or if you could just soak it for a bit, to save wasting good boiling water that might otherwise be coffee.

I think I’m going to give this a try.

It was just a quick glance at it. I didn't do a full check. But my method is basically to switch to OSM maps and look at gravel bits and/or high gradient bits to see if they can be routed around.
Also, if you draw the route in OSM, it should route you around a lot of "no bike" stuff. Google Map base isn't that clever.

My go to wild camping/touring meal based on a rule of only using a stove to boil water: packet of flavoured instant cous cous, preferably in a foil packet and add some cut up chorizo into the packet and eat from there with long spork. Replace chorizo with tuna or olives based on dietary requirements/tastes. No washing up, no mess.

If you are actually going to cook, then a quick one is fry veg of choice + tinned chickpeas, add spices of choice and a small carton of passata (200g one). Cook a bit more. Then add a packet of instant rice (uncle bens or something) and heat up a bit. Voila. Let's be honest, I have this at home sometimes when I can't be arsed. Takes 5 mins.