High on my list of most annoying technobabble is “forward planning” but I’ll justify its usage by posting an example of “backwards planning”. 

My son and I have just completed a three and half week bike ‘n train trip in Europe. We made up the itinerary on a day-by-day basis. 

I’ve not posted a journal because most of the travel was by train, but we did use our 16” wheeled folding bikes to extensively and intensively tour the cities we visited. So although the trip wasn’t really a cycle tour, it was a tour greatly enhanced by bicycles. The freedom the bikes gave us was significant.

With the clarity only hindsight can provide, I’ve sketched a mud map of our tour which may be of use or interest to others here on CycleBlaze. Especially those with folding bikes.

What a great way to go. And so nice you could do it with your son. 

The sketch and notes are pretty helpful.

Looks like you had a great time together.

I think you should publish this as a journal. Many tours (including some we've done) have had interludes of off the bike to do other types of tours (like safari in Africa, or trekking) so are part of the cycle journal. 

Thanks Kathleen. Yes we had a great time. We’d completed a real cycle tour together a few years ago in Taiwan (journal is here on CB), so we’ve had some practice on the cycling part. But this was our first experience with mixing folding bikes with the amazing European rail system. It was challenging at times, but well worth the effort. 

Thanks for the encouragement Rachel and Patrick. I did consider journalling as almost every day we cycled, albeit only 10-20 km per day. However the real foci of the trip were the rail system and city sightseeing. 

Although the little folding bikes gave us a lot of extra freedom and flexibility within the cities, the cycling was very much a minor part of the travel compared to rail travel. And we also walked a lot. Some days up to 25km. 

My mud map tries to capture the logistics part of the travel… especially the timing of what’s possible in 3-4 weeks. Our plan was fairly ad hoc, but this information might help others devise similar trips with more certainty than ours.

interesting post Graham!  We have been discussing the idea of picking up a couple small folders to do exactly what you did with your son for a different type of travel.   Perhaps even  taking folders on a cruise to explore the various ports.  Thanks for posting. 

Thanks for the interest Keith. There are many advantages in using small wheeled folding bikes for multi-modal travel. Especially the freedom and flexibility they provide.

Of course there are also a few disadvantages. For example, the set-up cost of the bikes and bags; getting used to a different way of touring, and selecting regions/cities which are most suited to this type of cycle touring. 

Over the past 15 years we seem to have accumulated quite a collection of new and second-hand folding bikes, beginning with my wife’s and my Bike Friday New World Tourists. 20” wheels and the best ride feel. We did an extensive train & bike tour of Japan with these in 2016. 

The 16” wheeled BF Tikits (or Bromptons or similar) are more suitable for the type of tour my son and I just did. They pack fast and compactly, and also good to ride. I prefer the BF over the Brompton for ride quality, but the Brompton folds smaller.

I’d also recommend the Carradice range of bike bags. Especially what they call their SQR system. It’s important to be able to unload the bikes quickly on railway platforms. A large saddle bag and a large front bag, which click on and off, facilitate this. Panniers and racks aren’t so good, as we discovered on our Japan trip. Especially if you are using trains frequently as we did.