Book Purchase... Touring Ideas / Questions

[Qube77]

I have just been out in my lunch hour and purchased "The Long Way Round"

I am looking forward to starting it on the train home later. I am hoping that it will give me some inspiration for a summer tour next year. Not that my tour will be on this kind of scale. Most likely will be just around France.

One of the problems I am looking at is that I dont really like camping. It is not the sleeping in a tent that puts me off it is the rigmarole of putting it together and taking it all back down again etc. Which on the plus side would mean carrying less gear with me but on the down side would mean more cash to stay in B&Bs etc.

By not camping am I missing the point of touring? Is that meant to be part of it?
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Current Bike - Bandit 650s
Next Bike - ????

[Itchy]

Camping saves money = money = time + petrol & food = distance

As said the alternative is Formule1 hotels which I patronised through my trip , they are ok problem is they tie you to the beaten track and fill up quickly about 35 Euro inc breakfast next year probably be 38Euro a night. For 10 nights thats and easy £250 , compared to say 4-8 Euro camping costs per night.

Also the problem of hotel running, Reims hotel was full (read my touring post) next day put me into gun run mode , ie MUST finish by 4pm to get a hotel room, and thus I didn't stop much , some days I only stopped for petrol. And it caused very high cruising speeds just to make the distance and of course the associated risks of such activities , N74 is good for 80-90 all the way I was easy 115mph all the way.

The alternative is a snap tent, Millets sell them for £55 , they have a wide inside them, you take it out of its bag and throw it and it should unfurl as it hits the ground, problem is though how to put it back into its wrapper.

Problem with camping though I reckon is that you are far away from nightlife, ones on the N85 are in the middle of nowhere, while staying in Castellane hotels is like 40-60 Euro and you can get as pissed as you want without worrying about having to go back to your tent, I also sometimes worry about security of tents though myself (though I'm going to bring a tent anyway).
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[EuropeanNC30R...]

I prefer a bit of both, tenting and hotelling. When you get used to it tents don't take much time to put up and take down.

Hotelling is better for going into town drinking etc, you could always ride into town from the camp but it's a bit iffy riding back, even if it is deserted... if you're touring in a group you could always have some sort of 'designated rider' thing where some stay under the drink limit and pillion the others, but it's all a compromise I guess.

[Shay HTFC]

Trust me... after reading that book you will want to tour the world 6x round!

I've tented around Europe for a month using the railways to get around and its just awesome to not be tied down to room bookings etc, but as has been said, you find yourself out of the city centres.

Mix and match. Especially if you go with a friend or whatnot, stay some nights in a campsite by a river in the middle of nowhere, cooking on your stove and swimming naked in the water etc, but the other nights stay in a hostel in the centre of a great city to get the benefits of the nightlife.

I would recommend bringing a tent if you ever go touring as it at least gives you the choice. You see a great spot, and you have the means to stay there.

[Qube77]

Just had a quick search and found this tent --> Clicky <--

Looks like ti would do the job, only problem I can see with it is fitting it on the bike as it looks rather large when packed away.

I will keep looking and might be able to find something more suitable.
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Current Bike - Bandit 650s
Next Bike - ????

[feef]

[G]

Korn had a pop-up tent on the back of his XR which managed three hours of trail riding at night – however his was a normal shape, rather than one that collapsed into a disc.

Remember there’s always Youth Hostels, as well as guest houses, B&B style places and the like; just need to have some vague idea of where you’re going to be and note down their details beforehand.

If you want some really inspirational stuff (from my point of view), have a look at advrider:
https://www.advrider.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2
Where you’ll find plenty of accounts of people that have done it without all the backing, etc.

[colin1]

putting up a tent isnt that hard once you get used to it
just practice a bit before you go touring
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[sagalout]

I havent tried the Gelert one man, but I do go camping with the kids a fair bit and our Gelert family tent has been superb. Had it for 4 seasons now and its as good as new. No rips, no broken zips etc, and its never let any water in.

I'd say it depends where you are going and what your budget is. For the Scotland trip I just went on we stayed in Bed and Breakfasts. 2 of us sharing a twin room cost about £20 each and you get a good breakfast to set you up. As I say I dont mind camping but the weather looked dodgy (turned out to be great) and we wanted to be within easy distance of the pubs etc. Plus we had no planning time as we made the decision to go with only a few hours to spare and I always like a bit more time to make sure I've got everything with a tent! We literally decided monday afternoon we were going on tuesday, spent half an hour plotting a route, chucked some civvies and a camera into the panniers and set off early next morning.The only downside to B&B's if you havent booked is you want to be finishing your ride by the time it gets dark to allow yourself time to find somewhere. In Scotland theres absolutely loads and loads of them - you really cant fail to find one, but even in October its amazing how many had no vacancies.

For a longer trip I'd do a mix of camping and B&B/Hotel.

[phil2alp]

As G said hostels can be very useful. I stayed in a lot of hostels when I was in Europe as they are cheaper than B&B's and my missus didn't fancy camping. Also I didn't really have room for tent, bed roll etc on the bike two up.

Have a look at - https://www.yha.org.uk/yha-overseas/hostelling_international/index.aspx.

The problem with hostels is that they can get full very quickly in popular places. I stayed in the International Youth Hostel in Barcelona for 3 nights and every night there were people sleeping on the grass on the grounds outside the hostel who were waiting for beds to become available in the hostel.



I didn't miss taking a tent.

[Weedy]

[Nb]