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First ever cycle tour – ride report
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We’ve just finished our first cycle tour. With the Golden Jubilee weekend coming up we felt it would be a fitting tribute to cycle to BOA on our f-frames. The Diamond Jubilee weekend with the extra bank holiday was an excellent opportunity to get a little experience under our belts. After months of planning, deciding destination, sourcing lightweight camping gear (mainly off ebay) etc we decided on a five day trip. Day 1 cycle from Streatham, South London to Kingswood, Maidstone (next to Leeds Castle). Day 2 visit the Castle. Day 3, cycle to Deal, Kent. Day 4, explore Deal. Day 5 train it back.
As this was our first trip of this kind, we naturally had many fears. Mainly what if we got lost or ran out of steam halfway (our longest previous cycle trip has been a 50km jaunt which we’ve only done once (though we do commute with bike everyday). In the end I am having to do some work on the wife’s Mk3 so she used the Dahon Hammerhead while I was on the Moulton Major fitted with 2-speed duomatic hub. We both had a Carry Freedom City trailer (c.25kg each inc trailer weight) and Carradice Pendle saddle bag each.
The trip itself was wonderful. The bug has truly bitten us hard! I followed the route given by http://www.cyclestreets.net/ going for the quietest route each time. The first day’s cycling was mainly in built up areas with many routes along cycle paths that followed busy A-roads. The second day’s trip was wonderful quiet country lanes and paths. There were a few (off-road) paths which were a bit of a test but immense fun. Luckily the rain held off while cycling though it chucked it down during the night, which made it difficult to get a decent night’s rest. There were a few massive puddles which was good fun cycling through. My wife swears that the trailer was floating through a couple of them! In the end we didn’t visit Leeds Castle as we were too knackered, weather was poor and we needed to buy food as we took very little with us, so as to reduce weight. We also decided to have a siesta too. Super! Deal was lovely, everyone was in a wonderful mood due to the Jubilee celebrations and extra holiday (no doubt).
We cycled 91km the first day and approx 75km the next. The times were quite slow but we’re not fussed about this as it was our first trip of this kind. Unfortunately my Garmin ran out half way to Deal but you can view what we have on Strava http://app.strava.com/rides/10221515 & http://app.strava.com/rides/10221503 I was worried about only having two gears but inspired by tales of Paris-Brest-Paris on a Stowaway (and duomatic) and cycle trip to Oz on a Mk3 (again with a duomatic), I found that the two gears were fine! I love the duomatic hub and am really pleased that it got me round with no problems. There were a few hills which had to be walked up but this is no problem and with my inexperience even with lots of gears I’d probably would have had to walk up anyways! I had geared down in preparation too with a 65t chainring and 22t cog giving 49 and 67 gear inches. The f-frame was of course a joy to ride soaking up bumps as it glided along. We only experienced one puncture (on the trailer). My 369 Kojaks held up very well. We got a lot of looks (and smiles) though it was probably due to a combination of the sight of small wheeled bikes, trailers and our Union Jack flags (the car window ones attached to the trailers).
We’ve been left with a huge feeling of satisfaction and still can’t quite believe that we’ve managed such distances, on such bikes with trailers!!! We’d fully recommend to everyone considering such a trip to go for it. We can’t wait for the next one, which will probably be BOA!!! Hopefully we’ll both be on f-frames come then.
Anwar
Anwar,
There’s a problem with the Picasaweb link: ‘Sorry, that page was not found.’. Maybe the album isn’t ‘public’?
Cheers,
GeorgeHi Anwar,
Glad you had a good time, looks like you missed the worst of the rain too. A bicycle is the only way to see the world in my opinion, I’ve not been abroad on holiday for years, there’s too much fun to be had riding round the UK. If you ride to BoA it looks like you can just ride along NCN route 4 almost the whole way with a fair bit off road too, should be a great trip.
Thanks for sharing,
MattHi Anwar,
I’m glad you had a good time. Any comments on hauling a trailer? I’ve been thinking about getting one and the Carry Freedom City appeals to me. But! I’ve recently come across the Burley Travoy and that seems to tick a few boxes also.
Thanks for your write-up. I enjoyed it.
Aynsley BrownThanks for the comments.
Matt, thanks for the heads up with NCN route 4. Really good to know there’s a cycle route which will take us most of the way! One of the issues that slowed us down was me (as navigator) not too sure which way we were meant to go!! Embarrassed to say we went a little off route a few occasions and I had to rely on my smart phone with satnav more often than I really would have liked! Totally agree with the UK having so much to offer. Last few years all of our holidays have been camping in the UK (apart from Xmas to see the inlaws in Austria). It’s great to be doing it with a bike now 🙂 If only we could rely on the weather!!
Aynsley, have to say I have never used panniers before so can’t compare it against that but my experiences have been very good. The trailer itself is very good quality, it also ‘folds’, however, it is a bit of a faff and I do not bother with this, though like the Moulton range it’s great to have the option 😉 I understand the CR y-frames come apart quite easily so may be better if stowability is important.
With regards to the hauling I have to say it’s much easier than I initially expected (or feared!). You do certainly notice the added weight but it’s really not so bad. While going downhill you would not realise it’s there until you need to brake, where more braking force is needed. On flats it’s only noticeable in that acceleration is slower but otherwise you could very easily forget that it’s there! Uphill just feels like the hill is steeper than it is, so lower gears and/or slower speeds are important. I guess this is all obvious, expected and very similar experience with panniers. We cycled through some quite rough paths (off road walking paths with a groove of non vegetation, where walkers tread, and very thick grass either side. Not the easiest to cycle through but the trailers did not have any issues dealing with this terrain.
The biggest issue with the trailers that we found are the gates you get to ensure cars don’t get through. There were a few within the M25 where we travelled under railway lines, where we had to carefully weave the bike and trailer through. Sometimes getting stuck. There are also these gates in the country which offer the bike enough space to cycle straight through but no room for a trailer. As there were two of us, we would park one bike, and then push the other bike through while the other person would lift the trailer over the barrier. Then repeat. It’s not so bad if there are two of you but if you’re by yourself I can only see you getting through if you unhitch the trailer and carry it over! This may be a little time consuming and get annoying.
The thing to be aware of with the CR city is that the bag fills up quite quickly. I have found that I cannot carry as much in there as I would have thought (or initially expected). Though as we did you can bungee stuff to it. The Burley looks like it could carry much more… If considering a Carry Freedom one of the y-frames may be better, so as to attach a big box to fill. I went for the City over the y-frame for two reasons. It is lighter than the others, and it looks really cool! If the y-frame were the same weight with a box attached I probably would have gone for that.
The best thing about the trailer is being able to move stuff with a bike!!! We don’t have a car, and since we’ve had ours, we have carried stuff from the garden centre, supermarket, to the tip (recycling centre) and even from Ikea (though it was only small stuff from the market hall – not a wardrobe!)!
One last point. I bought both ours off ebay. They do not come up often but when they do they go for around £150 – quite a saving, particularly compared to a lot of other second hand goods off there!
BW
Anwar
(apologies for the essay!!)
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