Touring on a fixed

radradrad

I recently said goodbye to my trusty Fuji. Went around a chunk of Europe on it over easter. Wrote this the day I got back on the high from the whole experience and know it's terrible but thought I'd share incase there's anything there useful for anyone. Goodbye Fuji.https://danrideshisbike.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/hello-world/

This made for some inspiring reading on the train from Utrecht to Tilburg. Had a laugh reading about God's own food :)

I'm impressed by your track gearing for touring, 79GI!

@Smolders - Glad you took something from it. If you ever wanna start up a Snelle Jelle export business I'll pay handsomely! That shit soooooo fine.

@edscoble - Cheers man. Sometimes you just gotta work with what you've got. Didn't find the gearing a problem at all though.

I reckon you're lucky that you barely had any climbing to do.

I like the photos, VSCO?

@edscoble Yeah, carefully crafted route. Mostly. Cheers. Loads of VSCO-on-the-go. Turns out when you're wrecked and just want to sit on a sofa with a beer and not talk to any hostel type people, tinkering around with photos is a really really great thing to do.

Well, not what I expected at all. A brave and adventurous ride.

great read

Nicely done.

The obvious choice was the cheese route.

...always.

Great lunchtime read, throughly enjoyed that. Shame to get rid of a bike after that, what did you replace it with?

Just finished reading it, you made it sound rather bleak than it really is.

Your chain was binding the drivetrain that cause the draggy feel, good thing you notice this.

I hope you're selling your Fuji for something a little more sensible like a Genesis Day One!

Up to say the mid 50's most touring would have been done on one gear or a 3 speed. Luggage was carried in a saddle bag. I think there's an article in the CTC magazine about riding through Albania in the 30s...
all done on one gear.

More gears let us carry more kit , some times I am not sure that's been a good idea. Though I 'd not want to return to 1950's braking.

Here's the article

http://www.ctc.org.uk/sites/default/files/file_member/200903028.pdf

You are aware that the Day One is a fixed/single speed cross bike right?

Yes Ed....

Spent two lunchtimes reading that and really enjoyed it, thanks.

A great read, thanks for sharing it! You've got me planning a summer tour now!

Leaving on Sunday http://www.lfgss.com/events/858/#comment12357806

^ Bloody excellent. Full write up please.

What's the bike that's taking you there?

I think @Zdrenka will bring this one in the 42x16 configuration. We have layed down the route on small roads and gravel.

Bølle is riding a conversion fix, not sure about the others, I'll bring my carbon fix with a 16/19 flip flop 48T front.

Absolutely top read, really enjoyed it.
One question - how did you manage navigation for most of the trip? I saw you mentioned Strava and RidewithGPS - did you plan the routes in advance and save them on a phone or something? Cheers.

Bit slow to get back to this... Thanks for all the kind words people. I think it's shit and was meant to get round to editing it post adrenaline rush.

@platypus I wrote all my routes on Strava in advance but found my phone signal/internet wasn't unlocked abroad and could only unlock it by getting 3 mobile to text me an unlock code - which doesn't work when you don't have any signal. I ended up doing ridewithgps maps on the go. It was good but depending on the quality of wifi where you're staying can take a hella long time to download onto your phone. I'd say ridewithgps in advance and a powerpack to top up battery is plenty enough.

osmand provides off line maps you can download a gpx track to. After that it can use the phones gps without phone service to tell you where you are.

You'd need those offmaps application that allow you to use GPS without internet connection to view the route.