Touring Spain

By Barry Evans

We’ve been many times to Europe with our bikes, once every year or two years since 1986, just going on our own, taking either mountain bikes or hybrids (nothing fancy), assembling them at whatever airport we landed at and taking off, not worrying too much about routes until we got there.

Then the airlines started changing the rules a year or so ago, where you have to pay extra if the size of your container exceeds 62 inches (L+W+H), which is when we checked out the various folding bike options. We looked at Bike Friday, but ended up with the Mμ P8’s really because of cost (we got a GREAT deal from Thor cycles, nice guy to deal with too, because we bought two 2007 bikes in 2008.)

For this trip I adapted the original shipping boxes, cutting them down to the 62 inch limit, meaning I had to take the wheels off to fit them. But then there was enough room around the bikes for our lightweight camping gear, helmets, clothes, everything. So we arrived in Madrid with just these boxes. I assembled the bikes at the airport (took about an hour), and we were able to leave the boxes (for our return) at a budget hotel while we toured.

We spent three weeks touring Castillo and Leon, taking a couple of buses and one train when it got REALLY rainy − so easy with the folding bikes. The beauty of these bikes is that after a day, we forgot we were on small, 20-inch, bikes, so easy to ride, even with camping gear on the back. We camped about six nights out of 22 nights, budget hotels the rest of the time. (Meaning we didn’t have to worry about getting to a certain place every night, we could just stop and find a place by the road.)

I assumed when we got back home to Eureka, California, that we’d revert to our “regular” bikes (we cycle everywhere, try not to use a car) − but no, we are still, nearly a year later, using our Mμ P8s for everyday travel. Love them. Light, versatile, fun.

Barry writes a weekly science column (http://www.northcoastjournal.com/issues/columnists/barry-evans) and can be reached at barryevans9@yahoo.com. Louisa is a management consultant (http://www.louisarogers.com/) and can be reached at louisarogers7@yahoo.com.