A while a go (ok, more than once) I posted asking for help and advice on a coast to coast trip based on the route on the PedalNorth website, from Ravenglass to Ravenscar. Well, last week was the big week and we did it… Kind of!

I literally have a notebook full of scribbles notes on the trip, so I’m not going to try and squeeze it all into a post on here; I’ve started to write it up into a blog instead. The very first bit is up, I’ll update over the next week or so as I have time to translate it into something approaching English.

Coast to coast MTB.

How was the Rocket for bikepacking?

I used to bikepack a bit with a Surly Ogre. Currently have an enduro bike (Bird AM9) which I’m yet to bikepack but use quite often to commute with a load. I found it really curious that the enduro fs actually handles the load better. Likely related to the very stable geometry and general burliness.

Makes me really curious to take it for a proper multi day route

Not bad to be honest – I had sleeping bag / tent up front in a bar harness, then poles / pump / pegs etc in a frame bag, food and drink in stem cell and top tube bag, spare tubes taped to the seat and a spare bottle under the down tube. I also had a backpack with clothes and mat etc in (I know some people hate riding with a pack, I actually don’t mind it).

It’s not as much fun to ride as it’s a lot harder to pop over stuff with the weight over the front, but once you get used to that it’s pretty much fine. I will elaborate more in the blog 😉

Good stuff! I look forward to reading the rest of it.

Good start. Needs pics. Pics of your kit and bike loaded up before you get into the trip. Tell us about your thoughts on your upcoming adventure, did you work out where you might camp, how many miles you were aiming for a day? Any bits which you weren’t looking fwd to and any bits you were? I’m just trying to be helpful, ignore me if you like 😊

Good start. Needs pics. Pics of your kit and bike loaded up before you get into the trip. Tell us about your thoughts on your upcoming adventure, did you work out where you might camp, how many miles you were aiming for a day? Any bits which you weren’t looking fwd to and any bits you were? I’m just trying to be helpful, ignore me if you like

I’m on it 😉 Just catching up with real life after getting back so it might take me a while to get it all written up…

I, for one, am interested in what frame bag you can get to fit on a Rocket!

Custom!

https://www.weecog.co.uk/

Give me a shout if you decide to get one as there are some changes I would have made to mine (due to my measurements, nothing to do with how good Becky is – she’s brilliant).

Update this thread please when you update the blog monkeyboy I’d like to read it

+1 for updates please. I did the same route in 2014 though me and my mate had the luxury of support so didn’t have to carry our stuff. I’m interested to hear how you got on

Here you go – Part 2: The Kit. By no means the perfect setup, and just because it worked for me doesn’t mean that it will for you, but it got me across…

Coast to Coast: The Kit

Great but….

Good going 😎 I was watching Joe’s progress on Strava.

Cheers guys!

I’ll be honest, I didn’t take a shedload of pics of kit before hand or on the ride really. Sorry about that!

Didn’t weigh stuff either 😉

Part three. I’ll talk about riding bikes soon I promise. Also the URL is in the process of changing, so links might stop working. I’ll post updated ones when everything has settled down.

Coast to Coast: The Train **** (Part One)

Edited to take a swear out of the link.

My setup for the 2017 Jennride, had some different ideas for the 2018 but unfortunately Mrs B broke her collar bone 3 days before so had to cancel

Not Barrow-in-Furness! 😩😆 me and that town have history and I try and avoid as much as possible. What a shit hole. Must have been a fairly lumpy ride from there to Coniston and a lot less scenic that from Ravenglass.

I’m feeling inspired by this already.  I’ve never felt any need to do bikepacking or anything like it before,  but i’dreally like to do something that feels like a challenge.  Maybe something a bit less extreme like a cross Lakes expedition…..

@brennak , there is room in the Rocket26 front triangle for a RestrapxCotic frame bag, and still have the bottle in there.

Very good. more please.

I remember your train thread and that the weather was not forecast to be kind. I even mentioned it to the missus – in a “poor sod from Stw is going to get wet”kind of way.

More please – it may inspire me to have my own little adventure.

@brennak – looks good! I didn’t want to run a saddle bag so I could still drop the seat, whether I’d do the same again in the future I’m not sure.

Barrow was… Well let’s just say we didn’t stay there for too long (but I’ll get to that in good time). And (spoiler alert) we did get a little bit wet too…

Shame you missed out on the Ravenglass -Coniston route, when we did it that was a real epic day with some tricky navigation over boggy fells to start the day, then some great tracks over to Walna Scar Road

Yeah I was gutted about that, I’ve ridden Walna Scar before and loved it. But needs must and all that…

<span style=”text-align: left; color: #222222; text-transform: none; line-height: 22.4px; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-family: ‘Open Sans’; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent;”>@flyingmonkeycorps looks good! I didn’t want to run a saddle bag so I could still drop the seat, whether I’d do the same again in the future I’m not sure.</span>

I used the Arkel saddlebag, which has a frame attached to the seat rails to hold it in place and does not attach to the seat post and I found I could drop the post and use most of the suspension, just kept it a bit firmer. Worked a treat for me.

The problems I had were the stem cells affecting the steering, so I have now got SKS anywhere bottle mounts and used stainless jubilee clips to fasten them securely to my pikes, 3 to each leg and fastened Salsa anything cage with Alpkit XL stem cells. I also used this system to attach a bottle cage to the down tube, similar to you, but the jubilee clips held them firmly in place, this also get some of the mass lower down which helps the bikes stability.

Updated again. Still no riding bikes, but already a heck of a journey…

Coast to Coast: The Train **** (Part Two)

@brennak – I did some test fits with saddlebags, and it seemed like on my frame (M26) I’d have to run my suspension so hard with a saddlebag I may as well have been on a hardtail (which might not have been the worst idea anyway, but the Rocket was what I had built up so that was that).

Joe had fork mounts, they actually seemed pretty awesome. If I was planning more big trips I would definitely be looking at some of those. I didn’t mind the Stem Cell too much steering wise, but then there weren’t a lot of tight corners on our route!

Hmm. Site seems to be down, apologies. I’ll post when it’s all working again (domain reshuffle…).

Yes, your experience with trains kind of sums up why we didn’t want to have to rely on public transport. Our trip only became a real goer once we had an offer of support. We had spent years wanting to do it but couldn’t work out the logistics.

Yeah it’s pretty ridiculous to be honest, even if the trains had worked properly it was still expensive and would have been a pain with different reservations etc. It’s a real shame, I don’t normally use trains but it makes you realise how **** up the system in this country is.

Righto, the site all seems to have migrated now, you can find all the blog links below, in order. Hopefully I’ll add another (with a bit of actual riding!) later on this evening.

Coast to Coast: Introduction

Coast to Coast: The Kit

Coast to Coast: The Train **** (Part One)

Coast to Coast: The Train **** (Part Two)

Aaand updated with the first stage of the ride, from Barrow-in-Furness over to Coniston. Should all be working fine now, hopefully.

Coast to Coast: Stage One (Barrow to Coniston)

Just added day 2 blog. It’s a long one; there’s proper offroad riding, excitement, peril, problems and a lot of rain…

Coast to Coast: Stage 2 (Coniston to Oxenholme)

Loving the narrative monkeycorp, keep ’em coming.

Yep, a good read, it’s making me relive our coast to coast. Keep it coming!

Nice Sunday pm read. What a pity about the Lakes leg. Definitely short-changed by Northern Rail and the elements there. Fingers-crossed for the Howgills/Dales stages…

Yep I’ve read them all. Very easy to read . You should tap up the mag for an article.

Ha I probably should have thought of that before I put it all up online! Might drop them a line anyway I guess. Although I don’t think the pics are up to STW standard.

Right, I’ve added day 3, from Oxenholme to Hawes. I was too busy riding and watching the Worlds yesterday to bother writing anything.

It’s interesting going back over the notes I made and looking at the maps, there’s loads of little details that I’d already forgotten (and I’m sure a lot more still that I’ve completely forgotten).

Not quite as long as the last one, but there’s still breakages, cows and a viaduct, so it’s not all bad.

Coast to Coast: Stage Three (Oxenholme to Hawes)

and..

Next one is nearly done, stupid work keeps getting in the way…

Here you go, Stage 4: Hawes to Fremington. We were hoping for some great trails on this stage, knowing how good some of the stuff around Swaledale is… And we were already booked into the Dales Bike Centre, so no stress about where to sleep.

Coast to Coast: Stage Four (Hawes to Fremington)