Commentary saying there’s actually about 800m of climbing within the 30km which is a lot – it’s just disguised as a whole load of drags and rollers rather than definitive climbs.

I heard that but given that it’s almost a loop with just 40m elevation difference between start and finish it seems way out. I’ve a 30km loop around home with 1000m of elevation gain and there’s simply no way the two are comparable. Look at the stage profile in the first post, about 50m elevation difference between the lowest and highest points of the course, to get 800m ascent the route would have to do that 16 times. Somewhere between 200m & 300m of ascent seems more realistic.

Gah!, sorry, I meant do it clockwise, doh! Brain’s gone in this heat! Ben Alder Cottage to Loch Pattack is part of the HT550 route, that’s definitely going clockwise.

Both CH & HW are on the same timer, winter sees both running, summer is HW only – set to come on about 90mins before we get up to take the chill off things in winter, turns off shortly after we get up. Then in the evening, set to come on about 90mins before we get home but then stays on until about 8pm, when it starts getting a bit nippy – we go to bed!

Definitely do it anti-clockwise. I’ve done Ben Alder Cottage to Culra three times and always that way. Not done the lochside trail though, I think it’s always been mostly rideable apart from that one section above the slabs. Lots of drainage channels on the initial part of the climb up from BA Cottage.

More info on this blog – http://philsbikepacking.blogspot.com/2019/09/ben-alder-bike-rides.html

In what way “shyte”? What are you expecting from the unit and the loaded file?

I use bikehike.co.uk but all the mapping/routing sites have their foibles and it’s usually a case of finding one that matches how you work.

As for being crap with navigation – maybe a book and some practice? A GPS doesn’t take away the need to use your brain – I say this as someone who regularly has to deal with drivers following their satnav past a no-through road sign and wondering where that lovely tarmac has gone.

A few shots:

Always.

I use a harness & dry bag system so it’s kind of a moot point in my case but I always aim to keep the dry stuff dry.

Check over on Bearbones – pretty sure there’s a user or two of the Elan there.

If you are B&Bing then you really don’t need much at all, certainly not a 13L saddlebag. For reference, for this weekend’s JennRide I’ll have 5L in the saddlebag and about 10L on the handlebars. That’s for one overnight camp, actually I’m taking the hammock so it’s bulkier than normal, and includes stove and food.

What bike are you on and what can fit in the frame?

As @damascus says, just get some dry bags and put them inside whatever decent rucksack you have, much better than trying to find a “waterproof” rucksack. You can also take a spare dry bag or two and use them for dirty/wet items.

Most people vastly overestimate what they need.

And to mark the shortening of the days …

our central heating has kicked in for the last two mornings! The thermostat is only set to 15C FFS!

I think there’s a sign-on. In previous years you’ve been given a number/running board and it gets you a free/reduced coffee and cake at Alpkit or similar. Not sure what Rich has planned for this year. He’s mentioned having the NHS app on your phone to scan an event code but I’m not sure if that’s just for those camping up at the field.

There are only three truly hard problems in computing: optimisation; cache control and naming things.

As above – load the dev tools and choose the hard refresh and clear cache option from the refresh button.

I was going to suggest some form of version control – even on solo projects it’s very useful – Ctrl+Z only gets you so far! You don’t have to go down the whole dev/test/production branching malarky but being able to isolate changes is a huge benefit. Not sure how it might work with something like a website editor, they may have plugins or similar to allow use of something like Git.

@spin – I don’t think tj is particularly unfit. I have met him BTW.

@tjagain – it surely depends on the deficit though – expending 4000kC in a day and only consuming 2000kC is somewhat different to consuming 3500kC but both are deficits. I seriously doubt any of us truly balance our energy input/output (let’s say within 1 or 2%) on a day to day basis, maybe astronauts since it costs a huge amount per kilo to get something into space, over a longer period if you maintain weight then obviously you are doing so. It’s a bit like the difference between weather and climate.

I’ve been on expeditions where it’s a two week walk-in (for acclimatisation as much as anything) and you are at camp for two months and say a week to walk out. With a team of four plus cook and liaison officer that’s 6 * 9 * 7 = 378kg of food. Plus your kit, let’s say that’s another 400kg. Porters are allowed to carry 20kg plus you need to feed them so you need 40 porters for your stuff plus porters for the porters food. Then since you are consuming food at 46kg/day you can send back two porters every day – rules state you can’t send one porter back on their own for safety reasons. Logistically interesting!

I got loads of 502 errors last night. Thought I’d lost a post in the bikepacking weight thread but went back through my browser history for the tab until I found it and reposted.

Meant to post this last night but got hit by a sequence of 502 errors …

@martinhutch – that for the Jennride? We are heading over very early Sat AM so might see you at some point. Going to aim for the ODG or Stickle Barn but will take food just in case.

@tjagain – a calorie shortfall over a day or two is neither here nor there. Supposedly even stick thin riders like Chris Froome have enough usable body fat to run four marathons without having to eat. Don’t think it’d do them much good though! Also here in the UK you have to wilfully avoid restocking options to get much beyond a few days – not something most aim to do. The old military adage regarding provisions (food and fuel) was “2lbs (1kg) per man per day”, not much has changed.

In the process of sorting out what I’m taking for the JennRide. At the moment it’s something like:

Bar harness: hammock, underquilt, tarp, hammock suspension. 1760g + 315g for harness and heavy duty bag.
Seat pack: sleeping wear (merino top and bottoms), stove, mug and food, bowl, microfibre towel, midweight top. maybe 800g + 275g for harness and bag.
Jerry Can: tools, spares, first aid kit, toothbrush and paste. 400g inc bag
2x stem cells: trail food, camera, powerbank, glasses, sun cream, midge cream. variable weight but the bags weigh 100g each
Pump is attached to frame. GPS on bars. Waterproof will be in shirt pocket. Exposure Joystick for light on helmet. Small blinky for rear light.

That lot is just over 5kg, would be a bit lighter if I wasn’t hammocking – somewhere in the 4.2kg range is my typical touring weight.

The Alltracks link is really ropey for me – the thumbnail at top left and the elevation profile always appear but the main map is purely random as to whether it’s shown or not. Just did a refresh and the main map appeared for about half a second before disappearing.

Not sure why Rich has used Alltracks rather than Ridewith GPS as with the earlier version.

Look for the lowest mileage vehicle you can. There’s increasing built-in obsolescence that starts to kick in around 100k miles, the cars won’t “fail” they’ll just need more and more doing to them. We got our Roomster to 160k but it was needing the best part of £1k per year maintenance by the end. Bodywork’s sorted these days, you don’t get the rust buckets that blighted the 1970s and 80s.

Guy I have been doing some work for (and have known 30yrs) has a garage/repair shop in Greater Manchester. He ignores make (there basically isn’t a mechanically bad one these days), gets low mileage with possibly cosmetic damage, does them up, sells them on. Doesn’t buy anything above 50k on the clock.

the pedal north website has quite a few routes with downloadable GPX. I’d say it’s worth taking a map as areas like Blawith Common & Iron Keld have a network of BWs so you can just work something out yourself.

think the end is different with going over sadgill in a slightly more circuitous route.

Slightly different in Grizedale Forest – does the North Face Climb and doesn’t drop down Lawson Park.
After Iron Keld the route goes round by Cathedral Quarry and then back over to Tilberthwaite.
Doesn’t take the footpath on the west side of Blea Tarn but sticks to the road.
Goes over to Sadgill then back over Green Quarter rather than direct up from Kentmere.

I think those are the only differences.

Not sure if he’s posted it on this thread but Rich posted this over on Bearbones so it’s public – https://ridewithgps.com/routes/35612923

You’ll have to download it via the “More” link and choose “Export as file” then choose your poison from the dialog.

Bug bump

Is dissapoints – was expecting a treadmill.

IGMC

There’s basically three things that can go wrong here: the Garmin, the cable, the PC. You just need to find which one it is.

Try a different cable. Then see if you can try it on a different machine.

When I got mine back there was an accompanying letter which stated (their emboldening):

“Not sure what to do with your old licence? Cut it in half then send it to DVLA”

I didn’t bother so it’s still sat here on my desk. So long as you don’t try and use it for anything then it’s just an ex-licence.

Court, caught and cot are all completely different to me. Phonetically they’d respectfully be kort, kawt and kott.

One interesting (well to me) anomaly is the difference in usage between UK & American English in how the word “of” is used. Sometimes we use it but the Americans don’t: “I threw it out of the window” vs “I threw it out the window” and at other times the Americans use/add it but we don’t: “I got it off of him” vs “I got it off him”. No real rhyme or reason either side of the pond regards usage.

Hmm, some interesting comments.

With regards TR:

Their previous and current plans have “micro” periodisation in that every third to sixth week is a recovery week at roughly 50-60% of the work weeks. The frequency of the recovery week does depend on the particular plan and its duration. Out of the box there isn’t “macro” periodisation. If you want to change the 3:1 work:recovery week ratio then there are ways to do that but currently not intuitive (Adaptive Training does let you insert ad hoc rest/illness/holiday weeks but it’s currently a closed beta)

You can push pretty well any of their workouts outdoors so you don’t need to stare at the blue power charts. Their CEO has said that they aren’t going to put engineering effort into providing “entertainment” when there are lots of valid sources already available and you can thus choose your own.

Adaptive Training is/was something they’ve been working on behind the scenes for nearly three years, there’s a bit of debate on their forums as to whether the Dylan Johnson video castigating their plans (actually just the high volume plans) brought the announcements forward or not. AT is still in closed beta BTW.

The gold standard is obviously a good coach but that will cost money. Personally I can’t afford that plus I’m not into racing so one of the TR/Zwift/SF programmes is the next best thing – they aren’t going to be as personalised as a coach but once you know your weaknesses and how you react to a given level of training it’s not too hard to make adjustments. Let’s say a coach costs £50/month, TR costs £12/month but I’m getting way more than 25% of the benefit of a coach, probably closer to 75%, I just have to put some work into the plan myself. If I want that extra 25% to be handed to me on a plate then I’ll have to stump up the extra cash.

Am I weird because I see loads of pic on things like KAW faceache group where a group of 2 has camped with two tents. I have shown someone at work some pics of trips with my mate and they said ” what, you shared a tent?”

No, you’re not weird at all. Mind you when we did the KAW I was with my wife so two tents would have meant something had gone seriously wrong! 😂😂

@flanagaj – for me somewhere around 2kg up front is about the maximum before things become too unwieldy steering wise. Depends on bike and expected terrain though. I try and keep it to around 1kg normally.

We went from gas stove to meths.

The trick with meths is to warm *everything* up beforehand. The stove is so light and has so little mass that it warms up in your hand really quickly. The meths takes a little longer depending on the size of the container – I’ve plastic bottles about 50-100ml capacity.

Then for lighting I just carry a very small plastic bag of lint from the drying machine. Drop a piece of that into the stove and light it.

Cold isn’t really the problem with meths, it’s wind. There’s a guy in the States whose YouTube channel I follow, he’ll make a coffee in the morning using a meths stove at -20C or colder. He’ll have the meths bottle in a chest pocket to keep it warm (sounds like a wino not a camper!). I’ve used it down to -6C without problem.

Meths is definitely slower than gas or petrol but then are you rushing? And you can be doing other things during that time.

Create a spreadsheet with the weights of *everything* – I just use old fashioned scales and round (up) to the nearest 5g. Mine is organised into groups, so bivy kit; cooking; tools; etc. It is surprising just how heavy some “lightweight” kit really is.

As I said earlier it’s much easier, and cheaper, to go lighter by *not* taking stuff than replacing what you have with something new.

One thing about those dehydrated meals: the packaging is for the retail environment, before heading off, open them up and repackage in a suitably sized ziplock freezer bag (pour and store) they won’t go off in the day or two before you get to eat them. Means they pack much better.

@brads – speeding *is* driving too fast for the situation, it doesn’t matter what *you* think the situation is, the speed limit is there as a maximum, not a target, speed.

And I think that MoreCash was being ironic/sarcastic.

I am going to go through my recent gear and see what I didn’t use and what I did use that I could have done without.

Make three piles: the kit you used; the emergency kit; the kit you didn’t use. Write down what’s in each list.

Next trip don’t take what you didn’t use last time.

Repeat.

After a few trips you’ll have a lightweight setup without spending anything! Then start looking at lighter alternatives to what you do take.

Here’s an article on reducing your load without needing to spend cash – https://www.bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/tls-the-revolutionary-packing-system/

At next weekend’s JennRide I’m considering taking the hammock and associated underquilt and tarp. That bumps the bivy kit up from 1700g to 2100g.

I sort of struck lucky when I started bikepacking as much of my bivy kit from my Alpine climbing days was on its last legs – 20yr old synthetic sleeping bag anyone? So I could replace with modern lightweight kit from the off. If you are just using what you already have then it’s likely you’ve less choice.

That Alpine climbing was good training for bikepacking as I’d already got the mindset of “doing things with less” when you have to haul yourself up a rock at 4000m you don’t want the kitchen sink in your rucksack!

Cooking does tend to be a bit “boil and pour”, if you want to fry things then just the nature of that means more and heavier kit. Doesn’t mean basic or not tasty though, herbs and spices don’t take up much room.

Again, all the above weights are for summer. In winter, particularly in places like the Arctic, there’s no cutting corners.

Oh, should say, I thought I’d a light setup. A couple of years ago at the WRT with the weigh-in I was nowhere near the lightest bike+kit, probably 3kg heavier.

The one true answer …

It depends.

My “race” kit (bags, harnesses, tools, spares, bivy kit, etc.) is 3.5kg. That’s summer only and not expecting to get a good night’s sleep but equally I won’t die.

Summer touring setup comes to 4.5kg using tarp and bivy, 5kg using my share of a two man tent. Did the King Arthur’s Way route over three days (with three bivvies) with that setup.

None of the kit is out of the ordinary with perhaps the exception of the cuben fibre tarp. Some of the kit like the meths stove is homemade.

Somewhere in an old thread if you can find it is a list of what I take – tjagain wanted to know how I got such a light weight.

Here’s what I took on the KAW

Bags and harnesses – various Wildcat and Revelate stuff – 1000g

tent – Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 with groundsheet – 1500g/2 = 750g
Cumulus 150 quilt – 360g
Exped Winterlite Synmat – 470g
Sea2Summit pillow – 100g

Alpkit Mytimug 650 with homemade meths stove and windshield, pan scrub – 185g
Alpkit bowl – 65g
Plastic fork/spoon – 10g

Garmin Oregon GPS – 210g
Powerbank – 170g
iPhone – 125g
Exposure Joystick – 90g
rear light -50g
various leads – 50g

Tools and spares (all depends on the bike I’m on) – 500g

Spare clothes – 750g

That’s roughly 4.2kg so I’ve forgotten something but should give you an idea of what I take.

You can push TR workouts outdoors – I’ve not done an indoor workout since March – maybe not quite as effective due to traffic/terrain/etc. but still pretty good. I’ve done outdoor sessions on singlespeed fat bike, MTB and road bike like this. You can create your own workouts in Garmin Connect and push them to your head unit as well.

I do agree with the long term periodisation issue though – the plans are very much “here’s your A race, this is the plan to get there” – there isn’t the ebb and flow that you’d get with things being properly periodised.

Zwift (and it seems Sufferfest) are very much like “What do you mean you don’t like being slapped in the face?”

@tonyD – with TR you can shift things around, put in rest/holiday/illness periods and the like. Late back from work one day so you miss a workout? Just drag and drop it to another day.

I’m on their “Adaptive Training” beta program – the idea is that it assesses how you performed each workout and potentially changes the next workout of that type. So if you did a VO2max workout and struggled then it would/should make the next such workout a little easier. At the moment I’m mid-way through a set of plans that don’t work with AT so can’t comment on how well it achieves this. What I’ve not seen in any of TR’s blurb is whether periodisation is part of the underlying structure.

Just thought of these:

independent and independant.

I never pick the right one – partly because I don’t know when to use one over the other. (Heads off to find out)

Edit: turns out there’s only one – independent, the other is a misspelling probably due to transcribing a mispronunciation, a bit like definately rather than definitely.

There was a piece on the BBC site about this – seems he’s trying to pitch it halfway between his petrolhead audience and the farming audience.

@kryton57 – I grew up on a farm, always thought it would be a hard sell to get someone to apply for it as a job: 80hrs/week? For minimum wage? Oh, yeah, it’s 2am, chucking down with rain and you need to find a black cow out on the fell that’s giving birth.

The trio that many get wrong are: then; than; that.

The number of people who write: “A is better that B” or similar is astounding.

Is there any point in there being two spellings of effect and affect? I never know when to use the a one

Again, two different uses:

Something causes an effect

Something affects something else.

There’s one or two odd-balls just to confuse things, like: he effected an escape.

Yes I’ve done it. Replaced with an AB 30t oval.

I’m assuming the 8000 series are XT cranks?

There’s another one like that: ghoti, pronounced “fish”.

gh as in tough
o as in women
ti as in station