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Offroad touring, in one picture and one video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlBw_WmTwXs
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Recently back from 5 days touring around Brittany.
Got the ferry over from Portsmouth to St Malo, then the train to Morlaix.
Rode a loop down to the ancient forests of Huelgoat, slept out in them.
Rode through the rolling hills and north to Carnac, slept out on the tidal island cutoff from shore!
Headed east through the inland and back towards St Malo over two days. The section around Cap Frehel was particularly beautiful.Couldn't recommend this area enough - very easy to get to, very wild feeling, all roads and paths were beautiful. We wild camped everywhere without issue. The food was of course excellent.
The Koga handled the trip beautifully, my first time touring on a front-loaded bike and it felt so balanced across the rough and smooth. The steering feels a bit less lively and there is a little flex from the rack or fork, but the balance is great. And I love having the sleeping bag in the seat pack.
My mate on a gaspipe Falcon Banana running a not-quite 1x5 setup was v. jealous.
Route links:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29686357
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29686473
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That Raleigh reminds me of a friend of mine, who bought an old early 1980s Raleigh in a flea market for £20, covered in dust and spider webs from years of shed storage. All he did was to pump the old dried and flaky tires, inner tube could still hold air... He then took a ferry to France and rode all the way to Marseille, with just a few sections on train. Epic.
He did have an inner tube explosion, going downhill round the Puy En Velay... But everything else hold fine. -
Excellent power stance
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More croc pics please
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Another weekend, another trip away.
Made the most of the bank holiday in the company of @spotter and CH by tackling the Transcambrian Way, East to West across Wales with plenty of ups and down to rival the most hungry hillish appetites.
With the trail being marked as “moderate” I decided the 3 days allocated could be shortened to 2.5 days. Not so! The climbs are brutal and in the unexpected heat (20º!) we were soon gasping for an easier alternative. A swift bit of NCN cycleway routing took us along beautiful B-roads and gained a bit of time.
One more detour, to the beautiful Moel Prsygau Bothy, was to prove nearly too much for us. A simple 3-mile footpath disintegrated into a bed of tussocks, which after 70k of singletrack was the last thing we wanted to be pushing over. “One more mile to the forest” I chanted to my two downheartened companions, who thankfully didn’t stab me with their multiple titanium camp-food implements. Over and over, until it got dark, then completely dark, then we had to push underneath a forest of trees on their side, felled in a huge storm weeks earlier. At the bothy by 11pm and sat next to a roaring fire, all was well again.
If you take the time, I’m sure it’d be a great trail, and what we rode was gorgeous. Mid-Wales has a wild feeling that is unparalleled in my experiences anywhere apart from the Highlands. 4.5hrs on the train from London each way was absolutely worth it.
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Really demanding riding but I loved it, thanks for organising mate.
My photos are here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackdixdavies/albums/72157706701375161 -
I hope you treat the new cotic sus forks to some kind of bottle/anything cages as an homage to the good ol' times.
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Great thread! Really like the look of the French trip, I might steal some of that...
In love mid Wales too, but super brutal.
I really like bib shorts though.
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About
Platypus HQ - Functional Bikes and Trips
Posted by
@platypus
It's about time I started a CP thread for my bikes and trips.
I like functional bikes, not wearing bibs, long trips into the wilderness, and jazz music.
I live in a flat so two bikes is the maximum. Here are the two bikes.
Cotic Solaris
OG frame from 2011...bought 2nd hand 3 yrs ago and just about every component replaced.
This is the MTB, fun weekend bike.
It has to do both 3hr rides razzing round epping, and weeklong bikepacking excursions.
Getting there with the parts selection to balance those two out.
To come - new sus forks, dynamo wheel and lights and USB things, different stem as this is too cramped. and triple mounts under the DT for more carrying capacity.
Koga Miyata Terraliner
Rare 90s (?) touring frame. Never found any others for sale from this era.
Tubing is FM-1, whatever that means, pretty thinwall so has a nice zingy ride quality.
I ride this around town and go touring on it.
Has to be nice enough to be fun but not so nice I can't lock it up. I think I've got the balance.
To come - guards, level rack, rear dynamo light, front derailleur.