Bicycle Touring and Bikepacking

I think this may fit here, some of these setups are pretty sick.

On overnighter this weekend I checked out another one. This one is more standard, but still it is basically standard one split and with road in between the halves.

48°49.45520'N, 16°27.96262'E

Ill be cycling l'avenue verte from Dieppe to Paris, then back to London. Bivouac en route, and a nice campsite outside Paris on the Sienne to chill out and take a shower in between exploring the city. Ive put a brooks saddle and some ergon grips on my bike too which im looking forward to field testing!

I managed to find some file sharing service (my instance probably didn't support pictures) so I post here some detailed pics of this bunker.

48°14.44900'N, 16°57.19794'E

In June 22 i made a short trip to Belgium and Luxembourg, there was a heatwave going on and i wanted to get to the Sauer Reservoir (Lux) for a swim, i had been there already some years before and remembered it to be really nice.

When i arrived at the lake i was surprised to find it totally over crowded. It was a saturday, but few years ago it was also a weekend in, just there wasn't even a tenth of the amount of people there.

Everybody and their mother had their boom box going, it was super annoying. I was really exhausted, been pushing through the heat of the mid day because i thought after all i'd be able to just chill, swim, drink some beers, then later set up camp with a nice view on the lake. I did all that, just the chilling was not as relaxing as i had hoped, because of all he people and noise.

Around midnight i set up my tent, almost everybody had already left and the last boom box was going quiet. Had a perfect spot with a great view, just on the lakes greens, not hidden at all, next morning i'd be right at a spot to jump into the lake. But then around 1:30 the police showed up. Actually some years before they also showed up, but only to see if people held their camp fires in check.

They woke me up and told me i'd have to pack my shit and leave. I was trying to negotiate for a bit and i think if it wasn't for that one "bad cop", they would have let me stay, but in the end they said they'll be back in an hour and if i still was there, i'd be fined. Apparently there were new rules introduced for the lake area since it got too popular and the guests behaviour out of control. I was thinking to just move my tent a bit out of sight, but then decided to completely leave the lake area to not risk anything. First i was looking for a new spot in the forested valley, but all the insects that were storming at me and my lights drove me up the hills to the fields (Picture background). Night active animals were scaring the shit out of me, crossing the path, guess i scared them too, although i had the feeling they were not the cleverest of animals. Eventually i found a neat spot on the very top of the hills, next to picnic table (i used picnic table and bench POI's in osmand to help me find a good spot in the dark), with hardly any insects and a nice cool breeze.

This topic is meant to be a low threshold possibility for all kinds of discussion. It is not meant to keep anybody from creating a new topic, the idea is that it may enable some discussion that would otherwise not happen at all.

Which are you using?

For most things (day trips, few km after work...) I use multiple of them.

Mapy.cz

• online and offline mobile app
• trip planner works pretty well
• you can check out places (photos, reviews...) when online
• well maped whole Europe
• not enough information about roads (asphalt, paved, gravel...)
• basically interactive version of KČT maps

Cykloserver.cz

• can't find app
• basic planner, but better for drawing your route
• much more helpful info about roads
• it is just automatically scaled paper map, so you have to know how to read it

Osm clients - I tried multiple of them.

Paper maps - from the same company that makes the Cycloserver maps. You can get set of them for about 100€ (CZ not sure about SK). There is just something special about planning trip on paper maps.

Always like having a good side quest. I usually just stumble into them along the way, i have a few more, but here are some:

• Hit up all the pump tracks. That one i do on every tour really, kinda surprised about how many bike pump tracks or skateparks i come across.
• I started playing "don't use the power bank" on a 2,5 week long tour. I lost this game on the 9th day, but only because i didn't know there was a cafe a couple hundred meters further down the road. After i lost i wasn't too keen on keeping on playing anymore, don't really remember.
• "Guess the Italian" - In the border regions to Italy i tried to guess number plates of overtaking cars before i could see them. I had no false positives, but a few false negatives. I was impressed by my guessing skills, or by the consistency of italian drivers. This game then somehow faded out in somewhere Italy i guess.

Anybody else got some side quests / mini games they're playing?

This topic is meant to be a low threshold possibility for all kinds of discussion. It is not meant to keep anybody from creating a new topic, the idea is that it may enable some discussion that would otherwise not happen at all.

So I plan few trips for next season.

First one in last week of July - get to Vienna, around Danube to Linz and then back to CZ to small town Slavonice. (About 600km I plan it for 7-9 days)

Second to Hamburg - the farthest city with direct train back home. (About 900 km I think it will take me about 14 days)

Few shorter trips and 10km every day to work...

My brother said now something like "C'mon next year you will have 5000 km on bike"

What's up party people. It's christmas time and i am giving away six ultralight camp lights, including batteries*. They weigh a whooping 11 g including two CR2032 batteries. According to the seller, the power should last for thirty hours and then start dimming down when power starts to fade, so no sudden death. I have not ran them for that long so i can't say for sure.

The wire is one meter long and has 10 LED's. Seller claims they're fine for outdoor use but doesn't look like you could go swimming with them. I have no long time experience with these lights.

I have fixed the lights to my inner tent, so no extra set up necessary, they hardly weigh anything and roll up neatly with the tent. The switch seems quite safe from being switched on by accident (unlike the switch of my head lamp, which is an annoyance).

I would like to only give these away to people who would try and use it for their tents. Just DM me an address that accepts letters and it'll be on its way. First come, first serve. Would be nice to see a follow-up photo of the lights in use but no rush and no requirement. I will delete any DM containing private information after sending and promise you that i will keep the contents to myself.

I will edit this post once the lights are gone.

*I am actually not sure if i can send them without any trouble including batteries, so at least if i send overseas (from Europe), i would tend to send them without. They'd be two CR2032 lithium batteries, maybe somebody knows if there'd be a problem with it.

Hope this is not too off topic :)

edit: Actually i don't think i can delete DM's. However, there's no post history required to be sent an ultralight camp light, so if you want to disassociate from your main, just DM me from a throw away account.

This guy has been livestreaming his cycle touring trips for some years now, i kinda enjoyed tuning in every now and then. With this South Korea trip i don't because his stream time doesn't align with my timetable. Maybe somebody else will dig it, i think he does it pretty good.

What is on your wishlist this year? I have loads of camping stuff but started biketouring recently so big thing for me are bags and few stuff to complete my bike (bottlecages).

I am looking for some other things to complete my list (so other family members can give me something).

Since i have mod powers i am just going to try this.

This topic is meant to be a low threshold possibility for all kinds of discussion. It is not meant to keep anybody from creating a new topic, the idea is that it may enable some discussion that would otherwise not happen at all.

Just a test balloon to see if this will get used. Do you think it is a good idea?

(Title picture: Riding out of the Lathissi high plateau)

Time was running out, i was thinking back and forth on where to go, checking weather reports and ways to get there up to the point where i thought i'd just spend my last holidays this year at home and just do nothing.

Now i am glad i pulled the trigger on a flight to Crete to have a good week at this beautiful place. Been way too long since i've been to Greece.

I am on my last day here, tomorrow i'll head to the airport. Organized some bubble wrap to wrap up my bike for the flight and now just hanging out in Chania, second biggest and supposedly nicest city on the island.

Some more pictures before i start with my lengthy sermon, haha.

(Riding up to the Lathissi plateau on some sweet gravel tracks.)

(Greek food. They gave me a small bottle of Raki for dessert, i guess it contained six shots but i was good after two.)

(Riding up to Spili. From Spili back down to the sea you can pass the Kotsifou gorge.)

(Camping by the sea.)

(Greek color way. Not really the cretan color way though, i mean there were places in this color way but i think that was only to give tourists some greek colorway vibes.)

(Riding out of Paleochora to head back to the northern coast.)

(Nice view into the Topolia gorge.)

Positive notes about cyle touring in Crete:

• Climate. I had now about 27° C max temperatures everyday, perfect weather. Sun was still pretty strong, it surely would be too hot for me in full on summer though. Great plant life, still many flowers at this time of the year, fig cactus was ripe and the pomgrenade. Olive harvest was on too, the smell of the south.
• Greek people. Super chill and super friendly
• Greek drivers. Top notch, i have not had a single close pass. I was surprised, was expecting it to be more like Italy or Croatia. I might be proven wrong on the last 15 km tomorrow with tourists rushing to the airport together with me. Generally traffic was very, very low except for a few exceptions (last bit up to lathissi, and along northern coast)
• Infrastructure. Tavernes everywhere, small supermarkets too. Lots of rooms available, would certainly be a good place to credit card it. On the flipside it is probably overly touristic in some places, but i expected that and was more surprised how fast you'd be out of the buzz and in rural places and villages with no tourism to speak of. I am here at the very end of the season, the day after tomorrow i think half the island will shut down, so i guess it was perfect timing to be here with less tourists around (and less people driving around in rental cars i suppose)
• Animals. Cats are everywhere where human settlements are. Love it. Vultures in the mountains, i saw them every day, except for the flatter hills along the north coast. Saw a big flock too, 40 - 50 birds on the way to the lathissi plateau. Goats are absolutely everywhere on the mountains and i like it. They're always scared when you pass and I sometimes worry that on a downhill a goat lying on the road might have a brain fart and jump into me, but they all had the escaping to safety dialed down. Dogs. I heard bad things about dogs in Greece, but every barky, scary dog i came across was either chained or trapped in a yard. All free roaming dogs were super chill, just lying around in front of the butchers or some garbage cans, not even caring about cats.
• Iced coffee. The greek love iced coffee and so do i. Since i have last been here, which is decades ago, they completely switched it around though, it used to be 'frappe' everywhere, which is made from instant coffee, but now they're all about the 'freddo espresso'. While they still serve frappe, they were kinda looking weird at me when i ordered it, i think it's way out of fashion. Took me a while to get the 'freddo espresso' memo.
• Greek food is pretty damn good too. Cretan nut bars with honey were also good snacks.
• Camping is great, although official campsites are not everywhere.

Can't really think of negatives. I guess if you don't like climbing this is not the place for you. Some roads had a lot of trash lying around. Some places are overly touristic, but kinda easy to avoid or leave fast. Traffic in the big cities is annoying, the greek all go by car or on mopeds. Still the drivers are great. I certainly will be back cycling in Greece soon, absolutely enjoyed it.

This was my route. Unluckily i've had a cold since i arrived here, so i didn't get to ride what i thought i would. Guess i'll be all good when i'm back in the office on thursday. I think it was down to not sleeping at all the night before i arrived, and only halfway the night before that, because leaving home didn't go as easy as expected. Woke up at 4:00 to get to the airport, then realised i had forgotten to loosen my pedals beforehand. Tried too hard with my multitool to remove them and it broke. Now i couldn't even remove the handlebar anymore. Tried for a brief bit to organize some tools at the airport with no luck and then just rescheduled the flight for the next day at 4:30 in the night from a neighbouring city. So i didn't sleep all night and arrived in the capital Iraklio kinda dizzy.

I am quite happy with my new setup, even though the old one had it's own advantages. It is now somewhat lighter, and the weight is more evenly distributed, so lifting it over barriers and pushing uphill felt better. Rides pleasantly but tbh i didn't mind the riding part with the old rear heavier setup either. Pretty sure i will do my next tour with this new setup again though.

I was cyling from Freiburg, Germany through the Jura, Vercors, Drôme, Verdon to Nice, France.

Title picture is in the Drôme area, which i absolutely loved.

Most of Jura i cycled on the swiss side, weather was not great but it was still nice, basically following the cycle route 7 until i reached the grand tour de jura section on the french side after the lac du joux. I kinda liked the french part better, seemed wilder. Photo is in Switzerland on the col de l'aiguillon, from there was a fantastic downhill to the village Baumes.

Approaching the Vercors it was all full of walnut trees and i rode to Pont-en-Royans with the plan to ride up the Goulet:

(Pont-en-Royans)

On the way to Goulet i learned that it was not passable because there was a tunnel construction and i returned to Pont-en-Royans to ride up the Gorge de la Bournes instead. I had read up a bit about those crazy vercors roads beforehand, mostly on this site, which i guess is aimed at motor cyclists. Amazingly the road up the gorge was calm, not much traffic at all, i guess the season was over already in September in the Vercors.

Later that evening was a heavy rain storm, next day was still raining hard, tried to wait it out to climb up the col de Rousset, which would lead me out of the Vercors, but it was hopeless and so i rode up to the col in the clouds and pouring rain.

(Col de rousset before the tunnel)

At the col there's a tunnel and on the other side of it, the clouds were less dense and you could get a glimpse of a view. A gang of middle aged moped drivers from Grenoble were on the other side, we chatted for a bit and a french guy on the first day of his first bikepacking trip showed up as well. We chatted and made an appointment to meet for a coffee and talk some more in the town 'Die' which was at the end of the descend, then we descended. Weather cleared up and it had these amazing heat swells on the way down. After the downhill you can very much feel and smell the south already. Ithought Die is a nice town with a hippy vibe.

Next day i went into the Drôme area or Dioise (i am confused myself) and it was amazing, weather started to be great and it felt southern. I cycled along the Roanne valley:

(There is a "tunnel" hidden in this picture)

Next day continued going south, to go on a campsite in Buis-les-Barronies, which was still less then six Euros in 2021. The municipal campsite, right by the town, there's also a privately run one which i assume must be more expensive.

(Buis-lesBarronies in the valley, Mont Ventoux in the background)

Buis-les-Barronies is kind of a tourist hub in that area, but still a beautiful town, has an outdoors sports store where i could get some gas for my stove. Big Pizzas in town.

I then wanted to cycle to the gorge de meouge, but on the way there i saw a sign by the road announcing another scenic route along a different gorge, so i took that too and had a nice lunch snack / swim at the Gorge d'Aulan:

Then on via gorge de meouge (great swim too), sisteron towards the Gorge du Verdon. It is a very popular tourist site, but traffic was fine, all people in cars are also there to look out of the window and drive real slow. The village Moustieres-Sainte-Marie is also a tourist hotspot, but it is also an amazing village, would recommend a stop.

After having a swim, a view down to the Lac de Sainte Croix on the way to the Gorge route, from the town Aiguines, you can also see the Plateau Valensole on the other side of the lake, which is probably pictured on the cover of you Provence travel guide with its lavender fields.

(Gorge du Verdon)

I was riding the southern side of the gorge even though everybody told me the northern one with the loop would be better, but it was longer and i was getting to the end of my trip and didn't want to put myself under time pressure, so kept going south which was also very nice. Tons of Herbes de Provence, mostly thyme on that mountain.

I was figuring out a lot of my routes with a michelin map and their marked scenic routes. I was riding along a mountain plateau and wondered why it had beeen marked scenic, then i saw a sign "clues de greolieres" the plateau opened up with a fantastic view into the valley and it, an amazing experience riding down this to greolieres (beautiful village).

Then i basically just rode to Nice via Coursegoule and col de vence. Gotta send this post now before it is wednesday :)

edit: damn, 10 seconds late, haha.

another edit: Sorry i am a bit drunk and wrote this on the train back home, hope you can still enjoy the photos. Absolutely love cycling in France and i want to cycle all of these areas again, just a bit different routes, especially i think the Dioise / Drôme, i thought that was just gorgeus there, not too overrun by tourists, super calm small roads, perfect cycling.

Route if anybody's interested.

Got to take my ladyfriend on an overnight trip at the weekend. It just so happened that the campsite we had booked sat a little before the halfway point on an overnight bike packing trail that I had bookmarked for a later date - links below for anyone that might be interested. We got a late start saturday, so we arrived in the dark with just enough time to get to pitch and do a shop run before a bbq and drinks next to a campfire. We didnt rush the next day, left a little before noon and made the most of the sites en route. Some bird watching and a pub lunch put us a bit behind schedule with the shorter days so we had to cut out the main loop in Epping Forest by Loughton, but we will go back for a day trip to finish that part of the ride. A really enjoyable route for anyone looking for a 2 day excursion from london, largely off road so better suited for a gravel bike but some hybrid tyres should get you round if you dont mind a slower ride.

Lee Valley Almost Wild Campsite, Broxburne

London Olympic Gravel Overnighter

Ok so not completely sure this is allowed here, but not against any rules on the sidebar so I’ll give it a go. @mods please remove or message me if not appropriate

I’m always looking for cool new routes (mainly focused on Europe), even if I won’t get to do them in the short-term. I came across this post on Tumblr and really liked the photos. I included one of them in the post. Then I googled it and there is a whole website dedicated to it, complete with an awesome PDF and a lot of GPX files. I want to add that I am in no way affiliated or reimbursed by them for this post. I highly encourage you to check it out!

By the way: it’s a lot of gravel, but they have an asphalt only variant on the site as well.

Why March? I live in London and will be getting the Caledonian sleeper train up to inverness. Tickets are drastically cheaper in March than April. And im also hoping I might get to catch a glimpse of the northern lights on the orkney islands. Ive already decided to delay the trip, so I could put some extra money aside for a more expensive ticket. Maybe someone with experience of the region can give me some advice?

Didnt start well, a storm stopped me halfway from london to portsmouth, the first day here I dedicated as a rest day as I get problems with my knee when I overdo it. It was a beatiful day which made me optimistic for the week, but there were storms eveyday. I did my planned rides anyway. My running shoes got sodden wet but I had fun regardless. Got a dry day today, so did the main north-south trail, started in my flip flops stopped at blacks to get a dry pair of waterproof hiking shoes on clearance. Got to a closed path, asked a cyclist coming the other way if id make it through, he said yes just keep your feet up. I did, my bike stopped in the middle, had to peddle out with these shoes I had only worn for an hour under the water. Wet weather touring is .. a challenge, but still enjoyable. Going home tomorrow, if it is raining I am getting the train back from portsmouth, ive had enough water for this week.

This was an amazing lake in Sweden, about 40km east of Askersund. There was a shelter here and a fire pit, and no one else around! Sweden and Finland were definitely the highlights on this trip.

Booked a week off work and I will be spending it cycling around the isle oi wight. We have the worst possible weather forecasted but ive booked the ferry and the first two nights tent pitch, so just going to go brave the storm (a literal storm) and enjoy being in a new place.

It was december and raining a lot. I made a route using both komoot and RWGPS (the latter to confirm tricky spots with streetview). Still, information wasn’t up to date and had to make a huge detour.