one to five stars. Restaurant, bar etc and everything you would expect of a hotel. Includes the state-run chain of ‘Paradores’
HR Hoteles Residencia: as hoteles except no dining-room facilities, with the possible exception of breakfast
HS Hostales: good-value family-owned and run hotels usually with home cooking. Graded one to three stars. Most common in rural areas
HsR Hostal Residencia: as hostales except no meals, with the possible exception of breakfast
P Pensiónes: family-run guest houses. Common in rural areas
CH Casa de Huéspedes: similar to pensiónes. Not that common
F Fonda: rooms, often above a bar, can be excellent value, coupled with good home cooking. Becoming rare
The little-visited forested gorge of the Alto Tajo
Camping
There are some 1200 campsites dotted across the country offering another good-value accommodation option. Many are well equipped with their own bar/restaurant or even swimming pool, though grassy pitches may be hard to come by. However, camspites can be too far apart to make camping-only tours feasible, and some may close down out of season. Wild camping is illegal around built-up areas and forbidden by many landowners, so check before pitching. The difference in price between Hostales and campsites may not be that great, and for a little more money a decent night’s sleep in a bed and your own en suite shower at the end of a day in the saddle may be preferable.
Youth hostels
These are often run by the regional Youth and Sports Departments (Direcciones Generales de la Juventud y el Deporte) and can be very cheap. They tend to be concentrated in cities and tourist areas.
About the Bike
There are no hard-and-fast rules about which type of bike is best to tour on, unless you are following one of the Caminos de Santiago, in which case a mountain bike is recommended. Otherwise, they are best avoided. They are heavy, and the fat, knobbly tyres make for far harder work than road tyres. The routes described in this book are mostly on road, with some forest and mountain road sections. Consider using either a dedicated touring bike or a hybrid. A hybrid is a cross between a touring and a mountain bike. It has an upright sitting position, which is great for views but poor for aerodynamics. The routes in this book were ridden on a hybrid apart from those in the Serranía de Ronda and the Sierra de Grazalema. Except where noted in the text, either of the bikes will prove more than adequate.
Gears
Having the right gears is important for getting up those hills in a state to appreciate the challenge and enjoy the view. The right gears allow you to balance height gain and forward movement. The laws of mechanics have it that it takes the same amount of work to transport a bike and rider to the top of a given pass irrespective of gear ratio or forward speed. The length of the road is also irrelevant if there is no resistance from the road surface, wind or mechanical conversion. However, each human has a maximum sustainable work output and optimum pedalling rate or cadence. This is why we have gears.
A simple comparative measure of gears is to calculate how far each full rotation of the pedals moves the bike forward. This is known as ‘development’, and the development range indicates how suitable a bike is for terrain types and gradients. To calculate the development range, find out the diameter of your wheel in metres and the number of teeth on the largest and smallest cogs on the chainwheels and on the sprocket set.
Having got the gearing right it is important to use the gears properly. On a bike with 21 gears (three on the front chainwheel x seven on the rear sprocket) only 15 of those ratios should be used. Each chainwheel should only be used to access five of the seven rear sprockets otherwise the chain is flexing too much, resulting in excess wear and adding resistance to the system. The largest chainwheel is used with the five smallest sprockets, the middle chainwheel avoiding the largest and smallest, and the small chainwheel the five largest sprockets. The same principle applies more so to those with 24 and 27 gears.
Gearing ratios
Lower limit of development = pi x diameter of wheel x teeth on smallest chainwheel/teeth on largest sprocket
Upper limit of development = pi x diameter of wheel x teeth on largest chainwheel/teeth on smallest sprocket
For my bike
lower limit = 3.14 x 0.7m x 28/34 = 1.8m;
upper limit = 3.14 x 0.7m x 48/14 = 7.5m
(The chainwheel being the front set of cogs and the sprocket set the rear set of cogs.)
The development range is 1.8–7.5m. The upper limit is fine and is only used on the flat and downhill. The lower limit is important in the mountains. Spanish roads are mostly well graded and so most people, including occasional cyclists, can get away with a lower development of around 2.5m. If contemplating mountain and forest tracks think about a lower limit of around 1.8m as the tracks may be steeper and poor surfaces require lower gears. If the terrain is undulating or hilly a lower limit of 3.8m should suffice.
Maintenance
Your bike should be well maintained and physically sound. A well-maintained and correctly set-up bike is subject to less resistance and wear. A full service should be carried out prior to going. Cycle shops in rural Spain, although excellent, can be sparse.
Weight
Weight is important for several reasons. A loaded touring bike with rider would typically weigh around 100kg. Every extra kg increases the work required to get up a hill by 1%; conversely, a reduction of 1kg reduces the effort by 1%. In stop–start cycling the effort required to get moving depends on the mass of the body to be moved: the lower the mass the lower the effort. The rolling resistance of the tyres is dependent on the amount of tyre in contact with the road at any given time. This is dependent on the load divided by the tyre pressure; the smaller the load the smaller the rolling resistance. Therefore tyres should always be kept to the correct pressure. This is printed on the sidewall of the tyre.
Aisa (Route 7)
Lights – front and back
Although most cycling will be done during the day you may get caught out in the dark, and a number of the Vías Verdes have very dark tunnels with all-terrain floors. Make sure your lights work and replace existing batteries. Buying replacements in Spain will not be a problem. Position the lights so that when the bike is loaded they can be seen by passing traffic. (UK cyclists note that traffic will pass on your left.) At night cyclists must wear a reflective jacket that is visible at 150m.
Pannier rack and panniers
There is no need to carry more on your back than the clothes you wear. A loaded backpack can reduce cooling through perspiration, be uncomfortable, and raises the centre of gravity so decreasing stability. Put everything possible in the panniers. For most cycling a couple of rear panniers should suffice; if camping a handlebar bag can provide the extra space required. More kit can be strapped to the top of the pannier rack. If you need more volume think again. Lightweight aluminium racks are fairly cheap and sound. Front panniers tend to be smaller and while giving extra space (and weight) have the advantage of increasing stability by counterbalancing the rear
