Cycling Adventures
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Top Five Gravel Riding Routes in Scotland – Gravel Rides Scotland
I wanted to write my book Gravel Rides Scotland to share why I fell in love with gravel riding in Scotland and to inspire others to...
5 More Awesome Tweed Valley Gravel Routes!
This is the next gravel route blog to follow up the very popular first 5 Tweed Valley Gravel routes I shared. There is so...
Lake district gravel loop Skiddaw
It's not always easy to find a gravel bike friendly circuit in the lakes in winter. Either it gets too rocky or wet, but...
Kit Reviews
Continue to the categoryWinter Adventures
Continue to the categorySplitboarding the Lofoten Islands
After the success of splitboarding the Lyngen Alps we returned to the north of Norway and flew into Narvik from Edinburgh with a stop...
The Italian Alps – Splitboard adventures
A splitboarding holiday with two under 2 year olds might sound a recipe for disaster, but despite what felt like less sleep than was...
Bikepacking Kyrgyzstan in Winter the film!
Finally it is here, our edit from cycling across Kyrgyzstan in winter;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bu0wSClGcA
For more about the trip please read our blogs here;
Blog Part 1
http://welovemountains.net/bikepacking-across-kyrgyzstan-in-winter-part-1/
Blog Part...
Exploring Scotland
Continue to the category2017 – An awesome 12 Months of Bikepacking, Splitboarding and Exploring
January - Strathpuffer 24hr Solo MTB race
The Strathpuffer solo is one of the toughest bike races in the world with 24 hours of riding...
Gravel Heaven – A new route in the Scottish Borders
I was already over 2000m of vertical climbing into the ride as I headed uphill further, the rough tracks had taken their toll with...
Bikepacking and the advent of winter in the Highlands
Riding past the forest fringes my lights pick up a bar code of black tree trunks, then suddenly four sets of yellow eyes reflect...
Dear Ed & Marion, I have just read your piece in cycleuk. Very inspiring thank you. I have just moved from London to Helensburgh with a two & four year old. Although I have cycled my whole life I have never done any touring/bike packing. My travels around the world have been on foot, public transport, van. The move North & an imminent divorce has focused my mind on traveling again. Cycling/camping in Scotland with my kids & longer touring/bike packing trips are back on the agenda.
I am starting from scratch with the bike kit I need. Could you give me some pointers to what bike/s & kit I need to buy (I realise bikes are rare at present), the kit I need to bring the kids along.
Any hints, advise, brands, websites etc would be much appreciated.
Kind regards & thanks again
Paul
Hi Paul
Sorry for slow reply. As with all kit questions it depends on budget! Also not sure what ages you mean but the best child trailers are from Thule and Burley and the models with suspension. These suit good gravel and tarmac routes. The advantages are you can load them up with gear and kids. If they are bored by a trailer try a front seat from Kids ride Shotgun and with this I would also advise a single wheel kit trailer like a Burley Coho and this gives more space.
Otherwise if on their own bikes just some small bike packing bags from somewhere cheap like Altura or Alpkit. I would recommend Apidura for yourself as they are the best design but are expensive for kids. As for bikes it depends on the terrain you are riding and just so many options but something steel or aluminium rather than carbon and flat bars let you get more luggage in for off-road while drop bar gravel bikes are faster but still comfy. Kinesis Tripster AT is good all round adventure bike. Hope that helps.
Hi there, Ed, your gravel bike book just arrived today. Beautiful book – well done! Can’t wait to get out there!
Thanks glad you like it!