August 17, 2013
Day 15. Epilogue: A quick visit to Saumur, final thoughts and future plans
Little growing family.
Stopover with the car from Rilly to Saumur on the way home to say hello to my daughter and her little growing family.
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The weather.
Gorgeous, only one day with sparse rain. Temperature ranging from 15°C to 36°C (one day).
The people encountered.
It is easier to talk with people when you are alone rather than with a group. The trike is a curiosity and ease meeting people. All the cyclists encountered are happy to bike and it is always a pleasure to share feelings together.
The towns.
Blois, Orléans, Sully sur Loire, Gien, Nevers
Crossing Blois: recorded track from my GPS
Crossing Orléans from Olivet camping to Pont de l'Europe, recorded track from my GPS
The villages.
I always go shopping in small village. make people talk about the local surrounding or carefully listen to what they want to tell me on any subject of their choice. In big cities people have no time to speak to you and you always have to be careful and scan around you for weirdos.
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The rivers.
Loiret at Orléans
Loire everywhere
Cher at Chenonceaux
Allier at Apremont sur Allier
Cosson at ?
Beuvron at Candé sur Beuvron
Amasse at Vallières les Grandes
The camping places.
Rilly sur Loire camping to the farm ***
Muides sur Loire, camping municipal, ( managed and owned by the town) **
Saint Jean de Ruelle, camping municipal = don't go there if possible = 0
Saint Satur, private camping **
http://www.camping-cher-sancerre.com/camping/
Jargeau, camping municipal ***
Olivet, private camping ****
Direction to Olivet camping site from Orléans
Briare, private camping ***5 minutes (1.2km) from Briare center
http://www.campinglemartinet.fr
Loire à vélo road infrastructure.
It is perfect up to Nevers, signage is good, but sometime missing or hard to find in town as soon as you have to quit EV6. Since I am following my GPS, I have found once missing sign, with the pole left only, once sign pointed in the wrong direction.
Navigating with a GPS.
Using 3 sets of AA batteries. Never been using a map. Navigation with a GPS if you have carefully prepared the track is a pleasure in itself. Could be frustrating though when you are with other people, because the GPS shows you the track for sure and other people using their personal "feeling" are urging you to take another direction. Even though I knew it was the wrong direction advised by my companions I took it ! only to avoid tension between us !!! and progressively brought them to the right way, once every body is lost.
Scorpion trike behavior.
With the scorpion, you really have to balance your body inside the curve otherwise the trike tilts. This happen to me a third time in Orléan. My fault, I went to fast into a curb and finish my route on the safety poles and damage the left fender.
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Mehr Licht ! The Edelux is especially designed for use with gearless hub dynamos. It fits the Schmidt Original Nabendynamo (SON). The most important characteristic of the Edelux is the outstanding light wide illumination of the road.
The optical system with a mirror was developed by Bush and Müller.
The switching contact is placed inside the headlight base and it is controlled by a magnet in the black switching ring. the automatic sensor light is active when the nose of the switching ring points up to " S " sensor.
The light turns on automatically in beginning of darkness. When switched nose to left " O " position, the light is turned off permanently. In position " 1 " the light is switched on. After a short ride with the light switched on stand-light will be available. The stand-light capacitor is completely charged after riding continuously for 5 minutes. It will then provide stand-light which shuts down automatically after 4 minutes.
Excellent Rolhoff gear hub.
A pleasure to keep clean sprockets for 800 km, gently lubricated in oil. The gear ratio I have chosen was wonderful and I was able to climb slopes of 20% with the radical trailer loaded with 22kg of junks without any toil at the terrific velocity of 1 km/h.
Being able to shift gears on stopped position at the bottom of a steepy slope is a LUXURY
Gear number 7 (out of 14) is noisy as explained by Rolhoff. Thank you Bernard Rolhoff for your creation
Pedaling during kilometers at the same RPM with no effort is PURE PLEASURE, adding just a little thrust over a selected gear to keep on the ame spped or accelerating just a little bit is FANTASTIC.
Lost things inventory.
Rope to dry the cloths, left in Jargeau on day 11
Head flash light lost day 11 and retrieve at the bottom of pannier once home !
Lost kilos.
Only two, not enough, too much pastries, have you ever passed a bakery shop at 10:00 am in a little village ? It is almost impossible not to stop, specially when you start to be hungry. Applying the principles of velocio : eat before being hungry.
Spenditures
Average camping for 1 night, 1 tent one person = 8 Euros x 14 = 120 Euros
Breakfast = 1 baguette + 1 croissant or petit au chocolat = 3 Euros x 15 = 45 Euros
Groceries = fruits + yaourts + honey (1 kg) = ( 10 Euros x 6 ) + 8 euros = 68 Euros
Pizza = 10 Euros x 3 = 30 Euros
Restaurants twice = 20 Euros
Gifts = 50 Euros
Beers + coffees = 30 Euros
Commes to 313 Euros, i.e 21 Euros per day.
My trikers friends
Going to Nevers with friends and coming back alone.
Mario & Arlette left us in Briare " trike" back to Rilly sur Loire to get get by car to Pornc, their Atlantic home town. They had to face a car breakdown which stopped them in Saumur for 2 days; hotel paid by the insurance company and additional site seeing..
Jean Jacques and Babette carried on after Nevers targeting the river Loire source in Mont Gerbier des Joncs. I understand that they took a lot of roads with heavy car traffic. They each other catch severe strep throats and finally hunt for car renting in Roannes to go back to Angers. They only find a very small Peugeot car. Jean Jacques had to dismantle the 2 trikes in pieces to put them in the car.
See their bonus at the end !
Recipe for a flabbergasted trike tour in the garden of France
For an average of 56 km per day,
mixed :
Scorpion trike, Rolhoff gear hub, Garmin, camera, laptop,
stir well during winter time, specially during rainy days, spiced it with Crazyguyonabike and GPSIES software sauce as much as you can. served with sunny summer days sparkled with sun flowers, barley fields and enjoyed with good friends.
Next trip ...
Thinking of going from Nevers to the Loire river source : Mont Gerbier de Joncs elevation 1551m if there is a bike road leading there.
Thank you to Jeannette my wife .
Today's ride: 44 km (27 miles)
Total: 849 km (527 miles)
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