Since the ITT I rode of the Highland Trail 550 in May last year, I feel like I’ve learned a lot more about optimising kit and strategies for covering a lot of miles as lightly and efficiently as possible. Of course, it’s always possible to go faster by having a better engine or spending less…
Category: Gear
Review: Revelate Designs Periphery Pocket
Perfectionism isn’t always a virtue – no one is going to notice that your tyre logos line up with your valves when they’re caked with mud, and oftentimes it’s best to just crack on without sweating the small stuff too much. I’m willing to bet though that Eric from Revelate would disagree, and his…
Scott Addict Gravel 20
Yes, that’s right, we’re talking about gravel. Before you spray your cup of tea all over the screen, railing against the shadowy capitalist conspiracy that is clearly responsible for bringing you yet another buzzword and category of bike on which to splurge your hard-fought earnings, hear me out – if not for my sake…
45NRTH Wolvhammer review
Although it does happen, it’s not all that often that British winter conditions demand a full winter boot to keep toes pink and wiggly. A combination of overshoes and waterproof socks is usually enough to keep them warm, although keeping them dry is another matter, especially in the perma-bog of the Highlands. When…
Iceland: Boots, Bikes and Boldly going…
Soon (this evening in fact), I’ll be heading back to Iceland for a second time to explore more of its mountainous dirt roads by bike, and to learn more about that improbable, impossible and very thoroughly lovely country; that’s not to mention further research on the infinite variations of liquorice-based sweets to be found all…
Patagonia kitlist
Before trips I get a bit… concerned about detail. That’s putting it kindly. Perhaps it’s fuzzy memories of my mum organising the troops before family holidays when everything had to be accounted for – to her credit, can’t remember there ever being one of those “I thought you had the passports…” moments, and in my…
Bikepacking bikes
Bikepacking for me started with a loop of the Cairngorms on a hot, sunny weekend in 2013. I used a couple of harnesses borrowed from Annie to attach oversized, dumpy drybags to the bars and seat of an Orange Elite 26” hardtail, and faded into the moors. A couple of days later I emerged, slavering…
Giro Alpineduro: First Impressions
I’ll admit that when I ordered these shoes it was mostly out of curiosity rather than any deeply held conviction that they hed the key to all my footwear needs. The name intrigued me, sounding like a cobbled together portmanteau produced by some serious synergy and blue-sky thinking at a creativity meeting, and they look…
