Retrobike Touring.

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Trebz":1i3me7wg said:
Does anyone have any big plans for this year?

York to Edinburgh next month, 1st day to newcastle and night in the city, day 2 over the border up to Melrose for the night, few beers in the local pubs, Day 3 up to Edinburgh for royal p*ss-up.

Day 4 .... train back (work int morning :( )

Should be a great ride out, fancy something overseas next year.........Ibiza maybe
 
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I'm planning on riding to Amsterdam with two, possibly three friends this summer. We'll be going along the north coast of France and maybe having a look around Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam and the Hague along the way.
 
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I have a ride planned.... I first had to get a suitable bike. A 2004 Kona Dr. Dew came up for sale locally and nice and cheap so I started with that and did the following;

Drop-bar conversion: 80mm stem, Giant Contact Bars, Giant Gel bar tape
Genesis Croix-de-Fer fork
105 3 x 9 brifters
Geared it down from 52/42/30 :shock: to 28/38/48 with an XT chainset
Braking changed to Avid BB5 road from the original Hayes hydraulics
Panaracer Pasela
SKS Bluemels
Topeak Supertourist DX rack
Ortlieb panniers
Blackburn stainless bottle cages
 
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This weekend's mini-adventure

Friday: Woking > Welwyn: ~50 miles
Saturday: Welwyn > Northampton ~55 miles
Sunday: Northampton > Woking ~90 miles

Average speed was about 11-12 mph I though I'd be a lot quicker than that :( . It was a good learning experience though, I expanded my kit list and discounted some! A headwind all the way on Saturday was bloody unpleasant. Here's a shot on the home leg in a village called Mursley:

SP
 

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No camping, I want plenty of browsing/mooching/sight-seeing time when I go so B&B or YHA I think and then I won't have lug so much stuff and be slow (er). I fully loaded the panniers up as an experiment for the real thing - I do need a bar bag, I spent ages fishing around for stuff whilst on the road.

The Ortliebs are ancient and have holes in (sewn up several times already) so I think I might go for the smaller Front City Rollers which are 25 litre and slimmer. If I'm in a B&B then hopefully I won't need too much stuff.
 
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Took the Trek out for a training / test ride today to see how many miles were feasible / sensible in a day; possible 60, sensible 45.

I only put the front panniers on for today, but they had enough gubbins in there to make it all feel real.

The bike rides really well but I do need to change the saddle and the brake blocks. The saddle because it gets uncomfortable after 3 hours and the brake blocks because although they work-ish, they sound like blocks of wood rubbing on the rims.

Burrington Combe
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Chew Valley Lake

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Poor soul's trying to get home...today.

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