Not from the postie, not on a Sunday afternoon.
The nice man with a delivery from Argos.
A new hair trimmer ordered after the failure of my previous trimmer this morning halfway through the task at hand.
No way was I leaving the house. Very grateful for same day deliveries.

I threw this together more with a view to touring than bikepacking if I'm honest. I used it on the BB winter event as a first trip as a bit of a test to see if it was workable and wouldn't collapse in a heap. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4749/25870119228_fac5f33c8c_n.jpg Mapboard by Richard Picton...

The Panda is very interesting. In 213AD the Roman legions brought a panda with them believing it would somehow help their (so far unsuccessful) invasion of Wales. I assume it was some sort of mascot / charm. Anyway, it did nothing to help the Roman empire because early in the campaign, Llewelyn the...

A nice toasty 1/12 here as well, my nearest neighbours I'm sure will attest to the quality of my sleep.....

Finally got round to sorting out my pics - emailed to you BDSteve for the collective Dropbox.

I don't know what's more worrying - the panda under fire up there ^^^^^..... Or the panda here...


Untitled by Richard Picton, on Flickr

I was a bit rude to someone in the cafe at Bwlch y Sarnau in that I forgot to ask who you were! We were just on our way out as you sat down and chatted to me. This would have been about 1730. Hi Bob, that might've been me - no worries at all, it looked as though you were in the middle of getting yo...

Cheers Steve. Overall not too bad, alot of the ground was frozen, a fair bit not though. Still had to shake ice off the tarp after three nights on the ground, some stunning mornings though.

Try these... the old road across to Ullapool https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2911/14474284839_93692d4f9f.jpg P1030116 by Richard Picton , on Flickr On the way to Gobernuisgach Lodge from the south https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3851/14657694191_8c77234eb2.jpg P1030159 by Richard Picton , on Flickr A ...

Even though Dr Nick and I had our own agenda (101 miles along the Ridgeway), the Saturday night socialising was great - huge thanks to Tim and Sam for the time and effort put in.
We'd thank Reg as well for sorting out some excellent routes, but we didn't use them, so we won't

One ride per day here as well when I'm off touring.
I reckon that some of the apps for joining gpx files will reduce the sampling - I joined all the rides together after this years tour to give one file for the whole route - it came up about 30 miles shorter than just adding them all together.

I dabbled around in IT for 30 years or more and NEVER touched a spreadsheet

That's because you gave it up 20 years ago Reg, spreadsheets still hadn't been invented

I did that too (imported some older gpx files) and certainly don't regard it as cheating I did that with a heap of files from Garmin Connect from pre-Strava times. Didn't know you could create new ones that would be usable - What did you use to create the GPX files with valid timestamps? Edit - tha...

Just been poking round the explorer tiles on this. Looks like they can show the explorer tiles with an OS map backdrop now - I'm sure they didn't used to be able to do this. I like this bit alot!

I'll add my thanks to those that have posted already. Much time and effort goes into bringing together an event like this. There's such a range of abilities within the participants, very tricky to create something that's more or less just doable by those at the blunt end as well as being sufficientl...

Marty McFly would have had a Barts' 1/2" map!

As above, the OS maps are very good. Being OS they show bridleways and footpaths in "the normal OS" way, assuming this is A. Something you're bothered about and B. You're not in Scotland. They do go a bit pixelly as well if you zoom in hoping for more detail. The OSM maps are better in thi...

A Sora or Tiagra 3x front mech should see you right, I run one on my tourer and it's fine down to 24t inner

less about racing and more about cake

Indeed

From memory, there's a company in Glasgow called Kinetics who I believe build specialist bikes and kit for less able people, including electrically operated. Don't know how easy-going they are to discuss ideas with but may be worth making contact? I'm pretty sure his name's Ben - he's on STW, seems...

Hi R&SKP
Could I take the Exposure light please?

Edit - bugger, beaten by seconds. 2nd dibs if there is such a thing.

Might I be permitted to join your happy throng again this year?

Must do another outing sometime, too long to wait until WRT mate. We still haven't tested out our new top secret spot yet

Up for another do at some point, the weekends are getting a bit booked up though. Got myself a R I G 7 tarp as well now for a bit of extended luxury (#bemoreReg )

what makes you think you're touring? Cough, errmm https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5482/10841864493_ea70d8b24a_n.jpg Barra Beach by Richard Picton , on Flickr Although in fairness that was straight off the ferry, around 7pm. No meal or camp spot sorted. But I won't cos then Rich won't come touring......

Again, great pics and words... Looking forward to the next installment

Looks like another good trip Reg.

Why did I read that sign as "Tearoom, 2 Milf"