Hi,

I'm new here & new to Bikepacking. I'm hoping to do the WRT in 2015, it will come part way through a tour during a work sabbatical. The tricky thing is that I'll arrive at the start on my Shand Stoater fully loaded and part way through a 1,500 mile tour (including clothing etc for a number of residential courses I'm cycling between).

I'll be using a mixture of Bikepacking bags (Wildcat gear and Alpkit) and I will have been doing some wildcamping enroute (so will have bivvy etc).

My thought is to stay somewhere close for the night before and after WRT where I can leave the stuff I don't want to carry (4 panniers for a start). Plus I'll remove the mudguards, front lowrider rack, and rear rack.

Given I am pretty inexperienced at off road riding I guess I will also need to change tyres (I'll be using "Schwalbe Marathon Plus Smartguard City Tyres" for the tour 35mm front, 38mm rear).

Q1: Any suggestions for a folding tyre that is well suited to potential WRT conditions? (folding so I can carry them to the start and post them home after).

Q2: Any other suggestions of changes I should make for the WRT? It has Rohloff, Gates Belt Drive, Hope Tech Evo M4 brakes, Jones Loop h-bar, Schmidt dynamo (I'll need a battery rear light as the normal one is mounted to the rack).

Q3: Looks like route planning will be pretty important, especially if it is proper Welsh weather, to avoid bits that are 6 feet deep in mud and where the bridleways are just in a map makers fantasy . Do people share local knowledge here beforehand, do I guess or try to find someone else as slow to follow or what?

Q4: What else do I clearly not know that I should? ;-)

Thanks

Dave

You're more than welcome to leave anything you like at the start, also if you wanted to have some stuff like tyres sent here beforehand that wouldn't be a problem.

I'll leave everyone else to fill in the gaps

s8tannorm wrote:You're more than welcome to leave anything you like at the start, also if you wanted to have some stuff like tyres sent here beforehand that wouldn't be a problem.

Thanks, that's a great help.

Bike setup stuff sounds like you have it nailed.

In terms of route planning. If you are going to be on the road when the map refs are made public and so planning might be tricky why not tag along on someone else's group and leave the hard work up to them.
Keep an eye on the forum there are often people looking to join other people so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary.
Chew might even run his lonely hearts club again.

composite wrote:Bike setup stuff sounds like you have it nailed.

I was hoping that Steven and Russ knew what they were doing when I chose their Stoater 2 years ago ;-)

Just confused by these tyres with sticky out bits, not used to having those!

composite wrote:In terms of route planning. If you are going to be on the road when the map refs are made public and so planning might be tricky why not tag along on someone else's group and leave the hard work up to them.
Keep an eye on the forum there are often people looking to join other people so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary.
Chew might even run his lonely hearts club again.

Thanks, that is reassuring

At the moment I am waiting for some course dates to be released. Depending on those I might be leaving by 6th April (and very busy right up to then) otherwise it could be as late as 16th April in which case I'd ride from Leicester via Bespoked in Bristol and seeing our grandson in Cardiff with the course afterwards. So don't yet know if I'll have time to do much planning.

I'll keep tracking with interest!

Dave

What's the tyre clearance like on your stoater?
Sounds like an vaguely exciting trip!

Ben98 wrote:What's the tyre clearance like on your stoater?

I think without mudguards it is up to 55mm. I'm guessing that I'd be better off with a bit more mud clearance than the biggest tyres that fit would give.

Ben98 wrote:Sounds like an vaguely exciting trip!

Yep looking forward to it Lots of places I haven't been to before (particularly Iona, Lindisfarne and St Beuno's in N Wales) plus of course every bit of track and bog of the WRT

Dave