Just wanted to “big up” Ian at The Bike Place.
He helped out our recent bike tour brilliantly. We went from coast to Bellingham on Day 1 on road/cx bikes. He organised some bag portering from Bellingham and then hired us mountain bikes when we arrived at Kielder, before coming over to Newcastleton later on in the day after shutting up shop for he day to bring us our road bikes & bags and pick up his mountain bikes. Not the biggest set-up but fair prices and plenty of enthusiasm.
He helped me manage to get some dyed-in-the-wool roadies grinning from ear to ear on mountain bikes before we headed off to Hartside and C2C home to the North-East.
Thanks for the advice previously everyone.
Everywhere we stayed on the trip was v good too:
The Cheviot in Bellingham- great food both evening and brekkie, accommodation improving.
The Grapes in Newcastleton- cheap but very cheerful, again great evening meal.
Alston House Hotel in Alston- great rooms and good beer and grub.
Shout out too for http://www.northpenninecycles.co.uk/shop-bicycle-store
who saved my ride with an eggbeater rebuild kit in the middle of the pennines, who’d have thought?