Retrobike Touring.

MIA again this year due to imminent house move. The boss has been warned to expect a decamp later in the year.
 
Trebz":7tfpkzr0 said:
It's summer !!! Anyone out there right now riding along with their panniers and factor 50 ?

Off tomorrow with No.1 son: Eurostar to Lille, thne ride down to Epernay for the TdF (one of the climbs just before the finish) and the Depart in Reims. Then off to Paris via Soissons.

At the end of May I did a three-day tour from Cherbourg with No.2 son. A loop down (via St Saveur la Vicomte) to Ste Mere Eglise and Utah Beach and back to Cherbourg. I'm lucky that Poole is only a couple of hours ride away to catch the ferry.

Nice railway path for much of the way from Cherbourg (not that the traffic is heavy)
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Breakfast!!!
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Utah beach, really excellent museum
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Re:

Update (also in the road section)
I popped over to France as planned with No1 son (who has just finished his GCSEs) last week four a short tour including seeing a bit of the Tour De France.
Eurostar to Lille, then an evening ride to Cambrai.
Then 57 miles to Laon, overnight at the top of the city (hairpin climb) followed by Reims the following day (it was very hot and we decided to give the extra 25 mile round trip to Epernay to get onto a climb a miss), then watched the depart the next lunchtime before a ride through the champagne country to Soissons. The final day was 78 miles to Paris (the temperature was 29C so we took it slow). The final day was a ride in Paris, including down the Champs Elysees before the Eurostar home. Total distance was just short of 300 miles.

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The bikes:
Blue 1979 Witcomb 531 with 1999 Chorus mix, bought 4 years ago from VCBallbat on this forum. It's my winter bike.
Red 1990 Marin Palisades (as featured through this thread), which has been my main tourer for 25 years. Both bikes stripped of their habitual mudguards to make boxing up faster for the Eurostar and as the weather forecast was so lovely! All the kit was in the bikepacking bag as shown or Carradice Super C.
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Fantastic! You've planted a seed, would love to do that with my kids when they ate a bit older.
 
CTK":sakca30u said:
Fantastic! You've planted a seed, would love to do that with my kids when they ate a bit older.
We did our first ones with the tandem (oldest age 5 stoking) and the youngest (age 3) in a trailer. Now they are 16 and 14.
 
Ok so I'm behind already! (6 & :cool: Youngest has mild cerebal palsy which makes it hard for him to pedal / hold the handlebars on left side but he can nearly ride and I'm sure he will. Been thinking about a tag along or tandem for him but he only wants a trailer like the burley we used to have!
 
There is a brilliant charity called Charlotte's Tandems who loan tandems to help disabled people ride. I've donated parts in the past and offered to be a host. They might have a suitable tandem near you which could help. Tandems are brilliant for getting kids out - I started with my kids on the tandem at age 4.
 

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