Cycling in Burgundy

[tuffer]

Just booked a couple of weeks in Sept at a lovely cottage (its not a Gite!) near Saint-Léger-sous-la-Bussière, Macon. Really looking forward to it and we are going to take our bikes with us so we can have a good look around the area.

Now, serious question. Should we take our road bikes so that we can cover some serious miles and explore as much of the area as possible or take MTB's and just ride to the nearest vineyard and get pissed?

[yellowjack]

You are there for a couple of weeks?

The obvious answer is to take both the Road and the Mountain bikes, and do a bit of both

[richardxjr]

What YJ says, both. Looks near enough to Grenoble for a few daytrips' proper riding I'm taking both for 3 days' riding in the alps!

[il sole]

Just take the roadies. it's such a pleasure cycling in france and the roads are so quiet, there's no need to venture off them!

[Sortie 10]

Cycled through the edge of the Morvan & into Burgundy on my tourer a few years ago. IMHO a road bike perhaps with heavier duty tyres (in case you want to potter down some farm lanes or forest/vineyard roads) would suit you fine and give you the best of both worlds. There's some great cycling to be had for all levels in that part of the world. I cannot comment on the serious mountain bike side of things, but would suggest that you are better off heading 100 miles east to Franche Comte for this (the first world champs were held in Metabief in the nineties & the area is currently being enhanced)

[tuffer]

Not looking for serious MTB'ing, just wondering if we would be better off using our MTB's so that we can dress more casually and not turn up at a Vineyard looking like dorks in full Lycra

[il sole]

tuffer said:

Not looking for serious MTB'ing, just wondering if we would be better off using our MTB's so that we can dress more casually and not turn up at a Vineyard looking like dorks in full Lycra

You should find the french are more than happy to see lycra clad cyclists. Of course, it won't be easy pedalling off on your roadie with a couple of crates of wine :-) maybe the mtbs might be better - with trailers!!!!!!!!

[tuffer]

il sole said:

tuffer said:

Not looking for serious MTB'ing, just wondering if we would be better off using our MTB's so that we can dress more casually and not turn up at a Vineyard looking like dorks in full Lycra

You should find the french are more than happy to see lycra clad cyclists. Of course, it won't be easy pedalling off on your roadie with a couple of crates of wine :-) maybe the mtbs might be better - with trailers!!!!!!!!

Bike Recce followed by a full frontal attack in the X5 with seats folded.

[Mr Will]

What about option C: Take the SPDs off the MTBs and fit them to the roadies, then you can ride the in casual clothes and walkable shoes to the vineyard or clad up in lycra and head out for a proper ride depending what you fancy.