So few weeks ago my friend told me that he and 2 of his friends are planning trip to Slovenia. I was interested because I could get week off and ride with them.
Then I learned more about the trip, these guys didn’t know what are they doing- first they planned to go there and back in a week ~170 km / day (I told them that it isn’t possible), then they planned to take some trains along the route (they didn’t checked if they take bikes…). Then I just told them that they are doing it for the first time so don’t complicate it - start from home and see where you can go and adjust the route on the road.
So we started from Brno with plan to get to Břeclav, join EV13 and ride south to Hungary border and then go west to Graz.
At the start I saw for the first time all our bikes - my bike on which I have ~6000km, my friend with borrowed older mountain bike properly maintained, one pretty new mountain bike but small 26’ wheels (the guy is taller than me) without rack so he had backpack, short guy with 29’ new mountain bike and guy who “planned” this trip on really old road bike with flat bars (standard frame from 80’s that was made in all sorts of bikes).
They didn’t have some gear and reserve inner tubes… so first stop was local decathlon.
I planned the route for the first day so we had all possible terrain, good thing I did that because the old 80’s bike got bent back wheel, I was like ok fortunately I have tool for centering wheels on my multitool but unfortunately I never done it. I was able to get it to not touch the frame (yes it was that bad) but discovered that the bike was in worse shape than I anticipated - bent rear V brake, totally cooked drive train, bad wheels…
So for the second time we scratch route and wanted to go to Bratislava. We started the second day on Austrian side of EV 13 and we intended to take ferry half way to Slovakian side of Morava river. Unfortunately because high winds and higher levels of water ferry didn’t operate.
Scratched route again, we ended up on campsite in Petronell-Carnuntum. But before we get there we had to center the wheel again. At the time I was little bit pissed and I didn’t wanted to ride somewhere where isn’t train connection so he can get home if the bike falls apart. We agreed to go to Vienna and see where to go from there.
At the campsite there was French family with 4 kids bike touring. I chatted with them and they started in France 2 months ago and will probably end in Budapest.
On the third day everything was without a hiccup, we got to Vienna, pitched tents and got to look around there. The guy with 29’ mountain bike which was too big for him went home because of back pain (surprise!). And I snatched this pick of the camp area (it is bad but you can clearly see that nearly every tent has bike next to it).
Some of us wanted to go home early so from week trip it became 4 day trip. We get on EV 9 back to Břeclav.
I took some photos for eco minded people:
And some for the the petrol heads:
5 km before Břeclav I fell, I will be all right but I will have to find somewhere these condoms to repair my leavers.
All in all I would categorize this trip as a experience, not bad. I was able to test some gear, new bags that I bought because I have borrowed ones and my friend needed them back, that it is possible to use alcohol stove…
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What did the guy do to his wheel that it was got so bend?
And what do you know, a french family again. I almost wanted to ask when you first mentioned it, somehow most families on tour that i have met seem to be french.
What kind of alcohol stove did you use, like a diy beer can one? I am always a bit worried about spillage and fire, i also see people go way far away from theit tent to cook on their alcohol stove. I need a stove that i can use half awake from my tent to cook coffee in the morning :) But alcohol stove can save a lot of space on short trips. On long trips you’ll end up with liter bottles of alchohol though.
Better question is what he didn’t do, he didn’t do any maintenance on the bike and wheels weren’t touched ~20 years. These frames fit max 30mm tiers with little margin so it doesn’t take much warp to touch frame - few bumps with rear bags. I am surprised that it lasted whole 400 km.
I am using stove from my dad it is from 80’s, just what I had at hand. It is for alcohol and urotropin/hexamine tablets (commonly known here as solid alcohol tablets). It nicely fits in my “ešus” (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ešus&t=fpas&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.army-shop.cz%2Fimg_produkty%2Fnejvetsi%2Fesus-alb-hlinik-velka_1554611762.jpg) army surplus makes them dirt cheap. I want to modify it with some fireproof foam that will prevent spillage but it isn’t that bad.
Also I use drip on wax, and I clean my chain with cloth and alcohol so I already take some.
