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My approach has varied from taking a Sainsbury's bag for life, putting all my luggage into it and taking that on board, to (most recently) buying a folding "holdall" from Ikea (£4) and dumping the stuff into that. Both times the bag fitted into the allocated space frame thingy at check in with room to spare.
This is the Ikea bag, although mine is black: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/ikea-family-products/travel/knalla-sport-bag-black-white-art-50330507/ -
In cycle.travel you can left click one any road and you have the option to either "find photos" or "streetview", one gives you geotagged photos from either that location or nearby, the other calls up Google streetview (even on mobile).
If you have a data connection, you can even generate a map on the fly and save it to your gps (download to an SD card), it can be a real lifesaver in that sense.
Adding via points allows you to route along roads it's trying to avoid if you are in familiar territory, or feel comfortable trying based on the streetview. -
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Has anyone tried just fitting tri-bars or even draft legal tri bars and then strapping everything to them? By the time you've priced up the various handlebar harnesses and looked at the total mess they make of the front end, it just looks as though it would be an easier and similarly priced solution with the added advantage of an extra position on the bike.
I've played around with strapping stuff to the bars, but I really like being able to rest my hands on the bar tops. I used a Topeak compact handlebar bag for a while, but it's sagging badly now, and isn't waterproof which is a shame as at 8l it's the perfect size. -
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Pretty much as it says in the text.
I have a lightweight fleece liner for a sleeping bag for sale.
Blue colour with yellow trim. Mummy style with drawcord and no zip.Works well to add a bit of extra warmth to a lightweight bag, can be used with a bivvy (just about) if you are feeling really tough.
£10 plus postage, or pick up from central London.
It's clean, but I'll wash it again as it's been in a box in the wardrobe for a while. We have a dog in the house, so worth thinking about if you are super allergic to animals.I can take some photos if required.
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I'm a big fan of Cycle.Travel (http://cycle.travel/)
It generates routes which are optimised for bikes. It can be a bitr shy of busy roads, but I have found it to be really reliable for routing in areas in the UK that I am not familiar with. In every route I've planned it has generated a route that has been pretty good on the ground.
You can click on an area in the route and it will find any google image form that location, so you can see if the route is a busy A road, or a farm track.
Lots of export options and the street by street turn by turn guide is useful, but unfortunately can't be exported. -
One of the best Dynamos I've done. We started a little later, in a small group of three and didn't push the pace. As a result, we were relatively untroubled by roadie chaingang twats. Had a nice rest up and cooked in a convenient stop midway. I also had no problems with feeling sleepy, which is a first for me - possibly because I gave up caffeine for two weeks leading up to the event.
The Framlingham Oasis was much missed, but the new food stop with the amazing flapjacks, tea and coffee (they were also selling hot food) set up in the front garden of someone's farm was amazing.
The £1.40 can of coke in Snape Maltings on the way home less appreciated.In total I spent less than £25 (including the train home) for an amazing day's cycling.
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I bought a couple of pairs of very light underwear from Uniqlo last year. I know it seems a bit ridiculous but rolled up, two pairs of them take up well under a quarter of the space of a pair of cotton boxers and they dry overnight if you wash them out in the sink at the end of the day. It's the little things like this that can gradually get the weight and bulk for touring down. I use Vaseline with aloe vera instead of Chamois cream and it's fine as a lip balm as well (no double dipping!), Maybe not ideal for really to end shorts, but I just use basic dhb shorts, so am not really worried on that score.
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I'd just get thin arm warmers and use them with your favourite short-sleeved top.
I like the Prendas knitted ones, or the PlanetX rip offs.
https://www.prendas.co.uk/products/prendas-ciclismo-meraklon-special-edition-arm-warmers
http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CLPXCOLAW/planet-x-coolmax-seamless-arm-warmersDecathlon do very cheap LS summer jerseys, but the arms are a bit on the short size for me (6 foot 22 tall, long arms) for my chest size.
https://www.decathlon.co.uk/300-long-sleeve-cycling-jersey-black-id_8354155.html -
I'm heading to Lyme Regis at the end of April. Two days riding in lovely conuntryside, I'll be taking the train from Clapham to Windsor to save the ball-ache of leaving London west-bound and to get on quieter roads more quickly, riding to Cholderton YHA the first day, then from there to Lyme Regis. Two legs of about 80 miles each.
Last year's routes are here, but I'm tweaking them a bit at the moment:
http://cycle.travel/map/journey/19594 - first leg, Windsor to Stonehenge YHA (I'm reworking the approach to the YHA)
http://cycle.travel/map/journey/19986 - second leg to Lyme Regis (the exit from the YHA was all wrong, so reworking that to join a previous route I took from Salisbury)Happy to have company if anyone fancies it. I've ridden the route three times now and it's stunning countryside, but very rolling. You'd need gears and I travel light, Audax style with minimal luggage (one change of cycle gear, a T-shirt and lightweight trousers for the evening).
I've got accommodation sorted at Lyme Regis, but there's a train from Axminster (about 8 miles from Lyme Regis) that runs straight back into London.
The plan is to head out of London at about 10am on Wednesday 26th of April, lunch in Swallowfield, then on to stay overnight at Cholderton; start out at about 10am, lunch in Tisbury, with a further stop in Sherborne, getting into Lyme Regis around 4-5pm on Thursday.
Cholderton YHA is a bit rubbish, but it's in about the right spot for an overnight stop and it's cheap.
pm me if you're interested in a mini-tour -
Bruges has got a really nice Youth Hostel walking distance from the town centre. Stayed there with the kids a few years back. Bruges is also a great city to explore. We really liked it.
It was this one, by the way: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g188671-d283282-Reviews-Youth_Hostel_Europa-Bruges_West_Flanders_Province.htmlIt looks as though there's an even cheaper one in the centre.
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Also, the old 5-6 speed freewheels had pretty big jumps between gears.
Using closely spaced (in size) chainrings allowed for reliable shifting at the front and the gear ratios worked quite well. If you needed a big step in gear ratio (changing down) you changed gear at the rear, if you wanted smaller step, you changed gear at the front. -
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For anyone wondering about the relative merits between a Carradice Barley and a Nelson, I posted a review and comparison on YACF: https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=22961.msg412292#msg412292
for the record, the Nelson is on my daily commuter and after 6 years looks completely unchanged. My Barley is made of older stock cotton duck and has really faded. I sort of prefer it, but it does need reproofing.
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Topeak Compact is pretty good for the money.
I reviewed mine here: https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=22920.msg411587#msg411587
The thing that swung it for me is that it opens facing you.It isn't waterproof though.
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His tyre exploded apparently, so he took a long night and then has to walk 20km to the nearest town to find a new one.
That sucks so hard. I was really hoping to see a show down between him and Skinny, so to have a mechanical that close to the end of the race must be heartbreaking. Especially as there is a veritable gang bearing down on him, so he might not even take 5th. -
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Take the train to Windsor and ride to Salisbury. It's about 120km, mostly rolling until you get closer in. I stayed at an air BnB there earlier this month. It's a great destination. Easy to spilt into a 2 day ride if you want. I can send you a route if you want.