The 1st Torino-Nice Rally, anyone?

[Ben98]

I'm not taking part, but would be fascinated if people were to put up pictures of the bikes they'll be riding, seems there may be some serious variation.

[gairym]

Here's my ride:



On-one 'Lurcher', 3x11 (oldskool!), whacky alt bars (new and pretty much convinced by them) and now with 40mm 'gravel' tyres on (not pictured).

I'm hoping to get away with just bar and seat luggage so the frame triangle is free to take bottles (it's all weather dependent).

Then again maybe I'll take the fatbike

[rufus748]

Gairy, which 40mm tyres are you running?

[Bearbonesnorm]

Am I the only person thinking I'd like something a little wider than 40c? For a touch more comfort / puncture protection perhaps?

[rufus748]

Nope, I limited by my frame. Maybe 45 at a push.

[cyclingtiger]

Not at all. Not sure about the puncture protection but certainly the comfort.

This is more or less the bicycle that Mrs Tiger and I will be riding following the bicycle test we did at the weekend.


I need to get one of those bottle cages that drop down the frame so I can get a bottle under frame bag. Any suggestions?

[gairym]

Gairy, which 40mm tyres are you running?

I've got a pair of Clement X’Plor MSO tyres on there and.....

Am I the only person thinking I'd like something a little wider than 40c? For a touch more comfort / puncture protection perhaps?

....no, I'm unconvinced that they're the best choice. I might well swap back to the Crossmarks in the photo. At 2.1" they're still pretty fast rolling and definitely reduce the sting more.

[Yorlin]

I need to get one of those bottle cages that drop down the frame so I can get a bottle under frame bag. Any suggestions?

Recent-ish topic with various options..
http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB ... f=7&t=7333

[Chew]

The beauty of the route is that whatever you choose it'll be wrong at some point. Depends on when/how long you want that to be.

James recons theres only a few sections where things will be rough

Im running some 40c Clement X’Plor MSO and quite like them.
Fast on the paved and plenty of grip offroad.

On my flow rims (35mm) they've come up slightly bigger at 42c. Once the bike is loaded up they feel better, and then its just a case of playing around with pressures.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Perhaps I should decide what bike I'm riding before I start thinking too much about tyres

Im running some 40c Clement X’Plor MSO and quite like them.
Fast on the paved and plenty of grip offroad.

Have you got them set-up tubeless Chew?

[Chew]

Not yet.

I had a go but couldnt get them to seal on the rim so just put some tubes in. They've been sat a few weeks like that so i'm going to have another go at the weekend now they have sealed.


Your question is can you de-gear the Arkrose enough to cope with the climbing and altitude or just put some fast tyres on the Inbred?

[rufus748]

My choice is between my rooster or road/commute/gravel bike.
The rooster is15 heavier so it's really a no-brainer given the recent TT experience.
I'm looking to change the rear cassette to an 11-40 possibly using a goatlink (or road equivalent) if needed.

[DickieH]

I'm also signed up for this so time to pop in and say hello and in particular many thanks to James for organising this amazing looking ride.

FWIW bike wise I suppose I could have stuck gears on my 29er Inbred but will be riding my flat bar London Road with Nano Race 40s tubeless and 1x10 38T-11/40. I'm in a small group all similarly equipped.

Riding to Gatwick for the early Monday BA flight. I've a whole 2 week pass somehow so hope to spend a few days on the beach, night Intercite train to Paris (20Euro! but you need to dismantle bike) then riding from there to Dieppe (I live near to Newhaven).

[SixPotBelly]

all similarly equipped

Wash your mouth out you flat-barred wrong'un!



DickieH's London Road, JustinF's Arkose 4, Steve (not on here)'s Genesis and my Arkose 2 on a dry (wet) run along the Ridgeway and back earlier this year. I've since learnt how to pack a bike a bit better, but still need a healthy dose of that TLS...

[JustinF]

oh bugger, thirded on patch availability, totally forgot to paypal.

[gairym]

Just been wading through the GPS files, trying to make sense of the route options, shortcuts, towns, campsites etc... in order to try and get my head around what is likely to happen to me after I set off (this is the most I've ever actually looked into a route I'm about to ride).

I've edited and merged the files into two (big) tracks. One with every easy/short option and one of the whole thing.

The short one comes in a 607km (no height data coming through, I'm working on it) and the long one weighs in at 722km.

Does anyone know why the height data is getting lost when I convert the route files to tracks (it's there for the 5th section which came through as a track from the start)???

I'm now going to overlay the google map info that's been supplied (via the link earlier in this thread), see what there is where, and then split the long version into 'days' so that I can have a sort of yardstick by which to gauge my progress on each day (ahead or waaay behind schedule etc...) so that I can adjust which route I take at each intersection.

I can't decide if I'm finally using some small measure of common sense by actually planning this or if I'm just deluded in thinking that anything I plan will come to pass in reality.

[DickieH]

gairy, just tested one and the route file loaded onto Bikehike, shows elevation, saves as a track, and yes the elev is still there when I load the new track back into Bikehike.

[cyclingtiger]

I'm generally in favour of having a plan. It doesn't have to be a particularly big or detailed plan but one that reflects what you're trying to acheive. Saves that annoying sort of situation where you end up in the middle of nowhere and the middle of the night with no food and you're really hungry or, worse, way out of reach of your flights home without spending the sort of money you'll regret for a long time afterwards.

[rufus748]

Gairy, when you've finished our wine tasting/beer tasting route can I have a copy please??

My only plan is to get down off the hills at night (I had a quick look at the routes you sent me and each individual one seemed to do that after about 100k)

I would like to plan food stops this time (I lost too much weight on the TT !!!)

[gairym]

gairy, just tested one and the route file loaded onto Bikehike, shows elevation, saves as a track, and yes the elev is still there when I load the new track back into Bikehike.

Good stuff, I figured out that if I converted the tracks I'd created (after I split the big track into pieces) back into routes then the height info reappeared (weird!).

I'm generally in favour of having a plan. It doesn't have to be a particularly big or detailed plan but one that reflects what you're trying to acheive. Saves that annoying sort of situation where you end up in the middle of nowhere and the middle of the night with no food and you're really hungry or, worse, way out of reach of your flights home without spending the sort of money you'll regret for a long time afterwards.

I'm usually the opposite. At the start of the 2015 Tuscany Trail all I had a mobile phone resolution screen grab of the entire profile (as well as the line to follow on my GPS) and so I was pleasantly surprised every time I encountered civilisation.

Gairy, when you've finished our wine tasting/beer tasting route can I have a copy please??

My only plan is to get down off the hills at night (I had a quick look at the routes you sent me and each individual one seemed to do that after about 100k)

I would like to plan food stops this time (I lost too much weight on the TT !!!)

For sure. I've now split it into 7 'days' and each one ends either near a shop (to gather supplies before finding a bivi spot), a campsite or refuge (for a meal and in all likelihood to ask/beg for a bed).

I'll send 'em on over but keep in mind that I'm mighty far from being an expert at these things and so it's entirely likely that I've done it wrong, messed it up and probably made the whole thing twice as long, hard and miss all the facilities!!!

[Chew]

Planning?!?

Very little apart from how to get to Turin. After that it'll just be wing it

Have a read through the cues as they're very useful and easily give you an indication of where the next bit of civilisation is. Like Andy says there's something roughly at every 100k to aim for.

Expecting it to be a very different trip to Tuscany.


One thing I would mention is the original route files are very detailed.
Most people will need to convert them over to gpx files and then condense them down to 1000 points per track. My Dakota doesn't like them any bigger and you don't loose any of the detail. Also for those looking for base mapping, the Italy Wonderkarte version covers all of the route.

[Scattamah]

I'm winging it with Openfietsmap Lite maps. They seem to have enough detail to show water sources, pharmacies, bakeries, bars, supermarkets, hotels and more. Just how up to date it is...that's anyones guess.

Greetz

S.

[rufus748]

Not a great lover of a plan either, part of the fun of the TT was not knowing what was around the corner.
Just followed the line which was nice.
I did learn I need food though, lots of food !!

[gairym]

Also for those looking for base mapping, the Italy Wonderkarte version covers all of the route.

What are these?

I've got the basic openmtbmaps maps but I don't know how to have two countries on one device at the same time???

[Chew]

What are these?

These bad boys
http://www.wanderreitkarte.de/garmin_de.php


(Taylor found them for Tuscany)