My winter event - Freedom Ride for Dr Aafia Siddiqui

[redefined_cycles]

As most of you know, I'm one of them other types of wierdos. I don't do drugs (well, not the intoxicating ones, but that's not meant as an offence to anyone that does) and nor do I drink the tipple (again, no offence to anyone that does, I just prefer not to) or associate myself to the tipple-joints at all. Wait, the wierdness gets worse, cos I also don't commit to social/leisurely activities with the opposite gender and all that jazz!!

But, I still try to take part in the winter event in my own 'wierd' way. For the past 3 years now (actually 4 if you count the Peaks Winter Bivy with Karl) I've decided to make it a regular thing of making it human rights orientated. So, I do it for charity/sponsorship etc etc.

This year was unusual that I didn't have to ride alone (Karl probably wasn't about and never looks at the phone anyway) as a young chap came up out of the blue. No bivy experience whatsoever and no proper long distance riding, except the odd 100 miler on the road bike here or there. Told him about this years Freedom for Aafia Siddiqui ride and he was in.

240 miles to London it was - though last year it was just 100 miles locally cos the yearly chest infection just wasn't working with the diary - and thankfully he was happy to take some advice on bivy kit and safety gear. Waterproofs bought, Revelate Spinelock purchased, down sleeping bag and all the rest of the stuff that's needed to make a ride of this proportion safe enough.

It's the first of a series of BAMs hopefully for myself, but for Nasir, who knows! My (newer) kit was as follows, so needed to be put through some winter paces...

1. Revelate Harness. The newer version and which it's probably the first time riding with it. Bought especially for the narrower type road/drop bars. Other harnesses/bags i've used would restrict the hand positions or lever-gearing. This seemed spot on and it was also good for the aero bar shape. Biggest of all was that it can come off the bars without needing the instruction manual.

Downside being that it was too tight on my cable-outers (not a fault of the harness) and by the end of day 2 enroute back home from the station, I got a bit of ghost shifting. But the previous issue on the older harness where the bar strap needed constant cynch-ing up seems to be cured Alhamdulillah. I also (probably) overpacked it and the thickness of the (lightweight) drybag meant it got a bit of rubbing on the tyre.

By the time the bivy came after 13 hours of moving/walking/biking etc, I'd worn a hole through both dry bags. Thankfully the PHD sleeping bag and Criterion jacket (first time using in the field, worked amazing) just about got saved from being worn through. Maybe thanks to that special material they both use. Dry bag was full of tyre grit and the corner of the Criterion stuff sack was frozen-grit!

Time for some pics I suppose and I'll get back to the harness in a mo.



Must've done at least about 5 miles of much needed walking, to save from slipping. Then maybe another 2 enforced walking just to keep the toes warm!



At the time I took this pic, we never realsied the gravity of that much ice. It had probably caused the associated grit to wear out our pads. My new Dura Ace pads are unequally worn and ready for the bin. But, Nasir had zero brake pads left by the time I noticed. Funny stuff is ice and road tires/calipers hey!



Trip would be incomplete without this pair of pics. Night before and we (well, I cos Nasir didn'teven come with his winter jacket, nor winter shoes ) knew it might turn from type 2 to 3 quite quickly.

It had to be done though as I wasn't gonna be spending an extra so many £s on a new train ticket for another day. We just needed to get past Rugby and it'd be warm

TBC

[redefined_cycles]

We got prepared at mine and departed by noon. First few miles out of Dewsbury wasn't too bad which was good as I'd been fearful of black ice! Then after about 20 or 30 miles, life became a bit 'slushy'. Attempts were made to keep up the riding. Sadly though nor were his summer spd shoes working well and nor were my Goretex hiking boots too warm.


I'd used some 3M VHB tape the days before to try and increase the rating of my boots. First time out though, so who knew. Lining being the stuff Boab had sent me in place of Tyvek and I suppose it worked well until it finally flew away. Feet dry (so far at about 40 and 50 miles) but cold and trotting helped well!


Hardwick Castle was interesting and first time I'd seen it like this. Even the gate was closed. After getting to the bottom of this I had my first fall - shoulder whacked but thankfully nothing too harsh.

Took us about 85 miles to cover 13 hours. So at 0100 I discussed/suggested to Nasir that we should bivy down. Especially since visibility had dropped to just two 'middle of the road (what are they called again)' lines. I asked Nasir but he seemed to be able to see 6 lines down the road Maybe I was hallucinating the fog, but it was his first 200 miler in freezing temps. We weren't gonna risk it so the next town on, Ashby De La Zouch, we bedded down.

He'd asked me about 'whats the best way' to find a bivy spot. Like the blind leading the blind, so I suggested the Howdens depot. "It's got high walls, so it'll protect from the rain" I told him. It didn't so after just 2 hours lying down we were back up and away.

50 minutes of sleep for me and only 0 minutes for him. "Isn't that sleeping pad gonna be a bit small for you (the one I'd suggested he bought as anything is better than nothing)" I asked him about his torso sized sleeping pad. "I sleep curled up" he'd assured me. Obviously he couldn't curl up enough and this brings me to my next purchase for this ride.

2. Hunka XL bivy bag: Well, what can we say about the Hunka. It kept me warm in it. There was no water ingress and being an XL i just about fit. Keeping the rain out was trickier than I recall from the last time and by the time the 2 hours came, it was drenched through. Had I breathed too much into it, or was it the leaking dry bags that had allowd water into the down of my PHD bag and the Criterion jacket (amazing bit of kit and I think the dry-down must've helped as it remained warm dwspite being wet).

I full dried them both out the next day but I definitely cannot remember this much condensate from previous ownership. The army goretex types are extremely breathable in comparison, but the extra bulk and 600g couldntbe afforded.

Have you had any sleep I'd shouted across at him. He'd not had a wink and I asked about getting up. It was obvious what the answe lr would be so we got up and agreed the plan B. Another 160 miles remaining with about 9000ft of up, we didn't want to risk another night needing our wet down and bivy bags, so we shot to Loughborough station to catch a few trains to Luton.


There's Nasir having managed to get his socks back on and gear packed.


Him having packed up, or maybe before the bivy when he mustve followed instructions well to wuickly get the down bag inside the Hunka to allow a bit of loft.


Next day when I think I had the wet down under waterproof. Thankfully torso kept warm and taking the water bladder worked well. For the first time in 3 years I've come back from this ride without sciatica (last years hundred miler mtb) or developing a chest infection (the two years previously, I think). I popped a Camelbak Podium on the bike for ablution and general cleanliness duties as well as to back up for taking electrolytes.

I had also added lots of honey to the water bladder and kept it warm inside the sleeve. First day I'd kept the bladder/backpack under the goretex jacket, but today for some reason I had it he other way. Not really sure which worked best for venting/heating. A note on the Camelbak is that I was constantly reminding Nasir to not leave his gear lying about (we know from experience) and he constantly forgot to heed the advice.

Thankfully the only item he'd lost was a water bottle the next day (when he rode back up to Peterborough to make up the lost mileage, for his own peace of mind) He'll learn, maybe after he loses some £100 specs or his keys.

Then from Luton we caught back the route and for once I was gonna arrive in London for a respectable time. Thanks to Nasir also, one of the masjids was happy to let us stay - what a blessing for both of us. Food was great from his uncle and sleep was excellent... shower was included in the masjid-stay. His good friend/uncle (another uncle) washed and dried our kit so I was left with a fluffed up down jacket and bag.


Arriving at the end point only 29 hours after leaving home, without any injuries of frostbite


Food...


Food, glorious food...

Parting comments are that I discussed the BAM with Nasir. He seemed keen for a brief hour or two, but then had his first ever 1c bivy in the rain on a half mat. I'm pretty certain he's not too keen anymore (for the mo).

The boots not remaining waterproof, I think I can forgive em as it was rather cold and very wet. The Revelate harness, I got round the scrubbing on the tyre by packing it tighter and I'll see if I can find a small drybag with thicker material!!

Oh, and one of the biggest problems for me personally, managing to make ablution in the freezing cold. It was easier with us both thinking about prayer times and ablutions...

1 BAM down, 11 to go and well done @nasir

[frogatthefarriers]

Oh Lordy! What an introduction to bikepacking for poor Nasir. He’ll probably never speak to you again, poor thing…

[redefined_cycles]

Oh Lordy! What an introduction to bikepacking for poor Nasir. He’ll probably never speak to you again, poor thing…

Mr Frog... The next morning (second night after we'd showered and freshened) when my alarm went off (in fact, we could have probably even classed the staying in the masjid as a kind of bivy as it fulfilled the rules of staying in a bothy.. no payments etc etc) for morning prayers at the masjid I let it keep playing.

Eventually he got fed up and got up to turn it off. That was literally the only complaint I heard from him throughout the ride... Then after prayers he came and told me that he's completing the missing 100 miles (and collected 5 jerseys from London to ride back with). I really think he'll bite the BAM bug once he realises it doesn't need to be this 'condensating'.

I did explain that I 'bivy to ride (further' so that'll probably help. He's got as much of a loose bolt (is that still politically appropriate or are bolts getting offended yet!?) as the rest of us and he might well pop over here at some point to report his version of events.

[Blackhound]

Nice write up, certainly an adventurous ride this time of year.
If you look at my latest entry for November in the bivvy-a-month thread the location of the birdhide is about 4 miles south of Ashby. If of interest in future years I can send you directions.

[redefined_cycles]

Nice write up, certainly an adventurous ride this time of year.
If you look at my latest entry for November in the bivvy-a-month thread the location of the birdhide is about 4 miles south of Ashby. If of interest in future years I can send you directions.

Wow. Yes pls. I saw that bird hide in the BAM write ups but never thought I'd ever get a chance to appreciate it. I'll edit the route so it goes past there for future years (though I'm secretly hoping it'll never be this icy or snowy again as in 2021 about 120 miles was managed before the cold/fatigue caused me to need some sleep.

I'm on the BAM now anyway and there's a Strava segment that goes as far as Derby. Ashby is only a few miles away, so you'll be seein the bird hide in one of my write ups hopefully...