Generic Touring Thread

Modan. Just before you get to Marseille, literally one climb away you will be in a place called Cassis, there is a long walk to a bay only reachable on foot or by boat called I think 'Calanque'. You should go.
That climb out of/descent into Marseille is awesome!

Anyone use the klickfix handlebar adapter?

Ed, has, I believe. Obvs.

ss/fixed touring in Europe, any tips or ideas for areas I could go without too much in the way of hills?
The Toulouse to sete route mentioned earlier sounds nice, and I've seen a fair bit banded about about the Danube...

Anyone have any good routes to italy? ideally going through a bit of germany over france.

Was thinking something like this

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/4698592

Modan. Just before you get to Marseille, literally one climb away you will be in a place called Cassis, there is a long walk to a bay only reachable on foot or by boat called I think 'Calanque'. You should go.
That climb out of/descent into Marseille is awesome!

The start of the walk is at the top, look out for signs for walkers/parking.
If you end up on the port , you will face a truly vicious climb out.
The calanques are shaded from the winds it's a garanteed swim from now on.
I would avoid the coast otherwise, it's just a giant expensive suburbia.

I am just planning a multi day route but have one day where I just need to get from A to B.
One section of this day is about 50 miles. I have two options, one option is 6 miles longer but saves 1000ft of ascent.
Is there a rule of thumb covering miles v height gain as to where the benefit of one outweighs the other?

I'm doing this route in July:

It should work out to about 210 miles with the tweaks that I have in mind. 9 days are available so it'll be a slow-ish tour based on enjoying the process rather than nailing mega-miles. But I'd imagine taking it slow is the right approach as it's quite hilly in that part of Scotland.

Lots of nice bits there. It's worth the walk to Sandwood bay if you've got time.

Absolutely ! Plan is to spend a couple of nights camped there.

Hey cupcakes,

We did the highlands last year and did a very similar route spending a day and a night on an awesome off road track between Bonar Bridge and Ullapool. Amazing terrain and views, bothy half way down with a wood burner or amazing wild camping... We found he bothy the morning after camping in the pouring rain...

I'd recommend it as it's one of the best days riding we've ever done....

Pretty mad and challenged some of our OS skills, we had to double back a few times as we took wrong turns etc.
my maps with someone else so canny take a pic but check out an OS map, it's not marked on Gmaps. It starts around Ardgay and pops out on the A835, which was a flowy road but wasn't too mad to cycle... There's then a good climb up to Loch broom and at the top is the Corrieshalloch Gorge with an incredible waterfall and foot bridge that's worth a look, followed by a massive down hill cruise along Loch Broom itself into Ullapool...

Awesome 2 days of riding!

Has anyone done any of the north sea cycle route? namely the scotland part

I'm very much looking into it starting around the england/scotland border and ending at cromarty before hitting the shetlands as I have family in cromarty, or starting midway through scotland, having a break in cromarty then doing the shetlands

From what I can gather, doing with on 33C cross tyres on the talbot should be do able, camping along the way except in cromarty with a night or two at relatives

Just killing time in Bristol airport before flying up to Inverness for 7 days of (probably quite damp) cycling. Route will be something like this: Inverness, Newtownmore, Kenmore, Kirkcaldy (for a day off staying with relatives) Glasgow, Isle of Arran, Oban, Inverness. I hope my legs can hack this, got some pretty big days planned.

I'm sure it's been covered before but I'm desperate to go touring again this summer. When I did Paris and back a couple of months ago we took a ferry which was dead easy. I'm not sure whether to do something similar or go further afield and fly. What do i need to consider if I fly? There's a bike bag at my mum's I could use, but what do I do with the bag when I arrive? Also, any tips for a good route in Europe for a week's leisurely fixed touring would be appreciated!

I prefer Ferries over flying as flying seems like a faff and worry about your bike getting damaged.
Plenty of ferry to ferry Routes, eg.:
Calais - Hook of Holland
Dieppe - St Malo
St Malo - Santander

^ What about taking a train somewhere? Other than the eurostar, trains on the continent aren't set up by people who appear to hate cyclists in quite the same way that Virgin Trains do.

@ltc - I was pretty nervous about flying with the bikes to Prague, but it was quite painless. We used the CTC plastic bags and flew with sleazyjet. They were pretty good. In the past we've done the european bike express to and from the Pyrenees, which was painless and you knew your bike was in good hands) but the coach journey is loooooong. And eurostar under the old system (bikes in plastic bags and take it as regular luggage) and then new (turn up early, pay a fortune, hang around for ages).

That's not a bad idea! Hadn't thought of that for some reason. One thing that came to mind was Hamburg- Copenhagen and then to Esbjerg for a ferry back. Has anyone done anything like that? I've no idea what that part of the world is like.

rwn, can you just check a bike in as a normal pice of extra luggage?

Depends on the airline's policy, but for easyjet, it just goes in the oversize baggage desk.

Taking a bike with me to America on Virgin Atlantic, and internally with Virgin America couldn't have been easier. Cardboard boxes did a sterling job and the bike was absolutely fine.

Easyjet insist on bikes going in boxes these days I think. That's what I just had to do. http://www.easyjet.com/en/bicycles

"The bicycle must be packaged in a bicycle box or bag"
Like the CTC clear plastic bicycle bag :)

I've killed my rear wheel.
Any suggestions for a strong, light, cheap (i know) MTB spaced?

M:Wheel's Mavic A319 with Deore hubs.