unterhausen

rhm gave me the idea of turning my trip to France into a C&V pilgrimage. Obviously, a trip to the Singer shop is required, but that can't be the only attraction in Paris, can it?

ThermionicScott 

I'm not going this time around, but I'm subscribing to this thread to see what comes of it!

brockd15 

I'm pre-registered and planning on being there.

SHBR

Be sure to wear a yellow vest!

unterhausen

The organizers were joking about that. They do require yellow vests, at least at night. A yellow vest is included in the registration fee. In fact, the reason there are so many yellow vests is that cyclists and pedestrians are required to have one and you are required to have one in your car.

rhm

As i understand it, you are required to have one for every passenger, which practically means one for every seat in the car. The things are ubiquitous. Car insurance agencies hand them out to their customers "for free."

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unterhausen

I have been lobbying rhm to go, but he says he's only going if he learns how to fly. I think his arms would get sore though.

This is going to be interesting, they have integrated the Concours de machines with PBP, and the bikes have to be ridden in PBP. I think they are going to be given 80h. Hahn Rossman is building a bike and is going to ride it. https://www.associationartisansducycle.com/cdm2019

Apparently the start is before the 90h start, so I should be able to see the bikes

The only rule that my bike is going to meet is I'm going to have a mount for a number plate. They give you a traditional racing number plate that has to stay on your bike.

ThermionicScott 

What a great idea! That loops all the way back around to the original idea of PBP and similar rides -- to see what people and their machines could do.

Chombi1 

During my last trip to the UK, I noticed that 99% of cyclists wore yellow vests, especially outside London.....
I guess they require such in Europe like helmets. You'll most likely never get most people here in the US to go along with such....

ThermionicScott 

Lots of assumptions there: that the UK represents "Europe", that "Europe" requires helmets and or yellow vests. I'm not sure any of those are true.

JaccoW

Nah, that's mostly a British thing to do, especially since UK drivers seem to be impatient idiots around bikes as well, just in a country with less space to manoeuvre than the US.

In mainland Europe it depends on the country but in most countries you won't see any cyclists wearing yellow or reflective clothing.

As for the helmets...

Chombi1 

I was very impressed though, how well the urban cyclists blended right in with the speed of very close traffic in the cities in UK. Much better "street skills" than what I see here in SF. And these were just "regular" commuters in office and school clothes, not pro messenger riders.

unterhausen

I think it's a great idea. They did have long races bitd, I thought the previous CdM was a little too contrived. This is a real challenge, and faking will be exposed

gugie 

Rudi, book a cruise ship.

Wouldn't that meet your requirements?

clasher

I was looking at taking the Queen Mary 2 over in 2015 when I was thinking of trying PBP, it was kind of expensive but it sounded neat to spend 5 days on a luxurious boat...

rhm

No. I'd take a cabin on a container ship if I knew how to book such a thing, though.

But whatever, this isn't the forum to discuss my unwillingness to fly. It would get political in no time, and Eric would have to close his own thread. Let's not go there.

gugie 

Booking a room on a container ship

A guy with two 1200km and one 1000km brevets in one year, I'd like to see him do PBP after a tramp steamer run across the Atlantic. Just for my entertainment, I'm selfish that way.

clasher

I thought about the container ship thing but it was actually pretty expensive and bare-bones. The Queen Mary 2 ocean liner trip was expensive (no more steerage class) but the ship has a library, gym, restaurants, pools and all kinds of other stuff to keep one busy for 5 days. The price for a solo traveller was around 5000 canadian for the round trip that leaves from NYC and it drops you off in England so you've got to ferry yourself over to France or take the chunnel train if that will still be a thing post-brexit IDK. I'd have to get myself to NYC too... my girlfriend gets sea-sick on cruises so she had no interest in doing it so the high price resigned me to flying but if I had extra money in the future I might consider doing it one-way just for the opulent experience. I also think it would probably save the jet-lag issues due to the 5 days at sea.

rhm

That link doesnt work on my phone, but I take your point. There is a lot of info on the web. Most of it is about cruises, and most of it is country specific, and most of that is non-US. Even so, I should be able to find something. My need is pretty specific, a ship from the port of New York (Elizabeth, NJ, etc) to any French port.

The opulence of a Cunard Line ship doesn't really interest me. On an actual freighter or container ship i read somewhere that the cost typically works out to about $100/day, so somewhere under $1000 for an Atlantic crossing.

Tramp steamer is not the way to go, I'd want a ship on a schedule. Even with a schedule, ships take wide detours to avoid storms, often waiting for a storm to move... so you can never be sure about when you'll arrive.

I'll look into it....

clasher

Yeah, the opulence on the QM2 seems kind of optional, apparently you can still eat at the buffet with jeans and a t-shirt on. Having a gym, pool and sauna on-board was mostly the kind of facilities I'd want to take part in... I don't think I'd fit in with the tuxedos-at-supper crowd It seems from a couple of blog entries that it might not be too "yuppie" for me if I avoid the fancy restaurants at night.

The one container ship site I saw quoted 110 euros a day average cost but also said the round-trip crossing was 4,000 euros so IDK how it really works out and they wanted all my info for a quote so I never pursued it beyond reading the FAQ, and it was only the first result from a search so hardly thoroughly researched. The crossings were longer since the ships seem to stop at multiple ports in NA before crossing and like you said they'll go around storms and whatnot. The QM2 takes 7 days since it was built to cross the Atlantic quickly and has a set schedule to meet.

gugie 

It would be quite an adventure! You'd want to bring a bike trainer, maybe just one of those little foldie models to keep your form up.

rhm

Oh, I hate to burst your bubble, but a week without exercise won't do me any harm. In a pinch I could climb stairs or something.

gugie 

No bubble burst, just amazed at your riding prowess!

unterhausen

It's okay to skip up to 2 weeks of training, just don't do it too often.

Someone on the iBob list mentioned French flea markets (Marché aux Puces). Wonder if they have any in August. Bringing a bike home isn't in the cards though