Microadventuring, mini tours etc

Just something my mother in law brought over from Japan. No idea why, she just buys things we don't need. But it turned out perfectly timed as they can be pretty useful and do taste good.

Looks like they're available online . That's the first link I find, sure there's others too.

Think you can get similar here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cafe-Express-Coffee-Filter-Bags/dp/B006ZYEJY8 friend had some same from Sainsburys on a recent camping trip.

Thanks.

I'll be doing a lot of bivying next year. Although I will be using a matt. I always find a bottle of wine helps with sleep ;)

I've used these, the filter itself is very small in terms of capacity, but they are cheap

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0026LR22K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Looks like a great trip; lovely photos. Were the roads as quiet as they look?

Slightly random question, but how did you get to your start point in Vichy?

Just completed the C2C (Whitehaven to Tynemouth) over three days. Was great.

Yeah it was ridiculously quiet on the roads down there. Quietest place I've cycled. I took the 7am train down from Paris Bercy arriving before 10am on the first day

Going on a mini tour tomorrow. Reading to cheddar over two days then 3 days at a festival. Was planning to take a d lock and hiplock but tempted to ditch the d lock due to weight. Festival organisers said I can leave the bike in the car park so I'll try and hide it behind a parked car.

Do I take the d lock or not?

lock

+1 lock.

done.

very interested in the route for this if your willing to share!

I wrote a brief write up of a trip @Hulsroy and I did in june if anyone is interested.

http://www.sbccycles.com/london-to-brighton-semi-off-road/

Here you go - mix of lanes, b roads, footpaths, bridle paths and gravel tracks including what looks like paths that turned out to be just rough fields. Descent off beacon batch is to be avoided as well, ended up walking the bike down. Loved nearly every minute of it and met an old guy named John on top of the beacon who was telling me about his 1950s custom track bike with a campag groupset he sold a few years ago as he was interested in my ogre and super motos.

https://www.strava.com/activities/684102861
https://www.strava.com/activities/684102877
https://www.strava.com/activities/684103006

Perfect - thanks!

I did spend a lot of time pushing the bike on day 2 because I'm crap at hills and they were steep. So you have been warned. Also there's a fallen tree on the path coming out of reading. Be prepared!

The towpath is clear coming out of Reading now, but there's been a lot of trees down recently!

You could also have ignored the national cycle route just after Burghfield and stayed on the towpath, you have to lift your bike over a style but it's more direct and increases your chances of seeing cows.

I'm trying to make a long (~200km) off-road route across the UK to do this weekend. Towpaths, bridleways, dirt as much as possible. What's the best website/map to plan this?

-Openmtbmap - autoroute isn't working for me at the moment, for some reason
-RidewithGPS - ok, but doesn't take you on bridleways so much, even on "walk" setting
-Bikehike - doesn't do autorouting, bit of a killer

Anything better? Thanks!

Where are you going to/from?

Reading to Taunton, very roughly, lots of fun diversions!

Shouts to Thuekr for coming through with a good recommendation tho https://www.lfgss.com/comments/13174500/

I did reading to cheddar last week over two days with mix of trails, paths, roads and lanes. So you could swing down instead of heading west from Bradford on avon. See 3× strava routes a few posts up in reply to Brookly_Bay

@platypus @Thuekr
Thanks so much for that OSM tip. I've just been looking at it and it's given me loads of great new local routes!

Yeah!

Proper micro adventure last night. Having done a tour of the lakes last week, returning home to the 9-5 hit with a bit of a bump.

However there was a solution. Family is away this week so I'm home alone and free and easy. Saw the forecast for good weather and uninterrupted warmness between Tuesday and Wednesday and thought I could cram something in.

So got to work early on Tuesday with stripped down overnight kit lashed to the mountain bike. The early start meant I could reasonably leave at 4pm (thank you civil service flexi time). Got the train out to Leatherhead and was riding by 5.

Smashed it over to Peaslake via Ranmore in time to get supplies from the village shop before it shut at 6:30. Nice cold beers and some Chicken Samosa things did for dinner. Bit of a play on the trails at Holmbury before heading up to Leith Tower and search for somewhere to sleep.

Found a great spot in the woods to watch the last of sunset and sling my hammock up. Finished my Indian treats and polished off the beers. Settled in and passed out till 6am. Dozed till 6:30, got up, quick coffee, packed up and headed down the Summer Lightning trail to wake me up. Climb back up to Ranmore got the blood pumping. Stunning in the morning sun and no one really about. Then smashed it back to Leatherhead via the remaining bridleways. Managed to get on the 8:55 back into town (technically their rules say no bikes on trains arriving into Waterloo before 10am ). Back off at Vauxhall, shower at work, at my desk at 10.

Absolutely Awesome.

has anyone done the way of the roses from bridlington? thinking of doing that one maybe end of sept if wether is ok.