Category: Equipment
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A different kind of tour — of Taiwan’s bicycle industry
I’ve started to receive a steady stream of PR emails thanks to my blog’s more-or-less decent visitor numbers over the years. These emails usually go straight to the spam folder (sorry PRs!), but a recent one caught my eye: “As part of your ongoing and deliberate transition to celebrity bike tourist,” it asked (not at all ironically), “would you be interested in participating in a tour of the Taiwanese bicycle industry?” Hold on — an invitation to the centre of the bicycle-making universe? Hell yeah… Continue reading →
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Adventure Does Not Require Any Fancy Gear. (Just Ask Rob & Maria)
I recently received an exasperated comment from a wound-up-sounding man called Rob on an article I published about trip sponsorship. ‘This is really annoying’, wrote Rob, referring to the fact that I’d got a 50% discount on an Extrawheel trailer five years ago. ‘Who needs celebrity bike tourers anyway?’ It’s not often that I find myself on the receiving end of an angry rant. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve dealt a fair few of these in my younger and more obnoxious days, so it’s probably a case of “what goes around comes around”, as my mum would say. But… Continue reading →
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Schwalbe Marathon Supreme Touring Tyre Review
Full disclosure: Schwalbe gave me a pair of Marathon Supremes for my 2012 U.S. West Coast trip, asking for feedback and an honest write-up of the tyre in return. From the ashes of the much loved Schwalbe Marathon XR expedition tyre arose a phoenix. Or, more correctly, a number of phoenixes. Or perhaps phoeni. Anyway. The point is that Schwalbe now make no fewer than 10 varieties of touring tyre, instead of just two or three; each specialising in a particular kind of touring. Continue reading →
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Kona Sutra 2013 Touring Bike: First Look
Kona have just announced their bike line-up for the 2013 season. While I don’t usually post on product launches, Kona have supported my adventures for half a decade, and last week they reminded me why I’m glad to be working with them (aside from getting to ride their bikes for free). I wrote a detailed review of the 2012 Sutra touring bike after riding it from Vancouver to San Francisco in the spring. In the review, I pointed out a couple of big improvements I’d like to see made to this very capable long-term expedition tourer. Several other owners echoed these sentiments… Continue reading →
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MSR Hubba 1P Solo Tent — Owner Review
Full disclosure: Cascade Designs sent me this tent to test during my journeys in 2012 (at my request). I’ve been using it ever since for solo camping. They were confident enough to do this in the knowledge that I would share my opinions of their products — whether positive or negative — on this blog. 2011’s Arctic Cycle finished off the Vaude Hogan 2P tent I’d been using for solo camping over the previous few years. It was a great piece of kit, enduring at a rough guess getting on for 500 pitches in temperatures from below ‑30°C (not what it… Continue reading →
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Kona Sutra Touring Bike: Legacy Review & Detailed Photos
The Kona Sutra has undergone many changes since I wrote this review of the 2012 model after a two-month ride down the U.S. West Coast from Vancouver to Los Angeles. You can find the current version of the Sutra in my list of the all-time best touring bikes. For a long-haul road trip it would be foolish to test-ride a bike that didn’t first fit my criteria on paper. The 2012 Sutra did indeed seem well suited to a two-month road tour of a developed nation. It’s been a pleasant surprise to ride and has exceeded my expectations. The Kona… Continue reading →
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Essential Gear for a Deep Winter Cycle Tour
The original version of this article appeared in the February 2012 issue of Geographical. Blue light invaded my cocoon of flapping fabric. My waking thought was one of despair. The wind, which had made pitching camp so hopeless and miserable the previous evening, hadn’t died. It was thirty degrees below zero. I lay on my back, remembering how I had stumbled about in the dark tying guylines to bicycle wheels and half-buried panniers in a vain attempt to anchor my three season tent in the deep, sugary snow. I tried to muster the motivation to get up, pack up and hit… Continue reading →
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10 Questions & Answers On Surviving The Scandinavian Arctic On A Bike
Timely or what? The Norwegian Cyclists Association have been in touch about my trip last year to Scandinavia, in which I rode a thousand miles from Oslo through Sweden and Lapland and across the Arctic Circle to Bodø. The following post is an edited version of the interview I did for their magazine På sykkel. It might help us here in London, as we struggle to cope with ten centimetres of wet slush… 1. First, could you please give us a few facts about yourself; age, location, what kind of work you were doing until you started cycling, and a few of the countries you… Continue reading →
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New Year, New Gear — Considerations When Comfortably Roughing It
I have a good working relationship with Mountain Safety Research, better known as MSR, who for several decades have been quietly turning out top-quality equipment for use in the world’s wild places. The little green 2‑man Vaude tent which was my home for so long is now well past its best, and with two significant trips planned for 2012, I decided it was time to replace it with one of MSR’s tried-and-tested offerings. Continue reading →
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The DIY Beer Can Stove Is The Best Camping Stove You’ll Never Buy
Jetboil? Trangia? Primus? I laugh in your faces! The lightest, cleverest and most practical camping stove I’ve ever seen can be made by hand from a single empty drinks can. Continue reading →