Tag Archives: Cycling

Bikepacking – A New Bike Camping Adventure?

By 4 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, , , , , ,

Bikepacking? What?

I think they used to call it “cycle touring“. According to bikepacking.net, the short answer is that it’s “backpacking with a bike“.

Why?

As a family, we spend our main holidays camping.  For us five, this means an 8-berth tent with separate bedrooms and lots of home comforts: electricity; a fridge; lighting; a heater; air beds; multiple changes of clothes; body boards; kits; inflatable dinghy…

We love our holidays.  But we’ve been thinking.

If my Other Half and myself want to go somewhere, an 8-berth tent is a bit much. So, we book into a hotel. At more cost than we really need to spend.  If my boy and I want to go exploring and doing some Father-Son bonding without the car, we couldn’t, to put it bluntly.

How?

I picked up a bunch of end-of-season bargains at Go Outdoors and added a few other bits so that we now have a full bikepacking kit.

A special note of thanks goes to Toby, from whose blog I won the panniers, saving us a small fortune.

As well as what you can see here, we’ve got a small gas burner; first aid kit; boy’s sleeping bag; mess tins and we’ll carry some food with us (most likely of the noodles-in-a-pot variety). We’ll head out with multiple thin layers; buffs; gloves and some baby wipes.

When? Where?

I’m kicking myself that the boy & me didn’t go on Saturday night for a dry run. The forecast was for horrible winds so we chickened out. As it happens, it was a warm, dry and fairly calm night. Ah well.

The updated plan is to have a short ride to Hollingworth Lake where there’s a little camp site for our first outing.  Then once we’re sure we’ve got what we need, we can graduate to something a little less organised and a little more wild.

So?

Do you think we’ve forgotten anything important?  I hope not.

#30DaysOfBiking – You Should, You Know.

By 9 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, , ,

What’s #30DaysOfBiking Then?

To quote the 30DaysOfBiking facebook page:

“The only rule for 30 Days of Biking is that you bike every day for 30 days—around the block, 20 miles to work, whatever suits you—then share your adventures online. We believe biking enriches life, builds community, and preserves the Earth.”

 

I can’t put it any better than that.

– Enriching life?  Certainly.
– Building community?  Damn right, I’ll vouch for that.
– Preserving the Earth?  Time will tell. But it’s a hell of a lot better than burning dead dinosaurs.

What Is It For Me?

30 Days Of Biking is a real challenge.  I’ve seen it twice before and not joined in.  This September, I bit the bullet.  It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do and my (very) short rides show that it’s not really helping me increase my #Sep100 mileage.

 

30 Days Of Biking, So Far

30 Days Of Biking, So Far

 

My worst day so far was taking the bike out of the car after returning home from a trip to Dunfermline at around 10.45pm, then riding it as far the door to my shed at 10.46pm!  That was 0.03 miles done 🙂  Having said that, I did ride it around Dunfermline town centre the night before after a team meal out, before hitting the sack in a little hotel.

My best day was a lovely afternoon with my better half, riding from Crosby to Formby and back, along the Sefton Coastal Path on Merseyside.  A lovely trip, an easy path and two beautiful beaches – not to mention the rather splendid Antony Gormley “Another Place” sculptures at Crosby.

Another Idiot. Another Place.

Another Northern Monkey. Another Place.

What Is “30 Days Of Biking” For You?

This is where you tell me.

Tell me why you’re not doing it.
… or if you are…
Tell me how it’s going for you.

Thanks! 🙂

Genuine Ghost Bike Photo

By 2 commentsTat, , , , ,

This photo was taken by me in Dorset a couple of weeks ago. The fear was almost palpable.

Is This A Real Ghost Cyclist?

Scary Ghost Cyclist Photo – Scared Us To Death

So, what do you think? Can you see any evidence of tampering?  I’m pretty sure it’s genuine.

Superstar Components Brake Pads

By 4 commentsReviews, , , , ,

Fitting My New Superstar Components Brake Pads

Last week I spent £5.48 on a pair of Superstar Components brake pads.  Now that’s cheap!  Shimano or Ashima were all the wrong side of £10 so I took a chance and ordered one set to see how they were.  If they were rubbish I’d only have wasted £5.48.

They’re not rubbish. They’re bloody marvellous so thank you @Mattmbr !

Fitting The Brake Pads …

… was easier, but took longer, than I expected.  Le me explain.  Extracting the old pads was simple:

– Remove the wheel, squash the split pin on the brake unit and pull it out (easy).
– Push the old brake pads out with a small screwdriver (easy peasy).
– Put the spring clip and new brake pads together and push into the void left by the old pads (pretty easy)
– Re-insert the split pin and bend the end with the small screwdriver (lemon cheesy)

So far, all good. No issues. Hunky dory. Five minutes top end. Smiling.

Then put your wheel back on.  No, hang on, the new pads won’t let the brake disc rotor back in. Oh no, now what?  Drop back wheel, put the small screwdriver between the pads, work them apart, put the back wheel in again.  No?  Repeat several times, with swearing.

Eventually, to be fair, the wheel went on.  Just remember that your brake pistons gradually work their way further out when pads are worn, so when you fit new pads they’ll be too close together unless you force them back in with a little bit of grunt (and of course some care).  Once the wheel’s back on, you should be laughing.  And, more to the point, stopping.

Don’t forget to wear your new pads in with a few long, hard stops to get the rotor and pad heat up so they form to the shape of the rotor.  Then you’ll stop properly.

I’ve ordered the second pair today, so I might let you know if the second fitting is better 🙂

What A July! Now What? #Jul100 #Aug100

By 6 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, , , , ,

A Record-Breaking July (Almost)

OK, we didn’t break any records. Not really.  But, a couple of weeks ago I though we might do more miles in July than we’d done in June.  Bloody Hell!

The sun came out, we got our bikes out and we did some miles.  Boy, did we do some miles?!

As I write this on the first day of the #Aug100 there are 7,330 leisure (and turbo) miles on the spreadsheet, of 8,460 miles in total.  That’s more than any month except April, when the #30daysofbiking was in full swing.

What an awesome effort.  I’m humbled, and proud, and simply chuffed to be known to you all.  Superstars, you are.

New Members, Old Friends

During July, people like Lloyd at @cyclingnirvana and Craig at @fruitmeister have joined the fray, clocking up some serious mileage.  It’s great to have you along, guys! (If you want to say Hi, or if I’ve missed your name off, drop a comment below and make yourself known!)

Once again, Mental John Berry has topped the 1,000 miles for the month, winning whatever award I want to call it this month.  Let’s just call it the “Mental John Berry Award” from now on, shall we?  He’s a nutter.  He denies it, but he’s either lying or simply wrong.

Faithful friends like Matty, Jo Simcock and Chris Byrne have quietly pedalled away, chucking over 1,000 miles in between them.  You’re fantastic.

On a personal note, a modest 132 miles puts me in 26th place, but it’s 132 miles I know I wouldn’t have done without the peer pressure.  Month after month, I owe you all big thanks and probably a bunch of years on my life (but maybe off my knees) 🙂

Below you should see a graph of the current status.  Feel free to copy & paste to your own blogs or wherever you like.  Get some more people to join, why don’t you?  That’d be lovely!

Here’s a link to the spreadsheet, have a look!

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