Road Touring - Cambridge-Leeds, Geneva-Paris

I have been touring on the 'road'. I started off by riding, with my buddy Elliot, from Cambridge to Leeds, via the peak district including the famous mountain bike route "Cut Gate".

We made steady progress up the Tissington Trail.

Near the Bowenvale reservoir, the flying buggers were out in force. On your face, crawling into your ears. They took a while to swarm. We made ghetto masks. I used my mesh pot cover, Elliot his mesh cap. It was an early night, hiding in the tents from our insect oppressors. The next morning; breakfast was on the move, until we found somewhere high enough to escape the midge onslaught.

We rode past Howden reservoir, hoping to escape out insectoid nemeses.

At the bottom of the Cut Gate mountain bike route.

Elliot strike a heroic stance, whist the clouds give an omen.

We rattled haphazardly over Cut Gate, with Johnny Flynn playing off of Elliot's x-mini speaker and Sansa clip. No broken spokes or flats, which felt lucky. Cut Gate is sweet, and I'm looking forward to riding it with a slightly more appropriate set-up.

The skies opened. Fortunately, the pub opened soon after that.

We rode along the canal cycle path into Leeds.

Elliot finds his spirit animal in Leeds.

After finishing that tour; I hopped on a place out of Manchester, flew to Geneva, met up with my friend, Elinam.

I rode the northern route around Lac Leman, to the mountains near Eigle, to see my special lady.

Lots of the Swiss mountain houses are built in this sweet old style.

Shhiiitt. I switched the front and rear brake cables, and hacked together something slightly safer.

The 'cross bike can handle light mountain biking, so I took the essentials for riding around these parts.

From there I rode through the Swiss Alps, to Bern.

A Swiss-German couple allowed me to camp on their farm and gave me a family. I also got shown a scythe demonstration. Still sharp. When it comes to shelter, my normal habit is to find somewhere secluded and 'stealth' or 'wild' camp. Well, not anymore.

Everywhere I camped on this latter tour, was with full permission. I'd rock up to a small farm, introduce myself in bad German or terrible French and ask to camp. I only got turned down once and often I was given food and treated to local hospitality. In one case I was supplied with wine, Ricard, huge amounts of pasta, cheese and far too much wine. I promised to learn better French and prove it in a decades time when I cycled back past.

In Bern. Bern is nice and you can swim in the river.

Onto France.

Lessons Learned

Positive: Ask to camp. It's fun and you might get treated to some local hospitality.
Negative: Don't try to jack up the torque of your multitool by lashing a stick to it. It probably isn't built for it.
Wash the pads on your helmet from time to time. When heavy rains comes, the years of accrued sweat and grime dissolves and runs into your eyeballs.
France is big and a lot of it appears to be pretty flat.

I'm not sure about solo touring. On one hand, independence and self-reliance are great. Forcing yourself into situations, and coping with them, is a hell of a learning experience. You also set the pace, and don't have be considerate or anything. However, The compulsion to keep riding is strong, and overrides a lot of the instincts I'd have in company - to explore the area, waste time exploring the nooks of the area. Maybe next time, when I'll hopefully be able to speak a little more French than 'Puis je camper sur vos terre?'. Although it's a pretty good phrase to start with, in my experience, anyway..

Handlebar Harness - "Barness" (DIY/MYOG)

I got itchy hands, and the only cure is to make bikepacking gear. In theory, the bar harness (how has no-one coined the term 'barness' yet?) is an extremely simple, stable piece of kit. They're capable of hauling a surprising quantity of gear, without compromising your handling or adding too much additional weight. The barness itself weighs 320 grams in its current state, certainly not the lightest.

In practice, getting the barness stable and fitting nicely, avoiding the brakes and gear cables, is a little more fiddly than one might imagine.

I choose a harness (like the Wildcat Gear Mountain Lion) rather than a waterproof bag (like a Revelate Designs Sweetroll) because it avoids the necessity of seam sealing or using waterproof materials. It's also much more versatile - holding a variety of bags and types of cargo.

I added double-layered elastic straps to jam items for quick access, like gloves and a buff.

I salvaged the majority of the material from a suitcase. The main body is a piece of relatively flexible plastic. I reckon the degree of flexibility is an important consideration - too flexible and it won't provide support - the bag will flop around the place. However, if it's too stiff it won't conform to the load well when it's cinched tight. Additionally, it could fatigue and break.

The rest of the materials are from various places.

Removable spacers. The spacers are sections of a second suitcase, cut into a shape to accommodate the brakes.

Sections of inner tube line the inner of these straps. This provides a bit more grip when cinched against the bars. It's also possible to add a few more layers, due to the compressibility of the rubber, this should put the straps under tension, increasing the stability further.

This lower strap arrangement wraps around a "Crud Fast Fender Front Mud Guard" with the mudguard section removed. This isn't the only way of fulfilling this role, but it's simple and I'm lazy. I'm slightly worried the bag will eventually fatigue the plastic stays, but only time will tell.

I added another length of (hidden) plastic to reinforce the main section. All the holes were made by pressing a tack through the section and then sewing through. I'll probably glue something over the treads on the internal side, for protection from wear and tear. The fabric on the back is pretty unnecessary, but it doesn't add much weight. The edging is more important - preventing chipping/abrasion and softening the edge where the barness meets the dry bag.

At some point I'll add a removable mesh pocket stretched across the front for quick access to a rain jacket and gloves.

Partial Framebag - (DIY/MYOG)

I wanted to make a partial framebag to utilize the space within the triangle without compromising the bottle cage position and or easy handling of the bike. I salvaged a suitcase from a neighbour’s trash. Everything was hand stitched.

The majority of the material is a relatively stiff foam, with fabric on the outside. This was all from the suitcase, minimizing the necessary stitching. Salvaged suitcases are good sources of material for this kind of work – they’re often available, and the materials tend to be water resistant. The outer material possesses a reasonable mixture of flexibility and stiffness, and is often not too difficult to work and stitch through.

I cut the basic shape with a pocket knife and used a scalpel to score out the grooves where the folds are. It’s very stable in my mountain bike, as it was specifically designed to fit the frame. Fortunately, it also happens to kinda fit into my Crosscheck frame. The bag isn’t waterproof, but the foam should repel water, and any that gets in should drain out through the zip. It weighs ~160 grams. Every tool inside is held with elastic material, because I'm hella cool.

It works well, I'll probably make two small modifications at some point - a buckle to change the length of the strap attaching to the down tube. This would allow a secure attachment to both my bikes. I may stitch sections of inner tube to the attachment straps. This should increase the stability, even though it's already very stable.

Framebags are a good DIY project, they're expensive to buy and not too difficult to make. There are dozens of variations available, if you wanna have a crack at at making one, I'd recommend making a model out of cardboard to check it fits and everything. You can then cut this model up and use it as a template for cutting the material.

Wentwood Forest - Downhill Trail

Wentwood forest is an ancient woodland to the north-west of Newport in South Wales. It's hella pretty, and home to a very good downhill trail, as well as numerous forest tracks and cross country singletrack trails. The autumn is an excellent time for the vibrant forest colours, although, unsurprisingly, the ground is sloppy as all hell.

The downhill trail starts about here, winding through the woods, heading west, along relatively flat terrain. The trail is dominated by roots, but a lot of fun. After meandering through the woods, the trail starts heading north west and downhill. Trail features are more obviously intentionally constructed here, including berms and jumps.

View Wentwood Downhill Trail in a larger map

The local mountain biking association have not revealed the route of the downhill trail. Their website is apparently no longer active, so I've put the map here. If anyone from the local club would like it removed, I'm happy to oblige - contact me with the address here.

I haven't got photos of the last third of the trail, but in current conditions it was constant error correction, basically surfing down the hill on the tide of leaves and mud. It was good fun - and none of the drops were obligatory - some of the beginnings of the sections were steep and fairly sketchy. In general, even novice downhiller will be mostly fine.

The crisp leaves and (occasionally) clear skies of autumn.

The forestry commission have been busy.

Looking south-east, towards the Severn.

Elliot cocoons himself against the cold.

Trail slop.

Two steeds o' aluminium at rest.

Amphibious riding.

The flat part of the trail winds through the coniferous trees - it's rooty and rugged and a lot of fun.

The trail goes over a bridleway/track, and starts another section. This section is currently dominated by a comically thick covering of leaves.

Elliot rails the berm on the first section of the downhill.

Wentwood Forest is great fun. The downhill trail is fun and challenging in places, but mostly just a good time. Much of the singletrack is delightfully rugged. Aside from the main downhill trail, there are numerous little pieces of singletrack and normal footpaths throughout the forest to be found.

South West Coast Path - Hell's Mouth and Godrivy Point

This is a small update, focusing on the photography than a day-ride, so I won't bother with a proper route map. We rode north-east along the beach in St. Ives bay from Hayle, then joined the south-west coastal path around Hell's Mouth for a few kilometres, before doubling back and riding around the Knavocks and Godrivy point.

The Cornish beaches are not overrated. This one is about fifteen seconds from Hayle, after some navigating through beach-side community and some sandy single-track through the towans.

Shockingly, the dry sand was not particularly ridable.

The wet sand provided enough solidity and traction to allow (comparatively) easy riding.

We left the beach and climbed on the road up to Fishing cove, joining the south west coastal path.

Looking north along the coastal path. This was all ridable, a cross bike would be fine for the short section we rode. The path follows the edge of the cliff closely, so riding conservatively is a necessity.

From Godrivy point, looking north.

The light house on Godrivy island.

We went to St. Ives the next day, mostly to collect photographic evidence of oddly worded signs, and piles of damp fishing gear.

The South-west coastal path goes for miles, with some excellent views of rugged cliffs. I reckon there's a hell of a good ride along the coast path, starting around Ilfracombe and heading south-west.