Planning a long(ish) range cycle tour

andrewjamesdaleuk6AdMPHns

Hey. As it looks likely that things will be a little more 'normal' a casual group of us are starting a plan a cycle tour for next summer. Something like 'around the Scottish coastline' or 'across the widest part of the UK mainland'.

Either way, my question is has anyone ever used an external company for the logistics of such a trip. I've found a couple but wondered if anyone had any first-hand experience of any others?

https://www.pieevents.co.uk/create/
https://bikeridesupport.co.uk/

Cheers

elbowloh

Tbh, most of the time we've carried all our gear on our bikes when we've done tours or longish rides (e.g. Down to Brittany, around Brittany and back again or to Bruges and back).

When my cycling club have done lejog (which i haven't done), they tend to just book B&Bs themselves and a volunteer or 2 drive a van that the group have hired for the duration of the trip. You could rotate the van driving if there are some who would like to cycle, but not every day.

You just need to between you all come up with and provide a list of what spares/consumables you need and, from my experience, there's always been someone in the group who's an ok / competent hobbyist bike mechanic to get through most inconveniences. If not, the van is there to transport bike and rider to the next town that has a bike shop.

pblakeney

I have 2 experiences of cycle touring just for clarification of my background experience.
1. Travel light, single backpack, credit card B&B. Very enjoyable.
2. Marmot Tours cycle holidays. Excellent!

I can't imagine lugging camping gear around but plenty do it so it is possible, and some even enjoy it. Sharing driving is an option but you need that volunteer.
I can imagine finding a company that will do a bespoke tour would be the ultimate but no doubt expensive.

brundonbianchi

If there’s a group of you, not everyone has to carry everything you need, the more of you there are, the less you each have to carry. I’ve been on a couple of longish bike tours, and we had a mate with a van following us, with whom we rendezvoused at the stop points, with any luggage and stuff we couldn’t carry. He did it for fuel and beer tokens.

bobmcstuff

I can recommend the Hebridean Way, FWIW. Ferry from Oban to Castlebay and then island hopping all the way up. A bit quieter than the North Coast 500 these days.

I've mainly done this kind of thing with full kit/camping stuff although I have done a mini tour of Islay and Jura with hotels, which was very nice too.

Never used an external company for cycling, but have for canoeing logistics (e.g., River Spey) - if you are doing something point to point like that then having someone at the end is quite helpful, otherwise there is a lot of faff.

pblakeney

bobmcstuff said:

I can recommend the Hebridean Way, FWIW. Ferry from Oban to Castlebay and then island hopping all the way up. A bit quieter than the North Coast 500 these days.

1000% this having driven both!
NC500 has too many drivers on it in vehicles they are not used to driving, and on roads narrower than they are used to. Worse still, no comprehension on how to use passing places.