After years of wanting to make it to the WRT I've finally entered. Gonna cost me dearly at work as that now makes me unavailable for every single weekend in May (and we're an events/chip timing company so it's all weekends...) but ah well.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1960/45036147141_1baaa17e39_c.jpg Manchester from Hartshead Pike by durhambiker , on Flickr Finally dragged myself out for my first attempt at a bivvy last week. Just a 5 mile ride from home up to Hartshead Pike, to spend the night not getting much sleep looking down ...

GMBN are the latest to get in on the act, video on bikepacking round the IOW featuring 2 fires

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL1732UY_JY&t=0s

A Sonder Frontier in rigid, 650B+ guise to get me back into mountain biking and finally give bikepacking a go after a couple of years with nothing other than 25c tyres and lycra. It was delivered the day after completing the Lakesman Triathlon though and I'm currently not keen on sitting on a bike a...

That stretch from Waskerley down to Lanchester is superb, as long as it isn't snowing sideways, which it was the last time I did it...

No, like all other types of rider, roadies have a contingent who are simply incapable of not wobbling no matter what gear/incline combination they are on. I'm not sure what is the cause of the higher prevalence of wobbling is among roadies but until I hear otherwise I'm mostly inclined to blame tri...

Oakley Flak 2.0 XLJs with Prizm Road lenses. Now just need a bit of sunshine to try them out

Not the postie, but been over to Team Valley in Gateshead to visit the new Decathlon that opened last weekend. Picked up an X-Light down jacket which for 30 quid seems very reasonable, and amongst other bits a cheap cycling waterproof jacket to put in my jersey pocket just incase, mainly when on the...

An Alpkit Muon headtorch so I can start getting some offroad running in during the darker months. Not tried it outside yet but a quick indoors test with all the lights off proves it's quite bright. The free Blip rear light is a nice touch too

Postman hasn't been, instead I made the mistake of driving into Newcastle on the same day as the City Games to collect it from Edinburgh Bicycles Co-op. Wanted a CX bike for a while, and as it was Cycle to Work time (despite being unable to cycle to work) I thought I'd see what they had. Last year t...

The man in the brown van ignored my instructions to leave my parcel, so I had to get shirty with customer services to make sure it WAS left when they made their third (and final) attempt today. Came home to find a large Rose Bikes box in the porch containing my new wheelset consisting of XT dynamo, ...

Yesterday the man in the brown van left a B&M light for my pub/shopping/touring bike with a neighbour. Exact same UPS man today decided not to bother leaving the XT Dynamo front hub/XT rear hub/Mavic A719 wheelset and instead took it back to the depot. Now need to leave a not in the door to make...

A Garmin Edge Touring. Slowly getting used to it's failings. It'll be fine on the road bike for following downloaded routes, but useless with the round trip planning and route planning features due to it's insistence on using Sustrans paths whenever it can, despite me telling it to avoid unpaved roa...

Done some of those fords in a Land Rover Discovery and got wet, so nice one!

Camping on the George Borrow beer garden, nice. Spent 5 happy years working there behind the bar

Was a no-go for me as at work we only get one of the May bank holidays off, and it's always the end of month one we get. So instead I'm doing a half-Iron triathlon on Saturday, and marshalling it on the Sunday

Spent the weekend procrastinating over the packing for heading to Spain today. Turns out packing 2 bikes into bike bags and boxes takes longer than you'd expect when you've not done it before. Now waiting for the tea to brew and hoping I've packed everything. Sunny Nerja, here I come!

Just read the last two posts, going to have to set some time aside to read the lot. Heading to Andalucia for some cycling on Monday, but it'll be on our road bikes. Would love to go out and do the TransAndalus at some point.

s8tannorm wrote:

Is that 25% descent from Ystumtuen down to the Rheidol?

That's the one

Cool, thought it must have been. That road climb up there is tough. Must drag myself back to Ponterwyd sometime

Is that 25% descent from Ystumtuen down to the Rheidol? If so I've been up and down that in a Land Rover a few times and had to change my undies after, especially when trusting the handbrake to hold the Discovery in place when getting out to open/close the gate at the top. One of the local rallies u...

I've got an Osprey Talon 22 that sees fairly regular usage, although as I know from experience it's possible to fit more than enough kit in to leave you suffering. Been happy with it though, good quality and comfy, although the so-called vented back doesn't seem to make much difference

Did a local loop today that's usually fairly tame. Ended up trying not to fall off with several long stretches of bumpy ice.

Within the UK, I'd move back to Ponterwyd in Mid Wales. Best 5 years of my life as far as location goes. Outside the UK, me and the wife would love to live in Spain. Ideally on the south coast, probably in Nerja but there are plenty of other areas we'd settle for.

Durham, can walk into the centre of town in 20 minutes. Some great riding in the area. Love it here, although after living in Manchester, Mid Wales and Bristol, the place I really miss is Mid Wales. Spent 2 years living in a run-down farmhouse a couple of miles from Nant y Moch and given the chance,...

Fat bike with helium in the tyres