Bicycle test holiday

The experience itself was special and I look back on it with satisfaction. A nice combination of effort and relaxation. I had already done a long walk before, but you still notice that you can cover considerable distances by bike. Landscapes change during the day and physical condition also increases rapidly, as it turned out.

Surprisingly, with the exception of one day, I had slept well every day and woke up ‘fit’ again. This meant there was no need to charge at a shelter or hostel in between.

Yet there are often times when cycling takes a bit of a turn, but if you have some experience with these types of companies, you know that this will happen. And that is also allowed.

And the saddle pain that I actually got quite early on during the trip certainly didn’t help. It took time to recover upon return.

What did make the big difference: the weather. Almost all sunshine, hardly any rain. It was hot, but I like that. Something to take into account

I was also satisfied with the equipment. Acepac has designed a nice and solid system and the combination of a harness and bags works excellently. The saddlebag was also quite stable, even in corners. But turning it on is actually impossible. Along the way I met someone with an Ortlieb system and he was not satisfied with it, although that can of course differ per bike. In any case, I had high expectations for it. For practical reasons, I had replaced the original bag with a Seatosummit dry bag (8L). That actually went fine, but the straps were far out. The original bag is a bit wider and provided you put enough stuff in it, you won’t have any problems with that. But my setup was designed this way because my handlebars were otherwise just too tight.

Moreover, I only had a handlebar and saddle bag on my bike. With the tent on the road that is not enough and although it was regularly advised against, I also took a 30L backpack with me. Actually intended for backpacking. The first two days felt a bit harder on my wrists, but in the end I thought it went fine.

The roads were very different and the journey was mainly in Germany. The types of roads varied, but where I cycled there was regular damage and that is not comfortable. By the way, I only cycled using navigation and not using the booklets, which can prevent this. This also allows you to avoid ending up on relatively many provincial roads. Because sometimes you cycle on roads without a cycle path and then there are cars with a speed difference.
I noticed that on these types of routes there are often forest paths that are parallel to these roads (and also present on the navigation). You can avoid this with a gravel bike or other bicycle that has this option.

The navigation was a great device by the way. The Wahoo Elemnt Roam took me all the way to Austria. It’s nice not to have to think about the route and to avoid having to turn around regularly. If you cycle a different route yourself, a new route will be created automatically. And in general, the type of bicycle is taken into account quite well and you can therefore adjust the extent to which you want to include unpaved roads in the route.

Then the return journey. Ultimately, it is of course great that you can return in one day by public transport. But it was not comfortable and relaxing. From ‘door-to-door’ (camping-Enschede) it took 16.5 hours and I’m not really happy with the flixbus (or is that not possible for this price?). About the trains in Germany, by the way. Neatly clean and places well organised. But with all those transfers and luggage it is inconvenient and a hassle. Something to prepare for and planning the next day as a rest day is recommended.