Cycle magazine October/November 2022 LITE

Welcome

Inflation: good for tyres, not so good for everything else. Prices are shooting up across the board. While energy and food are rightly in the spotlight, the cycling industry isn’t immune. Have you seen the price of new bikes lately?

It’s easy to forget how much prices have risen over recent years; we quickly become accustomed to the new normal. So I had a look back at some older issues of Cycle. In our June/July 2016 issue we reviewed entry-level tourers, one of which was a Ridgeback Tour costing £549.99. The closest equivalent today is the Ridgeback Voyage, which admittedly has 3×9 Sora instead of 3×8 Claris and a Reynolds 520 steel frame instead of an aluminium one. But it’s broadly similar and is the current entry-level model in the line-up. It’s £1,349.99.

How’s that for inflation? 245% in six years. This is not a dig at Ridgeback. They’re at the mercy of shifting economic realities, like every manufacturer. Go take a look online. How many touring bikes can you find for less than £1,000? One? Two?

Lower the bar to £500 and the answer is easy: none. That’s partly why we’ve tested £500 gravel bikes this issue. They’re as close as we could get to drop-bar tourers at that price point.

The real bargains, as ever, are secondhand. And here the news is better. Last century I wrote an article about buying/building-up a hack bike for £100. I had another go this summer –and ended up with a better bike.

CONTENTS

FEATURES

34 The Rebellion Way

Cycling UK’s new 370km route around Norfolk

40 Ride out the recession

How to cut your transport costs with a £100 bike

48 Dancing in the dark

The Dunwich Dynamo: overnight from London to the Suffolk coast

PRODUCTS

20 Shop Window

New products coming soon

22 Gear up Components, accessories, and books

60 Affordable adventure bikes £500(ish) gravel bikes from Voodoo and Schwinn

67 Padded cycling pants

Four under-short alternatives to clingy lycra

70 Steed Stallion

A budget steel singlespeed for metropolitan commuters

REGULARS

04 Freewheeling

Bits and pieces from the bike world

07 This is Cycling UK Scotland’s Access Bikes programme; Northern Ireland’s failures on active travel; membership offers for Christmas; Cycling UK’s annual report; and more

18 You are Cycling UK Farewell to bike designer Mike Burrows

Letters

feedback on Cycle and cycling

Weekender

short ride around Dunbar for families and beginners

answered, topics explained

Tales

UK members’ ride reports

DAN JOYCE Cycle Editor

CYCLE MAGAZINE: Editor: Dan

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On the cover Rebellion Way riders near Dickleburgh in South Norfolk, by Jordan Gibbons

Annual report

A LOOK BACK ON 2021

Janet Atherton reflects on 2021 at Cycling UK: a year where we grew stronger as an organisation against a backdrop of tumultuous world events

Hard on the heels of the life-changing year we all experienced in 2020, 2021 was another eventful one. Despite those circumstances, when we looked back at 2021 and early 2022 to create our annual report, it was hugely reassuring to see the evidence that Cycling UK has gone from strength to strength.

In 2021 we refreshed our current strategy, which runs until 2023. Our core goal remains the same: to get millions more cycling. To do this, we identified that we needed to focus on four core areas.

1. Enable cycling for all Make cycling more accessible for individuals and communities who don’t often ride.

2. Speak up for all who cycle

Push for investment from local authorities and governments.

Campaign locally and nationally on issues that impact all existing and potential cyclists.

3. Strengthen our organisation

Invest in our digital infrastructure, systems and our staff.

4. Build sustainable membership

Our members are at the heart of our organisation, giving us the financial resources to promote cycling and your mandate to lobby for better cycling conditions.

Enable cycling for all

Changing people’s attitudes and behaviours are two of the most crucial steps in helping more people to cycle. That’s why we run programmes and projects such as the Big Bike Revival in England and Shift in Scotland. These projects both offer grants to local organisations to provide cycling support and activities in their communities.

Speak up for all who cycle

A big highlight this year was our campaigning success with the Highway Code. Cycle campaigning has been a core part of our work at Cycling UK since our earliest days 144 years ago. We know that campaigning for real change can take many years. It’s not

every year that we get to see tangible results, but 2022 saw significant changes to the Highway Code that will inform and improve the welfare of cyclists on our roads for years to come. This was the culmination of 11 years of lobbying.

Strengthen our organisation

Our charity has grown. We now employ almost 200 staff, we have volunteers and staff located right across the UK, grant income has risen, and we are supporting more and more programmes and groups to cycle. With that growth, we recognise that it’s imperative to make sure that the processes and systems that support what we do are robust and can scale with us as we grow.

This year we have made significant investment in our IT, governance and HR systems to ensure members receive the best experience. We’ve equipped our teams to deliver remotely and digitally. We are also exploring how we make sure we as a charity can represent the diversity we want to see in cycling. All this is helping us to be the resilient,

Clockwise from top: Jordan Gibbons; Robert Spanring; Paul Campbell; Robert Spanring

DR JANET ATHERTON OBE Chair of Cycling UK’s board of trustees

Highway Code timeline (the past five years)

March 2017: Cycling UK launches the Too Close for Comfort campaign to tackle dangerous close passes and press for changes to Highway Code overtaking rules.

April 2018: Cycling UK launches the Cycle Safety: Make it Simple campaign, calling for road safety changes, including a revised Highway Code. It’s backed by more than 10,000 members and supporters.

June 2018: Cycling UK picks up British Cycling’s Turning the Corner campaign for changes to junction priority rules, pressing for these to be included in new Highway Code rules.

November 2018: In response to our Cycle Safety: Make it Simple campaign, the government promises to review the Highway Code to make it safer for cyclists and pedestrians.

November 2018-present: Cycling UK’s policy director Roger Geffen works with stakeholders to influence proposals for changes to the Highway Code.

June 2019: Cycling UK launches the Dutch Reach campaign to tackle cardooring.

June 2020: Cycling UK launches a major Highway Code campaign, supported by almost 17,000 people, in response to the government’s consultation on Highway Code changes.

December 2021–January 2022: Cycling UK presses the government on the absence of any public awareness campaign for the forthcoming Highway Code changes.

February 2022-present: Cycling UK works with the Department for Transport’s THINK campaign and partners to help shape public awareness about the changes.

19% of Big Bike Revival participants are from an ethnic minority background

34% of BBR participants live in areas of deprivation (as per index of multiple deprivation)

260,365

People reached this year by our behaviour changes programmes in England and Scotland (702,274 in the past three years)

Build sustainable membership

We recognise that our members are at the heart of allowing us to get millions more people cycling. Continuing to build our membership is critical in helping to secure the incomes that allows our organisation to provide an independent campaigning voice. Our members are also a valuable voice, lending much-needed support to our campaigning and influencing work.

Our membership is stable at 70,400. We have migrated to a new database and payment systems to improve customer experiences.

Fundraising continues to grow, with £55k from our raffle and over £60k from the Cyclists’ Defence Fund appeal.

In 2021 we started a membership review to look at what members and supporters want from us and how we can support the whole cycling community. As a result, we have made the changes listed below, with more to follow in 2022.

Reviewed our commercial relationships to ensure that members are receiving value for money and great service.

Read more

is representative and responsive charity needed to make a positive difference in today’s society. We have continued to build our capacity to be truly Cycling UK, having staff and volunteers in all nations. Our new staff in Wales and Northern Ireland are already making an impact and building our influence. They’ve launched new routes and they collaborated with partners to ensure cycling was an important issue in the recent elections.

We increased benefits, including a new cycle insurance partner and legal supplier.

We are developing new ways to take our work closer to local communities, to engage members with the issues that matter to them, and to make our membership inclusive, welcoming and engaging for all.

You can read the full, 72-page annual report online at cyclinguk.org/ policies-and-procedures/ annual-reports-andaccounts

The Cobblestone Café Easy Riders in the West Midlands

Rural Connections project in the Scottish Highlands

Details

Where: East Anglia Start/finish: Norwich railway station Distance: 370km

Photos: Jordan Gibbons/Pannier.cc

Top: nr Long Stratton

Bottom: Tivetshall St Margaret

Right: Venta Icenorum

TAYLOR DOYLE

Taylor is a Canadian tourer turned mountain biker, bikepacker and adventure racer.

Great Rides

THE REBELLION WAY

Cycling UK’s latest long-distance route is a 370km loop around Norfolk. Taylor Doyle was one of its inaugural riders this summer

Jessie and I were looking through a window to the past. A piece of clear acetate had been framed in front of an empty field, with a drawing of Venta Icenorum, the capital of Boudicca’s Iceni tribe, overlaying the modern landscape. We were five miles into Cycling UK’s latest long-distance route, which takes you through the history and landscape of Norfolk.

The Rebellion Way is named for two East Anglian uprisings: Boudicca’s against Roman rule and rapacity in 61AD; and Robert Kett’s in the 16th century. Kett fought against the enclosure of common land by wealthy landowners, an issue that still resonates today in the shape of discussions about public land access, rights of way, and who gets to enjoy these spaces.

The route is a mix of quiet lanes, bridleways, forest tracks, rail trails and singletrack. It’s relatively flat, of course, but there’s no shortage of historical sites, ruined churches and castles, charming towns, and tempting cafés, pubs and tearooms. It’s a well-curated path of surprises.

CYCLING THROUGH CENTURIES

From Venta Icenorum, a sunny lane with little traffic took us further away from Norwich. We stopped again at an old ruined church called St Mary’s. You could get right into the middle of it and gaze up at its tall, windowless walls. We weathered a spot of rain here, sheltering under an archway.

The first off-road section, grassy and bumpy, came soon after, as did the first ford,

which we crossed with shrieks and laughter. After stopping at the Waterfront Inn in Diss for food and drink, we continued to Swattesfield Campsite in northern Suffolk where some lovely bell tents and a fire pit were waiting for us.

Day two began with strong sunlight and strong coffee. We were heading back into Norfolk on a mix of tarmac, off-road trails, and even some stretches of sand – short enough to walk over for those on thinner tyres. Gravel fire-roads took us through Thetford Forest to Lynford Arboretum, where we bought cold summer spritzers from a trailside café called Shepherd’s Baa. Lynford Water was such a rich blue it looked like we were abroad. There was some great singletrack beside it too.

Our next stop was the mostly-ruined church of St John the Evangelist, Oxborough. Its spire collapsed in 1948, damaging the nave. Fortunately the Bedingfield monuments survived. These are renaissance terracotta tombs, said to some of the finest 16th century memorials in England. After inspecting them (I studied art history), we continued to Swaffham and beds at the St George Hotel.

FOREST AND COAST

Castle Acre Castle was a breathtaking sight on the morning of day three. It’s one of the most impressive Norman earthworks in the country. Plaques describe how the castle’s purpose changed over its lifetime and explain the different layers of construction. We then joined Peddars Way, an old

The route is a mix of quiet lanes, bridleways, forest tracks, rail trails and singletrack. It’s relatively flat, of course

Joyce

Cycling instead of driving or using public transport can take some of the heat out of the cost of living crisis. Pedalling costs pennies per mile, as cycle commuters have long known. Now that it costs £100 to fill up an average family car with petrol, others are waking up to the savings that cycling offers. Cycling levels in England rose by 47% on weekdays for the five months to July (see cyclinguk. org/cycle-surge-england ).

‘On your bike’ is only an option, however, if you have one in roadworthy condition. For bike owners whose machine just needs some TLC, the Big Bike Revival and the Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme can help; we’ll come back to these later. As for those who don’t own a bike: how much might they be able or willing to spend to get one, given the inflationary pressures in every other part of life right now? How about £100, the price of that tank of petrol?

A bike at that price has to be secondhand. You can’t even buy a bicycle-shaped object from a catalogue shop for £100 these days. The least expensive ‘proper’ new city bike is, in my opinion, either Decathlon’s City Bike Elops 100 (£199.99, decathlon.co.uk ) or its 20-inch Folding Bike B’Twin 100 (also £199.99). I reviewed the folder last year when it was called the B’Twin

A cheap secondhand bike isn’t only for someone who absolutely can’t spend more. Most of us are feeling the pinch and there’s value in having a cheap ‘hack’ bike that costs next to nothing to maintain and that you can leave locked up in town without worrying much about theft or damage. If you have a son or daughter heading off to college, a cheap runaround is ideal because bike theft levels are high around universities. Or maybe you have a friend who needs a bike? Who better to help them start riding on a tiny budget than you, the local cycling expert?

SECONDHAND SOURCES

Finding a good quality secondhand bike requires a degree of luck. Even if you know what you want there’s no guarantee it’ll be available for a price, and in a place, that suits you. Secondhand shops. You might find a bike at a charity shop or generic secondhand shop that isn’t a derelict ‘full suspension’ ‘mountain bike’ or a child’s bike, and that doesn’t need money and time throwing at it to fix it up. I didn’t. I did once find a rideable Raleigh Record for £11 that I converted to singlespeed. Not this time.

Facebook Marketplace. A friend of mine bought a virtually unused ‘mountain bike’ this way for his university-bound daughter. It cost £40. The main advantage of Facebook is that you can narrow down the search to your own town so you can go and inspect the bike before purchase. You must have a Facebook account, of course. I don’t (and don’t want one) so I didn’t pursue this. Cycling websites. Cycling websites that list for bikes for sale – such as the Cycling UK Forum ( forum.cyclinguk. org), Singletrack (singletrackworld.com), and PinkBike ( pinkbike.com) – are good sources for higher-quality secondhand bikes and parts. You seldom find sub£100 bikes on such websites because keen cyclists tend to buy decent bikes and look after them. eBay. There are loads of bikes on online selling sites such as eBay (ebay.co.uk ) and Gumtree (gumtree.com), and it’s easy to filter your searches by price and keyword so you’re not trawling through endless unsuitable options. You can also narrow the search to your local(ish) area, which is crucial when you have only £100 to spend. It costs £34 to send a boxed bicycle across the country with Paisley Freight ( paisleyfreight.com). That’s a third of your budget! Sellers of sub-£100 bikes very rarely off this facility in any case; it will be pickup only, so the bike needs to be nearby. The second problem

Oxylane 100 ( cyclinguk.org/cyclemagazine/bike-test-less-famousfolding-bicycles).

For around £100, this roadster ticks all the ‘transport bike’ boxes

Stock is variable at bike recycling centres but never expensive

CYCLOPEDIA

Making sense of commonly misunderstood subjects Knowhow

Navigation How to use GPX files

AGPX (GPS Exchange Format) file is an electronic format for sharing cycling or walking routes, which you can view and follow on a phone or bike-mounted GPS device. The GPX file contains a list of points (i.e. coordinates) that make up the route line for you to follow.

There are other proprietary file formats such as FIT or TCX files, which contain health and fitness data, but GPX is the standard for sharing and publishing routes. It’s a format that’s supported by all the main cycling navigation apps (Komoot, Ride with GPS, Strava, etc).

GPX files can be downloaded for free from a myriad of websites, including Cycling UK’s; see, for example, cyclinguk.org/140-routes. Most navigation apps come with a set of curated cycling routes, along with the ability for users to create, edit, publish and share their own.

WHERE TO PUT THE FILE

To use a GPX file you’ll need a smartphone or a bike-mounted GPS computer. Both will allow you to load a GPX file and will help you navigate along it using digital mapping.

GPS computers are tailored for this. Transfer the file to the device from your home computer, tablet or phone using USB, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. It will be recognised as a route, allowing you to

select it from a list and start navigation. You’ll see the route overlaid on a pre-installed digital map that’s zoomed in to your current location.

Most GPS vendors provide software/apps to simplify this process for you. For example, the Garmin Connect App will recognise a GPX file, offer to create a route from it, and enable you to download it to your Garmin device.

A smartphone works in a similar manner but requires that you install an app to view and navigate a GPX file. You may need to download additional basemap files. To prolong your phone's battery life whilst navigating, disable mobile data on the phone.

Both GPS devices and smartphone apps will record a GPX file as you ride, which is a great way to keep a detailed log of your rides and share them with others.

Using a GPX fi le on a phone

DAVE BARTER Cycling author and IT expert

Share your ride

Sharing a route you’ve ridden with others is relatively easy using the ‘Export to GPX’ option provided by most of the navigation apps/ websites. This will download a GPX file to your computer or smartphone, which can be sent to someone as an attachment to an email. Alternatively you could upload the route to one of the route-sharing sites such as Komoot or Ride with GPS; you’ll need to create an account first. You can make your route publicly available or only viewable by those with whom you want to share.

1

Using your phone’s web browser, go to the site containing the GPX (e.g. cyclinguk. org/weekender-dragonsback). Click on the ‘Download GPX’ link.

wish to use for navigation, such as Komoot or Ride with GPS.

4

Find the file on your phone – usually in your downloads folder. Select it and click ‘Share’.

2

3

Choose the navigation app on your phone that you

The app will open and process the GPX file. You may be asked to set the activity type – obviously we choose ‘Cycling’.

5

Tap ‘Start Navigation’ when you’re at the route’s start point and are ready to begin.

Eurovelo routes GPX files for the 19 long-distance Eurovelo routes are now available to download: en.eurovelo.com

Dave is a cycling author and IT professional who has written his own opensource route planner.

First look

High gears don’t

Biketest

Affordable adventure bikes

Guy has been a bike tester for 25 years. He’s a freelance technical editor for paper and online media and talks to himself while riding bikes at YouTube/ GuyKesTV

As the cost of living continues to rise to ever more painful levels it’s taking the prices of bikes and holidays with it.

So can you still get an enjoyable and capable adventure bike at a remotely affordable price and rescue the idea of a touring/exploring/ bikepacking trip as an economical escape?

I tested couple of £500ish gravel bikes from Schwinn and Voodoo to find out.

There’s no traditional touring bike in this test because there aren’t any at this price. The Dawes Galaxy is now a flat-bar hybrid and frame-only touring bike options from specialists like Spa Cycles and St John Street Cycles are the same price as the complete bikes featured here: a Voodoo Limba from Halfords and a Schwinn Scree from Decathlon.

Frame and fork

Like many budget brands, both bikes only come in small, medium and large sizes. The main separator between the test bikes is the riding position and

handling balance. The Limba looks and feels like a conventional gravel bike, with a 410mm fork, short head tube, and the stem fitted flat to give a relatively low handlebar height. In contrast the Scree has a 430mm fork and a 30mm longer head tube, so even when I switched the headset spacers out the bar was still significantly higher. The top tube slopes down dramatically like a mountain bike’s so there’s lots more seatpost exposed for a given saddle height.

In terms of tubing both bikes have aluminium frames but the Voodoo is chunkier in nearly every dimension, with a kinked down tube and an angular cross-section top tube. While cable guides are external it gets a neat pipe chainstay bridge and a shaped head tube with an actual physical head tube badge for a high-quality feel. Practical wins include

You can’t buy a touring bike for £500 these days but there are gravel bikes at that price. Are they any good as all-rounders? Guy Kesteven finds out

More upright riding position and simpler shifting suit beginners better.

GUY KESTEVEN

a forward-facing seat slot to fight spray, both bottle cage mounts inside the mainframe to keep nozzles clean, rack mounts at the rear, and mudguard mounts front and back.

The Schwinn gets a much shallower, rectangularsection top tube than the Voodoo. Brake and gear cables are internally routed but there’s nothing to stop them rattling inside the frame. The straight head tube with external bearing cups and the flat-plate brace between the chainstays point to a cheaper chassis cost. There’s only 1.5mm clearance between the fat 45mm tyre and the chainstays too, which wouldn’t take much to clog on a dirty day on the Ridgeway. While there are rack mounts and mudguard mounts at the rear, the Schwinn doesn’t have front mudguard mounts. That means that any bottle put in the cage mount under the down tube is going to get filthy even more quickly.

Components

The cosmetic wins keep on coming for the Voodoo when it comes to the components.

The Shimano Claris shifters have both gear and brake cables exiting under the hoods and tape for a clean look to the front end. The handlebar has an ergo, teardrop top profile and is slightly flared at the drop; while it’s only 410mm on the top it’s 480mm at the tips.

The Schwinn uses lumpier-looking Microshift levers with external routing, so there’s a long length of shift cable dangling in the wind before it gets to the frame insertion point. The one lever controls all ten gears as the Scree has a single 42-tooth chainring (with alloy guides either side) on a chunky, 3D-forged ‘Chariot’ arm and spider. While I’d normally champion single chainring setups for gravel, as the sequential shifting is a lot easier to predict, it lacks the wide-ratio cassette essential for a good gear range. In fact it has the same small 11-28 tooth spread as the Limba, but over ten sprockets rather than eight. However, the Limba also has two (nonreplaceable, pressed steel) chainrings, giving 46- and 30-tooth options up front. The tyre choice and wheel builds of the

The Schwinn’s taller fork and head tube give it a much more upright riding position

Tech Spec SCHWINN SCREE

Price: £499.99

Sizes: S, M (tested), L

Weight: 12.43kg

Frame & fork: Schwinn 6061 aluminium gravel frame with internal brake and gear cable routing, QR dropouts, and fittings for two bottle cages, rear rack and mudguard.

Schwinn steel gravel fork with QR dropouts.

Wheels: 45-622 WD gravel tyres, double-wall 700C rims with 36 plain gauge spokes laced 3-cross on QR hubs.

Transmission: Chariot aluminium

chainset with 170mm cranks and 42 tooth chainring with twin alloy guards, 10-speed chain, square taper bottom bracket. Microshift

R10 10-speed gearing with 11-28 tooth cassette. Ten ratios: 42-106in.

Braking: JAK

Super Brake cableoperated callipers with 160mm rotors.

Steering & seating: 410mm aluminium drop bars, 95mm stem, threadless headset. Aluminium single-bolt seatpost, Schwinn colourcoded saddle. decathlon.co.uk

Grouptest Padded pants

Skin-tight lycra isn’t the only option for saddleproofing your posterior. Lauren Brooks tests four pairs of padded pants for women

Details WHAT TO LOOK FOR

1 Comfort

Look for breathable fabrics, such as nylon and polyester, with some stretch in them (from a percentage of elastane/lycra). The longer the ride, the more padding you may need.

2 Sizing

Check the size guide against your measurements. Too small and they will roll down or dig in. Too big and they will move around and cause rubbing. I found all four pants here true to size.

3 Care

are quick-drying, odour-resistant, and will withstand frequent washing. I found that all pairs tested dried outdoors within a couple of hours.

4 Style and fit

The smaller the style of pants, the less bulky and the less conspicuous they are (if that’s what you’re looking for). The longer the padding in the front, the more comfortable the pants are for female anatomy.

5 Durability

LAUREN BROOKS

Cycling UK’s digital communications and media officer is a new-to-gravel cyclist who often complains of sore sit bones!

Handy for commuters, bikepackers, tourers, and mountain bikers, padded pants provide extra saddle comfort without the not-always-flattering look of clingy lycra. They’re great if you’re self conscious about your shape and also for off-the-bike situations where lycra looks a little odd.

You can wear padded pants under normal clothes, including dresses and skirts, as well as under baggy cycling shorts. They’re less obtrusive than wearing lycra shorts underneath (especially bib shorts) and they pack smaller when not worn.

Often made from blended fabrics, padded pants wick away sweat where that job is most important for pH balance. The key issue with them is the padding itself. Too much and you may as well be wearing your usual chamois. Too little and your bum won’t thank you for it.

This test is of padded pants for women. There are men’s versions of all of them except the VeloVixen pants, although the Altura Tempo Undershorts for men are a very different style.

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.

If you’re touring, blended fabrics that include merino wool, polyester or bamboo

Look for strong seams. While some fabric stretchiness is good, more than about 4% elastane may result in overstretching long term.

England & Scotland

Oiling LEL’s wheels

London Edinburgh London meant a different journey for Rev Graeme Holdsworth, who combined cycling with helping out on the 1,500km audax

Having ridden London Edinburgh London (LEL) in 2017, I was keen to support the 2022 edition alongside 750 other volunteers. Nearly 2,000 cyclists had entered, all planning to ride the 930-mile route in under 128 hours. I was part of the team at the start, and later at another control point near the North York Moors. I combined cycle-camping with the East Coast mainline train.

As the start of LEL is on the edge of London, I cycled out from King’s Cross Station. It was a nice ride past bustling cafés and pubs in warm sunshine. Low Traffic Neighbourhoods have created a corridor free from heavy traffic.

There was so much to do preparing the start site to process rider registration, but the organiser looked after us with food and drink. I worked the helpdesk as part of a small team. We handled all sorts of questions, including “Can I store my boat at the start?” and “I’ve bought this bike computer, can you show me how it works?”

Sunday 7 August was the Grand Depart. We cheered audaxers off in groups of 50 and, as a start-gate marshal, I had the chance to speak to almost everyone. There was a lot of nervous excitement. This is probably the UK’s

hardest mass-participation endurance event, yet the women and men taking part seemed to be so normal. After waving off the last riders, I cycled back into London to catch the train north, dotwatching tracker signals while I travelled.

I cycled with my camping gear to the Northallerton control, arriving just before those I had waved off at 5am in London. These riders had transformed from the fresh faces I’d seen 250 miles ago. Apart from the physical effort, many were emotionally tired. I took the opportunity to offer advice from my own experience and encourage them through dark times.

I had to return to work by the middle of the week but was glued to the social media reports on LEL2022 progress. I’ve made new friends volunteering and it has been a wonderful journey among generous people.

Rails and trails England

LIVING IN SHEFFIELD

I’ve often seen signs for the Trans Pennine Trail. Curiosity got the better of me and I committed to ride

it. Rather than book accommodation, I chose to return home by train each day, picking up the trail again the next morning. This meant breaking my journey at stations with a good connection to Sheffield. I finished day one at Stockport, day two at Goole, and returned from Hull at the end of the ride. Returning home each night meant I could travel light.

The start from Southport was easygoing, although I rode through a short summer downpour. Signage became harder to spot in urban areas and I got lost a couple of times, taking an unofficial route through Sale via the Bridgewater Canal towpath. The train home from Stockport was cancelled so I had to travel on services I didn’t have reservations for. Luckily the train crews were sympathetic.

Day two was the toughest part of the trip: 176km, including the Pennine crossing. An early start meant I enjoyed breakfast in Hadfield before climbing to the highest point of the trail, with the Woodhead Tunnel deep below. I was then in familiar territory as I sped towards East Yorkshire with the wind on my back.

The long day before gifted me a relaxed finale. I enjoyed pleasant backroads along the Ouse and the Humber before the last stretch on the Hull-to-Hornsea Rail Trail.

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The outer London start

Graeme cycle-camped

Eddie booked trains not B&Bs

Eddie Miles cycled the 360km Trans Pennine Trail in rail-assisted stages