Europe 2024

Introduction

In 2022, M1 (your intrepid blogger's code name) undertook a huge solo bikepacking trip that saw him and his bike The Mule passing through parts of England, France, Switzerland, Italy and Spain and crossing some big mountain ranges including the Swiss Alps and The Pyrenees. It was an awesome trip and M1 told everyone who would listen (or who were not listening) what an awesome trip it had been. This included his wife, M2.

The Swiss Alps in 2022

M2 had respectfully declined the invitation to join M1 on the epic 2022 trip, saying something like "You must be ******** joking! No way!". But something about the way M1 enthused about the 2022 trip must have had an impact. Or maybe it was just that M2 couldn't bear to be apart from M1 again :-) Or maybe it was something else. Because M2 decided to give bikepacking a try for the first time ever and joined the 2023 European bikepacking trip through England, France, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg. 

M2 cycling by the River Meuse in 2023

Apparently it must have been OK because the 2024 bikepacking trip is once again a team event with both M1 and M2 taking part.

You can see a summary of each of the two previous European bikepacking trips on this page.

The Europe 2024 Route

This year we're cycling to Bilbao in Northern Spain. We'll cycle from our home just to the south of London, down to Portsmouth on the south coast of England and we'll take an overnight ferry from there to St Malo in Northern France. We'll then cycle a little to the west on Eurovelo route Ev4 and then cut across to EV1 which we'll follow all the way down the Atlantic coast, crossing the border into Spain at Irun. And then we'll roughly follow the Camino del Norte to the city of Bilbao. Hopefully there will be some time for sightseeing in Bilbao, after which we will sail back to Portsmouth and cycle home from there. 

We've allowed five weeks for the round-trip and expect to cycle about 1300 miles or 2100 km.

Preparation

Both M1 and M2 would freely admit that maybe they haven't done quite so much training for this trip as they should have! So, it promises to be a bit tough to begin with. The route south along the Atlantic coast looks quite flat though, so it shouldn't be too arduous. In fact the hardest day looks like it will be our very first, with 71 miles or 115 km to cycle all in one day and on heavy bikes. Have I mentioned that our bikes are quite heavy when loaded up? Well, they are.

M1 has serviced both his bike, The Mule and M2's bike, TBWNN (The Bike With No Name). Each bike has a new chain and cassette, new Shimano brake pads and new Continental Contact Plus tyres. We're both using 42 mm wide tyres this year which seems to be a good compromise, allowing relatively low friction rolling on roads but offering enough grip and cushioning for rougher surfaces.

That's it! We leave in just under two weeks. Watch this space for updates!

Bikepacking in 1897

 A friend shared a "Guide for Cyclists and Motorcyclists" from 1897. It's entertaining and maybe even informative to compare its recommendations with the packing list for my 2022 solo trip around Europe. Maybe we can all learn something from this little piece of bikepacking history. Maybe, just maybe I'll remember to pack some Sperm Oil for my next trip. Don't know how I managed without it to be honest!

That said, I don't see any possibility of me ever taking a revolver. And for my European friends, I do assure you that I have no particular expectation of encountering footpads or brigands, no more so than in Britain anyway!

And..... I think gold coins are probably a bit on the heavy side, so I'll skip that recommendation too :-)

Bikepacking 2023 - Equipment Performance

 

Bikepacking involves a fair amount of kit and how it performs can have a dramatic effect on your experience. So, what did we take and how did our equipment do during this year's European bikepacking adventure? 

The packing list for this year was very similar to the one used for the 2022 trip. But this year there were two of us, M1 and M2 and so some new equipment was needed. A few lessons were learned from 2022 as well. You can see some of the new equipment mentioned on the pre-trip blog post.

Most of the kit worked as expected, quietly and with no drama, so from that point of view there's little to say. But, some worked particularly well and a few things partially or completely failed. Here's the summary.

What Worked Well?

The Bikes

Both bikes were completely wonderful and trouble-free. M1's "The Mule" was its usual stoic self and just kept going. M2's "TBWNN" was on its first ever bikepacking trip and it too was trouble-free. Yes, we lost a screw from the pannier rack but I don't count that as a bike problem per se.

The Mule needed a limit screw tweaked half a turn at one point to improve front gear changes, but that's just maintenance. On which point, both bikes were cleaned, and their chains de-greased and re-lubricated around once a week. Cleaning the bikes is also an opportunity to do some basic checks as well. It's time well spent.

M1 rides a Specialized Rockhopper Expert 29 and M2 rides a Specialized Ariel Comp.

Tyres and Inner Tubes

We had no punctures. That's pretty fantastic! Punctures aren't a disaster when they happen but they are a pain in the ****. And over the course of 1500 miles of varied terrain and road surface, it would be fair to assume that you'd get at least one, I think. But two things probably helped us avoid punctures.

The first is that we actively try to avoid getting punctures by avoiding the things that cause punctures. That means keeping a close eye on the road surface and alerting each other if we see a hazard like broken glass.

The second concerns our choice of tyre and inner tunes. For tyres, we each had Continental Contact Plus on our bikes. No tyre is infallible but these tyres do seem to be as tough as you could hope. I have total confidence in them and will be using them again, unless of course Continental bring out something even better!

It's hard to know if they made any actual difference, but to be extra safe, we also used Continental Tour Hermetic Plus inner tubes. These are butyl tubes and a little heavier than average. But they're promoted as being more puncture resistant and designed for touring and commuting. So, we gave them a try. Credit for the Zero Puncture performance has to go to our tyres though. 

The MSR Mutha Hubba Tent

This three person tent was bought new for this trip to provide space for the two humans and all their stuff. It was a good but safe buy, given the experience M1 had had with a MSR Hubba Hubba two person tent on the 2022 trip.

The Mutha Hubba worked well. It was light enough for M1 to not end up complaining about carrying it and spacious enough for us to be comfortable. Putting it up in the rain, flysheet first is apparently possible and it was one of the few regrets on this trip that we didn't learn how to do this before we set off! We didn't have to put the tent up when it was actually raining very often, but it did happen. One for next time.

The Sea to Summit Flame Sleeping Bag

M2 seemed pretty happy with her new, Sea to Summit Flame sleeping bag and was never cold at night. It did cost double what M1's Alpkit sleeping bag cost, so it should have been good! And happily, it was :-)

What Didn't Work or Disappointed?

The Aikove 30000mAh Power Bank pack

Something weird happened with M1's power bank on Day 2. On retrieving it from a pannier as we were setting up camp, it was a shock to see that it had kind of swollen and the case started to separate along a join! There had been no impact to it and it had just sat safely in the pannier, cushioned by soft items whilst we'd cycled that day. It wasn't a hot day. It wasn't even particularly warm. 

It's likely that one of the cells in the bank had degraded, causing the battery to swell. This in turn had forced the case to start to split.

Your power bank is an essential piece of equipment, allowing you to keep your phone, GPS device and other essentials running for days. This one did continue to work, but its capacity had apparently reduced. It got us through the trip but it will now be safely disposed of and replaced.

The Endura FS260 Pro Adrenaline Race Cape

M1's lightweight jacket by Endura is described by Endura with the words "Light-weight, compact, waterproof and breathable ExoShell20ST™ fabric offers a breathability of 20,000 gm/m2/24hrs". Sad to say, it was a huge disappointment both in terms of being waterproof, which it simply is not and breathable. Which it simply is not. 

As an extra barrier to the chill of the wind, it was great. But within 30 minutes of wearing it, M1 would be wet from his own sweat. And in the rain, it was next to useless.

Worse (perhaps), it fell apart as well. It was not brand new at the start of this trip but it hadn't been worn very often, so it was as good as. But the sleeves started to fray and then split. And it's a relatively large size so getting hands in and out of the sleeve does not put them under undue stress. It's all a bit flimsy, unfortunately. Sorry, Endura but my next cycling jacket will be made by someone else. 

Frame Bag

M1 carries his smartphone in a plastic frame bag which has a smartphone compartment with a transparent cover. This lets you see the screen for navigation purposes but keeps the phone dry. Usually.

The main issue experienced was that the zip broke. This led to M1 swapping with M2, whose identical bag was just about still OK. But it was also very difficult to use the phone in the bag when it rained. Quite possibly all bags of this design suffer in the same way in the wet. 

Water splashing onto the plastic cover would confuse the phone under it, leaving it convinced a human had used a finger to touch the screen. Whatever app was running at the time would, of course, react. All very entertaining. Or do I mean frustrating?! Yes, the latter. You try navigating in the pouring rain when your mapping app keeps changing the zoom level at random!

Water also, definitely got inside the bag and onto the phone. Luckily the phone itself is waterproof (to a degree) and wasn't damaged. The bag is of course advertised as waterproof. It really isn't.

Despite the problems in the wet, M1 will be replacing his failed bag with something that has a similar design. Mostly, it works really well. Maybe something a bit better protected from water ingress is out there, waiting to be bought.

That's it!

Bikepacking 2023 - Cranbrook to Banstead

Day #

43

State of Legs

:-)

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	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	51.1 miles	km	3383 feet	metres	0
Trip Totals	1494.8 miles	km	53629 feet	metres	0

Today's Route

Route So Far

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Travelogue

Our final day on this 2023 European Bikepacking Adventure (tm) has finally arrived.

We were up quite early this morning and on the road by about 7:30. We knew that today would be relatively physical and we might have the added issue of rush hour traffic to contend with as we passed through Royal Tunbridge Wells, so it seemed prudent to get an early start.

Much of the first part of our route followed National Cycle Network Route 18. This was great as it kept us on fairly low traffic country roads.

At around the halfway mark, we entered the town of Edenbridge in Kent and headed straight for the bakery we'd stopped at on day #1 of this crazy trip. We had coffees of course but no PaC or PaR and most sad of all, no totally amazing Almond Squares (for which a pastry code has yet to be assigned). Instead, M1 had a Bakewell tart and M2 had a chocolate muffin.

We followed a different route home than the one we'd taken on day #1. Today's route was suggested by the cycle.travel web site and we thought we'd give it a try, if only for the variety. It was very pleasant and included some nice woodland, but may have been a little hillier than the day #1 route which it converged with at about 10 miles from home. 

Our legs held out remarkably well. Just before Farthings Down, there's a short section of road that is easily the steepest climb of the whole of our trip, with the one exception of the 22% hill on the way to Luxembourg City that we'd had to push our bikes up. It's about 18% at its steepest, on a sharp bend. Happily it's not that steep for long, but it's tough nevertheless. M1 has cycled up it many times on his road bike and once before on The Mule. It was uncertain how M2 would handle the gradient but there was no need for any such uncertainty because M2 was an absolute KOTM hero and nailed it without any apparent problem at all!

In fact remarkably, today was the day with the greatest total ascent of the whole trip!

With the tough climb behind us, we cycled onwards to Farthing Downs, one of our favourite places and only 6 miles from home.

On arrival in our little village of Banstead, we stopped to pick up provisions, as we had pretty much every other day on this trip. But this time, we were not shopping in Proxi or LIDL or ALDI or Match or Intermarche. No, we were shopping in good old Marks and Spencer!

And that's it. We're home! This has been one heck of a trip and hopefully not the last of its kind. For now though, it's time for showers, clean clothes and lots and lots of sitting on the sofa!

The End

Bikepacking 2023 - Calais (France) to Cranbrook (England)

Day #

42

State of Legs

:-)

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	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	51.5 miles	km	1771 feet	metres	0
Trip Totals	1443.7 miles	km	50246 feet	metres	0

Today's Route

Route So Far

---

Travelogue

We're back in England but not yet home. If all goes to plan, that will be where we are tomorrow afternoon.

Our day started in Calais, of course. We were due to sail to England on the 10:30 ferry and so aimed to get to the port by 09:00. The port was only a few miles from the apartment, so that allowed us to get up at a civilised time, have some breakfast, finish packing our bags and head off.

But for one small detail.

The apartment was on the second floor and as the photos from yesterday showed, that's where our bikes were. And they did not get there by magic or into any of the other apartments rented on this trip. Regardless of how many floors up an apartment is, if the bikes are to join us rather than be left in the street then M1 has to carry first one bike up the stairs, then go back down to street level and carry the second bike up. And then, go back down to street level and carry a set of bags up whilst M2, who has been on guard duty all this time, carries her own bags. And of course on checking out of an apartment, the process has to be executed in reverse. So by about 08:30, M1 was truly awake and shall we say, "warmed up"!

Anyway.... we set off and followed the signs to the Calais Car Ferry Port and had no problem finding where we were supposed to be. There were quite long queues to the check-in booths and at both the French and British passport control booths but patience is a virtue and we were soon through and in line to board our ferry when the time came.

 And when the time did come, we were happy to be summoned to the very front of the queue by a port official and told to cycle up the ramp and board the ship first! M2 was amused because she knew that some of the car drivers had paid extra for "priority boarding" and all we'd done was to show up on a bike! There is this thing called karma though.....

Because when we arrived at Dover, 100 minutes or so later, the reverse happened. We were following the cars out of the ship and expecting to head down the ramp onto the dock when we were instructed to wait to one side. And you guessed it, every other vehicle was allowed to disembark before we were permitted to cycle down the ramp and off the ship. Doh! :-)

We managed to find our way out of the port (you just follow a painted red line) and set about cycling across Dover, heading west. There are cycle lanes in some parts of Dover but not in others. And part of the footpath was completely closed. In short, Dover isn't the worst city to cycle in but it's far from the best. And they drive on the left! 

From Dover, we retraced our route from 41 days ago, cycling along a path that takes you up onto and along the cliffs to Folkestone. Most of the day's ascent was probably clocked up in this section.

On the outskirts of Folkestone, there's a pub we vaguely know. And today, England were playing in the Women's World Cup Final! We knew we'd missed the first half but hoped to watch at least some of this historic match. We went into the pub and sure enough, the match was showing on a TV. 76 minutes had already elapsed and sadly, the score was 1-0 to Spain. And that's how the score stayed. England were fantastic to watch but it just wasn't to be their day.

Cycling through Folkestone itself was a bit of a nightmare. There was an airshow on, with world war 2 aircraft like Spitfires flying along the coast. This had attracted hundreds and hundreds of people and their cars which made cycling hazardous and stressful, to say the least. Obviously, nobody was watching where they were walking, with Spitfires and Lancaster Bombers flying past!

 We cycled into Hythe and then started to head away from the coast, following National Cycle Network Route 2, mostly parallel with the Royal Military Canal. The cycling was good, on a gravel path.

We had to wait a while as some enormous agricultural machines reversed into an arable field. Presumably it's harvest time. We didn't mind. It was wait or be squished!

Our route took us next on to NCN 18.

We stopped in Cranbrook to buy more food than we really needed and then headed to the campsite. It's a low impact campsite with solar powered showers.

 That's it. Tomorrow we have a moderately tough final day ahead of us. But then we'll be home :-)