it's better than Tour Dad or Tour Captain...
Steptoe christened me ‘Tour Dad’ on the Moroccan Dashes. I was honoured.
it's better than Tour Dad or Tour Captain...
Good advice from Rasher, as always.
He is spot on with the average speeds, whether that be on D roads or on motorways. That being said, with a group of six or seven bikes, the averages will probably drop a bit further. You only need one of the bods to decide that (having waited for everyone else to fill up) he then needs to make use of the facilities and other 10 minutes will drift by. During this 10 minutes the other six or so bods in the party will then take their helmets and gloves off and settle down to bikermate banter. Two of them will also start to fiddle with things on their bikes. Matey will return from his call of nature and then start to chat to one of the blokes who is fiddling with is bike. Eventually, they will all give up on their bikermate banter, the two fiddlers will stop fiddling, everyone will put their helmets and gloves on and it will be time to leave. Except you won’t as one bod will have turned his sat nav off and will then spend the rest of the day panicking that he’ll get lost. So he’ll spend five minutes prodding at it. Then and only then can you depart.
One thing I did notice when running Wapping’s Wanders, the group of six or so bikes did get more efficient as the tour went one. By the last couple of days, they were like a well oiled machine…. Or at least most of them were.
I can’t think who you are referring to ………
Thank you for the full reply.
In no particular order.
Six bikes (and maybe more) is quite a big group. One fuel stop alone might, if you are not disciplined take half an hour. That, on French D roads is about 15 to 20 miles. Lunch stops, coffee stops, photograph stops, will all take a while, too.
If you boat docks at 11:30, I’d guess you’d be out of the ferry gates at around 12:15 and, by the time you have chatted at your rendezvous point, it may well be 12:30 which (conveniently or not) is time for lunch in France. Cherbourg is at the top of the Conentin peninsular. To be blunt, it’s quite a long way from nowhere really. To give you an idea, it is roughly three hours on the main roads to, say Laval. You say do not want to be finishing late in the afternoon. If you say you are on your way by 12:30, that would be 15:30. Add in 30 minutes for a tea break / fuel, will give a 16:00 time at the hotel. I’d maybe aim for somewhere around Laval.
Now comes the tough part. You, as so many do, want to avoid motorways. I’ll bet that with a group of six (or more) you’ll not be off, wheels rolling, much before 09:30 most mornings. Why you’d want to go cross country to Switzerland from Laval’ish, avoiding motorways, with your group of six plus riders of varying / unknown qualities is beyond me. But hey, it’s your holiday and your posse. It can be done, of course but you know you, better than we know you.
My suggestions would be:
1. You want war stuff. The ‘best’ war stuff is on the north Normandy coast, with all its D Day stuff / a bit on the Atlantic coast for the U-boat pens. You maybe don’t want to head to Laval if you want to do the Normandy coast but it can work. Look at a map and imagine where you want and need to go the next day and the day after that and the next day.
2. If you don’t want war stuff you could have quite a good holiday, down the western half side of France, right down to say, Bergerac; country roads all the way there and all the way back.
3. You might maybe suggest that your Swiss chums meet you in, say Clemont-Ferrand or Limoges (or anywhere along that axis) and have quite a good time there or there abouts.
Then back to Cherbourg, via different roads that you rode down on. In view of your departure time, I’d stay about two to two and half hours’ ride from the port and have a leisurely ride up on the day of departure. That side of France has plenty of the French ‘Tourist’ Bison routes, get the Michelin blue 726 map, which is designed specifically for holidays like yours.
Over to you.
Something like this would make a pretty good week away:
It does though show how big France is,
1. That is five individual (unevenly spaced, note) stops between leaving Cherbourg and returning to Cherbourg.
2. It avoids motorways and goat tracks.
3. It is 1,100 miles, give or take a yard or two.
You now do the maths on how many full days riding you have, not forgetting that your first and last days are only really half days; bods often forget this. Then work out how many miles / hours in the saddle you want to do. Consider if you want a day (or a full afternoon) off somewhere. What stops during the day you might want….. and do remember, when you are stopped, even for a pee break, you are not moving forwards, bods often forget this, too.
PS Now wonder how you were going to do Cherbourg > Switzerland > Germany > Cherbourg, avoiding motorways and taking time to see ‘stuff’, all whilst not doing too many miles a day and finishing in time for afternoon tea on the lawn….. and camping, into the bargain!
You have to fill up in line with the shortest bikes range - and you need to make sure EVERYONE fills up at same time, or else 25 miles after everyone else has fueled up some Muppet will pull alongside you pointing at his tank.
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Steptoe christened me ‘Tour Dad’ on the Moroccan Dashes. I was honoured.
why not stay in Cherbourg...? saves all that hassle of riding about too much, you can stop when ever you like and do simple day trips out...?
I can’t think who you are referring to ………
That was a shortened version.
On our last jaunt, a fuel stop for three bikes somehow took well over half an hour. I rode out of the fuel station’s immediate forecourt and sat on the Armco barrier to watch. It was like seeing a silent film of the extraordinary things going on. Happy days.
Did it surpass the empty biro incident, which resulted in a geyser of unleaded in the face or the great glove fiasco?
Had a "quick fuel stop" on one trip and a guy goes and orders some hot food not realising they cook it fresh, after a long wait for it to be cooked and almost eaten another guy decides he is a bit peckish and goes off for a fucking ice cream, as he is finishing the one smoker must have a pre-departure fag, by this time everyone else needs a piss, followed by gearing up and actually moving off, reckon it must of been a 1 hour fuel stop.
Herding cats is easier!
The things you miss though Wessie. Those little joys, without which no jaunt is complete.