Taking Over The Internet!

While it was enjoyable to write about doing stuff instead of buying/owning stuff, looking at kit is a good way to slack off from work…

Two things to look at at magazine sites:

Privateer Blog article on what I couldn’t be without (essentially, two wheels, and you’re good to go!) Bikemagic Blog article on . . . → Read More: Taking Over The Internet!

The Cairngorms Loop

They say you should never meet your heroes. Well, the Cairngorms have always held a heroic place in my mind. I’d never been there, barely even seen many photographs. I just had the impression that it was wild. It was a place where the foolish could come unstuck and the hardy could find beauty . . . → Read More: The Cairngorms Loop

RouteBuddy

As I’ve been working away on the route for EWE, the software that has made it possible has been RouteBuddy. I’ve always resisted buying any mapping software as you can get quite far with free online tools and there is limited choice for Mac users. But EWE was too big a project: I needed . . . → Read More: RouteBuddy

How to fix a Garmin Dakota bike mount

Overall, I’ve been really happy with my Dakota. It’s seen me through many (many!) miles of riding and not once let me down.

A couple of times, it did eject on rough ground but I was lucky enough to find it quite quickly on each occasion. Given that a GPS is pretty important to . . . → Read More: How to fix a Garmin Dakota bike mount

There’s little glory in bucket-washing

The ice lid from my clothes washing bucket

It’s very much “that time of year”.

The time when every part of my bike decides to break within the space of a few weeks.

The time when many trails are so muddy that there’s a severe shortage of Type 1 fun, but plenty of . . . → Read More: There’s little glory in bucket-washing

Where To Sleep on The Tour Divide

Someone asked me this by email. Here’s what I said:

If you’re thinking of trying to pick which towns to sleep in, that is probably a bad idea. You’ll be off-plan pretty soon, so you might as well wing it the whole way.

In general, it’s much quicker to sleep out than to get . . . → Read More: Where To Sleep on The Tour Divide

A Tale Of Two Forks

I never thought that I’d be regularly riding a rigid-forked mountain bike. In 2010, my Rockshox Revelations were approaching useless as I was approaching the Tour Divide. I’d already decided that rigid made sense for the race: less weight, less to go wrong.

So, I picked up a cheap carbon fork.

Soon after, . . . → Read More: A Tale Of Two Forks

Swinley Trail Pixies

I had a really nice ride at Swinley this morning. Conditions are still pretty good despite some recent rain – especially on the man-made trails. And while I was there, I ran into some of the trail pixies working on The Stickler. It was great to be able to thank them for their work . . . → Read More: Swinley Trail Pixies

2012

2012 was going to be a quiet year. No spending lots of money on flying to races in far-flung places. No spending months on a bike instead of working.

It hasn’t quite worked out like that. I’ve managed to keep the aeroplane time down, but there were too many interesting challenges around to resist . . . → Read More: 2012

New Year’s Eve Canoe Trip

I have recently been appreciating good side of living on The Thames. I get out on it in a kayak or canoe pretty regularly, I run along it, I laugh when the bus announces the stop near my house as “The Thames Riviera”. So it seemed like an appropriate way for Emily and I . . . → Read More: New Year’s Eve Canoe Trip