Generic Touring Thread

Hey, @IdealStandard and I are organising a little bike trip with a few friends for the first May bank holiday. As there will be around 6 of us - some who like their creature comforts – we'd like to find a campsite that has the feel of wild camping (ie. not dominated by camper vans/static caravans) but with some simple amenities...

There are varying abilities in the group, so we were thinking of getting a train somewhere on Friday night, camping over and then having an unladen day on Saturday followed by another night of camping, and then ride back to the station on Sunday afternoon for a (hopefully) sunny evening of boozing in London.

Can anyone recommend any good areas for touring, ideally on tracks with not too many roads? And also a campsite?? We're thinking of doing the Brother in the Wild route in the New Forest as it's accessible by train from London and the route is already planned, but open to ideas (but all campsites listed on coolcamping.com are booked!).

Thanks in advance

Does anyone have experience with mounting Ortlieb Backrollers on a Tubus Tara front rank?

I've done it. It works. I wouldn't fill them all the way up though as you'd probably surpass the weight limit for the rack but i may be wrong.

Nicest way to get to Corsica in my experience is to take the direct Eurostar from St Pancras to Marseille-St. Charles, walk down to the harbour and take the overnight ferry to Bastia. I don't know if this works with bikes.

For such a short tour you might be better off to fly to Ajaccio and ride east from there. Generally Corse-du-Sud has better cycle touring routes than Haute-Corse, which is pretty rugged with long, narrow and heavily-trafficked ascents into the interior.

Hi all! I am taking my bike to Japan in April and hoping to cycle from Tokyo (or somewhere close by) to Osaka in 5-6 days. Has anyone done this route before? Any good GPX files I could borrow?

Touring areas I would recommend for an easy weekend on a trainline - East Suffolk coast, Dorset coast, or Welsh Black Mountains/Borders. Happy to give further tips.

Camping - not so good on this as I tend to wild camp everywhere! If you want a roof over your head, I always thought YHA Black Sail would be a lovely place to stay under cover in the Lakes, a hostel only accessible on foot/bike. Or any MBA shelter, if you bring a bit of firewood.

Okay, the weight limit for the Tara is 15 kg, so I will be careful of that.

Did you ever have problems with them being scraping against the ground when turning?

https://www.komoot.com/tour/57771038?ref=wtd

Planning to do this baby route with my friend whomst has never been on a longer ride than his commute before and my other friend who smashes it every weekend. Anyone have any objections? Tried to make it as gravelly as possible as we have big tyres but obviously...it's norfolk after all and I'm deeply cautious about riding on footpaths

A bit late here but I can recommend the Waveney Weekender from the Lost Lanes book.

I did this last summer and found a cracking campsite with a small number of pitches, a nice clean shower block and a short minute walk to a nearby pub. Nice quiet roads and nothing too crazy for terrain. If that looks of interest PM and I am happy to share the campsite details.

This might not be touring but I'm trying to plan a charity ride for me and load of work colleges, looking at riding a circuit of the five main cities in Scotland (Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness, Glasgow and Edinburgh then back to Dundee).

Any suggestions welcome on routes or bits to avoid.

Boat from Marseille IS good , Toulon is definitely the nicest way to reach Corsica.
You will dock at sunrise refreshed
Lots of people sleep on a mat, regulars claim thé nicest spot early
Thé main roads are mentals, it pains me to admit that dangerous driving is commonplace.
You can skip all the mayhem using thé train southbound.
Inland if you want to fight the mountains.
Grany Gears compulsory.

Have done. Works, but a bit awkward. Definite ground scraping happened.

Way Of The Roses - anyone done it? Looking for something to ride for around a week during the summer with a couple of mates in Leeds, was thinking Scotland or doing this as part of a big loop from Leeds.

You could connect onto the Pennine cycleway up to Berwick. Did it last year and can recommend.

Looks good, cheers!

Lon Las Cymru trail for Easter long weekend. How wet?
Has anyone done it? tips? Must see?

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29347417

Not done it but looks great. Any compelling reason why it couldn't be done north to south?

I think the route is meant to be south to north, I simply copied that over, haven't spent much time looking at it already, but I'd envision it north to south as well

There are also other trails I am considering merging into this to edit it slightly.

Like this:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29348383

Planning on doing this this year.
Do you have Gmail?

EDIT: I seem to remember @edscoble did this last year.

Im starting a new job on the 18th march so i have a week and a bit and want to go for a short bikepacking trip!

any suggestions? ideally it would be warm with cheap flights...

currently looking at the GR247 on bikepacking.com but i think there might be still a lot rain/snow in march?

At that altitude yes.

Maybe Portugal, southern Italy, sardinia.

If the weather looks bad the week before just abandon it. I’ve ridden most of the route already and it’s grim in driving rain.
Look into the Brian Chapman 600 route for a few nice alternatives.
And join me on TransCambrian way later on in the year!

Anyone done some touring in Portugal? Looking at the Eurovelo 1 but not to keen on seeing (lol) the sea all the time, I prefer inland.

Also, trains seem to have just skyrocketed to £200+ which seems a hefty price to pay for riding hills under the rain.

And join me on TransCambrian way later on in the year!

I'm game!

I planned a Lisbon to Portimao ride a while back, but it was mostly EV1 indeed.. Perhaps the Duoro valley could appeal to you.