Bicycle Touring and Bikepacking

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19688003

In the evening twilight hours of September 11, 2024, Lael Wilcox became the unofficial new world record holder for the Fastest Circumnavigation of the World by Bicycle (female).

Wilcox left Chicago's Grant Park at 7:06 a.m. on May 26, 2024, and returned to the Buckingham Fountain 108 days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes later, having completed 18,125 miles (29,169 km) across four continents and 22 countries.

With her time, the 38-year-old Alaskan has unseated Scot Jenny Graham who held the record since 2018 after completing her unsupported journey in 124 days, 10 hours and 50 minutes.

"I had so much fun — felt like I could’ve just kept riding forever," Wilcox commented at the finish, where she was welcomed by family, friends and the Chicago cycling community.

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Both of us are students from Scotland. I fixed up 2 scrap bikes and then we made it all the way to the Polish border. Wanted to go further but ran out of time so we are finishing the trip on the train.

I wrote allllllllot more here: https://feddit.uk/post/16250811

Horse looking at out-of-fashion tech

Personally i like them quite a bit, the small gear steps, i am using the simultaneous shifting like front 1 up, rear 1 down a lot to find myself in the best cadence.

I know people being happy with their switch over to 1x setups, but tbh i don't see myself doing that at all. I guess 2x, but i wonder how you would get to the small steps, like do you do something like front 1 up, rear 3(?) down, or just get used to the bigger steps?

Do you think 3x drivetrains will ever make a comeback or are they fading out for good?

So in Slavonice there is a guy who makes this clock's from old vinyl. I want to commission something like this but more bikepacking/touring not tt.

I just don't like to buy one clock so if someone would like to help me make some designs and drafts, I will send one in EU for free.

This is how it looks in 99% of Czech Republic.

It changes to terrain signs painted on trees sometimes but it is also standard. I found 2 other signs for cyclists, some cross border route that decided to make their own on both sides. And still most cross border routes use cz standard signage.

So how it looks where you live? Am I just too spoiled by standards for hiking and cycling signage?

So ~14 days ago I begun my trip in Brno to Mikulov, join EV13, ride for a week and then return to Slavonice where I was cooking on summer camp for kids.

So on and off (with previous trips) I rode on EV13 from Bratislava to Vyšší Brod.

Tldr: It is amazing route, with little traffic, under appreciated, history, nature and every kind of surface you can imagine.

First few impressions/general feelings:

• Austrian side is pretty much empty and dead, Austrians in these border regions go on the bike ride to Czech Republic for beer...
• It is interesting to cross border few times per day, see differences in each country.
• It is really under used I met 3 people who rode this route.
• You never know what is ahead - sparsely populated region, nice roads, bad roads...
• Plan your trip that museums and stuff that you would like to visit are open. I didn't do that and I didn't visit anything.
• don't trust EV planner on their website, I am apparently insane so can average ~100km/day so 7,5 day trip took me about 6 days.

Austrian part Expect nice asphalt or smooth gravel roads. No traffic for most parts. But nothing in a case of pubs, coffee places, restaurants or stuff like that, just few stores here and there.

Czech part Expect everything, nice roads, more traffic, totally broken asphalt roads, forest roads, trails, panel roads... but nothing that needs full suspension, 35+ mm tires with reasonable tread is enough. Pubs and other places here and there where you can get lunch for about 10€.

Notable places to visit

• Bunker in Šatov (I posted a pic there ~week ago)
• Valtice - castle and nice park
• Znojmo - castle and there are few brewerys
• Čížov - museum of Iron Curtain and visitor center of NP Podyjí
• Slavonice
• Gmünd
• Nové Hrady
• Cetviny There are more but I didn't choose optimal time so most places were closed (like bicycle museum in Retz)

Routing/signage This part of route I took has really good signage from Bratislava to Gmünd, you really don't need any computer or GPS tracker with maps. From Gmünd to Cetviny look up local routes, on cz side they are well signed and are in a process of putting EV stickers on them. On Austrian side the route doesn't look entirely finished so get GPX ready in your navigation, I found 2 EV signs on 20 km section.

And few stories along the way

• I met a guy who emigrated in 80's from CZ to A, he bitched about how Austrians can't brew a beer...
• I rode from Slavonice to border with some German guy (Joseph) and we chatted about how this route has bad surface and of course about Czech bunkers, in Slavonice there is museum of light bunkers I translated for him info sign about their construction.
• In Novohradské Hory I met totally wet French family, chatted a bit and they asked where they can find some food (restaurant or shop). When I told this to my friend he just said that he was there few months ago and had a beer in both open pubs there lol.

Last thing I want to say is that in Slavonice there is a guy who makes clocks from LP's. You can visit his shop there and he makes custom orders, so I want something like this but not on tt bike: https://www.dmznamky.cz/Hodiny-Kolo-zavodnik-d1070.htm If someone is interested I will order more of these and ship them in EU if you are interested (first one for free), we can finalize the design together.

Also I will add pics in comments when I get to it.

How it looks inside:

I just bought few postcards so first correct guess can decide where I will send it (I don't have stamps yet).

~50 km away another (same type) bike for comparison

And small earlier type (~1936)

So after the Pyrenees i kept cris crossing around France, bit of Cevennes, Provence, Verdon, Haute Alpes, back to Provence, Vercors, Chartreuse, Jura then to Freibug to take a train home. Title picture is taken on the Montagne de Lure, Mont Ventoux' little brother close to Sisteron.

Gorge du Tarn in the Cevennes. I was getting sick here again

Riding out of Gorges du Verdon to Castellane

On the descend of the Col de la Sinne, looking onto the village Ilonse

This is not some gravel track but the still closed Col d'Allos on my way back south after riding Bonette. Nobody around but two roadies.

Riding the prealpes, from Digne-les-Bains to Sisteron via St Geniez, very nice.

Vercors mountains look awesome, picture taken close to Die

Riding out of Vercors down to Grenoble

After Grenoble i rode through Chartreuse mountain range then down to the Lac du Bourget towards Jura

Second to last day, in french Jura, after that i rode to Freiburg to take a train home

Route of France section Part 1, Perpignan - Barême and Part 2, Barême - Freiburg

So few weeks ago my friend told me that he and 2 of his friends are planning trip to Slovenia. I was interested because I could get week off and ride with them.

Then I learned more about the trip, these guys didn't know what are they doing- first they planned to go there and back in a week ~170 km / day (I told them that it isn't possible), then they planned to take some trains along the route (they didn't checked if they take bikes...). Then I just told them that they are doing it for the first time so don't complicate it - start from home and see where you can go and adjust the route on the road.

So we started from Brno with plan to get to Břeclav, join EV13 and ride south to Hungary border and then go west to Graz.

At the start I saw for the first time all our bikes - my bike on which I have ~6000km, my friend with borrowed older mountain bike properly maintained, one pretty new mountain bike but small 26' wheels (the guy is taller than me) without rack so he had backpack, short guy with 29' new mountain bike and guy who "planned" this trip on really old road bike with flat bars (standard frame from 80's that was made in all sorts of bikes).

They didn't have some gear and reserve inner tubes... so first stop was local decathlon.

I planned the route for the first day so we had all possible terrain, good thing I did that because the old 80's bike got bent back wheel, I was like ok fortunately I have tool for centering wheels on my multitool but unfortunately I never done it. I was able to get it to not touch the frame (yes it was that bad) but discovered that the bike was in worse shape than I anticipated - bent rear V brake, totally cooked drive train, bad wheels...

So for the second time we scratch route and wanted to go to Bratislava. We started the second day on Austrian side of EV 13 and we intended to take ferry half way to Slovakian side of Morava river. Unfortunately because high winds and higher levels of water ferry didn't operate.

Scratched route again, we ended up on campsite in Petronell-Carnuntum. But before we get there we had to center the wheel again. At the time I was little bit pissed and I didn't wanted to ride somewhere where isn't train connection so he can get home if the bike falls apart. We agreed to go to Vienna and see where to go from there.

At the campsite there was French family with 4 kids bike touring. I chatted with them and they started in France 2 months ago and will probably end in Budapest.

On the third day everything was without a hiccup, we got to Vienna, pitched tents and got to look around there. The guy with 29' mountain bike which was too big for him went home because of back pain (surprise!). And I snatched this pick of the camp area (it is bad but you can clearly see that nearly every tent has bike next to it).

Some of us wanted to go home early so from week trip it became 4 day trip. We get on EV 9 back to Břeclav.

I took some photos for eco minded people:

And some for the the petrol heads:

5 km before Břeclav I fell, I will be all right but I will have to find somewhere these condoms to repair my leavers.

All in all I would categorize this trip as a experience, not bad. I was able to test some gear, new bags that I bought because I have borrowed ones and my friend needed them back, that it is possible to use alcohol stove...

Hey! Newbie to the touring world here. I have a Kona Rove DL 2021 frame, and looking at getting a front rack set up organised. After some research, the Tubus Duo and Tubus Tara look like excellent, light reliable choices which run nice and low on the bike.

My understanding is that the Duo requires "lowrider eyelets on the inside and outside", whilst the Tubus does not. However, I must admit my understanding of eyelet terminology is not up-to-scratch, and as such I'm not actually sure whether my bike would support it. I also haven't been able to find any good learning resource for understanding this specific case of eyelet requirements in my usual sources online.

If I had to trust my limited knowledge, I would say no, and that I would need an additional eyelet running parallel to the one I have at the moment. But I'm hoping to get conclusive advice from others!

Cheers!

Won't be getting any higher, at least not on this trip. On the Cime de la Bonette.

Riding mountains gives me a crazy high, the combination of exercise and the views that come up. There are places where you can get similar views "for free", without the work, but for me the feeling does not really compare.

In the background Erg Chebbi, the highest and largest sand dunes of Morocco, N. Africa: the dunes spread over an area of near 200 km2 (28 x 7 km) and are 150 meters high
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This "sauna" weather isn't the best for bikepacking, I had to take breaks pretty often. There is cherry season so you always find "reason" to stop for some "snack".

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/17281060

Hello,

I have an ELEMNT BOLT V2 GPS BICYCLE COMPUTER. Now I'm planning a longer bike tour with breaks. The bike computer stays on. Can you turn off the bolt to save power and then reactivate it to continue recording?

Best regards

This post may be used as resource for others so try to structure it somehow. Share whatever you think will be useful- links, local knowledge, interesting places, routes, maps...

This is a bit of an older link, don't think he updated in a while. I still have a look at it every once in a while.

Ultralight with little money, taken to the extreme (bubble wrap sleeping pad anyone?). I think he has some really good ideas and interesting thoughts, also like his humor.