Generic Touring Thread

Yeah i'm 80% doing it just to satisfy my OCD (i joke). Mid Wales is beautiful, these photos are very inspiring.

A few mates did Hollyhead to Cardiff a year or so ago, but they bombed it in 3 days. I'm after something a bit more leisurely. They said it was amazing though.

I'm not set on the coast but there are a few POI's i would like to include:

LLandudno - Grandparents
Anglesey - Seems logical if i'm in the area anyway
Snowdonia - Old family holidays etc..
Lampeter - Aunt and Uncle have a dairy farm which i've not visited in way too long
SW Wales (Pembs) - For the viewzz, been round that area a couple of times and loved it

What's a realistic daily mileage for a first tour?
Leaving for Scotland on Saturday and given ourselves 2 weeks for jog-Edinburgh. Works out at around 25mi/day average. Both competent riders but first properly loaded trip, plus the Cairngorms are in the way.

Me and girlfriend did 33 miles/day average through the other hebrides which is relatively flat. I'd say it was weather which stopped us from doing more. She commutes by bike most days but rarely rides more than that. You'll most likely have the wind against you, which might reduce your mileage. Just make sure you eat a lot more than you normally do.

When I was up there, I was doing about 50 miles a day. I was camping but basic - bivvy bag and some minimal cooking equipment.

last trip out around the Cairngorms we managed 45 miles one day which was a mixture of road/single track and fire road, all of it mighty hilly, although we did get a tailwind from Breamar to Ballater on the road which was epic. I would say you will be very comfortable doing 25 miles a day. Bikes we took and setup below :)

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I'm looking for a recommendation for a couple of sleep mats for some sub24 adventures with my daughter, we'll both be on my bike so they need to be reasonably small and light.

I've got an Alpkit Numo. Light, packs very small. Probably isn't the most insulating mat ever (no foam, just air), and I'd not recommend it for anyone over 80kg as you'll probably not be able to inflate it firm enough to provide support.

Thermarest NeoAir XLite

I and @MrT4 are heading to Basel at the end of August for 2 weeks of touring.
Eurostar to to Paris. TGV Lyria to Basel.
Plan is to follow the eurovelo 6 route, heading upstream on the Rhine and then skipping over to the Danube. We'll follow that to Vienna, from where we fly back to London.
Looking to camp the whole thing, apart from perhaps one night where we might want a proper bed / bath /whatever.
Excited!
Anyone got any top tips / recommendations for the route?

I'm riding along the Rhine from Frankfurt to Basel, then down to the Rhone valley and finishing in Geneva (so basically, part of your route but backwards!) in 3 weeks, so will let you know how it goes!

Cheers!

Are you doing any Mundros?

Rhine talk: I'm in Duisburg right now going south to Bonn, Koblenz, Frankfurt etc then the Danube to Vienna. Visiting @Murphys_Law in Regensburg on the way

Schick wins again...

Sorry for the mini-dredge, but wondered if you found any more about this? I'm looking for something better than one of those wire locks and less heavy than a mini d-lock...

I have just caught up on the talk of Ticks ...

I'm taking family inc dog to Mull in a few weeks. Will study the links people have posted, but if anyone has good advice of how to avoid, please offer it! Will use long tousers, check dog (perhaps cut her rather long tangly hair, which I'd been considering anyway) before we go ... take a remover and do lots of checking ...

Obviously prevention = better than cure so I'd start with this:

https://lymediseaseuk.com/2016/02/10/tick-bite-prevention-and-removal/

Deet around your trousers and ankles is supposed to be effective-doesn't have to be on the skin. Dogs are obviously vulnerable and will crash about through long grass so they can bring them into the house-checking them as well as possible is all you can do, I think you can get vaccines for doggy lyme though, the lucky sods.

If you do get a tick bite and remove it etc then don't freak out but be vigilant-doctors etc will still tell you that if you don't get a rash you're ok but only 2/3 people get them, or old wives tales like they have to be attached for 72 hrs to transmit-so what's important is to be aware of any flu like symptoms even a month after you get back and go to your GP pronto shouting about NICE guidelines and demanding they read them, as most don't and give arbitrary 1 week, 2 week prescriptions instead of the 30 days, which some say is still too conservative.

If in doubt I'd go to the doc and get the 30 days of antibiotics anyway and insist, it's easy to treat early but a total fucker if you don't. You can also buy Doxycycline online as an antimalarial but obviously I'm not endorsing self-treatment or bypassing the wonderfully inattentive NHS... ahem.

Anyway. I'll get back to yet another alcohol free, sugar free, carb free weekend as I try to shift this fucking illness whilst looking forward to an appointment with Neurology on Tuesday and a possible lumbar puncture/MRI combo. Sweet!

Thanks so much for the idiots' guide, as it were. Shitty for you, so bad that you were ignored, I feel greatly for you - I've been acutely aware of Lyme's after a friend in the US contracted it some years ago, and got a scare when my beloved got a tick attached to her arm after campimg near animals on a similar trip to one we're doing this summer. She removed it quickly (and wrongly, with fingernails) and thankfully didn't develop LD.

Pretty sure I'm going to get the dog trimmed, big shame as her straggly hair is gorgeous.

Best of luck getting through it mate.

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Aww man. Gorgeous doggo-my dream pet even! Shame to trim it but will look uncharacteristically dapper for a few weeks at least :)

Thanks for the well wishes-I'll be happy if I can help others avoid the same fate.

I'd focus on terrain profile rather than milage. The East coast is much less hillier in general and distance will depend more on where you want to camp/stop. I.e there's a gloriously tacky seafood place in Helmsdale called La Mirage that's worth poking your nose into for dinner, and a good cafe for breakie if you choose and shop to restock. Not many towns on that stretch are similar!

Cairngorms are also pretty much fine as the roads skirt them, Eastwards you'll aim towards Braemar and Glen Shee which is lumpy but not impossible, and you can route around the Lecht which is undeniably a fucker but less so than coming over it from the South.

When I've gone touring with GF I've been terribly negligent at looking at elevation and ended up feeling very guilty by driving her along some pretty hard days-she did enjoy and get a feeling of satisfaction from it but I just became aware that the distance was a totally daft way of planning.

Haha, never a truer word. I took a load of mates on a two day tour from Dundee to Oban. Took them via Glen Quaich to make the route about 1 mile shorter but included one of the steepest climbs and decents in Scotland. They did not thank me.

Just got on the train at Inverness for the last stretch up to Wick.
We are happy to be woefully underprepared as that's what it's all about. We've got the paper sustrans maps so sure we'll survive. The days are long at least so hopefully we can break the mileage up a bit on lumpier sections.

As regards to places to eat we're vegan so expecting very slim pickings wherever we go. Just hoovered up a pizza express to keep us going til the morning. Undecided if we're going to camp just outside Wick tonight or try and push on for Jog. Train gets in late so it's either pitching or riding in the dark anyway.

If it's nice it will be light very late up there, only 3 hours of real darkness at this time of year.

Long shot but has anyone got any tips/experience for cycling in Burma? Going to be out here in sept and will have a few days to myself so fancy a mini tour if possible.

I'm thinking of riding/camping around Dartmoor National Park in a few weeks, anyone got any tips?

My grandparents live in Tavistock so I was just going to ride in from there and then spend a night or two exploring before heading down to Plymouth but was wondering if there are any proper routes people would recommend?

Cheers!