Trevor Panther on Cycle Tour
Rotterdam - Hamburg -Berlin 2009
St Malo - Dordogne - Loire - St Malo 2008
(a wet and failed tour)
&
Nemours to Narbonne 2007
Index Of Pages
(and a bit about me)
Visitors
Under reconstruction
Last Updated :- 07 November 2009
The website contains an accounts of my :--
I actually thought that my tour to berlin in2009 would be my last tour but here i am making plans for next yestr!
I have already decided what I am going to do. it will be a much shorter tour in terms of what I call "travelling distance". Only about 800 kms but what I intend to do is stay longer in given camping site and then do more travelling without the full camping load! So I hope to book on Bike Express to Beaune and then cycle down the Saone and across the Canal du Centre to the Loire and then get picked up at Tours by Bike Express a month letter!
The idea is to make up for my failed tour of 2008 by covering the Loire by bicycle. Hopefully France will not be as wet as it was in 2008!
My planned route is already done but travel booking not yet available so no dates fixed! Have a look at the "Early Plans" page ( link above!)
2. Rotterdam to Berlin 2009 ( still under construction)
Home to Berlin. I have completed my tour to Berlin. I set off from home on Wednesday 27 May and arrived back home at about 1500 hours on 3 July. I didn't go as far as I wanted to but I did better than I hoped considering my overweight!
3. 2008. A tour around Western and Central France (including the Dordogne and the Loire)
2008 Central France. I took my velo by car to my sons home in Netheravon and then cycled to Portsmouth and ferried to St Malo on the evening of 1 May 2008. I started and finished ( eventually) in St Malo! It became a fairly disastrous as you will see when I write up the report! Very very wet and my left knee packed in! Report still not yet finshed!!!
2007 cycling tour from Nemours to Narbonne. From 2 June to 2 July 2007 It is nearly 1000 kms shorter than last years tour. .But I was very unfit when I started. When I got back home I was at the weight I should have been when I started!
2006 tour journal - The Rhein and Mosel tour. has now been deleted. I covered some 2353.4 kms from door to door
2005 tour journal, the Danube Tour has now been deleted
2004 Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela These photos and brief details have now been delete since my web site was full.
A few personal details
My name is Trevor Arthur Panther, born on 8 June 1937. Which makes me 72 years old now. I am a type 2 diabetic and have a heart murmur which gives me an occasional bit of pain but I am told by the Cardiac Consultant that I should last another 20 years without further medical procedures if I keep biking! I am heavily retired and wondering where all the years have disappeared to!
I try and cycle about 20 miles every day but it generally works out to about 100 miles per week. I am not a fanatical cyclist but use it as a means to an end. In the last 5 years I have covered some 22,000 miles but 2008 mileage was down to only 3300 miles. There are several reasons. A very wet year, a fairly disastrous 2008 tour and medical problems!
I had a traumatic experience in October/November 2008 when it was thought that I had a rare cancer in the bone of my upper right arm! As I went down the road of tests, seeing more expert surgeons each time, it seemed to be getting more certain that it would result in surgery to remove the "tumour" there. Then suddenly in late November 2008 after a difficult ( for the doctors, not for me -- I was asleep at the time) biopsy I was given the all clear! I went for a follow up check on 10 March 2009 when I I was told I can continue my normal life
I am now riding a Thorn Raven Tour with the Rohloff hub and am very happy with it. I have done over 8600 miles on it since buying it November 2006. I find it a very smooth and comfortable ride but I have got it geared down for heavily laden touring where it performed totally trouble free on my tours in 2007, 2008. and 2009
Other Links.
www.bike-express.co.uk is a very good means of transport to areas covering France, Northern Spain, the Northern Mediterranean Coast It is a good low cost way to take you to all sort of places on the continent. Sadly they have no longer any real route that gets you anywhere near Germany or Italy -- that is a real loss.
Doing a Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela? Visit the Confraternity of St James http://www.csj.org.uk for an immense amount of good information about a cycling pilgrimage.
Thorn Raven Tour.
It is a great touring bike and of the 3 recent bikes I have ridden it is by far the best. Fitted with the Rohloff 14 speed, my version is geared down for heavy touring load but there are obviously various options that can be chosen. It has performed faultlessly for nearly 3 years now and I am extremely happy with it. It is low maintenance -- especially on tour and I would not return to a Derailleur configuration ever again.
I also found SJS Cycles very helpful and a pleasure to deal with. I took the opportunity last year before leaving for France to have my velo checked over and a couple of things adjusted and renewed. \\\\\\\\\\\\\I shall do the same again this year at t the end of August
The only downside I find with it is the I expected the chain to have much less wear than with a derailleur but I have found that the stretch is so much that I put a new chain on it last year before leaving for France and I shall certainly do the same this year. I suspect that being subjected to fairly heavy loading has a detrimental effect!
I had had "butterfly" handlebars fitted from new ( although SJS Cycles didn't like the idea) and the configuration is comfortable riding normally with all controls to hand . The ability to move ones hands into different positions is a boon on a long days ride! I had Marathon+ tyres fitted from new and have been puncture free so far (I had a puncture in Petten camp site wheeling across the grass)
Here is a link to the Thorn Cycle site!
http://www.thorncycles.co.uk/raventour.html
You can contact me HERE at any time
