Author Topic: No Frame Number on my eXp  (Read 4043 times)

martinf

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Re: No Frame Number on my eXp
« Reply #15 on: February 25, 2021, 11:27:04 am »
,MartinF, Thank you. Interesting on your opinion of load for touring (I usually camp).

Two medium-sized front panniers and the big rack bag might work OK for minimalist camping. The TSR frame and racks should cope well with the weight of a camping load, but there is less available volume than on a large-wheel tourer.

PH

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Re: No Frame Number on my eXp
« Reply #16 on: February 25, 2021, 10:55:01 pm »
As we've wandered off topic - I have an Airnimal Joey folder as a travel bike. I've done a few European coach tours with it over the last couple of years, a cheap way to get around if you can stand the hours on a coach, Derby>Santander for less than £40! If folds small enough for the boot of the the cheapest hire car, or to get unobtrusively taken into a hotel room... and it isn't just for pootling around on,  I used it for a fairly tough tour in the Spanish Picos and it didn't lose much to a full sized bike. But when it comes to train travel, there's little if any advantage, usually you can either get a bike on, or you can't, the exceptions to this are the size of a Brompton.

martinf

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Re: No Frame Number on my eXp
« Reply #17 on: February 26, 2021, 12:45:16 pm »
But when it comes to train travel, there's little if any advantage, usually you can either get a bike on, or you can't, the exceptions to this are the size of a Brompton.

Agree. Most of the time I can get a full-size bike on French trains. The TGV trains require removal of wheels and bagging, which is a faff. AFAIK the only possibility on Eurostar is a bagged folder. My Brompton was OK on this.

The advantage of something that packs as small as a Brompton is when the transport is crowded and it isn't possible to squeeze a full-size bike on, some examples of this :

- for commuting when the first train was cancelled and everyone took the second one. All the full size bikes were left behind.
- TGV in peak holiday season, where I removed the saddle and the QR left pedal to squeeze the Brompton into the space between a seat and the central partition.
- a ferry replacement when they had to use a smaller boat to replace the usual one that had mechanical problems. All bikes were banned, but I managed to take our two bagged Bromptons.

Before Covid I regularly took the Brompton on urban buses, always in a bag to avoid any awkward questions. I now also always use a bag for hotels, as I was once told off by the owner when I took an uncovered Brompton into a hotel room. But there has always been a solution in the hotels I have used when touring with a full size bike.