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If rough-stuff cycling pioneer Walter MacGregor Robinson – Wayfarer, to give him his pen name – were alive today, he’d probably ride a lightweight gravel bike. He famously made an off-road crossing of the Berwyn Mountains in the spring snow of 1919 on a fixed-wheel road bike. That was the technology available to him, and he believed (the Cycling North Wales website tells us) in having “as little bicycle as possible”.
You could repeat his journey on a fixed-wheel bike today but it would be ‘type two’ fun. I’ve ridden rocky singletrack mountain bike trails on a fixie, solely because it was the only option at the time. If a more suitable bike had been available, I’d have used it. Likewise, I think, Wayfarer.
The fact that there are countless types and sub-types of bike available now isn’t a bad thing: you can more easily choose one that’s better suited to your preferred brand of fun. There will always be fads and trends. Tenspeed racers. Then mountain bikes. Then fixies. Then fat bikes. And now gravel bikes, of which there were plenty of shiny ones on display at the Cycle Show back in April.
It’s easy to roll one’s eyes. Gravel bikes are “just tweaked, rebranded cyclocross bikes”. Bikepacking is “just rough-stuff touring”. But it doesn’t matter. It’s not about the marketing. A bike that takes you where you want to go and puts a smile on your face is a good bike, whether it’s a cheap steel fixie or a five-grand gravel bike.
34 Wayfarer’s wheel tracks
A classic rough-stuff route across the Berwyn Mountains
40 Crash course
What to do if you have a road incident while riding your bike
50 Le Grand Tour
Andrew Sykes’s 5,000km loop around Europe last summer
18 Shop window
New products previewed
20 Gear up
Components, accessories and books
62 Trekking bikes
Flat-bar touring bikes for under £1,000 from Cube and Trek
69 Cycling glasses
Protect your eyes from wind, debris and sunshine
04 Freewheeling
Bits and pieces from the bike world
07 This is Cycling UK
Cycling UK’s new Traws Eryri route through Snowdonia; Bike Week’s 100th edition; how Cycling UK is getting more people cycling; special offers for members; and more
16 You are Cycling UK
Cycle-friendly employer Tom Bowtell
31 Letters
Your feedback on Cycle and cycling
48 Weekender
The Cumbrian valley that inspired Postman Pat
56 Cyclopedia
Questions answered, topics explained
73 Travellers’ Tales
Cycling UK members’ ride reports
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Details
Where: North
Wales
Start/finish:
Llanarmon Dyffryn
Ceiriog
Distance: 67km
Photos: Robert
Spanring
In March 1919 rough-stuff cyclist Wayfarer marked the changing of the seasons with an epic ride over the Berwyns. In 2023 Sam Jones followed his lead
ell at least it’s not snowing,” I panted to Robby as the rain came down. The wind whipped his reply away before my ears could capture it, carrying it back down the valley to the faraway hamlet of Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog where we’d started earlier that morning.
The track we followed was more suited to salmon heading to their spawning grounds than bikes. A shallow river flowed where the gradient gave it urgency. Elsewhere, small lagoons were forming where the route flattened out. To put it mildly, it was wet.
The conditions were not surprising for Wales on the final weekend of March. They were also far more favourable than those faced by Wayfarer, the Choirmaster and the Old Gentleman on the same weekend 104 years ago. Back then, these three men on fixed-wheel bicycles faced deep drifts of snow and a white landscape devoid of feature. They walked much of the ups and downs of the Berwyn Mountains on their way from the West Arms.
The account of Wayfarer’s ride was first published in Cycling (now Cycling Weekly) in May 1919, under the
title ‘Over the Top’. (You can now read it online at cyclingnorthwales.co.uk/pages/wayfarer.htm.) It’s an uplifting article of adversity and friendship, told with a deft comic touch that evokes the whimsy of Jerome K Jerome’s cycling adventures in Three Men on the Bummel.
Wayfarer’s ride was more dramatic than Jerome's, not just because of the difference between summer in Germany’s Black Forest and the wintry mountains of North Wales but also for the ride’s proximity to the end of the Great War. The Armistice was declared just five months prior. The headline of ‘Over the Top’ will have had a very different meaning for most.
Wayfarer served and, though injured, survived the Great War. Reading the way he reclaims this phrase from the horrors of war, so that it becomes synonymous with the pursuit of wonder in the natural world by venturing into the wild on two wheels or two feet, goes a long way to explaining his enduring popularity with the cycling community of the time.
The article is life affirming, accessible and inspirational. Ever since reading it, I too have wanted to venture ‘over the top’ on the final weekend of March as the clocks spring forward. I’ve been harping on about doing this ride ever since I missed out on the opportunity to join Jack Thurston’s centennial ride in March 2019.
First two years of lockdowns blocked my attempts, and then an imminent addition to the family. But March 2023 I had my chance.
The track was more suited to salmon heading to their spawning grounds than bikes… To put it mildly, it was wet
ACCIDENTS DO HAPPEN BUT MORE OFTEN SOMEONE’S TO BLAME.
PAUL DARLINGTON EXPLAINS WHAT TO DO IF YOU’RE INVOLVED IN A ROAD INCIDENT WHILE CYCLING
Any road incident that damages you or your bike will tend to happen fast. There’s little time to react, let alone think. Afterwards, however, you need to be methodical. It’s easy to let adrenaline take over and erupt in anger or insist you’re fine and jump back on the bike like a pro rider after a spill in the peloton. Don’t. Get to a place of safety and take a breath. Check yourself first and your bike second. Follow the advice in this article. If you can’t remember it, just call the Cycling UK Incident Line on 0330 107 1789. That’s the most important takeaway from these pages.
Now let’s get into the details. Crashes on the road (excluding those caused in sporting events and by defective equipment) normally fall into one of two categories. The first is caused by the fault of a third party – for example, a driver, a pedestrian (with or without a dog), a horse-rider or another cyclist. The second is caused by a defect in the highway, such as a pothole. These are not accidents, which are chance events without identifiable cause. They are collisions or crashes attributable to specific circumstances.
If you sustain losses – including personal injury, damage to property or financial losses – you can bring a claim for compensation. To do so you must establish the following:
● The incident occurred no longer than three years ago (unless the victim is a minor)
● That a duty of care is owed by the third party
● That there has been a breach of that duty through negligence or by a failure to comply with a specific law
● That there’s a causal link between the breach of duty and the injury and loss sustained
Above: Goedereede, near Rotterdam
Below: At the top of the Furka Pass, Switzerland
Andrew is a cycling author and podcaster; his website is cyclingeurope.org
He’s happy to give free talks to Cycling UK groups/affiliates. Drop him a line via his website
Andrew Sykes’s 5,000km loop around Europe last summer wasn’t Plan A. It wasn’t even Plan B. It was more of a Plan C. Here’s how it unfolded
The story began in the innocent pre-Covid days of 2019. My third book, Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie, had been published a couple of years previously and, with book number four in mind, I was keen to set off pedalling once again. By early 2020 I was planning a six-week trip from the northernmost point of Japan at Cape Sōya to the country’s southernmost tip at Cape Sata. I’d bought the plane tickets and a new touring bike. My research was in full swing…
We know what happened next. Even by early 2022, Japan still hadn’t opened its doors to foreign visitors. Continental Europe had, so I came up with a Plan B, to cycle around the Baltic Sea, following the route of the EuroVelo 10. It lacked one key ingredient: my enthusiasm. The war in Ukraine also threw up logistical problems involving Russia and its exclave of Kaliningrad. However, with a ticket already purchased for the Hull to Rotterdam ferry for the evening of 2 July, were there other options?
The most obvious was to turn right on arrival at Rotterdam, not left. Plan C was born.
Although I have a reputation as being (as I was once introduced at the Cycle Touring Festival) ‘Mr Cycling Europe’, there are many iconic routes in Europe that I have never cycled in their entirety: the Avenue Verte to Paris, the Vélodyssée along the west coast of France, and the Rhine Cycle Route to name just three. Could my Plan C be an opportunity to plug some of these gaps
in my cycling knowledge? I pored over the map and attempted to piece together a route.
By turning right at the Hook of Holland I could follow the North Sea Cycle Route (EuroVelo 12) to Calais and the Vélomaritime (EuroVelo 4) to Dieppe. Here I could head south in the direction of Paris along the French section of the Avenue Verte, the route linking the British and French capitals. A route I’d never before heard of, the Véloscénie, connected Paris with Mont Saint-Michel, where I could rejoin the Vélomaritime as far as Morlaix in Brittany.
From there I could follow the northern portion of the Vélodyssée (EuroVelo 1) to Royan where the Véloroute Des 2 Mers A Vélo would take me to the Mediterranean via Bordeaux, the Canal de la Garonne, Toulouse and the Canal du Midi. The EuroVelo 17, called the ViaRhôna in France, could be followed from Sète to Andermatt, high in the Swiss Alps where, rather conveniently, the Rhine Cycle Route (EuroVelo 15) would return me to the Netherlands, the Hook of Holland and my ferry back home on 3 September. That didn’t seem too shabby for a Plan C.
Was it, however, feasible? I had negotiated a few weeks of extra holiday from the school where I teach in order to set off at the start of July, but I needed to be back in the classroom on 5 September. There was no renegotiating that. Nine weeks. Assuming a day off every week, 54 days of cycling along a route that I estimated to be around 5,500km – just over 100km per day. I’d managed this in 2013 as I cycled along the Mediterranean from Greece to Portugal
Plan B was to cycle around the Baltic Sea, following EuroVelo 10. It lacked one key ingredient: my enthusiasmThe Hull to Rotterdam ferry
Ask us at cyclinguk.org/bikefinder
For: David Powell, aged 48, from Bristol. Bike needs: Partner and I will be using the e-bike for commuting, ferrying toddler to and from nursery, and shopping. Must haves: Electric assistance, as we live in a city with a clean air zone coming and we want to use our car less. Easily adjustable so both my partner (5ft 4in) and I (6ft 2in) can use it. Must be able to fit a child carrier to it so that we can ferry around the toddler. We’d also like to use it to get him to school eventually. We live in a hilly area so it needs oomph. Budget: £2,000-£3,000.
Richard Peace
Tern’s Quick Haul D8 (ternbicycles.com/uk) looks tailor-made for your family. In its most basic form – without child-carrying accessories but with mudguards and rack – it retails at £2,900.
Firstly, it’s a great load carrier. The rear rack is rated to carry 50kg and the optional front rack 20kg, with the frame and fork industry tested up to 150kg maximum gross vehicle weight (GVW is the weight of the bike, rider and load).
Secondly, it is a Bosch mid-drive motor. Bosch mid-drives are renowned as good hill climbers, even if the Active Line Plus on the D8 is not the most powerful in Bosch’s range .
Thirdly, the D8 fits rider heights of 5ft 3in to 6ft 5in, thanks to a height-adjustable Speedlifter handlebar stem and a heightadjustable seatpost.
Fourthly, to quote Tern, the D8 has “lots of available kid- and cargo-carrying accessories”. This is very true – check out the Clubhouse Mini, Clubhouse MadPad and Captain’s Chair to give an idea of seating options. There are also various handle, footrest and wheel-guard options, plus some extra-stable stand choices. Depending how far you go down the accessory route, this could add up to a few hundred pounds.
For a more budget approach (though with less climbing ability), check out the Mycle Cargo, Rad Power RadWagon or Velosta V1 . If you think you will need more hill-climbing ability, Tern’s Quick Haul P9 is a step up in motor power but costs £3,100. If you prefer the idea of keeping an eye on your offspring, you might consider Babboe’s Big-E electric trike but, again, that’s unlikely to have the hill-climbing ability of the Tern.
To fit you both, your e-bike needs to have a long or telescopic seatpost and a relatively low standover height. That most likely means smaller wheels – for example, 20in. A motor with more torque will cope better with Bristol’s hills, although that’s less critical if it’s a mid-motor and the bike has a decent gear range. Like your legs, a mid-motor can spin up hills more easily in bottom gear. Hub motors, in effect, have to stomp.
An e-cargo bike isn’t your only option. You could use a smallwheeled urban e-bike like the Orbea Katu-E 30 (£2,499, orbea. com) in combination with a child trailer such as the Burley Bee (£399, kidsbiketrailers.co.uk). Although the Orbea’s Bosch Active mid-motor is only 40Nm, the bike has a fairly wide-range (307%) Shimano Inter-8 hub gear. The trailer will carry one or two children and/or groceries. When your son is bigger, you could invest in a trailer cycle such as the Burley Kazoo (£329) for school-run duties.
An e-cargo bike would, however, give get-on-and-go convenience if it’s going be used for passenger duties more often than not. The Mycle Cargo (from £1,999, mycle.co.uk) ticks all your boxes and would still be well under budget with a child seat and other accessories added. Its 65Nm rear hub motor should get even heavier loads uphill well enough. While it will haul bigger loads and passengers than the Orbea or the Tern Quick Haul, it is itself bigger and heavier, tipping the scales at 33kg. If you and your partner are okay with that extra mass, it’s a great-value solution. For a full review, see magazine/bike-test-budget-e-cargo-bikes
, it is itself bigger and heavier, tipping the scales at cyclinguk.org/cycle-
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Curly bars aren’t the only way to tour. Simon Withers tests two keener-priced, flat-bar alternatives from Cube and Trek
Even in these inflationary times there’s a way to buy a brand new, fully equipped tourer for under a grand: choose one with a flat handlebar. Euro-style trekking bikes come with all the components you need for touring or commuting, including a rear rack, mudguards and lights, yet cost hundreds of pounds less than a drop-bar equivalent.
Both the Cube Travel and Trek Dual Sport 2 Equipped Gen 5 look to be great-value bikes. They’re suitable for long-distance touring straight from the shop. Additionally, their tough wheels and wide tyres make them ideal for commuting on our perpetually potholed roads and for leisure rides over a variety of surfaces, whether that’s the light gravel of some Sustrans routes or unsurfaced towpaths. Both bikes are fairly hefty, at around 15kg, so you won’t be speeding to your destination, but they’re commensurately strong: the Trek has a 136kg limit for the bike, rider and luggage combined, while the Cube’s limit is 145kg.
A lower price isn’t the only advantage of a flat bar over drops. Gears often go lower and brakes are typically better. Hydraulic discs only feature in manufacturers’ higher-end road groupsets, yet even Shimano's lower-level off-road groupsets – as fitted to the two test bikes – include such brakes. Both bikes are
available with step-through frames, too. Few drop-bar tourers come in this format.
It’s an all-aluminium affair when it comes to both bikes’ frames and forks, and both also come with a pleasingly comprehensive range of fixtures and fittings. If you were being hyper-critical, you might want top tube ‘bento box’ fittings or bottle bosses under the down tube, but those are the only absences. Both forks do have bosses for low-rider racks, however. The Cube Travel has front and rear quick-release axles, with Trek using its own ThruSkew fork axle, a halfway house between a quick release and thru-axle. Even without thru-axles, there was no issue with the quality of braking on either bike. Both bikes also have similar frame angles, with relaxed head tubes and steeper seat tubes. The angular-looking Cube’s geometry is noticeably more stretched out, with a much longer wheelbase, top tube and front centres measurement, which makes for great
stability. Tyre clearances are very generous on both bikes. Even with full-length mudguards and big tyres, there’s no toe overlap.
The cabling is routed internally on both bikes, with the exception of the Cube’s rear brake hose, which runs under the down tube. Trek’s decision to route cables and hoses directly into a dedicated headset top cap isn’t going to make the home mechanic’s life any easier. I feel that routing like this is best left to road bikes. Do you need an aero advantage and trickier-totinker-with components on a tourer? Not really…
Compared with drop-bar tourers at this sort of price, you get a lot of a bike for your money, with brand-name components throughout, hydraulic brakes, lights, racks and mudguards. The two companies have taken slightly different approaches but there are few kit compromises on either.
Crucially, both bikes have touringfriendly bottom gears. The Trek has an unbranded, super-compact 46-30 double chainset, while the Cube has a 48-36-26
Price: £999.
Sizes: XS, S, M, L, XL.
Weight: 15.5kg (M).
Alivio SL-M3100-R
trekking triple that you don’t often see these days. Derailleurs and shifters are from quite well down the Shimano mountain bike groupset hierarchy. The Trek mixes Altus and Acera, while the Cube is all Alivio apart from an Altus front mech. But both bikes’ shifting was spot on, albeit solid and accurate rather than smooth and light. The Cube’s 3× system ensures there are much smaller gaps between gears, allowing you to ride more easily at a consistent cadence, which is what I want when touring. I’m not sure I ever used its 48/11 top gear, however.
Cube has specified Shimano disc brakes and Trek Tektro, but frankly given their looks and performance they could have come from the same factory. Braking from both setups is light, controlled and very powerful, requiring just a finger or two no matter how much weight you’re carrying. The braking performance is fabulous and both systems use noncorrosive mineral oil. Fettling a hydraulic system in the back of beyond might be more complicated than cables but there’s no questioning the stopping power.
Frame & fork: Superlite aluminium frame with rack and mudguard mounts, post mount disc, kickstand mount, 135mm QR.
Aluminium rigid fork, internal brake routing, rack and mudguard mounts, 100mm QR.
Wheels: 55-622
Schwalbe Marathon Almotion tyres, Cube EX21 tubelessready rims, 32 14g spokes, Shimano
DH-3D37 Centerlock front hub dynamo, Shimano FH-M3050
Centerlock rear hub.
Transmission: platform pedals, 48-36-26 175mm
Shimano FC-T4060 chainset, Shimano SM BB52 bottom bracket, KMC X9 chain, Shimano
CS-HG200 11-34t cassette. Shimano
Rapidfire-Plus shifters, Shimano Altus FD-M370 Topswing front mech, Shimano Alivio RD-M3100-SGS rear mech. 27 ratios, 22-126in.
Brakes: Shimano BR-MT200 hydraulic discs, 160mm rotors.
Steering & seating: Acid Travel Comfort grips, Cube 660 ×31.8mm
Comfort Trail Bar, Cube 31.8mm
Performance Pro stem, Cube FPH868 semi-Integrated headset. Natural Fit Sequence saddle, 27.2×350mm Cube seatpost.
Equipment: Acid Semi-Integrated Carrier, Cubestand Cmpt kickstand, Acid 65 BB-Mount mudguards, Cube Shiny 50 front light, Acid Mudguard PRO-D rear light. cube.eu
The Cube offers a regal ride: upright, comfortable and with great visibilityTop: Dynamo lighting is ideal for everyday cycling and also useful on tour
Cycling glasses protect your eyes from more than just sunshine. Hannah Collingridge reviews four pairs
One look at the Tour de France peloton is all it takes to be reminded that cycling glasses are a big business, with expensive sponsorship deals. Thankfully there are plenty that don’t cost silly money yet still work well – and you don’t need to be any sort of racer to benefit.
Hannah is a keen bikepacker and the author of the Pennine Bridleway guidebook. She’s also a former bike mechanic
Glasses protect your eyes when riding. On sunny days, it’s like wearing a normal pair of shades against glare. They also protect against wind and dry eyes, especially for contact lens wearers. Plus they protect against dust, debris, foliage, insects and anything else that might get in your eyes while riding either on or off road.
Styling is different from normal sunglasses. The coverage has greater wraparound, they are designed to stay on your head during activity, and they’re often vented to prevent misting up as easily. You can pick up safety glasses cheaply from DIY stores, but be aware they are made to do a different job and aren’t likely to be as comfortable when worn all day
If you’re a prescription glasses wearer, your options are always going to be more expensive. Various companies offer either integral prescription lenses or clip-in lenses to fit behind normal cycling glasses.
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.
Well worth having to reduce the chance of long-term eye damage from the glorious sunshine. A dark lens doesn’t guarantee UV protection, although all the glasses here are tinted and do have UV protection.
A cheaper option than a photochromic lens that lightens and darkens according to the conditions. Many come with a dark lens for sunny conditions, a clear lens for low light and nighttime, plus a coloured lens for somewhere in between.
Venting can be important, especially if you have a hot head (I do). Some lenses have an anti-fog coating. You can buy after-
market sprays to help with this issue. Muc-Off does one, for instance.
Any glasses should be fairly lightweight and should fit securely without undue pressure on the sides of your head. The glasses need to fit your face shape, both for comfort and style. They should play nicely with the straps of your helmet, if worn. (The arms go outside the straps so the glasses will fall off your face more easily in a crash, preventing injuries from broken plastic.)
A soft bag is useful for carrying the glasses when they’re not being worn, as well as for cleaning the lenses. If you have trouble with glasses falling off, eyewear retaining straps such as Croakies (croakies. com) will help.
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Sandy D Franklin needed a non-strenuous tour. She found one across the North Sea
For his 70th birthday, Ian Smith wanted a challenge. He picked the second-highest paved mountain pass in the Alps
This might be your last milestone birthday,” my wife Dianne said before my 70th. “What have you always wanted to do?”
I thought for a while, then said that I wanted to cycle up the Stelvio, the famous mountain pass in Italy. Within half an hour she’d found a company that would do a bespoke trip.
The Stelvio Pass is a climb that deserves its reputation. It’s 21.5km long, rising from 1,225m at Bormio to 2,765m at top. The average gradient is around 7%, the steepest sections 14%. Where
I live in the Scottish Borders the climbs are short and not steep. The climb up to Bowden Loch from the Melrose side is just over 7% but is less than a 10th as long as the Stelvio. I’d need to ride it a lot. So I did: 113 times between late January and early June.
By the time I was in Bormio with my hire bike that summer, I felt ready. Setting off from the pretty spa town, it was steady climbing to begin with. The Alps looked spectacular in the morning sunshine. Soon other cyclists starting overtaking me; I was happy plodding away at my own pace.
The tunnels section was next but they all had traffic lights and were all lit. Then there was a long section with a steeper gradient. This part was relatively straight so it was easy to see the next part, a
series of 14 hairpin bends, seemingly climbing into the sky.
The easiest part of the climb was followed by the hardest. But by then I could see the buildings at the top of the pass. The end was in sight. I was going to do it.
At the pass there was a cold wind. I pulled on my rain jacket on and set off downhill. I’ve never used disc brakes before but, my goodness, they made the descent so easy on the hands.
It took 2 hours 45 minutes to go up and 35 minutes to come down. It would have been quicker but there was much more traffic by then, so I had to limit my speed – the only disappointment of the day. An hour after I arrived back at the hotel, there was a spectacular thunderstorm.
STRUGGLING WITH LONG Covid, I needed a gentle cycling holiday. Where better than the Netherlands? I’ve frequently cycled there but never on Texel, the largest of the West Friesland islands off the north-west coast. We stayed near Texel’s west coast, on the edge of the forest and the Dunes National Park. Our days began with a morning swim in the sea before anyone was about.
We rode to every corner of the island. We cycled south along the coast by heathland that was purple with flowering heather, passing lakes with geese, ducks and egrets, by huge sand dunes to cafés on empty, sandy beaches. To the north-west, we rode beside vast dunes to the lighthouse at the northern tip. On the east coast, mudflats were home to colonies of spoonbill, curlew and eider. Another ride took us south-east to the town of Oudeschild, over the island’s ‘big hill’ (15 metres).
We left Texel to explore some of the other national parks in the Netherlands. We first cycled around Lauwersmeer in the north, a wetland area famed for its marsh harriers. Then we visited Veluwezoom, an area of oak, beech and pine woods, sandy plains and heathland. Wild boar, deer and wolves live here.
Finally, we cycled in Biesbosch National Park, part of the Rhine delta, which is famed for its beaver populations. With extensive waterways and reed beds, it’s a stark contrast to the surrounding industrial areas.
After my last morning swim, I headed home with my mind filled with nature’s wonders.
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