Go for a Coffee Ride!

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Admit it – you love coffee almost as much as you love cycling. That simply makes coffee and cycling a perfect match! Your  very  own  Coffee  Ride Oh, bike rides with a café stop are great, and we all love them, but that’s not what a real Coffee Ride is about. Oh no! A Coffee ... Read more

The Strawberry Line cycle route

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The Strawberry Line is a 10.5 mile (mostly) traffic-free route between Yatton and Cheddar, Somerset.

Cuckoo Trail Traffic-free Cycle Route

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Cuckoo Trail Cycle Route Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ The Cuckoo Trail runs from Heathfield to Polegate, passing through Hellingly, Horam, and Hailsham. The trail got its name from an old tradition of releasing a cuckoo at the Heathfield Fair, and offers 14 miles of traffic-free bliss in East Sussex. This is a disused railway, and so ... Read more

Hornsea Rail Trail Traffic-free Cycle Route

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Hornsea Rail Trail Cycle Route Overall Rating: ⭐⭐ The Hornsea Rail Trail links the centre of Hull with Hornsea, 15 miles further along a disused rail trail. Just over half of the route is tarred, with the remainder quite decent compacted gravel. This trail forms part of the Trans Pennine Trail, and is signed as ... Read more

Union Canal Traffic-free Cycle Route

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Union Canal Cycle Route Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ The Union Canal, starts by the Falkirk Wheel and ends Edinburgh, 34 miles away. It is a contour canal, therefore has no climbing. There are three aqueducts and two tunnels and the path along each of those is narrow and cobbled, so it’s suggested that you walk your ... Read more

Cambridge Guided Busway

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Cambridge Guided Busway Cycle Route Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ The Cambridge Guided Busway was originally built as a service road for the busway. Sadly, when it floods (as it does from time to time) the local authority refuses to do anything about it, claiming it’s a service road. However, when talking about what they’re doing for ... Read more

Forth and Clyde Canal Traffic-free Cycle Route

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Forth and Clyde Canal Cycle Route Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ The Forth and Clyde Canal links Glasgow with Falkirk, and most of the 35 miles of towpath is tarred. It is a stunning, flat (as you’d expect from a canal towpath) route, but it’s not perfect. For a significant part of the canal, the towpath is ... Read more

Autumn blues

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The  melancholy  of  autumn While autumn is unquestionably a beautiful season, each autumn I get a sense of melancholy, a sense of almost sadness. I’m not referring to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) – though winter certainly isn’t my favourite part of the year, I’m fortunate enough not to suffer from SAD. Perhaps it’s the passing ... Read more

Cycling tattoos

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My bicycle tattoo, immediately after it was done
Get  inked! Tattoos are a highly personal, and sometimes emotive subject. Some abhor them, some love them. I’m in the latter group, but of course it’s OK for you to not like tattoos. However, we all like cycling, don’t we? And what better way to celebrate cycling than with a collection of cycling-related tattoos? Cycling  ... Read more

The quest for power

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Satisfying  your  off-grid  cycle  touring  power  needs Off-grid cycle touring is exactly what the name suggests. Just you and your bike, going places, wild camping along the way. There’s no access to mains power, so you either have to carry sufficient battery capacity with you, or find a way to generate power along the way. ... Read more

Four Ferries & Freedom

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Cycling  Penzance  to  Plymouth I spent three days cycling from Penzance to Plymouth, wild camping along the way. I wanted to do this route for ages, but kept postponing to go cycling elsewhere in the UK instead. The reason for that’s simple: I know Cornwall reasonably well, but there are large swatches of the UK ... Read more

SheCycles – Sarah

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The SheCycles pic of Sarah
Sarah,  in  a  brand-new  SheCycles  post In case you still didn’t know, SheCycles is a growing series of posts highlighting women who cycle. They’re all quite different, and all totally amazing. If you haven’t yet, do go read all the other SheCycles posts! Sarah Sarah was born in Lincolnshire, and now lives in Northamptonshire. She’s ... Read more

Penzance – Plymouth Pootle – a Travelling Ouballies Ride

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Penzance – Plymouth Pootle I’ve wanted to cycle from Penzance to Plymouth for ages now, hugging the coastline. It’s an absolutely stunning part of the world, though as anyone would tell you, Cornwall is hilly. What makes things worse is hugging the coast inevitably means going up and down even more. Now to be fair, ... Read more

But you might die…

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Don’t go cycle touring as you might die Ever heard anyone say something along those lines? Ever put off going on an adventure because of such worries? I have news for you: you are going going to die. This may sound morbid, but every single one of us will die. The choice you need to make ... Read more

Stealth camping in the UK

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Why  stealth  camping? Stealth camping is wild camping done in such a way that nobody knows that you’re there. There are various reasons why you may want to do some stealth camping, but usually it’s because you may not have explicit permission to camp in a particular spot. What  does  the  law  say? With the ... Read more