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Apparently rider 235 has been struck by lightning.
But he's back on the bike and continuing.

Hopefully it doesn't happen again...

Ok, that's also my feeling. Thanks a lot, GLWS.

Do you think it would fit a slightly taller person (5'10)?? Would you feel like posting it?

Think that if he goes directly south to the Danube, he has to wait until 6 for a ferry at Bechet so may as well sleep early. To go the longer way by the bridge upstream would get him to the same point but with less sleep (and now he's stopped too long to make it worthwhile I think). Bjorn can make the first ferry too but will get very little sleep if he does.

Indeed, Stoker never went to Romania but apparently saw an engraving of Bran castle and used it as inspiration for the castle, and pinched the name for the character.

The history of Vlad and surrounding areas are well worth a bit of wikipedia-ing while waiting for some dots to update.

@Señor_Bear : I'm not sure, I thought they only get you if you invite them into your house/humble abode/bivvy bag. Bears on the other hand...

Sighisoara was the home town of Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Impaler), inspiration for the character Dracula. Bran castle near Brasov is famous as Dracula's castle, but has little connection with the real Vlad.

I guess a bivvy bag is too small for inviting anybody in...

I thought Mercian were famous for tourers!

There is quite a bit of info on Mercian frame numbers available. For this to be a Mercian, with vertical rear drop outs, it would have to be the 5th bike built in 1997, and 131 would be the code indicating who built it. I don't know about the RS, it's not part of the description of the numbering system I've seen (or if 131 is a sensible number for the builder).

I would think the lugs should be distinctive? Also, I think Mercian are helpful with enquiries, have you tried sending them the number?

I don't really get Sonic Youth, I've got a couple of their albums and I think I should because I like plenty of bands that cite them as a big influence, but the recorded versions of the songs don't really grab me. However, I once saw them live and they were absolutely incredible. Maybe they just don't make sense on the stereo in the living room...

lacets de montvernier?

I think wild camping is not allowed "below the treeline" in Switzerland. I sometimes see canoe tourers camping in the trees by the river on my way to work, but they are very discreet - out of sight of road or habitation in that spot. If you do try it, i would aim for the same, and leave before a lot of people are about (and the Swiss get up early), and don't blame me if you get a whopping on the spot fine!

There's a lot of forests. If I was going to try it, I would look for a waldhaus, which is a cabin/house/shelter in the woods, often near the edge, usually signed, easy to access on a waldstrasse, belonging to a nearby village but often out of sight of it. Assuming they're not having a party in it, you would probably find a water tap or trough close by, fireplace, level ground, possibly could sleep on the porch of it or in it if it's an open structure. Don't know if they show up on maps, will look. Would be anxious about hunters but I think that's no problem in july though!

Shouldn't be a problem to find campsites, and ones I looked at recently were very cheap for Switzerland. Probably will have a lot of family/caravan stuff on them though.

Basel-unesco biosphere entlebuch (fluhli)-bern (or through some mountains)-montreaux-lausanne-geneva?

If you get strava premium and she gets strava you can have her track you with it, just using your phones. It uses the battery quickly so you'd need a charger for very long rides, but assuming you both have a strava compatible phone it is an easy way to do basic tracking. You can try out premium for free for a month(?) and see if it fits the bill.

Splugenpass (Passo di Spluga?) if you fancy a quite big esoteric climb, maybe skip a few kms with the car or ferry, else it will be a huge day to do a round trip from Como. The road on the Italian side has some quite characterful sections. There is a small town just before the top where you might get lunch. But, when we drove over last september it was a pretty desolate seeming spot, so definitely worth checking carefully that both road and cafes are open before going up there.

Hope there's not too many cr-ashes...

I'd be interested if you feel like posting them.

Edit: Denied! Can't believe I was reading about 12nM vs 16 for 9 minutes! 2nd dibs if postable etc etc

https://www.moneycorp.com/uk/ or something like it.

Just found the whole of A Sunday in Hell is on youtube if you haven't seen it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNMwxMU0AoQ

If you're going to put children in it 2 wheels is practically essential, you need to push it about with the kid(s) in it either hitched or unhitched and it has to stand up.

We've got a Thule, which is for transporting 1 child and it has little clip in/out front wheels for pushing it about when unhitched and for multifunctional use as a rather cumbersome push chair. It's got basic suspension (leaf springs), which you might not need for cargo transport. It's got no brakes, which I find a bit odd, but they're obviously a big challenge for outboard wheels and keeping the trailer easily attachable to different bikes. Nonetheless, relying on ordinary rim brakes going down a reasonable hill with trailer+firstborn on the back seems a bit dodgy - I'd quite like a drag brake on the trailer, maybe on/off controlled by a friction shifter (discussed in one of the tandem threads?).

There's a discussion in the cargo bike thread I think about putting a car seat in the cargo bike using an isofix attachment. Something like that would look like the most promising way to have multifunctional child and cargo transport. But unless for nice weather fun only, you'd still have to attach a pretty important superstructure for weather protection, and I think it is also meant to serve as a roll cage for the type of crash that doesn't bear thinking about.

Recent designs of child carrying trailers are so functional that there seems little fun about them - I guess the designs have converged on two wheels, forward-facing children, strapped in a cabin, with backups on all the joins in the hitching mechanism, because that seems the best way to make them safe and practical.

Hi, I live in the north of Switzerland, a bit to the west of your route. Have ridden in SW black forest (but rarely), and the Alps by Meringen (but not the Furka pass). Glad to try to help if I can. What's needed at the moment?

Have you seen the book Structures: Or why things don't fall down by JE Gordon? It's meant to be a clear/basic/classic overview of structural engineering. I think it's got some maths in it but perhaps only when needed and just for the sake of it. It's not only about arches etc, but it has a couple of chapters in that direction.

Also, there was a tv show called Tightwads a few years ago now. You can find bits of it on youtube. It featured some real tightwads, and also as sort of light relief I think, a friend of a friend who was working a proper job and living in a van. A few years later, he certainly isn't doing that anymore, but not particularly as a result of his tightwaddery.

I've seen too many people postpone life for an imagined ideal only to realise things don't work out the way you hope.

I agree with @Hobo that postponing too much can get you into a situation that you may regret. Hardly anybody can really plan and make things work out exactly how they think they want, you have to see where you end up a bit and try to enjoy the ride as you go along. At first I thought the thread was all about total deferred gratification, which, having done quite a bit of myself, I now see is not always a good idea. Actually it's quite a lot about consumerism and I can easily agree with plenty of stuff about that - having useless stuff that I don't use and love makes me miserable and I think it's bad for the world to have such stuff endlessly multiplying.

I found the book "How to Worry Less About Money" interesting. It's from the School of Life Series so it's really self help but you can claim it's philosophy. One thing I took from it was that people get hung up about money, saving it/wasting it/having enough/not enough, but you can just view it as a tool you use for doing economic work and the thing to figure out is whether you have too little/enough/too much for you to flourish in your life. Flourishing can involve doing things, having stuff you like, that's up to you. You just have to figure out if youtube on the toilet, extra bikes, a day a week less work, relatively early retirement, etc is the thing for you and try to adjust your finances accordingly.

Thought this should have been in here, find it amazing.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/294838/#comment13283899

bicycling artist

Think I'll have to baguette my coat...