Unless you are fast, something like a 21hr pace, or bivy then you won't get any resupply options. There is an early shop, they do coffee as well I think to make the shops/ garage you will need to be faster than 21 hour, you get an extra hour with the takeaway If you are slower than that you'll be d...

There was a bit of discussion on Sunday afternoon at the community centre about this. There's a definite feeling that there's a large number who've come to bikepacking through the bike industry's mode of using it to sell stuff. I suspect many of those that Stu talks about would be expecting somethi...

Same bridleway that was clearly visible on site hence why I got confused and had to repeatedly stop to get the phone/map out and try to understand why the GPS track would go into nowhere to only join the same bridleway later on. I just assume that Stu is helping out a PhD student researching how st...

That for me just added to the frustration from making no progress and wasting lot of time having to stop and check the map on my phone to understand whether I was going completely off course or not. Disregarding the issues that made it a bit "special" the general principle that nav needs ...

The GPS track is an interpretation of a line on a map and not a line on the ground; it may be somewhere close but the line on the ground may not exist in any visible form! At one of the dam crossings it took a lower road for several hundred metres and then seemed to pick up an imaginary track betwe...

I can't complain too much as I made it back in 20hrs 9min, with a fairly loaded bike, having broken my saddle bag and punctured once.

Big achievement, a strong ride, and I agree the gpx was very frustrating

There was a toilet block round the back with a noticed pinned to the door: "These toilets are shut due to a lack of water. Sorry Oddly the gents had some water, urinal cistern was locked off but could flush after my poo and tap had water although very aerated. Made a meal and dried my gloves u...

Trust me, it didn't help in the slightest. I had zero idea where I was supposed to be on two tussock sections, despite doing it in perfect light. Both and others ended up on the wrong side of the river a few times in the worst section of river/Landover track. Bogtrotting the moorland was simple in ...

Thanks Bob. I suspect (but probably wrong) all the talk by Bikepacking.com saying it's a reasonable difficulty route(s) and lots of folks turning up in gravel bikes, may have caused Stu to push the boundaries to what's acceptable (to you lot). One of the fast riders was running fine/file tread tire...

Will I ever get a black badge?

You would have last year if you hadn't bedded down in a bus shelter

but I got my nuts wet a couple of times.

A decent speed and subsequent bow wave would have kept them dry

I'm still not entirely sure how it's possible as I'm fairly certain I spent that long in *** areas redacted ***.

The bow waves through hub deep puddle after hub deep puddle after hub deep puddle would have been impressive

takeaway/donner place. IT CLOSES AT 0300

I doubt they saw many customers, I was a little behind those in the pictures with plenty behind me. I got there at 12 this lunchtime

Tough route but i gave it everything i had....13h 54min

What are you riding? A hovercraft?

so I'm looking for a tent with decent size sleeping area and reasonable porch, that's not too heavy and not hugely expensive!

You need to decide the weight really, an opalus 2 in 20D fabric has a great porch but at the heavier end for most bike packers

The bothy looks like a good option to take a min & re-fuel..

What bothy???????

Toying with taking a stove and meal and stopping early and hitting town for breakfast.

I'm taking a couple of meals and hopefully will make the takeaways

The least calorie dense food I'm carrying are jelly babies

Garmin had me down as burning 10,000 calories last year

I'm going to be cutting it really close on some of the shops I wanted to get to. I think I'm going to have to go out at a much harder pace than I had originally intended. I usually start late (and hungover), but I guess not this year! There's an on route PO that's reachable before it shuts at lunch...

Still think about ditching some of my tool kit to only the min of things I have actually used in the last year rather than everything I might need. Of course that Totally tempts fate.

You just become THAT person who relies on everyone else carrying the kit and them being too nice not to ride past

Personally I'd take more, you always want to have some and filtering water from streams every couple of hours might be a pita

Your sleep system weighs a lot less than mine

That was available to all riders so is fair game. It's private/personal arrangements not available to all that are against the spirit/rules of the game.

Available to those who knew where it was, I didn't have a clue as all the references to it were for those in the know

obviously, I probably don't really need to remind anyone but saying that I didn't think I'd have to remind anyone that they can't share kit either. So when you just make the takeaway, sit outside luxuriating in the calories after it shuts, can you give redined_cycles some of your lamb kebab or not ...

Put the tread on the front and run as fast you can on the back

Front will hold and not dump you, rear won't be a boat anchor

The real answer is mezcals, I hope

Also, this death march area. I still haven't figured it out properly. Pls can someone give an idea of where's it at (what milage roughly) so I can try and compensate :shock: I'm assuming its either the east to west leg or the bit heading north after the forest a few 10's of k later I'm hoping to hi...

Acepac Seat pack harness and 16l drybag - Used for one trip before deciding to use a rack instead. £35

Interested if still available