New G-Line Weights (small): 13.9 kg; with rack and mudguards 14.8 kg; There's a whole new world of lightweight parts coming isn't there. My S2 is ~11.5kg with guards, plus a bit for the SON hub lighting, less a bit for Ti bars foam grips 180g saddle etc - 12kg total maybe. +3.5kg for the 20" eq...

^ love those Bike Fridays. I think the Brompton has it beat on folding ease from what I remember of a friend's BF but the BF may ride better overall.

how necessary gravel tyres are for a bike that will be hopeless on anything other that tarmac and how pointless disc brakes are on a 16" wheeled bike. Not so sure - I have a Brompton, used to use it for train commuting in the SE and now occasional use over longer distances in a hillier area. T...

Just ~20 miles on a lovely sunny, cold, fresh autumnal morning on my lugged 631 old school road bike - which was something quite special after 6 weeks off the bike under doctor's orders. I think I'd got used to the positive effects of a nice early morning ride as I did it so often and maybe it just ...

any details?

https://bikepacking.com/plog/vedangi-ku ... the-world/

Grub screws to support is a good idea, or drilling small shallow holes for the filler to sink into and 'grip'? Haven't got onto this project yet, things sort of went wrong later in July as my new ME-700 platform pedals seemed to work well with foot support, so well I was riding in a way that brought...

That's rather good... neat thinking and recycling.

the TNR next week

enjoy!

Joking apart, doing a B&B / hotel based hol in Scotland would cost a fortune, particularly when you factor in artisan cups of coffee, homebaking and ale! Sleeping out and saving on hotel costs is how I justify bivi gear spends.. or a proper nice meal every few days on a tour, I mean bikepacking...

Which is fine of course, but is it bikepacking??!

To them yes, or, they don't care. Either way they are somewhere along the wonderful and evolving bike travel continuum

I reckon touring and bikepacking overlap more than they leave as differences at the ends. Unless they're are fairly rigidly defined that is, but I don't think anyone is interested in that.

"Roamer, wanderer, nomad, vagabond, call me what you will"

Thanks Jack. I'd not realised the route had changed quite as often so I'll look up the new route and the 3x200s. Perhaps I should map out my own route based on those and roads I know already then ride the actual event one year. A-roads at night in a good group of riders are much more enjoyable than ...

I'd say you're right, keep the stem and see how it feels. ime the Jones bar shape needs some stem length to put the main grip and brake lever area in the right place in front of the steerer.

Seems crazy to me that a number of us still use a mashup of 9/10S road and MTB parts and we can't get that system working from current Shimano or SRAM parts. GRX has been out for years and still doesn't cover the needs of what I'd call an all-round all-terrain drop bar bike. Cues will get close thou...

I guess it takes some major level of fitness to enter an event like that and afford to "take it easy" and enjoy it. Maybe they're not taking it easy, rather taking it on as a challenge ride that's something halfway between a race and a tour? Like the way I'd do a half marathon if I was mo...

My set up for a while has been an XT chainset (FC-M785) with 40/28 rings.

Ditto. A good combo ime. 28-42 would be ideal I think.

And I don't understand those signing up for a race, paying £400 entry, and then claim they're touring. In my opinion they're either fools or are just trying to take pressure off themselves. I think they just enjoy riding with others and the occasion, pushing on a bit but not to the level of or the ...

It's interesting to me how many of the 'Rigs of the SRMR' or similar events look like relatively heavy touring set ups and how many of the riders are talking about riding not racing. It's been that way for a long time, I think you can go back 10 years or more and find half the field of the Tour Divi...

Hi Chris, cheers, that sounds of interest.

I looked up dying Tyvek earlier, wondering if there was a trick to turning white polyester into a more natural colour. Seems not really but for fun I thought I'd share this, with apologies for the schoolboy humour - 'rust dying' of Tyvek :shock: :lol: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29v...

The Mountain Laurel Superlight does look good, tie-out points are a bonus too. Bit pricey for now so I was going to grab a Tyvek bivi from Joe's Shop but he's sold out, found + ordered something similar though. Since it'll always be used with the Gatewood tarp-tent I might modify the Tyvek bivi for ...

FC-M785 is 72.2mm from centreline to inside face of the arm at the pedal end, Ultegra 11s FC-6800 is 57.7mm to the same point. If you account for the 2.5mm each side that is the difference between road 68mm BB and MTB 73mm (the crank arms themselves are the same width across at the end), there's 12m...

That's interesting Mart, I thought Tyvek wasn't very breathable? The top end will be :) but around the foot area has usually where I get breathability or condensation issues with the Terra Nova bag cover.

prepare for brambles and nettles galore.

They have 'UK Gravel' in France too?

Seems like the pulled muscle thing needs to be given more attention for this reason, perhaps.

Leadville - maybe you should have fitted some drop bars? : ) Can't imagine racing at that altitude with little time to acclimatise, must be tough.

Yes, true - a vindication of ideas about bike layouts I think. Steel F+F, discs, road/CX/gravel geometry, not too slack or trying to be an MTB, makes a nice lighter-load tourer etc. Just a valid format. There were a few bikes along similar lines when the CdF first came out so it wasn't a new idea bu...