whitestone wrote:I'd have a sleeve to hold tarp poles running down just behind the down or seat tube

My poles go into the seat tube, elastic banded together, with a piece of inner tube over the end so's not to cause any damage.

Two places I've camped at Llyn Tegid. SH 901322. It's between the Llangower railway station and the lake. If you're sleeping on the ground it may be a bit stony, but there are grassy places within a few yards. Need to come late/leave early 'cos it's a bit public. Lovely spot though. https://farm8.st...

Meet my new "Round the Block" bike.

Schwinn Woodlands c.1992, bought for £30. I'm rather pleased with it. It rides nice and the gears are silky smooth. It replaces my previous RTB, a yellow Raleigh Max (£25 off Ebay)

6/6 Bulkeley Hill. Pedalled out after evening meal, 13 miles. Set up on top of an escarpment overlooking the Cheshire plain. A good glug of port followed by a good nights sleep. View from my bed. https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7116/27732028702_33bd3bc12a_z.jpg The wind had changed through 180 degrees...

I don't envy you setting up a party like this. I find it hard enough getting a family barbecue together. Looking forward to it

My masterplan. Ride from home to Glyn Ceiriog, some 16 miles. Some of you will recognise this. Bear ones 200 went through there last year. Well, from there it seems natural to use the second half of the route. I'm going to cheat a bit and cross over to the first half (in reverse) to Llanbrynmair, th...

I'll share my interesting experience where I was saved by my Swiss Army penknife. Riding South from Bwlch-y-Groes I turned off at Nant-yr-Onog on to a permissive path. A horrible path, as it happens, with deep rutted mud and wind-blown branches between deep banks. In short, a push. I breathed a sigh...

It's the anticlimax that gets me. After weeks of looking forward to the "Big (for me) Ride", now its all over, life feels very flat.

4/4 at Penrhos Isaf on the WRT. I got there after dark on Saturday at the same time as a bunch of other chaps. "Good" I thought, "Some company for the first night". It was not to be. Some selfish git had bedded down in the communal room and effectively scotched any chance of soci...

brotherhuw wrote: ate more fruit pastels than previously thought humanly possible

I don't think I can face another sultana for a while either

And yes, thanks to Stu and Dee.

We always look out for the first returning swallow. It arrived two days ago.

So yes, it must be nearly here.

A pair of bi-focal riding glasses from Amazon. Yay, now I can read the etrex on the bars without grubbing out my readers every few yards.



Cheap, but I do look like Ming the Merciless (you know, from "Flash Gordon") in them.

3/3 Ellesmere canal, Colemere An easy 15 mile ride out from home to a nice open wood, ideal for hammocking, right beside the towpath and only a couple of miles from the chippy. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1638/25955833886_745f32272e_z.jpg Someone had built a shelter a while ago, then abandoned it...

2/2 Overton Heath, Malpas Another hammock photo https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1715/24670718693_5d61404a38_z.jpg I tried something new this time by hanging my new Alpkit quilt underneath the hammock. it seemed to work well, but around 1am I woke up feeling the cold from underneath. No problem, I pum...

I have a summer quilt from UKhammocks that I have used exclusively in a hammock since I got it last October and have bivvied every month since then. I haven't been cold, (sometimes been too hot) but I do wear lots of layers to sleep in. It's a universe away from the DD hammocks synthetic bag I used ...

12 litres of bio-ethanol. I've tried a pop can stove-full. It makes much less smell than standard maths.

And a complete set of rear shock bearings for my full susser.

1/1 Moel Famau Country Park. Starting my 2016 campaign here https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1443/24598575426_f32f937ff8_z.jpg After peddalling largely against the wind it dropped for me to set my hammock up in the woods. No hammock picture this time - they all look the same. I was within earshot of t...

I took a couple of grandsons to Llandegla yesterday. After following them all the way around, on the last little bit I thought I'd have a little blast. Well my pedal caught on the ground resulting in a classic face/ground co-location. They came around the corner to see a wheel spinning and me in a h...

Up above the Panorama, up above Llangollen. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1713/24030077359_3e0f8f6a97_z.jpg It was very grey, the wind was blowing horizontal wet snow. I'd managed to ride/push up that far. What looks like down hill behind the bike is quite the reverse. It got to be too much like ha...

I almost exclusively sleep in a hammock when bikepacking (see my posts in the Bivvy-a-Month thread). I find it so much more comfortable than ground sleeping. The biggest drawback I think, is the need to find sleeping spots with trees - the right sort of trees, in the right orientation to the wind di...

Spot tracker on its way :-bd Me too. Actually, it came a few days ago. Trying to find out how to sign it up etc was fraught, to say the least. Try searching the web and you get hundreds of reviews/opinions/adverts/guides but no howtos. the manual is woefully unhelpful to a tech-unsavvy like me. The...

I wanna know this too. I've just hit "Buy" on a Spot Gen 3.

In fact I'm feeling doubly-guilty now after buying a couple more bamboo leggings which are quite probably Chinese as well - made in a sweatshop somewhere AND depriving some poor panda of its breakfast. Oh. I came here to cheer myself up so that was a dismal failure! With guilt like that you could b...

12/12 on Grinshill Hill. Yet another picture of my hammock! Yawn! https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5690/23759264751_fc93d97434_z.jpg Nice Views towards Shrewsbury from up here. https://farm1.staticflickr.com/702/23841672515_bd4077204a_z.jpg https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5691/23214882263_a95000fd35_z....

Thanks for the help chaps. I've ordered some pukka marine grease. Time to get the fingernails dirty.