cycle THE MAGAZINE OF CYCLING UK
On test
SONDER FRONTIER RIGID ORTLIEB FORK PACK BYTHLON PEDALS VIZIRIDER GILET & MORE
JUNE/JULY 2021
GRAND RIDES £1,000 WOMEN’S ROAD BIKES Page 60
CYCLE SHOPPER Which bike should I buy? Answers inside
GO WITH THE FLOW Ten staycation touring ideas
PITCH PERFECT?
Lightweight tents on test
P lu s EXPLORE KENT’S SAXON SHORE CYCLE INSURANCE TIPS COASTING THROUGH FRANCE AND MUCH MORE
MEMBERSHIP FROM JUST £3.88 A MONTH!*
CONTENTS Features 34 Go with the flow Staycation tours beside British rivers
Welcome
40 Cycle shopper Which bike should I buy? Answers here
50 Coasting south Cycle track touring down the Atlantic coast of France
Products
16
20 Shop Window Previews of new products
22 Gear up Components, accessories, and books
60 Women’s road bikes Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon Women’s and Planet X London Road on test
66 Sonder Frontier Rigid £800 off-road bike without suspension
50
69 Lightweight tents Homes a-roam for cycle campers
Regulars 04 Freewheeling Bits and pieces from the bike world
07 This is Cycling UK
34
31 Letters Your feedback on Cycle and cycling
On the cover
DAN JOYCE Cycle Editor
For updated advice regarding the Covid-19 outbreak, visit: cyclinguk.org/ coronavirus
18 You are Cycling UK Avril Lockhart and her long-term loan bike
40
Coronavirus
A summer of cycling, active travel promises from May’s elections, club riding returns, heritage cycling routes, and more
Isaac Richardson (age 6) hands a gel to mum, Ceri, on the Col de la Croix de Fer. By Martin Richardson
48 Weekender Exploring Kent’s Saxon Shore
55 Cyclopedia Questions answered, topics explained
73 Travellers’ Tales Cycling UK members’ ride reports
CYCLING UK: Parklands, Railton Road, Guildford, GU2 9JX E: cycling@cyclinguk.org W: cyclinguk.org T: 01483 238300. Cycle promotes the work of Cycling UK. Cycle’s circulation is approx. 51,000. Cycling UK is one of the UK’s largest cycling membership organisations, with approx. 70,500 members and affiliates Patron: Her Majesty the Queen President: Jon Snow Chief Executive: Sarah Mitchell. Cyclists’ Touring Club, a Company Limited by Guarantee, registered in England No 25185, registered as a charity in England and Wales Charity No 1147607 and in Scotland No SC042541. Registered office: Parklands, Railton Road, Guildford, GU2 9JX. CYCLE MAGAZINE: Editor: Dan Joyce E: editor@cyclinguk.org Head of Design: Simon Goddard Advertising: Harvey Falshaw T: 020 3198 3092 E: harvey.falshaw@jamespembrokemedia.co.uk Publisher: James Houston. Cycle is published six times per year on behalf of Cycling UK by James Pembroke Media, 90 Walcot Street, Bath, BA1 5BG. T: 01225 337777. Cycle is copyright Cycling UK, James Pembroke Media, and individual contributors. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission from Cycling UK and James Pembroke Media is forbidden. Views expressed in the magazine are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or the policies of Cycling UK. Advertising bookings are subject to availability, the terms and conditions of James Pembroke Media, and final approval by Cycling UK. Printed by: William Gibbons & Sons Ltd, 26 Planetary Road, Willenhall, West Midlands, WV13 3XB T: 01902 730011 F: 01902 865835 Founded in 1878
Top to bottom: Joolze Dymond, Kat Young, Rob Ainsley, iStockphoto.com
Which bike should I buy? You’ll get different answers depending whom you ask. Bike choice is subjective. Cycling magazines and websites often perpetuate the myth of objectivity. There are ‘bike of the year’ reviews, in which a ‘best’ bike is crowned. Bikes are rated out of ten or with stars (although pretty much everything scores seven out of ten/ three-and-a-half stars or better). This inevitably ignores the fact that your three-star bike might be my five-star bike and vice-versa. The real best bike is the one that best suits your needs, wants, and resources. A reviewer doesn’t know what they are. You do. If a bike doesn’t match your tick-list, it’s not a good bike – for you, which is all that counts. Reviews, forums, and research can be useful. They might help you narrow down your choices or open your eyes to something you hadn’t considered. But you’re the expert on what you want. You know which bike is likely to make you happiest. Going against that gut instinct may result in buyer’s remorse: if only you’d bought the one you really wanted! Having said that, we’re living in complicated times. Pandemic-related supply problems may throw a bucket of cold water on your hopes of a dream bike. Lead times are long. If you want a bike right now, the more pertinent questions are: do you like it enough; and is your size in stock?
this is
Events
SADDLE UP FOR SUMMER
Get ready for the World’s Biggest Bike Ride, Bike Week, 100 Women in Cycling, and the Women’s Festival of Cycling. Helen Cooks has the details
Photos: Cycling UK & Joolze Dymond
B
16
ike Week is the most exciting week in our cycling calendar. This year, with lockdown behind us, it’s packed with amazing routes and inspirational ideas for you to try. Bike Week launches on Sunday 30 May with the World’s Biggest Bike Ride. We’re calling on all of you to head out for a ride. We want to get tens of thousands of people pedalling on one day. Let’s show the country how great cycling is for the environment, for combating congestion, and for our own health and wellbeing. You don’t need to ride for a particular duration or distance. Any kind of cycle ride counts, no matter how far you go or what your motivation is. The more of us there are out on our bikes and trikes, the bigger an impact we can make. Try out our new routes, events, and challenges – you could do a different one every day as part of #7daysofcycling. There’s something for
cycle
J U NE / J U LY 20 2 1
everyone, plus free resources for families to get their children excited by cycling. Why not check out the Cathedrals Cycle Route? This is launching with a relay event starting at Newcastle Cathedral. It links all 42 Church of England cathedrals with a bike-friendly 2,000mile loop. You don’t have to ride all 2,000 miles; each of the 42 legs is detailed on the Cycling UK website, and the shortest of them is just one mile long. The pandemic has shown people how bikes can keep us fit, motivated and inspired. Let’s build on that momentum for Bike Week. Just head out on your bike and tell us you did it. There are prizes to win if you log your ride on the Bike Week website. Bike Week runs from Sunday 30 May to Saturday 5 June 2021. Find out more and log your ride cyclinguk.org/bikeweek.
THANK EVANS Evans Cycles is 100 years old this year. The company is proud to be supporting the World’s Biggest Bike Ride as part of the celebrations. Evans will be encouraging thousands of people to take part. Find out more at worldsbiggestbikeride.uk.
this is
100 Women & Women’s Festival In the UK far fewer women cycle than men. Men make three times as many trips by bike as women and cover four times as many miles. Men are also much more likely to cycle to work than women. Cycling UK works towards making cycling accessible to everyone. That’s why, five years ago, we set up the Women’s Festival of Cycling: to shine a spotlight on the female cycling role models who are encouraging women to get out on their bikes. The festival raises awareness of women’s cycling and aims to empower more women to cycle. This year’s festival, which is sponsored by Raleigh, has a wide-ranging line-up. Events include online cycle maintenance sessions, yoga, talks about women in the cycle industry, discussions about saddle soreness, and more. We want you to share your rides with us on social media using #BeYouByBike. And we’re encouraging cycling groups to put on some women-friendly or women-only rides for newcomers to try.
As in previous years, we are also profiling 100 Women in Cycling. This list celebrates exceptional women who are passionate about cycling and who inspire others to take part. On the list you’ll find women from all walks of life and every corner of the cycling world, from mountain bikers and endurance cyclists to community group leaders, cycling schoolrun mums and industry entrepreneurs. We received hundreds of nominations, and the 2021 list will be published on 17 July to kickstart the festival. New this year, we will also be following the progress of six women who are all new or fairly new to cycling as they work towards their personal cycling goals. Find out how they get on as they plan their first bikepacking trip, join a cycling club for the first time, or train on an adapted bike in order to ride it up a Scottish mountain. There will be more about our digital cycling champions in the next edition of Cycle. The Women’s Festival of Cycling takes place from Saturday 17 July to Sunday 1 August 2021. Find out how you can get involved by visiting cyclinguk. org/womensfestival.
RALEIGH ROUND Raleigh is thrilled to be able to support the Women’s Festival of Cycling for a second year, helping to shine a light on women’s cycling.
C Y CL I NGUK . O RG
cycle
17
Details Where: Throughout Britain Start/finish: Source to mouth Distance: 54-168 miles Pictures: Rob Ainsley
Top: Aysgarth Falls in the Yorkshire Dales Bottom: Cumbria and Lancashire’s River Lune
G O W ITH TH E FLOW
G R E AT R I D E S
ROB AINSLEY Rob collects international endto-ends and blogs about rides in Yorkshire at e2e.bike
Great Rides
GO WITH THE FLOW The Danube may be on hold but Britain’s rivers are rewarding in their own way. Rob Ainsley looks at your current options
R
ay, Sid, Ted, Len, Ben, Don, Dick… not veterans of your local Cycling UK member group but a few of England’s more obscure rivers. Piddle, Looe, Camel, Lemon, Eea and O; three Ouses, four Derwents, six Esks and ten Avons… I’ve been biking some of Britain’s rivers from source to mouth, and they make great compact tours: easy to organise, scenic, quirky, fascinating, and full of pleasant surprise. Our short-coursed island can’t match the great cycle paths of the Danube, Elbe, Loire, etc. I’m talking the small-scale, the curious, the charming. River rides have that in spates, with a clear narrative to the journey. Birth, as a mountainside sprinkle amid thrilling uplands; excitable youth, hurtling through farms and villages; striving middle age, with main roads, towns and cities, industry and culture; serene retirement, winding across quiet plains to its mouth into some larger river or the sea… returning as rain to do it all again somewhere else. And, in principle, at least, it’s downhill all the way.
RIVERSIDE RIDING Each river has its own character, in the settlements, scenery, and structures. The Wear’s stepping stones at Stanhope, or the Barle’s ancient stone bridge at Exmoor’s Tarr Steps. The hand ferry at Symonds Yat on the Wye. The Transporter Bridges over Middlesbrough’s Tees or Newport’s Usk. Yorkshire is possibly Britain’s best rivers county. People rave about the Dales for good
Scar House Reservoir is spectacular, and the damtop views down the valley are as good as a drone’s
reason. I recently rode the eight most prominent rivers – Swale, Ure, Wharfe, Nidd, Aire, Calder, Don, and Derwent – each a super two- or three-day tour. Here’s my Top Ten Rivers for Cycling, based on my experiences around Britain. For more info, visit e2e.bike/rivers – or see my talk for the 2021 Cycle Touring Festival at buff.ly/30LK22i.
10 NIDD Nidd Head (Lat 54.173294, Long -1.997830; SE002752) to Nun Monkton (River Ouse) – 59 miles The car-free road from Middlesmoor up to the source at Scar House Reservoir is a spectacular secret, and the dam-top views down the valley are as good as a drone’s. Downstream is Pateley Bridge’s time-warp main street, Ripley’s ‘Italianate’ village, and quirky Knaresborough – castle, hermit’s cave, trompe-l’œuil windows, surprise viaduct and all – stacked up the gorgeside like a vision of southern France. Aimless farmland follows, but the mouth at Nun Monkton has more gems: a tiny summer peds-n-bikes ferry, and – by the pub on the green – Britain’s tallest maypole.
9 SPEY Loch Spey (Lat 57.008135, Long -4.597717; NN423937) to Garmouth (North Sea) – 109 miles The Tay’s angler-friendly waters may be a tad more spectacular, but Speyside is a different kettle of fish – or rather, whisky. The remote source to Garva Bridge is a challenging sixmile track but after that it’s beautiful roads
C YC L I NGUK . O RG
cycle
35
Feature
Photo: Istock
CYCLE SHOPPER
CYCLE SHOPPER
F E ATU R E
Your Experts
DAN JOYCE Dan is the editor of Cycle and has been a cycling journalist for 30 years
RICHARD PEACE Richard is an e-bike specialist and the co-author of the book Electric Bicycles
EILEEN HAMILL Eileen is Cycling UK’s Senior Project Officer for Access Bikes (see p43)
LIZ COLEBROOK A framebuilder and owner of Beaumont Bicycle, Liz is also an occupational therapist
DAVID HENSHAW David is the editor of A to B, a magazine about folders, e-bikes, and utility bikes
SIMON WITHERS Simon is a keen touring cyclist who reviews bikes for road.cc and Cycling Plus
WHICH BIKE SHOULD I BUY? IT’S A QUESTION WE ALL ASK – INTERNALLY, IN THE SHOP, OR ONLINE. DAN JOYCE AND A PANEL OF EXPERTS HAVE SUGGESTIONS FOR FIVE OF YOU
B
uying your ideal bike can be difficult unless you take the Goldilocks approach and keep trying different ones until you find one that’s just right. This can be expensive and/ or time consuming, which accounts for that perennial question on cycling forums: “Which bike should I buy?” Whatever your requirements there will be more than one bike that will do the job, and often many that will do it well. So the issue is less about narrowing down your options to one single perfect machine than finding a bike that’s a good match for your tick-list. You can ask fellow cyclists for advice, in person and on forums like forum.cyclinguk.org. You can ask at your local shop. You can even ask Cycle – and lots of you did, through the survey we put online recently. We received so many requests for bike recommendations that it was impossible to answer them here (although we may make this a magazine or website regular if there’s demand). For this article, I picked five quite different queries and recruited five other experts in order to provide a range of opinions. We didn’t confer when writing our answers. Reading the other queries, certain themes stood out: lightweight e-bikes; women wanting a bike that fitted properly; bikes with lower gears; and bikes with stepthrough frames. I think this illustrates which people the cycle industry is neglecting: women, older or less able cyclists, and anyone who isn’t a would-be racer wanting a lightweight bike. In the cycling industry, low weight equates to high gears, no equipment, and a sporty riding position, despite the fact that a lightweight bike is actually more important for the older cyclist pedalling at 75 Watts than the race-fit 20-something pedalling at 275W. Before moving on to the recommendations, it’s worth noting that buying the right bike is tougher than usual right now. Prices have soared and availability has plummeted, thanks to a combination of Brexit, the pandemic, and problems with international shipping. Yet your ideal bike (or one that’s near enough!) may still be out there.
C Y CL I NGUK . O RG
cycle
41
CYCLOPEDIA
w o h w o Kn Making sense of commonly misunderstood subjects
DAN JOYCE While Dan’s bikes are covered worldwide, he hasn’t left Yorkshire in more than a year…
Cycle insurance
What’s the best way to insure a couple of bikes worth £1,500?
I
t depends what you want to be covered for and how much you’re prepared to pay for that. More comprehensive cover costs more. The cheapest result from a price comparison website will be far more limited than a dearer quote from a cycle insurance specialist. To find out what you’re really getting for the price quoted, you’ll have to click through to the insurer’s website and read the small print that relates to bikes. By default, most home contents policies don’t include bikes above a certain value (some don’t include them at all!), or only include them in certain locations and for certain uses. Adding the ‘extra’ bike cover you need, if the policy allows it, will raise the cost.
WHAT BIKE VALUE IS INCLUDED? Bikes worth £1,500 won’t be covered by most home contents polices unless you specifically add them. Make sure that the maximum value for any single bike and the total value for all your bikes is sufficient; a thief breaking into your bike store won't stop at one. You may only need to set a maximum bike value, with the allbikes limit being ‘total valuables’. Or you may need to name and provide an individual value for each bike. If it’s not spelled out, ask.
WHERE ARE THE BIKES INSURED? As a bare minimum, you’ll probably want the bike to be covered against theft or damage
Pedal Cover & Yellow Jersey
Your bike needs cover anywhere you'll leave it
when: it’s in your immediate custody; it’s in a locked building; it’s securely locked to an immovable object. With some policies, and subject to the same limitations, your bike will also be insured when it’s abroad for a certain number of days per year. Check the small print against where you plan to keep your bike(s). Is your bike covered in a communal hallway? In your car? In a wooden shed? Again: if it’s not spelled out, ask. I’ve got some padlocked metal bike bunkers – and confirmation from my insurer that the bikes inside them are covered by the policy.
WHAT CYCLING IS COVERED? Most policies cover utility and recreational cycling but exclude racing (i.e. competitive cycling with a number on your bike or back) and business use (cycling for work, such as couriering, as opposed to cycling to and from work). Sportives may or may not be included. Specialist insurers are often the best bet for cycle cover that includes racing and business use. Since their policies cover higher value bikes and have fewer exemptions, they can work well for non-competitive cyclists too.
As a Cycling UK member you can save 10% (and 15% off at renewal) on a home insurance policy with excellent bike cover from cycle specialist Pedal Cover. Visit the website pedalcuk. co.uk for details. You can also save money on cyclespecific insurance from Yellow Jersey. Cycling UK members get £50 off on an annual cycle insurance policy, 15% off short-term cycle policies, and 30% off at renewal. For more on Yellow Jersey policies, visit yjcuk. co.uk. Pedal Cover and Yellow Jersey donate 10% from your premium to Cycling UK. This helps us continue our charitable and campaigning work.
Contents policy checkpoints Look beyond the price and consider what the policy covers.
Top: Alamy
Other insurance
58
Bikes included?
cycle
J U NE / J U LY 20 2 1
How about e-bikes?
Default max value?
Where is it insured?
What types of cycling?
Cycling UK membership provides £10m thirdparty liability insurance and cycling-related legal assistance. cyclinguk.org/ insurance
MEMBERSHIP FROM JUST MEMBERSHIP £3.88 FROMAJUST MONTH!* £3.88 A MONTH!*
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION *See www.cyclinguk.org/join for more information and for terms and conditions.
Women’s road bikes
Do you want velocity or versatility? Guy Kesteven and daughter Freya Kesteven review a Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon Women’s and a Planet X London Road
T
GUY AND FREYA KESTEVEN Journalist & daughter Guy has been a bike tester for 25 years. He talks to himself while riding bikes at YouTube/ GuyKesTV. Freya is a keen cyclist too. Peggy the dog just photobombs
60
cycle
J U NE /J U LY 2021
here are masses of different options when it comes to investing in your first ‘proper’ road bike. We’ve picked two bikes at opposite ends of the ‘workhorse to whippet’ spectrum. The two bikes also cover totally different approaches to frame material, braking and gearing too, so there’s a lot to talk about when we compare the women’s versions of the Planet-X London Road and the Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon.
Frame & fork Like most sub £1,000 bikes, the frame of the London Road all-rounder from Yorkshire online direct seller Planet-X is aluminium. It’s a well thought-out chassis too, with a down tube whose ovalisation switches from vertical at the head tube to horizontal at the bottom bracket. The main tubes are thinner in the centre and then different thicknesses either end to keep them lighter. A straight, stout seat tube sits ahead of equally stout, slightly kinked rear stays that give generous tyre room. You can get a ‘gravel’ version of this bike with 38mm tyres. Alternatively you can fill
that space with full mudguards, which the frame has full mounts for – as well as fixings for a four-point rack. The London Road’s disc brake mounts are the latest ‘flat’ variety, and the bolted 142×12mm rear through-axle sits in neat dropouts. While our test bike didn’t use a front mech, there are cable stops for one if you want to run a double chainring setup. All bolts and welds are loud and proud on the bright green frameset, which contrasts with the broad-bladed Selcof carbon fork. That also has a 12mm diameter boltthrough axle and plenty of tyre/mudguard room, with the fixtures to fit them too. In contrast, while the Boardman has only just been launched and has a lightweight carbon frame, the fixtures and clearances are surprisingly old school. That includes open dropouts with quick releases and rim brakes front and rear. While there are mudguard mounts, frame clearance is limited even with 25mm tyres; Boardman state a 28mm maximum. There is an SLR 8.9 Carbon Disc for £500 more but that’s only available with gent’s sizing and contact points. The Boardman’s carbon mainframe follows current aerodynamic/stiffnessblend trends with rounded front edges and flat-sided profiles. The bottom bracket area is a massive box section around the press-fit bearings. Equally supersized and boxy chainstays taper towards the rear dropouts. In contrast, the seatstays are super skinny right up to the flat, triangular
Photos: Guy Kesteven
Biketest
WOMEN'S ROAD BIKES
BIKE TEST
First look
An aluminiumframed all-rounder built up as workhorse bike but capable of many other roles
In footwear terms, the wire-edged, 32mm Panaracer Tourguard Plus tyres are steel toecapped boots
Tech Spec
PLANET-X LONDON ROAD web behind the seat tube. The seat post is slim too, and held in place by an expanding wedge set into the top tube.
has a higher bottom gear than the London Road (32in versus 27in). It also has a much higher top gear (120in versus 103in). If you exclude duplicate gears and the Components two ruled out by extreme There are three obvious chainlines, the Boardman differences in the only has 18 different ratios. component spec of the That’s still enough to bikes. The Planet-X London keep gaps between gears Road aims for all-weather noticeably smaller for a control with cable-operated smoother pedalling rhythm. disc brakes from new brand The third big difference Riderever. The Boardman between the bikes is the Top: The London Road is has lighter-weight rim tyre choice. Tyres are a a unisex bike but can be ordered with female-friendlier brakes from well-established comparatively easy thing to components like this saddle bargain brand Tektro. change but they have a big Bottom: Loads of room for mudguards above 32mm The Planet-X has an impact on performance. In tyres, plus fittings for rear rack MTB/cyclocross-style footwear terms, the wiresingle chainring crank edged, 32mm Panaracer matched to an 11-speed Tourguard Plus tyres on 11-42 cassette. This gives wide-range the Planet-X are steel toe-capped boots, sequential shifting without any need weighing in at over 2kg for the pair if you for ‘which gear next?’ arithmetic. The include the innertubes. In comparison, Boardman takes the traditional approach, the 25mm Vittoria Zaffiro Pro tyres on the using an FSA twin-ring chainset matched Boardman are sporty trainers. They’re a to Shimano’s excellent 11-speed 105 shifter third of the weight of the Panaracers, with and derailleur group. The cassette is only a folding bead and a graphene particle11-28 rather than the 11-32 or larger that infused compound. many brands are using even on their The cranks are where Boardman entry-level performance bikes. That means start showing that they’re taking their that, despite its double chainset, the SLR proportional sizing seriously, with 165mm
Price: £799.99 Sizes: 47, 50, 53 (tested), 56, 59cm Weight: 10.04kg Frame: Triple butted 6061-T6 aluminium frame with tapered head tube, 68mm threaded bottom bracket, 142mm boltthrough dropouts, and fittings for flatmount disc brakes, two bottles, rack, and mudguard. Carbon fibre fork with mudguard eyelets on the inside of the legs. Wheels: 32-622 Panaracer Tourguard puncture resistant tyres, Fulcrum Racing 600 disc rims and hubs, with 28 plain gauge spokes. Dimensions in millimetres and degrees
660 545 73.5˚
750
59
142
408
605 73˚
45
530
703 45
Transmission: no pedals, 172.5mm SRAM chainset with 42t X-Sync chainring, SRAM GXP bottom bracket, KMC X10 chain, Shimano HG500 11-42 11-speed cassette. SRAM Apex shifter and derailleur. 11 ratios, 27-103in. Braking: SRAM Apex levers, Riderever MCX-2 cable disc brake callipers, with 160mm rotors. Steering & seating: Selcof bar tape, 420mm alloy bars and 100mm stem, Aheadset. Selcof Zeta seatpost with San Marco Shortfit ladies' saddle. planetx.co.uk
172.5 285
622
980
C Y CL I NGUK . O RG
32.5
cycle
61
MEMBERSHIP FROM JUST MEMBERSHIP £3.88 FROMAJUST MONTH!* £3.88 A MONTH!*
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION *See www.cyclinguk.org/join for more information and for terms and conditions.
GROUPTEST
TENTS
Details
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
1 Grouptest
Tents for cyclists However far we can travel, lightweight camping makes trips more adventurous and more selfsufficient. Sam Jones reviews four tents
F SAM JONES Communications department manager Sam’s a happy camper who is set on inflicting his passion on others through Cycling UK’s #12nightsoutin1year challenge
or most of us it’s looking like another summer of staycations. Don’t fancy spending lots on hotels and want to make sure you’re staying where the air is fresh? Camping is ideal – assuming you can get hold of a tent. We struggled to find twoperson, three-season tents for this review. (Twoperson versions of the three-person tents we tested should be back in stock at some point.) One benefit of cycle camping is that many campsites have a location dedicated to the car-free camper, so ‘campsite full’ signs won’t always apply to you. But do check ahead unless you want to practise your wild camping skills. With advances in tent technology, gone are the days of cumbersome A-frames. Most tents from outdoor specialists are light, strong, and easily packable into a pannier with room to spare. Wellcared-for tents will last years, so it’s worth investing if you’re planning on camping regularly. A well-used tent will end up far cheaper than the same amount of nights in a hotel.
How it pitches
If you’ll be camping anywhere with unpredictable weather, such as the UK, consider a tent that pitches outer first. The inner won’t get wet when you set up in the rain. Freestanding tents are a good option for any place it’s hard to get a peg in the ground.
2
Weight
How light you need depends on how you’ll be travelling. With larger tents you’ll likely spread the load with a pedalling partner; an extra few hundred grammes could be the difference between a coffin and a condo.
3
Profile
Wild campers will want a lower profile tent, but that will compromise your space and comfort inside. Think about how you’ll use the tent and what’s important to you.
4
Seasons
Are you an allseason trouper or a summer-only camper? Tents are designed for different seasons. Make sure you get the right one for you.
5
Size
If weight’s not an issue, consider sizing up. A two-person tent can be luxurious for one, as can a threeperson tent for two.
3
5 2
4
1
Cycle’s test promise At Cycle, we are proudly independent. There’s no pressure to please advertisers as we’re funded by your membership. Our product reviews aren’t press releases; they’re written by experienced cyclists after thorough testing. C YCL I NGUK . O RG
cycle
69
TRAVELLERS’ TALES
John did his twoday tour during the winter
Northern Ireland
Belfast and beyond Salter Fell is crossed by a remote-feeling gravel track
Lancashire
Salter Fell Paul McKearney rode this great gravel track in the Forest of Bowland last June
L
eaving Lancaster, I rode up the Lune Valley towards Hornby. A right turn at Roeburndale Road took me up to High Salter Farm where the track begins. Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-ghent looked magnificent in the early summer sunshine. Ahead, the white gravel track was flat at first but stretched up and away, winding its way over Salter Fell. Westward, a helicopter rose menacingly above the high Bowland ridge, quartering Wolfhole Crag and Ward’s Stone before disappearing behind Blanch Fell. I stopped near the summit. The course of a Roman road feeds in nearby, veering down the valley to the north. The easy riding continued but my rear wheel slipped on a short Gravel bike? Paul used an old-school MTB
Stay connected 74
cycle
J U NE / J U LY 20 2 1
steep section of loose scree. Then I crossed a great divide. Fewer sheep and an abundance of gorse and heather indicated grouse shooting country. The becks now fed the River Ribble, not the Lune. Tractor-tyregouged craters with festering muddyblack water made the going trickier. I pushed until I came to a west-leading track that accessed an impressively rustic hunting lodge beside Baxton Hill. Back on the bike, deceptive false flats led to a sweeping descent to the Upper Ribble Valley. I could see the distinctive features of Pendle Hill in the distance, and marker posts for the Witches 400 trail guided me. A squadron of RAF jets roared over Croasdale Fell, hugging the terrain in camera-defying passes of the valley. I descended on ochre-tinged gravel, passing a dutiful RSPB warden keeping a protective vigil. A relaxed cruise towards Slaidburn brought an unfamiliar sight: tarmac. Completing the off-road crossing took two hours twenty minutes. I had plenty of light left for a delightful warm-down ride home through the Trough of Bowland. More at bowlandbeyondbiketouring. blogspot.com, Paul’s blog.
facebook.com/CyclingUK
Twitter @wearecyclinguk
John Robson enjoyed an offseason tour in Northern Ireland SOUTH WEST SCOTLAND, where I live, is blessed with great cycling country and quiet lanes. It’s also well positioned for a trip across the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland. So when a window of settled weather was forecast over the winter, I took the opportunity – and a ferry from Cairnryan to Belfast. This does involve sharing the bowels of the ferry with lorries, then navigating the bike route into Belfast through the dockland. But with helpful ferry staff and clear directions on the cycleway, it was safe and uncomplicated. I stopped over in Belfast for a dose of historical and cultural distraction; highlights include the Titanic exhibition and The Troubles tours. The plan was then to use a short circular tour of the Lough Neagh Cycleway as a taster for future trips to the north and west coasts. The route out of Belfast to Lisburn along the flat Lagan towpath was a bird-watcher’s delight. It also gave glimpses of its industrial heritage, with former mill buildings scattered along the way. A series of backroads bypassed Portadown and, as the winter light faded, I detoured to Cookstown for an overnight stop. Day two of my 120-mile clockwise circuit was north to Toome and then around to Antrim. The route doesn’t hug the shores but rambles through gentle, undulating Irish farmland, with the Lough appearing regularly into view. I had lunch in a courtyard tea shop at Antrim Castle Gardens, then embarked on the last leg to and through Belfast for the evening ferry sailing.
More online Fancy contributing to Cycle? Read the guidelines here: cyclinguk.org/be-part-cyclemagazine
membership@cyclinguk.org
editor@cyclinguk.org