Changes

As you may see  by the date of my lasts posts I have  not been very active for the last year. This is generally just down to life and the fact that I seem to have a million hobbys and what seems like no time at all. So I have decided to expand the blog to cover my  other interests and activities. So you may now  see posts about my building of  my land rover camper , Posts about other  none bike related trips and generally stuff that just happens that I find intesting.

Heres a few pictures of stuff I will hopefully type  up at some point.

A quick sprint through france

It all started a few years ago with my failed attempt to ride Roscoff to Santander. I left on a cold February morning just after some of the biggest storms of the year on a three week ride to Santander. I did’t even make it to the port. It was hideous and a massive fail. But I wasn’t beaten. So I hatched the plan for attempt number two. This time it will be early September and I will ride it in a week to make up for my failure. I started telling friends and family. Booked the time of work and arrange the ferries. I had months to train myself to ride around 200k a day for a week and gave myself an extra day just incase something did’t work out. So I had managed no training at all, I changed all my gear on the night before I left. My dynamo failed two days before departure. So at this point I thought I wouldn’t have a chance. Luckily one friend out of the few I know thought this trip would be a good idea and decided to join me. Which sucked as now I couldn’t bail out and stay at home. So that was it I got dropped at his house in Torrington and the adventure began.

Final kit changes.

I started with the intention of a full lightweight bikepacking set up. But decided I needed more room as last minute add ons filled all my food space. So I junked this setup and went for two small ortlieb rear panniers. Still it was the lightest I had ever travelled and still there is stuff that if I went again i would not take.

Luckily I managed to steal my girlfriends dynamo wheel. It was a mavic 319 rim laced into an alfine dynamo hub. It powered my lights, garmin and phone when needed. worked faultlessly all holiday. Which is more than I can say for the Garmin connect mapping that I used to plan the trip

This is not a road Garmin

The trip was also our first time with bivvy bags instead of tents. Some would try their setups at home first. But we were not that organised so it was a baptism of fire really. Most nights we found nice spots in woodland. The more we done it the easier it was. The main thing we learnt was not to be lazy. Put your tarp up and do it properly. It makes all the difference in condensation and comfort. One night we completely messed it up. It was a glorious evening the sun was high all afternoon. So as pros at this bivvying now we went without the tarps. At around midnight we were woken by thunder and lightning and bucket sized raindrops. As lazy as we were we rolled up in our tarps and hoped for the best. The best did not come nor did much sleep we both awoke in the morning with not a dry bit on us and hands so shriveled that it looked like we spent the evening in the bath. The only thing my friend had dry was his socks. which he then put into his wet shoes.

Me after a very wet night

A far more successful bivvy setup

The Distances we rode in the end turned out not to be to bad I think the first three days in France we clocked up almost 400miles. As you ride all day its not to difficult. Also you sleep like a log. Which helped as we ended up staying in a few odd places. One night was spent in an industrial estate. In a small plot of bushes. We had cars pull up right next to us in the middle of the night but luckily we were not discoverd or if we had been were deemed harmless. My favorite spot was an abandoned road build that we stayed in a freshly built tunnel. no need for tarps in there.

There luckily were no mechanicals on this trip which shows that at least the bikes were OK. I got a couple puntures, My BB wore out but made it to the end. Nijel snapped his seat on the last day and we repaired his rack with sticks and a swiss army knife. I felt a bit like bear grylls for a few minutes

The trip overall was a brilliant success. Due to the company, The weather behaving and a bit because it was not really that well planned. We didn’t know what was round the next corner, where we would sleep, where we would find food. It was real basic and that was brilliant.

Garmin Goat tracks

Our route

The missis gets new boots=

After a rim failure on my Girlfriends bike it was time to get some new wheels. She wanted silver to match the rest of her bike. A dynamo would be good to charge her phone and I didn’t want to pay to much. After a quick internet search we found Taylors wheels and a wheelset. 36 spoke, Mavic a319 touring rims, Alfine dynamo hub and XT rear hub. pretty good build I thought and at a good price. all delivered from Germany ( I think) in less than a week. The quality seems good. spokes tinged a lot as I rode off so you can tell they were not custom. Only two niggles that bothered me. The front hub is disc compatible but the rear is not. Which is a bit limiting. also the worst bit. I got a silver front skewer and black rear. Thats just annoying. Lucky I had a pair from the old wheelset.

A big box arrives baring gifts

Clear rim strips hidden! Almost missed them

The cat checking them out

Wheels shod in Schwalbe Dureme 700×40 folders

Attached to the bike they seem so much more robust than the old hybrid wheels

The wheels look and feel good though and run tru. Makes the bike feel a bit heavier I thought but with the dyno hub and a more robust build what can I expect. At the same time I also added a pletcher rear kickstand. A lot better quality than its wilkinson predecessor. which I may of snapped off. Just need to trim a little of the length. This stand comes with cut marks which is handy.

New kickstand

Will write more once we have used them for a few miles to check the build quality. But the bike is almost ready to carry her round Europe for a summer. Now to get the time off.

 

Busch & muller mounting

For my up and coming trip I’ve decided I will be traveling light. My camping stuff attached to the handlebars in a harness. My porcelain rocket one was an obvious choice that I had from my Munda Biddi trip. Unfortunately it hung clean over my fork mounted light. So being clever I ordered an alpkit airlock xtra drybag and made a simple harness to attach it. Although it was far smaller it rested on the light. So here I am. My second attempt.

I acquired a B&M handle bar mount and set about attempt #2. Now I’ve got just about enough room for the full size PR harness.

Airlok with PR pouch

PR harness

Full PR harness

Airlok and PR mounted
There are still a few tweeks to be made. If I run the PR harness on the trip the front pouch needs to come higher as it my rub on the tyre. So I will have to flip the light bracket so its above the bars. Or maybe the airlok set up being lighter and more compact my turn out better. Time will tell. But the bikes and kit are almost ready.

Alpkit Kraku

This is my first new purchase for my up and coming road bikepacking trip. Basically riding home to Santander in 8days. This trip will be my first of consistent high milage so trying to lighten and shrink my load on the bike.

This stove definitely shrinks and lightens the load compared to my MSR whisper lite. The 100ml gas canister fits  perfectly inside my pan so I’ve quartered the weight and space. It works surprisingly well to. It boiled enough water for 2 mugs at half power in 10 minutes.

For something so small I was very surprised. Time will tell with its reliability. Will add more after the trip. But so far I’m very impressed. The price also at £25 is very competitive.

The first use

Garmin Edge Touring

Had my first 200k audax due at the beginning of march. The main thing I was worried about wasn’t the distance but more getting lost. This led me to treat myself to this new toy. I am not one for technology so this is a big change. Not very good with instruction manuals I learnt the basics by just hitting buttons. ( my usual tactic ).
So its quite a simple device compared to most. It doesn’t include heart rate, cadence, power, sandwich toaster and all the other fan dangled stuff that the higher models have. But it does give you GPS routes to destinations, POIs and guides you on preset courses. The GPS function took a bit of tweaking as kept putting me on different routes to what I wanted. The course ( pre set ) route function worked well. It popped up near junctions just like a car GPS and you have a couple view options map, speed, compass and some other stuff. But I just used the map. At night it lights up at junctions or turns. But not if you are to carry on straight on at anything which was a bit annoying. But I suppose if it did it would never dim effecting battery use. I only had one mishap. I was charging my GPS through my dynamo hub. As I left the bike at the checkpoint the unit lost external power and turned off. When I turned it back on reselected the map it tried to guide me to the start to restart my route. Luckily I followed the group I was riding with. I later discovered how to restart half way through my selecting my location first. So more my technophobe abilities than the units fault. So overall I would recommend this unit if you are after the mapping and a basic unit. This unit comes loaded with full EU maps as well which I heard can be extra on other units.
Also comes with two mounts

Bits and Bob

There is so much stuff I always mean to write up here but for some reason never do. Its coming to the beginning of another cycling season here. The suns out and I rode without a coat yesterday. I realised that with another year and more cycling toys to try that I haven’t wrote up half the stuff from last year.

I haven’t yet told you about when I took three friends and my girlfriend who doesn’t cycle to France on the promise of three leisurely days of 35miles a day on beautiful flat canal paths. There faces and promises never to come again after getting to the ferry at 9pm after 180 hilly miles on day three. ( After a few days and weeks they all thought it was amazing and want to go again)

Or when I took my Surly Pacer on tour for four days in France with a route I planned that turned out to be only two days worth. Also as it was October all the campsites had decided to close. ( Im not much of a wild camper. I enjoy a shower at the end of the day)

 Or the collection of cheap parts to build Lindsay a bike that will be able to carry here around Europe for six months hopefully some day soon.

Also I haven’t reviewed the other bits or used to that matter the parts I have recently got. So soon I will write up about my new Garmin edge touring cycling GPS. Well as soon as I have worked out how to use it. The test will be on the Mad March 200k audax at the end of the month. Plus I have just received a little device from problem solvers and a new Tubus Logo rear rack

But here are a couple random photos anyway

O and I have just remembered a couple other things to write up. I donts think I have mentioned the B&M Luxos U lights I have and the two recent B&M rear lights and my own cheap hack commuter touring kona jake. So much stuff I will try and keep on top of it this year.

Thanks

Shimano CT70 SPD Shoe

I have had these shoes for around six months now. I must admit they have been relegated recently as the winter boots have been bought back out. I managed to get out an a week long tour with them and plenty of commuting. So far they have stood up well but I cant really give an answer on their quality until next year. What they are is good fitting, Light weight and reasonably waterproof. All of these thoughts are based on my old pair of Northwave rocker shoes. Though these shoes lasted for six years they had a few pitfalls which the CT70 seems to manage fine.

The shoe is really comfy. I have worn them instead of my standard shoes all day at work and they are as nice as my trainers. The recess is quite big so it doesn’t sound like I am walking round in tap shoes. They flex well. Grip well on all surfaces and more importantly look really good. Their weight seems low as well so you don’t notice the difference between these and normal shoes. An added bonus is also that when I was on tour I could walk in wet grass and not get my socks socked. So they are reasonably watertight. Obviously they cant make it through a downpour. I would have to throw on some carrier bags or overshoes for that.

The one negative that I can come up with is that the cleats seem to mount really far back behind the ball of my foot. As a touring shoe this is probably a good thing but I like my cleats a little further forward.

But overall I would definitely recommend these shoes

My First Audax

With a plan to do some Audaxs in the summer. I hadn’t managed any so in October a thought I better try one. There was a few but due to my location in the U.K there was not a great choice. I found one. The Dartmoor Devil 100k and it started only an hour and a half away. So it was booked. I was a bit worried about managing to follow route sheets. Seemed a bit complex all the directions but this all worked out fine. It was not as hard as it seemed. Just memorize the next direction as soon as you past the last. The route itself was hard. I am sure it took in as many climbs as possible in the short route and my god there is a lot in this area. A big bonus was that at each checkpoint there was also cake. It was a nice sociable ride. As they are not races people ride together at a pace that you can converse. Which makes it far more enjoyable and you can take time out for photos etc. Although it was tough I really enjoyed the day and next year I have already signed up to three for next year. Im also hoping to up the distance. So hoping to complete the Avalon 400k in June. So that’s what I have to aim for.

Brighter by Far

They finally arrived. After what seemed like a lot of chasing around and waiting all the parts were finally here to build up my bike. I have a custom set of wheels the rear being built on a 36 hole shimano 105 rim with plain gauge on drive side and double butted on the other laced into an exal XR2 rim. The front is an SP SV8 dynamo hub built into the same rim and all in silver so extra classy. The hub runs a Luxos U front light and toplight line brake rear light all from busch muller. The rear lights extra interesting it uses power stored from the capacitor to emit and extra bright light when power from the dynamo drops of quickly. I’ve tried to view this but i almost crashed a few times ( something not to try on your own ). The Luxos U came with a different USB fitment to my first light I am still not sure if there are a couple models of this light as haven’t been able to find any information online. Instead of the USB being in the handle bar switch it attaches to a removable block that comes out of the switch. So far all seems to be working well. I have a few adjustments I want to make before I head to france at the end of the month to test it out fully. Here are a few quick photos.

 

Shiny new light