we cook just the normal stuff we would at home so no exciting camping specific recipes to offer unfortunately. sometimes we get local meat/eggs/produce from a local farm and go a bit freestyle…

as for the fire itself use big flat rocks around the edge of the fire to put your pots/pans on, with gaps to get some fuel/heat under. no need to make a hanging thing, plus the rocks keep whatever you’ve cooked warm whilst you fiddle on with getting the wine/beer out :)

there’s a trail at chopwell woods which goes along the side of a golf course (conveniently known as the golf course trail…) the fairway runs parallel to the edge of the wood and is set back a fair bit, but even still i’ve been riding along and golf balls have landed in the woods right in front of me! :? there are warning signs along the edge of the woods i think but nothing on the trails, but then again they are a bit cheeky… maybe the local residents go out there and just take pot shots at bikers to annoy us :wink:

whats for dinner?

i use them for commuting after i bought them on recommendation for the 3 peaks (for which they were also great). in about 3 years they have been spot on until the rear gave in with a piece of glass putting a cut into it. 700 x 35mm i think – front one still looks like it has a few years left in it :)

another thing on my to do list, i’m going to build it in with a bbq and worktop for chopping stuff up on too to save arsing about with folding tables

sadly i’ve got an entire garden to level, a shed/deck/hammock area to build, and a load of paving to lay first… :-/

i’d camp here for the marin trail – away from the road and a nice view. haven’t stayed there as we were in a campsite in betws which i rode from

link

defunct
/d??f??(k)t/
adjective
no longer existing or functioning

the fact that 26 inch wheeled bikes exist and santa cruz syndicate are winning WC DH’s on them mean no, they’re not defunct, no matter what the magazines, marketing nobber’s or internet armchair experts say :wink:

have you got a few other quotes to compare for your area? i always get 2 or 3 unless its a mate doing the work

sorted! :)

ditto all above but some extras

south:
hadrians wall walk steel rigg to housesteads fort (can get bus to either end)
newcastle – shopping/nightlife/cafes etc

coast:
alnwick gardens are nice and the tree house restaurant is great
holy island is pretty cool, good walks on far side but can be busy parking/dodgy with tide times
ross sands is super quiet with excellent views of holy island

inland:
rothbury – walks around simonside are good
generally the remoteness and lack of people is the main attraction :)

if you are heading from the south the A68/Rothbury route makes a more pleasant journey than driving up the A1 through Tyneside imo. bonus is hamsterley is just off the A68 in county durham and you’re closer to the hadrians wall stuff on the way… also less traffic

had a great time, and escaped relatively unscathed, apart from one snapped gear cable and a bent XT crank… doh. the 2nd climb up kirkland nearly killed me, not been out for a big ride like that for a while! shame about the weather on the day for the views, but made the grassy descents interesting ie: 30mph+ fishtailing with angular rocks lurking! but the clouds broke for us on the final descent to garrigill which was awesome :D

thanks to paul and all the marshalls/other helpers for putting the real graft in on the day – look forward to next year and hopefully a bit better weather!

cuba is a great place, especially once off the main tourist drag. i’d be very happy to go back and take my bike with me for some touring, roads are really bad so i’d suggest decent & spare tyres/tubes aplenty. lots of old bikes knocking about so you’ll find basic spares but i’d take anything specific you may need. also think about food/general supplies ahead – most shops are very sparsely stocked so don’t expect waitrose/sainsbury’s

kitchen wipes? are they oversized baby wipes? (got to say i have no interest in the current trends in domestic cleaning products)

we use a little bottle of washing up liquid and a cloth/scourer for proper washing up, fits inside our pots and pans with matches/knives and forks. then baby wipes to scrape the grease out if its bad, as well as our faces/nether regions when away from showers/wash facilities for a few days (not exactly minimalist but by eck they’re worth it)

pretty sure i’ve bivvied out for a couple of days and didn’t even bother washing up, just had the crusty remains of the previous days dinner floating in my breakfast, but then again i hadn’t cooked a raw chicken

looks a bit flat

had a Y reg focus we bought for £400. ran it for 4 years and sold it for £400. cost maybe £300 for MOT work on it over that time and £90 for a new door from the scrappy as the old one had a big gauge out of it. the best VFM motor i’ve ever had, in fact regret selling it but couldnt afford 2 cars and my partner was dead cert on getting a new car when we had the little un

it had 90k on it when we got it and sold it with around 130k – 1.8tdci engine ran perfectly but gearbox was starting to feel rough when we sold it. it was cheap as it had a scrape on the rear passenger side needing the new door – pretty easy stuff to do if you’re ‘handy’, so don’t by shy about something thats cheap cos its a bit dog eared. better having dodgy looking bodywork than a dodgy engine/gearbox/electrics if you ask me. in fact its still going strong, we often see it around here as sold it to someone local

where are you? theres a 52 plate nissan micra in a garage near me for £895 (near newcastle) i’ve noticed a few times on my way past

if i was going back to bangernomics i’d be looking at something japanese, preferably something an old granny’s been mincing around the village in for 15 years

pulled allsorts out of skips:

my first shed was built from wood taken from skips (if someone was around i asked for it!) – ok its not a pretty shiplap thing but its bombproof and not had any problems with break ins. in fact the door is about 2inch thick!

microwave in our old flat got pulled out a few years ago, conveniently around the same time i dropped our old one we were given and smashed it to bits (karma?!) cleaned up a treat and still going strong

a lamp – made a new lampshade cos the one on it was battered

few clothes airers – great for taking to work to dry clothes in the back room

lots of logs/wood for our woodburner

i tried to get a decent decathlon road bike from the tip once but the attendant guy shouted at me – he had bagged it for his mate who was on his way down. otherwise i’d have had it

couple of black office type chairs that are great for working on the bike without worrying about them getting grubby

shelving units & shoe racks – good for garage

it’s shocking what you see some people throwing away at the tip. especially peeves me seeing kids toys thrown away that would have cost a few hundred quid on last Christmas. surely a charity shop would be a more beneficial destination for some of the gear – or ebay/gumtree

finally got round to finishing it off, took it for a quick spin up a farm track but so far it rides as good as i remember :D tempted to put zee 1×10 on it

EDIT: wish i took the fork lowers to get powder coated too, maybe a tad too much blue though…

i know its the prototype but this shows one with 2.5’s fitted, looks similar clearance to my 26inch version (ie: not much) which the on-one/planet x site doesn’t have a tyre clearance spec for

http://www.bikerumor.com/2012/04/28/spotted-prototype-titus-el-guapo-29er-big-travel-budget-brawler/%5B/url%5D

we’ve got one like the kyham single room pop up things, quite old but fine for £70 odd quid we paid of it locally off gumtree. only really use it for family camping weekends/race weekends where we’ll be staying in the same spot for a few days (we tend to get around by bikes/walking when we’re there so haven’t even used the drive away function yet!) but the pop up mechanism is great and makes it much quicker to put up than the pole systems. rest of the time when we’re just out and about or travelling around we use a tarp fixed to the van with poles/clamp method and some steel poles/guys to put it up to keep the rain off (like Stoners pic) – really simple, takes up no space in the van (awnings are massive) and you can put a tent up next/under it too if need more space or mates camping too

i emailed weldtite and they sent me some in the post for free. couldn’t actually tell me where i could buy them from though!

FFS

we use ortleibs on topeak super tourist racks for touring/shopping. our touring includes rough roads/tracks but not singletrack/narrow stuff (or only small bits of it). i then have a revelate bikepacking set up for more singletrack/fast & light/technical trips, and my girlfriend uses my carradice sqr bag (i carry tent & food). no problems using panniers like this although lost a pannier on a rough track descent in picos d’europa which was amusing… now run extra clips and bungees! wouldnt want to do something like the st bees – robin hoods bay ride with panniers but totally fine for c2c and those type of signed routes i reckon. another thing to consider is snow! the low body of the pannier floats on deep snow making it a real drag to push/pull/curse the bike through (me and a mate rode up to newcastleton from newcastle and the fire road over from kielder was blocked!). also they are a real pain in the arse with getting over or through narrow gates/styals etc, more so for my girlfriend

bartimaeus – fear not, as map flipper works fine on normal strava. just noticed it other day as i use it to scope out trails on maps i can actually read as opposed to the google guff

i’ve just dropped baggies for my commute (hangs head in shame :cry: ) using some scott bibs from start cycles (£25 iirc) which are comfy and a couple of pairs of polaris shorts (non bib) i bought from a halfords bargain bin for £5 each – surprisingly not too bad for a 50min commute and cost me less than a days bus fare/parking to boot! not sure if i’d set off on the great divide in them though. just got some planet x clubman lights which look good but yet to be used in anger – they were £25

planet x clubman or the next ones up. just got mine and seem pretty decent. scott stuff from start cycles good too if you drop on some on offer, i have a few and they’ve been good

with one of these

whilst on the subject anyone noticed strava heatmap not working with the veloviewer OS map flipper?

i have a 9speed compact triple on my vaya with a 11-34t cassette. crazy wide range of gears but too big a jump between the rear gears for road work (it was the only 9speed cassette i had spare at the time and i’m running an xt mtb mech anyway) – intend to go to a 11-28t rear when it comes to new chain/cassette time. triple 9speed shifters were reasonably cheap at merlin when i got mine, couldn’t see any real advantage to pay more for 10speed stuff at the time as i had enough 9speed stuff to complete already

normal mate – welcome to fatherhood!

some serious elevation in those descents! looking forward to the

cheeky mine track descent

– 500m plummet to milburn, nevermind 600m from teeshead to blencarn on the wildboar scar BW :D

my large US made slot dropout frame is sat in the garage after being powder coated howies blue with new stickers. can’t bring myself to sell it, going to build it up old skool but the steerer on my z1 bams is too short i think :( really enjoyed riding it singlespeed as standing up all the time i avoided my arse getting pulverised… :wink: could probably fit 650b in it with 2-2.2inch tyres i reckon, not tried it yet

beer/cake/good coffee/good music/chilled out friendly staff/comfy seats/somewhere to lock bikes with free locks?

i’d rather go to a good cafe than an average/naff cycle themed one mind. i used to live near the Hub in newcastle and tbh there’s plenty of other places i’d go instead of there, great idea though – they do put on film nights and organise rides/have workshops too. will try that peddaling squares place over swallwell way that GrahamS link to, not strictly on the derwent walk though so not sure if it will get much passing trade (i ride the Derwent Walk every day and didn’t know it was there!)

may be a little big but i have a carradice sqr trax bag which is similar to the tour, use it daily for commuting and used it bikepacking/touring too. great bag, plenty of space, strong fitting and spares easily available from carradice. no problems with stuff getting wet and it easily clips on and off in no time too. i did break an attachment ring once (overtightening :oops: ) but carradice sent me a replacement in a few days :-)

or back in the day 200 of these little fellas

or

i’m doing it plus another – definitely good riding, feels very remote up on the fells with not a bad view of the lakes on a nice day! :)

cheers – i did think of building a 1-2 brick high wall first with the frame to sit on top but forgot to type that… i will have loads from demolition of a coal bunker. how does the dpm fit in with all that? just under the main concrete slab and tidied up around the edges be ok maybe?

i bought some stuff from PX, it turned up, some stuff missing, emailed PX, no reply, whinged on here, brant emailed me, sorted it out, stuff turned up in a few days. i’m still happy considering the price i paid and quality of the stuff i got. happy to use them again (and in fact have)

he’s got a good idea for attaching to the bike, but the effectiveness of his chain/lock mechanism isn’t any better than anything on the market. maybe he just needs to re-market it as a top tube mounting lock and forget about it being indestructible (to be fair who on earth would nick his bike anyway?)