Humans have a fascination with fire and the male of the species seem to be particularly affected. We all know that women aren’t allowed within ten feet of a BBQ … well, not unless the men folk have gone off to hunt down more beer. Not that long ago, everyone had a fire in their […]
A dozen tyres roll onto tarmac and into civilisation. The sound of rubber on gravel ceases but almost instantly it’s replaced by far more irritating noises – beep, beep, brrrr, twing, beep, the sound of communication. Gloves are removed, finger tips skate effortlessly over screens and for ten minutes we stand in the rain only […]
Wood, why wood? In my opinion, the main appeal of using wood as a fuel, is its abundance. There’s lots of it just laid around the countryside waiting to be picked up and put to good use. Any other type of stove requires you to firstly spend money buying something to burn and secondly, you’ll […]
Dianna Ross wasn’t singing about the BB200 when she sang, ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no river deep enough, ain’t no valley wide enough … which is a shame, because it would have made a fitting theme tune to the 2015 BB200. 63 riders riders rolled out of Llanbrynmair community centre in back of […]
A few weeks ago I received a big cardboard box containing a pre-production 2016 Genesis Longitude 650b+. Today, I cleaned it and put it back in the box, ready for its journey home … but what’s happened between then and now? If you don’t already know (and if not, why not? I suggest you go […]
Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire is a lovely expression, a way of coaxing tired children upstairs and into bed. Sadly, the bikepacking equivalent of, ‘up the steep, wet, rocky track for three miles before lying down behind a wall’ doesn’t quite capture the same romance and actually sounds much more like the prelude to […]
Imagine the scene … it’s a bright, sunny morning. You emerge from the confines of your cosy tarp, pulling your shorts up while still trying to get your left shoe on properly. Your bike’s lying on its side a few feet away, you amble over, unclip a couple of straps, poke a hand inside your […]
Why should it be that what we ‘believe’ and what we actually ‘do’, appear at times, to be completely at odds with each other? Could it be that what we ‘know’ plays a major role in separating the two things and ultimately forces us to dwell in the ‘real world’, rather than a largely fictitious […]
The 2015 Genesis Longitude was a bit of a hit, in fact, it was so much of a surprise hit that demand outstripped supply and in just a few short months all the stocks of both complete bikes and framesets had been sold. Why did it prove to be so popular? I think there’s probably […]
When you’re trying to minimise what you carry in terms of either weight or pack-size, any items that are dual-use can make a real difference. Using the same pot you cook in, to eat or drink from isn’t anything new or revolutionary but surprisingly, it is something a lot of people don’t actually do. Being […]