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I thought that they had decided that documented proof of the arrival time at the ferry terminal would decide the order of arrival?

Looks like Skinny has a fight on his hands...

This thing.
http://www.velogical-engineering.com/rim-dynamo-en-1

I've just seen Jayne Wadsworth has arrived at CP2 (2nd woman). do you think she's doing it with clipless pedals this year?
Last year she did it with platform pedals and quarter clips!!!

SJS cycles do all sorts of struts and rack spares in their rack spares section:
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/rack-spares/

The mudguard spares and accessory fitting brackets sections are equally useful:
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/mudguards-spares/
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/accessory-fitting-brackets/

I'll tell him you said hi. The pub is very popular with cyclists. One of these days I'm going to ride over to visit him. As you have noticed, it is in the middle of nowhere!

This guy?

Beard and terrible teeth?
Edit - probably shouldn't be so horrible about my old man...

Hopefully the "world's slowest barman" wasn't my dad, who lives in Leintwardine and works in the Sun Inn a few days a week!

I'd have reduced the civvies by taking convertable trousers where you can remove the legs to make shorts. I always carry a change of cycling gear to allow me to wash one set every night and change into clean gear the following day. You can't rely on having the first day's kit dry out overnight and you run the risk of getting saddle sores from dirty shorts if you don't wash them regularly. A thin merino jumper covers a lot of different temperature ranges washes and dries easily as well - might have allowed you to drop a t-shirt for example.

Good point, perhaps this should have been in the short touring section. However, we were with a group and were going out to eat in restaurants in the evening, so the civvies were needed.

Just got back from four days cycling in France. I was credit card touring, but using Alpkit drybags instead of panniers, washing my kit at night and drying it in the hotel room.
I carried a change of clothes, including socks, a pair of shorts, converse-style trainers and a merino shirt and jumper for the evening.
Apart from phone and charger, some wet/warm weather gear and a minimal wash kit, that was it.
It all fitted easily into the two 8l bags and I used a small bar bag for daily essentials, a climbers chalkbag in front of the bars as a "dip" bag for snacks and a Carradice Barley for shopping and to stash the cold/wet gear.
I'm thinking about 3D printing a mount for my Garmin eTrex20 which will incorporate a dip bag on one side, a mount for my dynamo light at the front and a small waterproof wallet on the other side. That would replace the barbag and save me a fair bit of weight.

How did you find the Saturn trail. I'd seen it marked on a map but was wary of it as I did wonder if it would just be mud and stones, like so many of the National Cycle Routes.

Off to France for a sneaky 4 day micro-tour this weekend. Same deal - light as I can go.

Try using the route planner here: http://cycle.travel/
It's specifically set up to avoid main roads and to route you via cycle paths or cycle friendly roads.
It can be a little over-cautious at times, but I've used it with great success a number of times.There's a reason why the dual carriageways are so straight! The wiggly roads are the quietest and most picturesque. If you have a decent second battery you can use Navfree or similar to navigate, it uses open street maps uploaded to the phone so doesn't need a data connection. It works very well and you can upload a gps route to it - but it will eat your battery!
Otherwise, the cheapest Garmin etrex is only about £130.

I'll be with the Natural History Museum, behind the Marine Theatre.

Over the May weekend I'm riding down to Lyme Regis in Dorset.
This is the third time I've done it - I'll be working at the Fossil Festival, so if you are in the area, drop in. It's cool.
However, the route I take hops out of London by using the train to Windsor and then heading out towards Woking, Swallowfield, skirting Basingstoke and then a night in the YHA at Cholderton before heading southwest again. Last year I stayed in Salisbury which was lovely, but the YHA there has closed.
From there I go through Wilton, Tisbury, Gillingham, Sherborne, skirt Beaminster and then into Lyme Regis. It's a gloriaous route with some amazing lanes and views. The traffic was pretty kind to me once I got clear of the Windsor area and there's an amazing pub in Swallowfield for lunch. Once you get out around and beyond Salisbury, every succeeding village seems to be competing to be more scenic than the next.
A couple of 80 mile days means that you're not too shagged at the end of the day and it's easy to get somewhere nice pretty quickly.

I did the whole thing with a pair of 8l Alpkit drybags strapped to a Tortec Ultralite rack carrying a pair of trousers, lightweight wool jumper and Converse trainers (for the evening), spare pair of shorts, baselayer and socks (for day 2) and a washkit. Carried a waterproof strapped to Carradice Barley and some food and tools. All up the set up was pretty light, easy to ride and I'd really not need anything else for a four or five day tour if I was hostelling.
A trip like this is a really good way to clear your head and if you go mid-week it's usually pretty easy to get accommodation.

I thought they might be TA Carmina, but the spindle end of the crank is not quite right. The Carmina's are lush though.

I've done a couple of fast and light tours recently. Staying in hostels or cheap hotels.

I carry my stuff split between a Carradice Barley saddlebag (about 8l capacity). The rest of the gear goes into a pair of 8l Alpkit drybags strapped to a rack. One either side.
It's a rock steady set up that is pretty light and adaptable.

Clothing-wise I wear shorts, socks, cycling shoes, baselayer, short sleeved jersey and have a gilet, arm and knee warmers for cooler conditions. My rain jacket is strapped onto the Barley.

Drybags carry: pair of converse trainers, two pairs of socks, spare shorts, baselayer and shirt, pair of pants, washkit, lightwieght merino jersey (from UniQlo) and lightweight camping trousers (the sort that convert into shorts).

That's it.

My routine was to arrive at the hostel, shower and wash my cycling gear in the shower every night, squeeze it dry in the towel before drying myself and then hang it up to dry overnight.

Change into regular clothes, go out for a meal.

Wear the clean (spare) kit for the next day.

I did this for a week long tour down to Bordeaux carrying about 5lb of kit.

I've successfully used climbers chalk bags attached using zip ties. They work really well and cost next to nothing.

The operator number cited by the LCC, OK1046680 is listed on the VOSA website as Alan John Drummond with the transport manager Colin Frank Drummond.
http://www.tan.gov.uk/tanen/vosa_anonymousoperatorsearchdetails_new.asp?txtRequestId=186697
5 vehicles listed and an East London address.

Still can't find the company name though. That part of Barking looks like an utter, utter shit hole on Street view.

The judge questioned why the Police hadn't prosecuted the company. Exactly. Why didn't they?
Who was he driving for?

This might not be strictly bike packing, since there was no camping involved, but this was my bike set up for a ride from Caen to Bordeaux last year.
I used a pair of 8l Alpkit stuffsacs attached to the rack, together with a Carradice Barley saddlebag and Topeak handlebar bag.
It worked really well for the ride and I'd recommend using stuffsacs like this, it was cheap and they were rock solid on the bike.

Am AlexB on a number of fora and used to be on the old LFGSS site as well.

Witnessed a stupid and avoidable smash in South Kensington today. The car in front of me on Thurloe Place decided he'd had enough of waiting for the taxi in front to turn, accelerated around him to make a right turn into Exhibition Road and straight into a cyclist coming the other way.
Cyclist was lucky he managed to get out of the way at all, but still hit the car and went down hard.
The driver stopped and passers by called for an ambulance and for the Police.
Cyclist was very shocked, cut to the eye and probably a broken wrist, but otherwise very lucky.

I took witness details, waited for the Police and gave a statement, but other people stayed around to help both the cyclist and driver (who was a bit shocked). Ambulance didn't take long to arrive.

I think the cyclist's name was Adrian, riding a Cervelo with Lightweight wheels. If you see this (and I remembered your name right) heal up soon and good luck with the insurance case. Happy to give you more information if you need it. It was not your fault and you could not have done anything more to avoid it.

Lessons learnt on my part: Carry business cards, some paper and a pen that works!