So it went wrong

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The Internet is awash with glitzy, highly-polished tales of jaw-dropping adventures in stunning and exotic locations, illustrated with often wonderful pictures. That’s the show-reel, to draw you in. Do not for one moment think all adventures are like that! Sooner or later, something will go badly wrong on an adventure. That’s all part of the ... Read more

This is the life you’re living

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This is your only life, so live it well. Instead of worrying about things that you cannot control, focus on what’s within your power to control. That’s more than what you realise! My heartfelt advice is to forget about your career, unless it will make you feel proud to one day have a tombstone that ... Read more

Aero Bars On A Touring Bike

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Aero bars, also called tri-bars, are attached to your bike’s handlebars, with the primary purpose to get your body into a far more aerodynamic position. They’re mostly used by riders doing time-trials or triathlons (hence the tri-bars moniker) but they do offer benefits outside of those two fields. I recently ordered a set of aero ... Read more

The Winner!

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During my Wild Atlantic Way ride, I ran a competition, giving away a signed copy of John Devoy’s amazing book, Quondam. The competition took the form of a quiz, and with each daily post there was a new question about Ireland. The questions were compiled by John Devoy himself. Why questions about Ireland? For starters, ... Read more

Just go on and do it

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I’m well aware that Nike has copyright on that phrase, which is why I changed it a tad here, but I expect even the mighty Nike will agree with what I’m saying here: Stop putting it off and just do it! (Strictly speaking, I’m agreeing with what Nike so aptly put in their slogan, and ... Read more

Truth matters

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Trust is binary: either you trust someone, or you don’t. When people deliberately give you false information, they destroy any trust you may have had. Sadly, this is something police in the UK seem to struggle to understand. Go grab a cup of your favourite drink, as this is a long post, covering a lot ... Read more

Couch to Cycle Camping

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You heard about Couch to 5k, right? This is vaguely similar, only instead of trying to get you to run 5 kilometres, let’s get you cycle camping. Said hey babe, take a walk on the wild side I make no secret of the fact that I believe wild camping is the best camping. There are ... Read more

Cycle touring – the little things

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The Internet’s awash with cycle touring packing lists – there’s one on here, too. However, there are at least two very important items that most packing lists forget to tell you about, but we’ll get to those in a bit. Daft as a brush Have you seen videos, or read write-ups of people cutting their ... Read more

UPDATED: Kit review – iGPSport BSC200 GPS unit

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Overall rating: ⭐⭐⭐ Do read the update to this review further below. I know my cunning plan was to never replace my ageing old Garmin Edge 500 GPS unit, and instead rely on the superb RideWithGPS app on my phone. It was for this exact reason that I bought a rugged, waterproof smartphone. Some flaws ... Read more

Cycling Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way

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Go Mall is Gaelic for "slow", and slow perfectly describes the very best way to cycle the Wild Atlantic Way
I want to tell you about Ireland. My Ireland. No, I’m not Irish, and obviously I don’t own the place. That’s not what I mean when I say my Ireland. My Ireland Each of us live our own lives, and we have our own experiences. When I talk about my Ireland, I’m referring to my ... Read more

Wild Atlantic Way – the things that went wrong

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One of the things that’s important to accept before going cycle touring is that things can, and often do go wrong. Being mentally prepared for that will leave you prepared for when things do go wrong. With that said, here are the annoyingly-long list of things that went wrong on my Wild Atlantic Way ride. ... Read more

Bollox to AI!

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AI (Artificial Intelligence) is big news these days, and it’s big business. The makers of one of the best-known AIs, Chat-GPT, claim they spent over US$ 40 million just training their AI. AI is being integrated into search engines, and more. Soon, it will permeate our lives. Keeping it real Various search-engine optimisation sites are ... Read more

Wild Atlantic Way – the aftermath

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Suddenly, almost abruptly, the adventure is over. For over two weeks I’ve been pedalling ever nearer to Galway. On the final day of any real cycling, I did an urban wild camp in Galway city, close to the banks of Lough Atalia, and not overly far from the Eye Cinema. The getting home part I ... Read more

Wild Atlantic Way – Day 16

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My Wild Atlantic Way adventure is, in cycling terms at least, all done. I’m writing this while sat in Galway train station, where I collected my pre-booked ticket to Dublin. Homeward bound Today has been a fairly long day: Doolin to Galway. I’m not a big fan of the entire area from Spanish Point to ... Read more

Wild Atlantic Way – Day 15

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I had a sort of enforced rest day. With only 80km (50 miles) left to cycle to Galway, I’m well ahead of schedule. The only constant is change Unfortunately, the person who kindly offered to host me in Galway on Saturday night fell ill and I had to somewhat change my plans. Originally, I’d have ... Read more