Ayup, wondering if anyone has any tips / previous experience on likely good spots for wildcamping on/near the Malverns? I used to live in that area (but wasn't into bikepacking at the time) and reckon something in News Wood to the south of Herefordshire Beacon end looks promising/discreet. I know th...

As far as I can tell it's a clone of the MSR Microzoid with slightly less expensive materials - still came in at only about a kilo though so pretty amazing VFM!

I've definitely got one, Stu, but like Richard I've recently moved house so I'll have to dig it out from the pile. I do know that one of the poles is damaged but I'd been using one of the 'sleeves'/splints from another tent and it performed just fine. Probably fixable easily enough but I never got r...

I'd spotted a few bikepacking configurations in the run up to doing the Camino Frances variant of the Camino de Santiago in 2011, but decided to stick with panniers. Later that year I started messing around with bikepacking kit and did the WRT in 2012 and loved it despite the biblical deluge (the gu...

Hi Lee, replied to you on FB - lots of similar comments here too, must be true! ;-)

Does bivvying on NYE count as 2013 or 2014? On the grounds that I spent more hours bivvied on the 2014 side of midnight I'm going for 2014! :D

Mary bar arrived today, Ian, many thanks! :D

Sorry, Ian I should've said not uber urgent - replacement for one which was on my off road touring bike stolen a while ago :( Slowly getting another set up :)

Ian, sorry for the tardy response - been out of email for a bit. PPG + my address should be arriving with you shortly! Thanks.

Hi. I'll take the Mary bar please. Is PP (G) ok?

Dammit! Too slow to follow up my own query

Hi Stu, is this still for sale?

A couple of guide books for the Camino Primitivo which I'm doing next year - decided to do a short one (350km) in 2014 having done the Camino Frances (800km) twice. And saving some brownie points for the Via de la Plata (1,000km) in 2015 :D http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/plaindrain/Classifi...

I couldn't - g'day, li'l Possum!

Another vote here for ViewRanger, excellent app. The downside with using a smartphone is the battery draw is so big - best really to use it on shorter rides or as an occasional look-see with the GPS on to reassure yourself that you're not off route. PowerMonkeys or similar power sources are useful -...

Marmot Hydrogen sleeping bag arrived today from RacingThePlanet, a bar-gin price - hopefully I can now go out and play in the colder stuff!

Also one of Stu's 22g stoves plus a beanie :D

Second the recommendation on the Synmat UL7 - it's really warm, so you can make some savings on the weight (and/or ££s) of the sleeping bag.

Seems to work for me anyway!

Yeah I'd been hankering after the PD400 but assumed I'd be more likely to craft myself a sleeping bag from the pelts of direwolves and lined with the skin of unicorns before they get back in stock :) Likewise I'd not come across RacingPlanet before but, based on a bit of googling, they seem to be pu...

Not an expert on sleeping bags but this seems like a good deal to me for £125:-

http://uk.racingtheplanet.com/store/gea ... 0f-1c.html

So I've ordered one :D

10 days to do the whole Via de la Plata is going some anyway, so I think less than 10 days (including travel there and back) would be a very tall order. We did the standard Camino Frances in 9.5 days of off-road riding in 2011 and again this year and, despite not flogging ourselves, it was pretty ti...

Link works fine, ta muchly - hope the bodge goes well!

@Mandicky, hello. Was wondering what to search for on eBay for those bar clamps?!

Some folding eating gear plus some GoreTex patches to fix the shorts I managed to rip the .rse out of on a bivi last Friday!

I wonder if those MicroShift thumbies could be persuaded to fit onto the 26.0 diameter of a road drop bar...?

Don't know but Paul does a 26mm thumbie mount.

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/paul-road-th ... prod20973/

Aha! Thanks for that link

I wonder if those MicroShift thumbies could be persuaded to fit onto the 26.0 diameter of a road drop bar...? :idea: