St Malo to Toulouse

EssexSuffolk

Hi,

I could use some advice from experienced tourers here!

In May, I'm planning on cycling from St Malo to Toulouse. I'll be travelling solo and using my road bike with rear panniers (its a Giant Defy). On shorter trips, staying in B&Bs, this has worked fine. My questions are:

- In order to undertake a 2 week trip, taking lightweight camping gear, do you think I can get away with just rear panniers and maybe a handlebar bag? I know its hard to say, but people's general experience would help.
- Any recommendations for upgrading a rear wheel to something stronger (given the weight)?
- For solo-travelling, how heavy a padlock do people recommend?

Thanks, any advice appreciated,

Jon

briantrumpet

I did St Malo to Die, Drôme, last Summer, with just a seatpost-mounted pannier, staying in B&Bs all the way over the five days. As I wasn't planning to go to any black-tie dinners, I took just minimum toiletries, a T-shirt and shorts, electrical bits & pieces (phone, tablet, chargers etc.) and bike-essential stuff. (Photo on here.) Kit washed & dried each night. No problems, other than difficulty trying to decide which restaurants to eat in each lunchtime & evening. I know you're planning to camp, but I really liked being able to travel so light. Lock-wise, nothing heavy, but once or twice I did take a wheel off too and retired to my room with it.

BTW, route-wise, I didn't particularly enjoy the Laval to Tours road - you're probably not going so far inland, but it's long, straight, boring and rather busy for long stretches. Not much fun.

bigjim

I did a camping tour, La Rochelle to Biarritz, last year with a road bike equipped with two panniers and bar bag. Did not lack for anything. I kept the standard 32 spoke rear wheel but fitted a 28c tyre on the rear and a 25c on the front. No problems.

Gadge

I did a week long loop starting at St Malo with a mate.
There is no problem with what you suggest re panniers but we did it using Hotels/B&Bs.

I used a Thorn tourer with 32 spoke wheels and Schwalbe Marathons. My pal used a MTB with a terrible seat post fixing for panniers that drove him slightly crazy. Neither of us had a puncture.

Most hotels had secure bike parking but we still used one normal cable lock between the two bikes.

We did about 8-12 miles an hour loaded easily.
We planned the distance between B+Bs by how many hours we wanted to do per day before stopping.

We did between 30 - 60 miles a day.
Choosing the lower when stopping at larger towns with enough to see/do in the afternoon.

Check out the Voie Vertes if you want to do some time away from traffic.
From St Malo, you can turn left off the ferry and you will find a small ferry across the river to Dinard where you can pick up the first Voie Vertes to take you to Dinan where you can take the canal all the way to Rennes.

http://www.voiesvertes.com/

http://uk.franceguide.com/Cycling-along ... oID=194222

EssexSuffolk

Thanks for all those replies, massively helpful.

Like the idea of riding with just a seatpost pannier, but also keen on camping too, so maybe not this trip.

The Voie Vertes is really useful - I suppose I was a bit concerned with what I do when I first get off the ferry, that sounds like it could help me bypass the town and start to make some progress. Can you lock bikes on the ferry, or do you just leave them down in the hold area?

Thanks again!

Gadge

Easy Peasy. Go right to the front of the Ferry on the car deck and there is a room located there. You lock your bike up nice and secure while you go enjoy the trip. Take your panniers with you and leave them in your cabin.

They even wake you up in time for a quick breakfast with a nice little "hi di hi" style alert on the speaker in your cabin. The trip is taken very slowly by the Ferry as they have all night to get you there. Highly recommended. Coming back you set off in the morning around 10 and get in about 6.

andrew@snowrace

I have cycled from St Malo to Spain a couple of times both on a road bike with camping gear i.e. tent sleeping bag cooker sleep mat pans etc. rear paniers are good, best with top bag and coupled with handle bar bag( the type you can easily take off when you pop in for a coffee or to shop),. Bike mounted rack was best as seat post mounting puts the wieght quite high the important thing is weight keep it light and low dont carry too much food or loads of spare cloaths you wont use them anyway. I used standard rear wheel but put 25mm rear tyre instead of 23 with conti gator skins 1 puncture on the two trips and that was on the front (pot hole too qwick) hope this helps. Andy

Gadge

That's interesting Andrew.

What route(s) did you take to get down to Spain on your trips

andrew@snowrace

Quite simple really I drew a straight line from St Malo to Pau and tried to keep as close to it as possible whilst avoiding as many big roads as possible so looking at the map with france at the top Trip 1 St malo throught the center of Rennes just right of Nantes, Lucon, Pons, Saints, keeping off the river brushing right of Bordaux, Langon, Bazas, Aire sur la dor, Pau. Pau to Laruns over the Portalet and bingo your in Spain. I was heading to a Village about 15 km into Spain called Panticosa. Trip 2 similar to 1 but with my wife who is not a cyclist so we avoided Rennes centre and went slightly to the left and from Saint we went to Blaye on the river and the skirted Bordaeux. Out of interest we took 9 days both times. I did not target distance per day we cycled for about 6 hours and camped where we landed in municipal sites the only time this dident work was Langon when we had to go on to Bazas another 20 km at the end of a long day not much fun but hey the beer tasted better that night. Good luck Andy

EssexSuffolk

Just seen these further replies, thanks to all - will look at a sturdier rear tire. I'm starting to plan my route a little now (don't want to be too prescriptive!). Google is great for planning, but what sort of scale maps would people recommend for this sort of trip? I don't have funds for GPS, so will be keeping it traditional with a map or two, advice welcomed.

briantrumpet

I bought the Michelin Road Atlas 1:200,000, then tore out the relevant pages and put them in an A4 sleeve. Nice and lightweight, could keep all the maps in the jersey pocket, and used about three or four sheets a day. No fighting with expensive large folded maps by the side of the road in strong winds and rain. BTW, you might find RideWithGPS a good alternative to Google, as it has good elevation graphs.

bigjim

I scan my michelin maps route and print them out back to back so saving paper and weight. Throw them as I use them.

briantrumpet

bigjim wrote:

I scan my michelin maps route and print them out back to back so saving paper and weight. Throw them as I use them.

... though the Michelin Atlas is printed double-sided on extremely lightweight paper... and in any case, I keep the maps as I like to review where I've been ... especially the wrong turnings when I've thought I've remembered the route. I must admit I do like the fun of using good old-fashioned maps - gives me a nice sense of where I am and the scope of what I've done and where I'm going. I was going to say that perhaps I'm a dinosaur, but I don't think dinosaurs ever really got into map-reading.

EssexSuffolk

Apologies for resurrecting this thread of mine, but its been really useful so far:

Would I be mad to tour with just flat pedals and trainers? - I've got Look Keo at the moment, which are great for speed etc, but walking in those shoes is cumbersome to say the least. SPDs would probably be ideal, but I'm trying to keep costs down a bit! Probably a personal decision, but any views welcome.

Mikey23

I did trainers and flat pedals on a hybrid with rack and panniers last year from roscoff to Nantes. I must confess it was a bit of a pain and a frustrating riding experience. Made very slow progress but this didn't really matter as I was travelling with some pretty inexperienced cyclists. This year I'm taking a defy 4 with topeak bar and box, and handlebar bag up the loire valley and using SPDs with a pair of flip flops for spare. Travelling light with credit card

EssexSuffolk

I leave tomorrow for this trip. Excited, but apprehensive (sure I'll feel better when we're underway!)

Thanks for all the tips!

Mikey23

Bon voyage!

EssexSuffolk

Hi,

Now back from this trip, I thought I should post a quick review....might be of help to others. Fantastic trip.

We covered 600 miles in 12 days of cycling from St Malo to Bordeaux to Toulouse. Our first rest day was day 9 in Bordeaux, but we didn't feel excessively tired. The ferry crossing was, as others had said, easy for bikes - they're all locked away in a room. We met other cycle tourers in the queue, really friendly crowd. Without a cabin, its easy to sleep on the floor.

Kit wise, we took no sleeping bags, just a fleece blanket each (£5) and lightweight air mattress from Alpkit. It was fine for the French summer, provided we slept in light clothes. On a future tour, I'd take just 2 pairs of cycling shorts, 2 tshirts, 1 pair of running shorts for the evening, 1 pair of lightweight trousers for the night, lightweight fleece. We took no rain jackets, got drenched one day, but dryed off after about an hour - bit of a risk, but there's always shops to buy extra clothes in if needed. Cooking-wise, I took a mini trangia which was great for tea in the morning and cooking some quickcook rice in the evening. Every town has a bakers for breakfast and you soon get to the know the size of town that'll have a campsite. Our navigation was via ripped out pages of a road atlas and a compass, rarely got lost, but we were just planning a route as we went - all part of the adventure.

All in all, a fantastic trip, hope to tour again soon. Road bike was well up to the job - no punctures or breakages. Running 25mm Gatorskin tyres.

Hope that's useful!

Jon

Tusher

Due to my complete inability to learn how to ride clipless, I ride with trainers and plastic toe clips. Of course, I don't know what I'm missing by not being clipped in, but for touring, I have no problems keeping up with those who are. And I can walk/jog in the trainers when I leave the bike. As most of our touring is done in the western isles, this is an advantage.

In the heat of France though, I splashed out and bought a pair of plimsoll style pumps. I know they're hardly de rigeur for touring, but they were fine to cycle in, a joy to walk in, and my feet didn't cook.

Overnight sailing from Portsmouth to St Malo- we decided to save money with reclining seats. They were awful, and I ended up sleeping on the floor. Which was ok, but hordes of schoolchildren nearby was not. It is a lot more, but I would book a cabin in future. You'll arrive in St Malo refreshed and raring to go.

The camaraderie of other tourers in the queue was great.

France was great- I'm already planning our next trip.

Has anyone any experience of touring France in September?

mercia_man

I always go to France in September if I can. Campsites are almost empty and no screaming kids or drunken teens to disturb you. The weather is still good in early September in much of France. For later in the month, go south to somewhere like Provence and you'll enjoy temperatures in the mid 20s. Even the Alps generally enjoy good weather in September before the snow begins.

Mikey23

It is addictive isn't it... Just back from a gite holiday in the loire valley and not able to ride as recovering from broken bones but now planning my next trip. Inspiring to see so many cyclists of all ages, shapes and sizes on their personal oddessey ... Can't wait