If you signed up for this years WRT, you should now be in possession of the all important grid references. Depending on your character, the next four weeks might be spent plotting, deliberating and re-plotting, honing your route until you know every tussock and potential locked gate … or if you have a cavalier attitude […]
Why would you want to run drop bars? asked the bemused bloke in the car park. My usual response in such situations is to fabricate some barely plausible and totally fictitious answer and see how long I can get away with it for … which probably goes some way to proving that there’s no such […]
Bikepacking is … walking into a sandwich shop and discovering that there’s no menu, it’s not that you can’t buy a sandwich, it’s just the opposite and you can buy absolutely any sandwich you want. Now imagine that having deliberated, you’ve finally made a choice, only to then be told “everything’s in the back, off […]
Tools of the trade … a series of posts looking at tools, gadgets and gizmos that might help get you home or keep you going. We’ll start with somewhere to keep them. While riding along the WHW, I noticed how the majority of the walkers I encountered appeared to be day walkers and although they […]
For every official, managed or sanctioned bothy in the UK, there’s probably at least three that aren’t. They’re bothies in the true sense of the word but not in the sense that you’ll find them and their locations conveniently listed on the internet … if you want to find these places, then I’m afraid you’re […]
If you’ve got a nice shiny frame (or even a battered old nail that you’re fond of) and have invested in a frame bag … then, before you mate them together, it’s worth taking steps to keep them apart. Some things you just can’t buy. The reality is that, you could tape your frame with […]
A sleeping bag is probably the most important piece of ‘bikepacking’ kit you’re likely to buy and aside from a bike can easily represent the biggest single outlay on gear you’ll make. With every item of kit you’re likely to buy, there’s usually a number of makes and models to choose from and it’s the […]
The Six Moon Designs Gatewood cape is one of those rare items that manages to fulfil two roles, In this case, it’s both shelter and waterproofs … actually, I’ve very little interest in the ‘cape’ aspect. I’m sure it’s great if you’re walking, it’s certainly big enough to keep you and your pack covered but […]
A little while ago, we had a ‘first look’ at the Cycle2Charge device, a stem cap mounted magic box that lets you charge phones, gps, etc from your dynamo … it’s now fitted and working. Fitting the thing. I’m glad to say, that there’s nothing particularly difficult about fitting the unit. The feed wire from the dynamo […]
In 1976 I had a dynamo fitted to my Raleigh Tomahawk, 39 years later I’ve got another one. My first dynamo was quite a different beast to the new one, efficiency wasn’t really its strong point. In fact it’s difficult to recall whether it generated any current at all or simply produced drag, that when […]