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Check the London to Brighton ride thread for what has become the accepted route down there.
Shinscar has a thread of his trip from London to Exeter which took in lots of cool places on the way out West too.
Just whack loads of terms into the search function, like 'touring', 'france' etc - plenty of people on here have done some good long trips fixed, and those threads have lots of info about panniers, bags, camping, etc.
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Check the London to Brighton ride thread for what has become the accepted route down there.
+1 - look on the 'Day by the Seaside' thread for a cheat sheet and links to a map.
London to Paris - very possible to do fixed in 2 days - we did Brighton to Paris in 1.
Other than that, London to Oxford is nice, or more long distance we were thinking Amsterdam at some point...
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great thanks guys, i was hoping to use my fixed but thought it may be arduous as this will be my first,
i will do some relevant searches on here, i also have sent away for the londres-paris booklet etc hoping it can provide maps etc for my own trip.
im looking forward to the prep as much as the trips, if uve ever watched long way down you'l prob understand
my mate is hoping to buy a bike to accompany me on trips, he would want some kind of hybrid tourer can anyone point me to the 'market leader' or things to look for in the spec sheets as its all new to me its not my usual style of machine/riding
cheers
d -
go for a tourer rather than a hybrid - will be much more comfortable over long distances and will have the necessary braze-ons for racks. Both ridgeback and dawes make a sub £500 tourer called the horizon - my gf used a ridgeback horizon to ride to Budapest and found it to be a really nice bike. Edinburgh cycles also do a cheap entry level tourer called the revolution country.
BUT, you can get away with riding any bike that you find comfortable. I have met people touring on old english three speeds with their belongings stuffed in a basket.
This dude cycled to Thailand via central Asia and China on an old mountain bike - check his blog:http://www.kidderminstertothecaspianbybike.blogspot.com/
Equipment wise, take as little as possible. I tour with two front ortliebs (15 litre each) and a day bag on the rear rack and tent strapped to the front (mini nitto rack). I don't understand why anyone would want to tour with front and rear panniers - far too heavy. The less you carry, the easier the riding and also much less chance of spoke breakages and other mechanical problems. When I cycled to Turkey I used bontrager tyres and didn't get a single puncture. Most people seem to swear by schwalbe marathons.
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this is the route me, m-xl and a bunch of others took from brighton to paris, entirely doable in one day (even if i crawled the last 20 miles) Getting lost and adding a few miles doesn't do you many favours.
if doing over two days from london to paris make sure you get some proper sleep between the two days...
tomasito
sLimJim
maxl
T_Unit
Kelvin-
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London - Brighton/Newquay/Paris advice needed
Posted by
@d14vd_h
Guys im using my new base in London as an excuse to go on some serious trips,
i hope to start off with a London - Brighton Trip
folowed by London - Newquay
Followed by London - Paris
my fixed gear bike will be ready by the end of january and i hoped to use it for the London to brighton trip so i can get to know the bike etc,
for London - Newquay and London - Paris i think i will need something a bit more touring orientated but i have a custommade very light mountain bike that i havent used in years that i hope to modify/upgrade for these trips
i was hoping firstly people could help me with any routing advice especially for london - brighton as i know there are a few organised trips on here
also in terms of equipment what do u guys see as a necessity for the longer trips, what kind of tyres would you have panniers or a rucksack, carbon stiff forks or slight suspension etc etc
gimme an ideal spec on touring bikes and so i can mould my bike im using as a base towards it
hope to hear from you soon
David