Riding to Spain on a track bike. Yay or Nay?

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  • @ JDB

    +1 even better. Although not cheaper.

  • I was thinking maybe this...

    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Brian-Rourke-22-5-Professional-531-Road-Bike_W0QQitemZ130361160886QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Bikes_GL?hash=item1e5a2174b6#shId

    BUY IT!

    you know what... i think i might have just been persuaded to go geared, i'm going to start looking for a nice roadbike, even though i have only £0.54 in my bank account :( :(

  • How am I gonna explain this to the misses....

  • How am I gonna explain this to the misses....

    you arn't.

  • lol, yeh, I got it.
    75 miles a day seems more like it.
    If any-one knows of a decent road bike for sale in 57-58cm for under 500 boys then please put your hand up.

    You could buy the Rubble.. it's a 58.. :)

  • what ribble?

  • france in almost completely flat until you get to the south

    roflmao

  • it's downhill all the way from the channel to the med. gear up on the fixed it will be a piece of piss.

  • what ribble?

    THE Ribble.

  • hmm. maybe.

  • it's downhill all the way from the channel to the med. gear up on the fixed it will be a piece of piss.

    cough

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massif_Central

  • Hippy's Ribble looks like it's the Winter/Audax thing. So it should have guard and rack mounts.

    That'll be better (if not as glamorous) as the eBay bike with Delta brakes which was posted.

  • cough

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massif_Central

    a Gallic exaggeration, it's a gentle hillock

  • Cables.

    That mercian is pretty tasty... Cheers for the heads up, added it to watching.

    D

  • Me and a friend did a French tour last year. Things we learnt that might help (apologies if this sounds patronising):

    Buy small panniers which will force you to take very little. We took stuff like, spare tyres, chains and nonsense like that. It all went completely unused.

    Don’t ride in cycling shoes. The performance benefits are not worth the heat and discomfort.

    Don't bother taking a tent. Stay in cheap hotels. You've just done 180K and are uber knackered. Beer is calling, the last thing you want to do is find a wooded area to pitch a tent. We used the tent twice in ten days and that was too much.

    At least one of the group should have a GPS device. Maps are just going to piss you off.

    Factor in some spare days. We had torrential rain on a couple of days and our final rest day on an Arcanon beach was dreamy.

    This was our route (the big dent was to catch the TDF) :
    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2hQdTJivWs0/SmhSu2LcZTI/AAAAAAAAAEU/cce4jsNlFlM/s1600-h/france1.jpg

  • Don’t ride in cycling shoes. The performance benefits are not worth the heat and discomfort.

    really? isn't that due to poorly ventilated and badly fitted shoes?
    most cycling shoes are very well ventilated and a good fit should easily be achievable as there are various width fittings/footbeds and adjustment with the ratchet and velcro straps.

  • (apologies if this sounds patronising):

    Hey, it certainly does not, any advice is welcome.
    Thanks

  • I would always recommend cycling shoes.. for touring though definitely mountain bike shoes. SPDs or similar. You need to make sure they fit and riding in them before you leave on a tour is obviously sensible. I also carry thongs (flip flops for the wronguns) to use when you're just kickin' back.. they're light, comfy, dry quick, convenient, etc.

  • @well

    In the nicest possible way, you seem like a bit of a moron. Should I ride 700+ miles on a track fixed, including riding through the pyrenees, on a bike I have never ridden more than 40 miles on?

    And any glimmer of sensible, disappeared will all these £600-£700 vintage things.

    Have you ever ridden 700 miles? 100 miles a day is not an easy thing to do for 7 days in a row.

    Anyway, enjoy your train ride when it all goes wrong :-)

  • In the nicest possible way, you seem like a bit of a moron. Should I ride 700+ miles on a track fixed, including riding through the pyrenees, on a bike I have never ridden more than 40 miles on?

    And any glimmer of sensible, disappeared will all these £600-£700 vintage things.

    Have you ever ridden 700 miles? 100 miles a day is not an easy thing to do for 7 days in a row.

    Anyway, enjoy your train ride when it all goes wrong :-)

    Nicest possible way my arse.

    Here's the situation: We're planning this ride for early summer and will be training almost daily in one form or another and as for doing it fixed, it was established pretty early on that it was a bad idea.

    Those "vintage things" are more than capable but if you know of anything better then please enlighten away.

    So you think it would be better to get a specialized allez or the like? Why? Is it really going to make that much of a difference? Anyway, I've been checking out some new road bikes just to get an idea and its definitely on the cards but there's the whole money issue: they're all really fucking expensive...

    Anyway, its gonna be more like 75 miles a day.

  • ribble do some cheap winter trainers/tourers (well they used to) they will not be expensive

  • I found 100k a day to be a nice distance.. with plenty of photo stops, long meal stops, some getting lost, etc. In 4 months touring I think the longest day I did was 160k. It will depend on conditions (hot, cold, windy) how many hills you climb, how much you are carrying, how late you sleep in, where you acutually want to go, etc. If you have mates with you, you will each have good and bad days when you may need to go slower to allow your arse/legs/neck time to recover, etc.

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Riding to Spain on a track bike. Yay or Nay?

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