… great complexity? If you’re a regular visitor here, you’ll know I have a hub dynamo on my bike, and rely on that to help keep my gadgets charged when out cycling. Especially on multi-day, off-grid rides, with wild camping along the way, your options are either to be self-reliant, or to have all your […]
Security while cycle touring
UPDATE: There have been at least two recent (as of October 2021) incidents of cyclists having been attacked and having their bikes stolen in the Small Heath area of Birmingham, along the Grand Union Canal towpath. In addition, at least two cyclists were attacked by moped gangs in Richmond Park, London, and ended up having […]
Designing a route
The difference between a cycling route and a GOOD cycling route Anyone can design a cycling route, but to design a good route requires a bit of thought. For the purposes of this post, I’ll be focusing on longer, ideally multi-day routes. You cannot design a route without a map. The only question is where that […]
Oh, just a little bike ride
This Easter weekend, I went and tested my Somerset Circle route. COVID restrictions remain in place, but as from the 29th of March, effective relaxation of the restrictions meant I could wild camp, without falling foul of those restrictions. My day started early, and I was on the road, cycling the 11 miles to Plymouth […]
Your next holiday in Devon or Cornwall
It’s no secret that Devon and Cornwall are astoundingly beautiful counties. Similar in many ways, yet also quite distinct from each other, with the ever-present Cream Tea War looming in the background. Both counties are full of real people – salt-of-the-earth types – who are friendly and welcoming. Cornwall has a very strong national identity – […]
Green touring
Green touring? As in, touring through a green landscape? Well, no. Green touring is about reducing your environmental footprint while touring. This is the point where people start claiming they care about the planet, always recycle, and what’s more, once wrote a sternly-worded Tweet about a certain supermarket’s excessive use of plastic, and even tagged the […]
DayCycle – Tarka Trail
Cycling the Tarka Trail A 35 miles, the Tarka Trail is an almost entirely traffic-free cycling route that is flat for the most part. Suitable for families. The Tarka Trail is a long shared path in North Devon, England. It’s a great car-free way to explore the countryside and see some amazing scenery. This free […]
Top Cycle Touring Tips
The beauty of cycle touring is the freedom is gives you, and that freedom includes how you tour. Some may choose foreign destinations, while others stay more local. Some may ride with everything but the kitchen sink, while others ride from hotel to hotel, carrying almost nothing on the bike. Broadly speaking, there simply is […]
Cycle touring and Sustrans routes
In the UK, there’s a charity called Sustrans, and they’re behind something called, perhaps overly optimistically, the National Cycle Network (NCN for short). NCN routes vary massively in terms of quality – from smooth, sealed, traffic-free surfaces, to swampy quagmires, to busy roads, congested with cars. As a result, many British cyclists speak of disdain of […]
Book review – Quondam – Travels In A Once World, by John Devoy
Quondam is not your normal travel book, and you may as well know this from the start. To begin with, it only tells part of Devoy’s journey, but far more unusual than that, it was written decades after the journey. Quondam recounts Devoy’s travels from Cairo to Nairobi. In this always-connected world of ours, Quondam […]
GoCycle Expert Guide – Somerset Circle
Go exploring along the gorgeous Somerset Circle! The UK has many disused railways, and many of these have been converted into shared paths. In fact, Sustrans’ very first path was the Bristol And Bath Rail Path, which follows the course of an old, disused railway, and forms part of the Somerset Circle. The Camel Trail in […]
Back To Basics – How to pack your panniers
No, this post is not an insult to your intelligence, and I won’t follow it up with “How to pack your suitcase” or “How to pack your groceries into a carrier bag”. As you’ll soon learn, packing panniers is different, for a number of reasons, starting with weight distribution. If riding with just two panniers, […]
Bikes and trains
Update: I have a newer post about bikes on trains, covering all railway operators in the UK, and I suggest you go read that. This post is solely to offer a few tips for those who have never taken their bicycle on a train, and is meant to support my cycle routes page, which references […]
Back To Basics – How to carry luggage on a bike
There are different reasons for carrying luggage on the bike, ranging from commuting, to shopping and touring. Obviously, cargo bikes are an option, as are trailers, but in this post I want to focus on luggage being carried on a “normal” bike. When I first started cycle commuting, I simply carried a backpack, and indeed, […]
Cold-weather camping – a new frontier to me
I’ve done lots of wild-camping in my life. Interestingly, wild-camping is a term I only learned after moving to the UK. In South Africa wild-camping is what you mean when you say you’re going camping. My wild-camping experiences include only carrying a small daypack, with water and food and almost nothing else, and simply sleeping […]
Charging your phone while cycling
Some consider them a curse, but it’s very hard to argue against the very real benefits smartphones bring to our lives. Whether it’s accessing social media, or taking a photo, most of us are using our phones all the time, and that simply means it’s quite easy to totally drain your phone’s battery during a […]
GoCycle Expert Guide – Devon Coast To Coast
Cycling Devon Coast To Coast Guide Want to cycle Devon Coast To Coast but unsure of how to go about it? Worry no more! My Devon Coast To Coast cycle route guide will make your whole experience a better one. It’s more than just a route guide – it’s a Digital Tour Leader! The Devon Coast […]
Why adventure?
When was the last time you did something for the first time? Just think about that for a few minutes. Also the next question: why was it so long ago? Do you remember, when you were a child, watching ants march in and out of their underground homes, sometimes spending ages, in pure fascination? Do […]
Cycle touring FAQs
Your cycle touring questions answered Following on from my cycle camping post, I thought I’d look at cycle touring in a bit more detail. You’ve read those stories of daring and adventure, of cycle tourists taking on the world and the elements and emerging, triumphantly, at the end, right? The reality will at times be […]
Tips for going cycle camping
Tips for going cycle camping Recently, I was asked what cooking gear I use when I go cycle camping, and that made me think about a general post about cycle camping. I’m a very big fan of cycle touring, and to me, cycle touring means cycle camping. Ernest Hemingway said it best: “It is by […]
