Welsh Ride Thing 2012

[Nick]

Routes via pubs!

Saves carrying beer with you.

[didnothingfatal]

Last thing I'll be needing is alcohol!

[Nick]

I guess for some people the WRT is an event to be taken seriously, checkpoints ticked off, all food carried, must sleep out, for us though it's always been a social affair punctuated by some fairly hard moutain biking, kinda like a Festival of Bikepacking (there you go Stuart, new tagline for the Welsh Ride Thing - International Bikepacking Festival).

Plus we have a bloody great time :D

I fully intend to give the BB200 a good old thrashing though, and do MnB again, and I don't intend to drink alcohol (unless I bail again as we did on last year's BB200) as I want to treat them a little more competatively.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I guess for some people the WRT is an event to be taken seriously, checkpoints ticked off, all food carried, must sleep out, for us though it's always been a social affair punctuated by some fairly hard moutain biking, kinda like a Festival of Bikepacking

Couldn't agree more and IMO that's the great thing ... treat it anyway you want, there's more than enough options to keep everyone happy. For me the best part is catching snippets of stories at the finish, some of the best don't involve riding miles and collecting every GR

[Chew]

For me the best part is catching snippets of stories at the finish, some of the best don't involve riding miles and collecting every GR

I remember the lockin/Wendy house story...

From the top of SJ 075341 there are 2 decents westwards from the peak. Is one more fun than the other, or should i just toss a coin?

[Bearbonesnorm]

From the top of SJ 075341 there are 2 decents westwards from the peak. Is one more fun than the other, or should i just toss a coin?

My own choice would be the northern one.

[Slacker]

We are famous Nick, The Wendy house saga and my Alpkit pic . Things don't get better than this.

Ohh sorry to say its 20,000 ft of climbing.

[Nick]

Oh 20k, great, thought it seemed a bit easy.

I've got the pics from Sam (had lost mine) so might write up our exploits on the 2010 WRT and bung it up on my blog in a bit.

[Nick]

Day 1 - WRT 2010 is now up on my blog, only two years late, but if anyone who hasn't done it before is wondering what it might be like (if you're as lucky as us) then nows you're chance :D

[griffdowg]

thought I would post up some links to Geograph showing some sections. May or may not be of interest!

SJ0014 - WP 16: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/560331

SH9713 - WP18: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/969493

SJ0015 - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/568140

SJ0118 - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/755370 (cant quite see the opening times)

SJ0621 - WP15: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/559258

...for starters.

[sillybigfella]

This is my first time this year. Will there be anything at these checkpoints to record?

[griffdowg]

This is my first time this year. Will there be anything at these checkpoints to record?

No, they are just points to incorporate into your route.

Unless a little gnome comes out to one of the checkpoints :D

G

[sillybigfella]

Like this??

[griffdowg]

Like this??

No not Stu, he will be too busy sorting out the cakes :D

I meant this guy:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SzS14gHj2bM/T ... amping.jpg

G

[Taylor]

(cant quite see the opening times)

10am

[Bearbonesnorm]

No not Stu, he will be too busy sorting out the cakes

Cheeky f**kers

[griffdowg]

(cant quite see the opening times)

10am

cheers FF

G

[Cornish Neil]

As newbies to the WRT we've splashed the cash on the 5 OS maps and marked all the GR's on them. But I'm now thinking carting several paper maps around (and having to stop and turn them in a waterproof case quite regularly) may not be the way forward...

I was hoping the BMC 1:40k map I already have of south snowdonia covered a good portion of it but in reality it only replaces 1 of the OS maps and bits of a couple of others so no benefit there.

I'm not prepared to spend £££ on a gps although i may be able to borrow a satmap active 10, and we have an iPhone at our disposal - are there any better options for planning and or use n the event?

[99percentchimp]

Neil,
If you can plan a route on your paper maps and then get that 'traced' into www.bikehike.co.uk (or similar) to create a GPX file of your route (maybe day by day/section by section) I'd be happy to load that into my version of Memory Map (1:50K) and print your route out to a set of A4 PDFs to email you. You could then print those out double sided, hard copy and take just these with you to lighten the load....
This was fine for us last year (with a GPS signal from your phone occasionally) - and should be OK unless you bail/change route plans part way.
Let me know if you need any help as above, Mark
mark DOT weldon AT btinternet DOT com

[Nick]

I'd be sorely tempted to get a cheap GPS such as one of the low end Etrex units, you can get the H for £61.25 "used" from Amazon (so that's ££ not £££ :D ).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-eTrex-Ha ... 405&sr=1-1

Makes navigating through forests on forestry roads a breeze, as well as following the obligatory "there's track on the map but nothing on the ground" moments. Then keep your maps until you decide to change something or want to confirm your location.

[sillybigfella]

I've looked at my route that many times, I won't need a map....

[chris n]

I'd be sorely tempted to get a cheap GPS such as one of the low end Etrex units, you can get the H for £61.25 "used" from Amazon (so that's ££ not £££ :D ).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-eTrex-Ha ... 405&sr=1-1

Makes navigating through forests on forestry roads a breeze, as well as following the obligatory "there's track on the map but nothing on the ground" moments. Then keep your maps until you decide to change something or want to confirm your location.

The Etrex H isn't perfect by a long way. There's no road map, barely any internal storage and a clunky serial only interface that uses flaky conectors and drivers. You can work around these limitations (and I have for the last 4 or 5 years, so I know it can work) but it's not ideal. You'll also need to buy the proprietary cable (and USB to serial converter if your PC doesn't have a serial port) and Garmin's handlebar clamp. I doubt you'll get all this for less than £100. The Garmin Etrex 10 is a much better bet, I reckon. I gave in to gadget lust and bought the Etrex 30.

[Nick]

Yeah Chris, you're probably right - I'd forgotten about the silly interface on the H, having software such as Memory Map or Quo also allows you to work around the limitations on the storage pretty easily (can get a precise 120 mile ride loaded up on my H no problem).

So for an extra £20 the Etrex 10 is definately a better idea - £83 on ebay at the moment. It doesn't do mapping though (which not only costs more for the device but you have to buy the maps aswell).

I've never used a mapping GPS, always found following the breadcrumb on the H easy to do, that said Slacker has just got a Satmap so I'm looking forwards to seeing how it performs on the WRT.

[Ian]

So for an extra £20 the Etrex 10 is definately a better idea - £83 on ebay at the moment. It doesn't do mapping though (which not only costs more for the device but you have to buy the maps aswell).

I've never used a mapping GPS, always found following the breadcrumb on the H easy to do

The Etrex 10 is £83 on amazon too: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-eTrex-Ou ... b_title_ce

Or, for another twelve quid, you can have one of these: http://www.handtec.co.uk/product.php/21 ... retrex-301
Smaller, lighter - if smaller and ligher matter to you at all
I've found this to be OK. I've never used a GPS with built in mapping. I can cope reasonably well with the breadcrumb trail and a back up paper map in my pocket.

[Dan_K]

If you just want a backup gps, I can recommend the viewranger app if you have a smartphone. The app's free and the landranger OS map for north wales is £7.99. You can use it across platforms too as the map licence is to the account rather than individual device.
I downloaded the app to my Ipad and paid for the map through Itunes. When I put the app on my HTC, I went to download the map again and it was free to download the map to my phone.

I'll be using my Etrex HCX with OS mapping to follow my route but will have the viewranger map for any bits that need a more detailed map.