Generic Touring Thread

800 fill power for summer camping?! You will def be warm!

My last 3 August's have been spent in Wales, Yorkshire and Scotland. I've been ill equipped clothing wise each time. Yet to really see a decent summer camping in the UK. This summer, I will bake from the inside! :)

Fair point!

I'm considering a thinner layer like this and a wind/waterproof shell to keep me warm. Can't afford one big item like that.

I got it from bike24.de. Seems to be £60.00 cheaper than in the UK shops and not too much more than the link you posted.

the fill power of your jacket doesn't indicate warmth so much, more the quantity of said down...it is a better indicator of how light/small your item will pack.

Two jackets could both be 800 fill, just with a different quantity of down in each one. More 800 fill = warmer.

this mid layer I use every day at the moment (under a massive parka jacket): http://www.patagonia.com/ca/product/mens-down-sweater-jacket?p=84674-0

has the same down as this: http://www.patagonia.com/ca/product/mens-special-edition-fitz-roy-down-jacket?p=84550-0

on its own the sweater is no way warm enough for the cold temps, but the fitz roy would be.

just booked last minute credit card touring trip - only plan is: overnight ferry newhaven to dieppe on Sunday, returning 6pm ferry on Thursday - so Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs to cycle a bit in northern France - does anyone have any routes or recommendations?

http://issuu.com/bunyanvelo

Anyone familiar with the Calfee carbon tourinf frames?http://calfeedesign.com/adventure/

I want to go cycle touring from London to somewhere in Europe this summer, but so far have no touring bike and no one to go with ha.
I know Cheung rode to Budapest last year and that sounded awesome...
Anyone have any plans etc?

so far have no touring bike

You don't need one.

and no one to go with ha.

You don't need someone.

You don't need someone.

Has anyone been to central Asia on a bike? Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan etc?

I rode from Berlin to the Hague on my own with no touring bike. The world's your oyster!

Richard Evans has:

http://laidbackaroundtheworld.blogspot.co.uk/

He hasn't posted much about that segment of the route but talked quite a lot about Kazakhstan in particular when he did a slide show at Bikefix the other day. Fabulous hospitality, apparently (but most likely very difficult for a vegetarian, from what I could gather).

Ta Oliver, I'll have a read. I can imagine the food - I spent some time in the Krygyz/China border region and mainly survived on uyghur naan. Lucky it's delicious!

Has anyone tried riding the route of the Tour de France whilst it's happening? I'm thinking it would be great to ride the closed roads a few hours before the race begins/ the inevitable catch of my lone breakaway

I might attempt to ride the Abbeville - Le Harve and Livarot - Fougeres stages before catching the St Malo ferry back to the UK.

Yeah some dude did the giro and tour last year.
Would get up super early on race day each day.
Sounds like fun.

But the tour takes big roads, I'd rather get off the main roads and into the countryside.

I went to Tajikistan in 2013. Bike got held up in Istanbul for 5 days which screwed up my planning (and budget) a bit but other than that I had a great time. Took a jeep to Khorog and spent about 10 days doing a loop around the area. Also had a few days of riding along the Afghan border without the bags which was a lot of fun. The locals showed nothing but great hospitality, generosity and curiosity. Food was usually home made yoghurt, bread and chai. For dinner oily rice mixed up with vegetables. Don't think I was ever served meat other than on restaurants actually. Longing to go back. Kyrgyzstan seems lovely. Maybe next year.

Has anyone tried riding the route of the Tour de France whilst it's happening?

A family friend did something I think they called "one day ahead" where they did the route one day a head of the Tour. It was pretty tough apparently. I will look to see if they have a page or blog that's still active.

Edit:

Here's the original page http://onedayahead.co.uk I don't know if they were the first to do it, but it now looks like a regular thing: http://www.beforethetour.com

How much do people plan their route?

Ie do you plan all of it before, or just have a rough overall route with certain check points and work it out as you go?

And are there any good websites to map out routes or do you just use a combination of Google maps / physical maps?

Cheers

On my first tour I planned a route, however all that happened was I was stuck on a very boring road for miles and miles. The planned route lasted a day before I turned off and just chose places that looked like I could hide a tent and were roughly the direction I wanted to go in.

I'm kind of lazy and can't be bothered to plan a route. I know I'll just end up changing my plan because someone I met on the way will tell me about a waterfall or lake or nice town. I also enjoy the fact that a cycle tour takes little planning, just get on a bike and go!

ridewithgps.com, plan, osm cycle layer, export to tcx if you want a gps device navigate it for you.

^what we did on the Copenhagen to Warsaw trip

I found strava really good for route mapping on my last tour

I usually plan my route quite thoroughly. It might seem boring but i have found that it enables me to find nice back roads that takes me in the right direction much more reliably than just guessing. Touring on nice quiet roads is essential to me enjoying the trip. I use Viewranger with offline OSM maps on my phone for navigation. You can plan your route on their site but it has proven really slow on my old computer. Found Bikeroutetoaster the other day which works a lot better so i figure from now on I use them for the planning and then export the gpx to Viewranger. I also have the occasional look at Google street view (if available) and Panoramio to get a good look at the state of the road and the scenery.

+1