Fixed gear bikes/ Post your big bikes V2

[hugh.]

Ohh if I were in Australia if probably be dead by now. I left my bike resting against a hedge a few days back and knocked a nest of spiders into my pannier. Had to dump everything out in the middle of the road to seperate the mess lol

[Scunny]

Did the first MTB Marathon of the year yesterday, the dude in front of me got blown off the hill and broke his neck. Grim.

[dude...]

yeah carn harden up princess

[Zoidberg]

first time my bikes been clean for longer than a day all year.

[Zoidberg]

In other news, if you want to see how bad the bbc are nowadays, 'inside harley street' was on bbc2 last night at 9 so you can see it on the iplayer.

Anyway, Sot, the bicycle courier they talk to, is on the same fleet as me. So that's my job. Plus, when Robski comes out of the lab when they're talking to Sot at one point, Robski is rocking one of my alley cat posters in his bag. Swag.

If you do watch it, 80 miles is a bit pfffffffffff. like the big man says it's not unusual but that's not erryday.

[hugh.]

Went to Marseille today. What a fucking mad place. People don't obey traffic laws, scooters driving on the footpaths and breaking lights. Would love to come back on a BMX or chopped flat bar road bike. Everyone's car is shit so you can clip them with your barends and no one cares.

Roads are shit though. That being said I gave the Surly a good trashing. Probably shouldn't have but I got lost in the moment a bit.

Ended up sleeping on the beach. Sweet

[hugh.]

Yeah I noticed. Had no troubles though. Fucked off to the outskirts for sleeping. In La Ciotat at the moment. Loads of fucking climbing today. Got 2 new tyres today as well. 26 x 2.0 schwalabe marathons. Should allow me to slay some single track as I see fit

[Sacrebleu]

Yeah I noticed. Had no troubles though. Fucked off to the outskirts for sleeping. In La Ciotat at the moment. Loads of fucking climbing today. Got 2 new tyres today as well. 26 x 2.0 schwalabe marathons. Should allow me to slay some single track as I see fit

Seems like a fun trip. How are you navigating? Im planning a long bike tour next Spring and GPS or not is the main bone of contention so far. Also, are you wild camping in France or finding one of the many campsites each night?

[hugh.]

I had a really bad road map that I used for a while but have recently been using an app called maps.me where you download the sections you need and can view them offline.

For the first while before I got to the coast I navigated using the sun and just figured aslong as I was going south I was good. You get pretty lost but it's all an adventure I guess.

Yeah wild camping nearly every night. I've slept in a few pretty crazy places. A graveyard, 2 different caves, under an old rowing boat. I have been using tinder recently but they're usually a bit hesitant to let you stay the night. Good for a shower though!

If I wanted to find a campsite i could every night. They're everywhere. They cost about €5 if you have your own tent. I stayed in one once but only cause it was pissing rain and I was miserable. €5 and I had a spot of land, electric hook up and washing facilities. Got invited into a caravan that was parked up by a french lad and his missus and given a home cooked dinner and was sent on my way in the morning with a pound of cured duck fillet. You meet the nicest people on a bike tour!

If you've anymore questions just ask! I'd love to answer them

[Danno]

Keep the posts coming hugh!

I knocked 6 1/2 minutes off my 30ish mile loop tonight, riding in the warm beats cold sunday starts hands down.

[_tom_]

Yeah my average speeds have gone up since the sun decided to come out, actually enjoying road biking again at the minute haha

[Sacrebleu]

I had a really bad road map that I used for a while but have recently been using an app called maps.me where you download the sections you need and can view them offline.

For the first while before I got to the coast I navigated using the sun and just figured aslong as I was going south I was good. You get pretty lost but it's all an adventure I guess.

Yeah wild camping nearly every night. I've slept in a few pretty crazy places. A graveyard, 2 different caves, under an old rowing boat. I have been using tinder recently but they're usually a bit hesitant to let you stay the night. Good for a shower though!

If I wanted to find a campsite i could every night. They're everywhere. They cost about €5 if you have your own tent. I stayed in one once but only cause it was pissing rain and I was miserable. €5 and I had a spot of land, electric hook up and washing facilities. Got invited into a caravan that was parked up by a french lad and his missus and given a home cooked dinner and was sent on my way in the morning with a pound of cured duck fillet. You meet the nicest people on a bike tour!

If you've anymore questions just ask! I'd love to answer them

Yeah keep the updates coming, sounds like youre having fun. Tried warmshowers.org? You may have better luck than Tinder! Ive been looking at using my phone of a small tablet instead to save weight etc. I can see how using maps and asking people can lead to more serendipitous discoveries, though. My initial plan is to cycle from nothern Spain, through France, the Alps, and head east through to Bulgaria.

[Dr. Steve Brule]

I deffo wanna do some touring next year, maaaaaaaan.

[Brooklynrider]

How do you touring dudes feel about the Surly ECR?

[hugh.]

That's like a touring version of the Krampus right? I'm all for it. I plan of getting either a Krampus/ECR or a Crosscheck with 29" 'monstercross' tyres on it when I get back home. Do some bike packing around ireland.

Today was a nice one. Went from Toulon to Sainte-Maxime. Was overcast so I'm not a panting ball of sweat at the end of the day. Some nice climbs up along the coast and even managed a quick swim. Sitting in McDonalds now having a coffee.

I eat like a freaking horse now though. Kept track of what I ate today and it's as follows:

1 large baguette
12 eggs
1 litre milk
2 avocados
1 large tomato
1 red pepper
1 onion
8 bananas
2 chicken breast
x2 130g cans tuna
4 coffees
6 33cl beers
200g chocolate
2 croissants
4 apples
200g peanut butter
Big bag of salted peanuts

Everything cooked and also avocados are drenched in olive oil


And I'll probably have half a kilo of pasta and a jar of sundried tomatoes before I go to bed. And still I wake up hungry lol.