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09-09-08, 02:11 AM
A few people have asked about our trip this year down the Danube cycle path. So in answering them I though it may be worth forwarding details around for those who may have an interest. This was a gentle kiddie trip, if you are interested in ripping it up on a mountain bike or breaking distance records on a road bike you may as well stop reading now. If you are looking for a simple bike based family holiday with the minimum of fuss and organisation then it may be for you.
We rode from Donaueschingen Germany (17-05-08) to Budapest in Hungary (07-06-08) via Austria & Slovakia . It proved to be great trip, for us of course it is nice to be back in the western world (we live / work in Kuwait) where things work. For others this may not be such a novelty but you are sure to still enjoy the depth of culture and the layers of history as this has been a main European arterial route for ever.
One small issue was, we bought the bike from Ben at ( http://www.kinetics.org.uk/ ) he is a really nice bloke but a bit floppy. He was supposed to put in S&S ( http://www.sandsmachine.com/ ) couplings for us which he did. And order a Chariot trailer ( http://www.chariotcarriers.com/ ) and order the low-rider racks from Hase both of which he forgot. This caused us a bit of a trauma until we got hold of trailer in Ulm I forget the name of the place but they were great. We rode the first three days with Lucy strapped to Rebecca in her poopose and all four panniers and baby bag pilled on the back rack not something you could do on a diamond frame, until we could pick up the trailer in Ulm. Lucy was four months old during the trip, she had a great time. The strategy was to peddle frantically for two hours at a time. This worked well. Even now ( she is 9 months) she gets excited when she sees her trailer. There were no major issues it is Europe after all.
We used a Hase Pino tandem ( http://www.hasebikes.com )
Positives
I cant say enough good things about this bike, it may look weird but functionally it is just great. Compared to a diamonds frame tandems (of which I have a lot of miles) it is more stable as the centre of gravity is lower, it is smaller, it handles better, it stops (disk brakes front and back) it carries more load lower down. You can chat to each other easily. You both get a view so can talk about what you are seeing. The stoker can map read with ease. You can start on the stand as it flicks out the way as you move. Stoker has a free wheel. We had S&S couplings added to the bike so it could be broken down and fits inside an ordinary single bike bag. I believe Hase next year will produce this as a factory option.
Negatives
The front wheel and front peddles can strike when cornering at low speeds. So stoker has to learn to stop peddling when parking/ manovering. Hard to ride really aggressively as pilot cannot easily get into a good prone position. Hard to mount water bottles, we will be putting bladders in the back of the seat in the future.
Trailer
Ended up using a Burley Solo. This did the job and the baby sling thing they supply works. Wheel size is silly ended up carrying three sizes of inner-tube (15” trailer, 20”front wheel 26”back wheel). Wanted a Chariot (20 inch wheels same a Pino front) which looks much better but dealer forgot to order it. Mountain co-op do rip of version which looks good and cheep ( http://www.mec.ca/Main/home.jsp )
Transport
We got to the start of the ride via rail ( http://www.bahn.de/p/view/index.shtml ) will book all, this is the German rail way but will book it across all countries. ICE (Inter City Express) will not take bikes. As ours fits in a bike bag not much bigger than a suit case this was not a problem, it just goes in the luggage rack. ICE trains have a family room which can be booked. This is worth occupying as, it is nice and private, there is a changing table, toys etc, it is RIGHT NEXT TO THE BAR, enough said. Ryan air fly to Frankfurt, well not the Frankfurt airport but one sort of close’ish
Maps etc.
We used three guide books from (http://www.esterbauer.com/). These make life very easy, each double page contains a strip map at 1:50,000 and text on the route. These tell you all you need to know, locating every coffee shop, camp sites, defining the quality of the surface you will be riding etc. Only down side is not all of them are in English. We had three in German one in English.
Accommodation
We camped most of the time, organised camp sites are not that frequent but enough to get bye. We did not wild camp until we got into Slovakia and Hungary. Through Germany and Austria there are signs at each village with a list of B&B’s so there is no need to camp if you don’t want to.
Route
90% of the route is tar-mac. It is manicured with road signs and 99% car free thought Austria and Germany. Slovakia has some areas of gravel but these are well graded and present no problems. Hungary has some long stretches of gravel and well it sort of peters out into scrub. Taking to the roads is then the only real alternative. The route is really popular with swarms of Euro families tootling along on sit up and beg five speed bikes, licking ice creams. This is not a hard core activity. I would suggest doing the route out of the main school holidays just so it is quiet. Although you are going down hill it is not something that you notice. There are no major hill on the route, just one or two little climbs where the valley is narrow. I had visions of a much more industrial atmosphere this is not the case there is very little urban ridding. The exception to this surprisingly is getting in and out of Vienna. The city centre may be magnificent the approach via the river bank in manky.
Any questions or reassurance needed for spouses mother in-laws or similar give me a shout.
Cheers
We rode from Donaueschingen Germany (17-05-08) to Budapest in Hungary (07-06-08) via Austria & Slovakia . It proved to be great trip, for us of course it is nice to be back in the western world (we live / work in Kuwait) where things work. For others this may not be such a novelty but you are sure to still enjoy the depth of culture and the layers of history as this has been a main European arterial route for ever.
One small issue was, we bought the bike from Ben at ( http://www.kinetics.org.uk/ ) he is a really nice bloke but a bit floppy. He was supposed to put in S&S ( http://www.sandsmachine.com/ ) couplings for us which he did. And order a Chariot trailer ( http://www.chariotcarriers.com/ ) and order the low-rider racks from Hase both of which he forgot. This caused us a bit of a trauma until we got hold of trailer in Ulm I forget the name of the place but they were great. We rode the first three days with Lucy strapped to Rebecca in her poopose and all four panniers and baby bag pilled on the back rack not something you could do on a diamond frame, until we could pick up the trailer in Ulm. Lucy was four months old during the trip, she had a great time. The strategy was to peddle frantically for two hours at a time. This worked well. Even now ( she is 9 months) she gets excited when she sees her trailer. There were no major issues it is Europe after all.
We used a Hase Pino tandem ( http://www.hasebikes.com )
Positives
I cant say enough good things about this bike, it may look weird but functionally it is just great. Compared to a diamonds frame tandems (of which I have a lot of miles) it is more stable as the centre of gravity is lower, it is smaller, it handles better, it stops (disk brakes front and back) it carries more load lower down. You can chat to each other easily. You both get a view so can talk about what you are seeing. The stoker can map read with ease. You can start on the stand as it flicks out the way as you move. Stoker has a free wheel. We had S&S couplings added to the bike so it could be broken down and fits inside an ordinary single bike bag. I believe Hase next year will produce this as a factory option.
Negatives
The front wheel and front peddles can strike when cornering at low speeds. So stoker has to learn to stop peddling when parking/ manovering. Hard to ride really aggressively as pilot cannot easily get into a good prone position. Hard to mount water bottles, we will be putting bladders in the back of the seat in the future.
Trailer
Ended up using a Burley Solo. This did the job and the baby sling thing they supply works. Wheel size is silly ended up carrying three sizes of inner-tube (15” trailer, 20”front wheel 26”back wheel). Wanted a Chariot (20 inch wheels same a Pino front) which looks much better but dealer forgot to order it. Mountain co-op do rip of version which looks good and cheep ( http://www.mec.ca/Main/home.jsp )
Transport
We got to the start of the ride via rail ( http://www.bahn.de/p/view/index.shtml ) will book all, this is the German rail way but will book it across all countries. ICE (Inter City Express) will not take bikes. As ours fits in a bike bag not much bigger than a suit case this was not a problem, it just goes in the luggage rack. ICE trains have a family room which can be booked. This is worth occupying as, it is nice and private, there is a changing table, toys etc, it is RIGHT NEXT TO THE BAR, enough said. Ryan air fly to Frankfurt, well not the Frankfurt airport but one sort of close’ish
Maps etc.
We used three guide books from (http://www.esterbauer.com/). These make life very easy, each double page contains a strip map at 1:50,000 and text on the route. These tell you all you need to know, locating every coffee shop, camp sites, defining the quality of the surface you will be riding etc. Only down side is not all of them are in English. We had three in German one in English.
Accommodation
We camped most of the time, organised camp sites are not that frequent but enough to get bye. We did not wild camp until we got into Slovakia and Hungary. Through Germany and Austria there are signs at each village with a list of B&B’s so there is no need to camp if you don’t want to.
Route
90% of the route is tar-mac. It is manicured with road signs and 99% car free thought Austria and Germany. Slovakia has some areas of gravel but these are well graded and present no problems. Hungary has some long stretches of gravel and well it sort of peters out into scrub. Taking to the roads is then the only real alternative. The route is really popular with swarms of Euro families tootling along on sit up and beg five speed bikes, licking ice creams. This is not a hard core activity. I would suggest doing the route out of the main school holidays just so it is quiet. Although you are going down hill it is not something that you notice. There are no major hill on the route, just one or two little climbs where the valley is narrow. I had visions of a much more industrial atmosphere this is not the case there is very little urban ridding. The exception to this surprisingly is getting in and out of Vienna. The city centre may be magnificent the approach via the river bank in manky.
Any questions or reassurance needed for spouses mother in-laws or similar give me a shout.
Cheers