Trevor Panther on Cycle Tour
Plans Berlin - Hamburg - Rotterdam 2009
St Malo - Dordogne - Loire - St Malo 2008
(a wet and failed tour)
&
Nemours to Narbonne 2007
&
The Rhein/Mosel 2006
and
Photos only of
My 2005 Danube tour
&
2004 Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela
Index Of Pages
(and a bit about me)
Visitors
Last Updated :- 19 May 2009
The website contains an accounts of my :--
1. Home to Berlin ( and back?). I am now 1 week from my departure date from Hull to Rotterdam. I shall cycle to Hull on 27 May and then start the tour proper the next day on arrival at Rotterdam Eu7roport.Since this is much further North than my earlier trips I have delayed by nearly a month. Hopefully it might be a tad warmer by then -- and also perhaps Berlin 2009 will be just a bit less moist than France 2008
2. 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!!!
2008. A tour around Western and Central France (including the Dordogne and the Loire)
3. 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!
4. 2006 cycling tour- the Rhein and Mosel tour. From 20 May to 25 June 2006 cycling on the Rhein and Mosel and I covered some 2353.4 kms from door to door
The Rhein & Mosel 2006 My journal and Photos
5. 2005 tour journal, the Danube Tour has now been deleted and only the photos remain. Cycling the Donau Radweg -- it was intended to be a trip all the way to the Black Sea but I had a lot of trouble with my velo and turned about in Bratislava and cycled back to my start point again
6. 2004 Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is also deleted and has photos only. It was a most life changing experience . I cycled 2340.4 kms from my front door in South Yorkshire to the square in front of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. I still have vivid memories of that whole trip -- but I can never go back to repeat trips. But it will remain a huge influence on the rest of my life ( and not a religious one). However I have retained all the daily route maps and the route index of my cycle journey from St Malo down the west coast of France then to St Jean Pied de Port and across Northern Spain. If anyone would like a copy I can send it to them. It is also available via CTC if you ask for it.
Brief details and a few Photos of my 2004 Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela
A few personal details
My name is Trevor Arthur Panther, born on 8 June 1937. Which makes me 71 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 4 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 go for a follow up check on 10 March 2009 when I hope to be 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 2007. 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 and 2008.
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 over 2 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.
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 before setting off to Germany. 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
Here is a link to the Thorn Cycle site!
http://www.thorncycles.co.uk/raventour.html
You can contact me HERE at any time
