Our Bikes

I like bikes.

There, I’ve said it. My big secret is out in the open. Pick your jaws up off the floor.

Some of you might want to stop reading now – if you’re here for pretty pictures of beaches, asphalt winding up a mountain pass, bakery stops and cauldrons of porridge… then this isn’t the post for you. If you’d like to know more about what we’re riding and why, read on. I haven’t mentioned everything – it’s a long enough post already! So feel free to ask any questions in the comments.

In our little home of two in Hebden Bridge, we had 6 bikes. Excluding the 3 bikes that family members with more space were kindly looking after for us. It’s a lot of bikes – some have done over 10,000 miles. Some were a cheap start when I got into cycling, and are now great for leaving chained up outside a train station whilst working away.

After COVID landed, I set our basement up as a proper office and had a bike on my wall for virtual meeting after virtual meeting. I became known as that ‘guy with the bike on the wall’ (perhaps a sleight on my other skills/support I’d given people that I’d rather be remembered for!)

But the same question kept coming up… You can only ride one bike at a time? Why do you need more than one?

I’ll ignore that question. It feels like my very sense of self is under attack.

So instead I’ll just talk about our bikes anyway.

Why?

Because some of you have asked what we’re riding, and why we chose them.

Because we found it immensely useful to read the reviews, wisdom and opinions of lots of people (who inevitably disagree!) before we decided on our choices, and promised to do the same in ‘Our Kit’ page.

And because they’re more important to us than ever. Around six hours a day (moving time) we’re sitting on them and that abundance of thinking time means you can start to notice, over-think (Us? Indeed!) and appreciate when things are just how you want them to be, or that squeak finally makes you want to throw your bike into the Danube.

Matt’s Bike

I bought a Kinesis Tripster ATRv3 in July 2020 – relatively early days in the pandemic when you could still buy bike bits. It was just a frame – a UK designed titanium frame that can do lots of things really well, but isn’t a specialist bike at any one thing in particular. I love it. I built it up with a mechanical Ultegra group set, a splattering of British bits (Hope, Hunt wheels) and some pieces I know my body likes the feel of. With two sets of wheels set up tubeless – some deep carbon rims for road rides and some chunkier bombproof hoops for gravel adventures – it was a joy to ride. Easily keeping up with the weight weenies at sportives, but also chewing up miles of towpaths and trails.

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With the big trip approaching, I thought long and hard about whether to get a(nother) bike, or to turn my Tripster into a touring bike. I opted to stick with this bike – partly due to the fact I love it, but also the fun of putting on it exactly what i want and taking ‘my’ bike round far flung places.

So what’s new?

SKS Mudguards – I’ve never ridden with full length mudguards before (I don’t do much group riding, so have never had to obey by peloton rules!) but wanted to keep myself dry, my bike free of grit for longevity, and most importantly, if I have Sarah on my wheel all day in the rain I wanted to not soak her! (Reader please note… she also has guards to protect me, too!) 

Gearing – The bike ran mechanical Ultegra, with 34-52 teeth on the front chain set and 11-34 range on the cassette; I loved this range of big gearing for long, tailwinds over the moors and an easy gear for spinning up Yorkshire climbs when bikepacking. But with more weight on, and tired legs every day, I put Shimano’s 2x GRX chainset on the front (so 30-46 now) and squeezed in a non-shimano 11-36 cassette on the rear. It’s supposed to be too big for the derailleur, but fits in fine. I can hear friends saying ‘meow’ as they read this, but being able to spin the pedals and it doesn’t even do a complete revolution of the rear wheel is LOVELY when you’re carrying so much! I thought about a single chainring on the front and having a big range on the rear, but I wanted the big gears for tailwinds on riverside paths! (Didn’t get those!)

Brakes – Still the same as before. Hydraulic Ultegra, always worked fine, I fitted them and maintain them – so it’s nice knowing I can fix them. Some people don’t like hydraulic (and prefer cable) as if the hose breaks, it’s a real pain to fix – especially in non-cycling countries. But we’re not going to many of those places – and hydraulic braking is so much nicer, more reliable day-to-day and as the pads wear down you don’t have to tighten the cable… One change I did make is putting bigger rotors on – the extra stopping power of a 160mm disc is much appreciated when loaded!

Saddle – I’ve always like a ‘cutout’ saddle; finding them comfy, reducing pressure in that particular spot and also creating some breathing space. The downside of them is they require a chamois (cushioned shorts) to ride with. Sarah got me thinking about a leather Brooks saddle; I was very sceptical to begin with… how could a hard leather saddle be comfy enough to wear shorts with? But the opportunity to not have to wash cycling shorts/chamois each night and to be able to walk around easily during the day lured me in. I love my Brooks B17 standard saddle! Some days it hurts… but that’s because it’s stretched a little, so you just tighten the bolt and you’re away! Would I use it on a road bike? No. It’s heavy and you need to keep it dry, but it’s perfect for this.

Wheels – My gravel wheels might have been strong enough for this trip, but I wanted something with more spokes. The more spokes you have the less likely you are to break a spoke as the weight is spread. And the more spokes you have, the less it matters for a short time if one is broken. I also wanted a dynamo (for the peddants out there… yes, it creates electricity but they still call it a dynamo) so we could charge things on the move so as to reduce evening admin but also have the resilience of power on tap in case we’ve been wild camping for a while and need power for navigation. I’ve always got on well with Hunt wheels – so got their adventure SuperDura wheelset with a built in Son dynamo, one of the best on the market. They’ve been great – rolling smoothly, still straight and true and the dynamo is very effective. A day of cycling gives enough electricity to keep both our GPS units fully charged and a phone topped up. One challenge I have had is converting the power it produces from AC to DC – and bought a Sinewave to do that job. It’s stopped working annoyingly, so I’ve sent it back for a refund and am on the hunt for a replacement!

Tyres – These matter. Like any contact point between you and the bike, the contact point between you and the ground is really important. Grip, puncture resistance, rolling resistance, longevity and comfort… We both have Schwalbe Marathon Mondials which are 40mm wide – really grippy, a good side tread for corners and mud, but a smooth centre line for road riding or hard packed gravel. They’ve also got great puncture resistance (all the way to Croatia for both of us with no punctures!) and should be good for about 10000 miles amazingly. The downside is they’re heavy and a little slow feeling sometimes, which you really notice on a downhill!

(Edit: I wrote this blog on Monday, with it set to publish on Thursday. And of course the above jinxed and we had our first puncture on Wednesday!)

Bottle holders – Having lots of liquids is essential, especially if you don’t know when the next shop or mountain stream is. And if you’re wild camping overnight, then you obviously aren’t sleeping next to a tap in most places! My Tripster has three bottle mounts – the standard two, plus an underslung cage. Usually I keep a tool bottle in the underslung cage, as it can get covered in whatever you’re cycling through (a grim selection of brown things when cycling round Yorkshire’s fields, hills and towpaths!) As I’ve got mudguards on now, a nozzle-top bottle stays pretty clean. With my frame being massive, I can also fit 1L bottles in each holder – not quite the same on Sarah’s bike! A purchase I’d highly recommend for any tourer is an adjustable bottle cage – we both have an Arundel Cage – which ratchets up and can grip onto things of variable sizes. Perfect for a fuel bottle for the stove, or for a 2L bottle of beer – anything fits!

Lights – One of the things we wanted was simplicity and resilience. So we both got new lights that use the same mounts and charging cables, that way we can swap them during the ride or if a bracket breaks we can get by. We both have CatEye lights – which we use on flashing mode pretty much all day, every day. Some pedestrians don’t like it – but I’d rather be seen.

Racks – We both have Toltec TransAlp Disc racks. The same rack means we can swap them out if something happens, and also means we can swap bags easily should we need. The bolts are the same across both bikes too! I looked at getting a lovely TailFin for my bike – and whilst they’re brilliant, I worried about having something which isn’t widely available across Europe, Asia, Oceania and maybe North America – our likely destinations. Our racks are great for Ortlieb bags – which are pretty standard across the world for replacing and spares.

Bags – Ortlieb was the way forward! yes they’re expensive, but they’re robust and reliably waterproof. I have the big Back Roller Classics on the rear (20 litres on each side) and Sarah has the Sport Rollers (12.5 litres on each side). We both wanted fork bags for the front too, as not only did we need the space – but loading up weight on the front helps with balance and handling. We could have had standard pannier bags on the front, but went for Ortlieb gravel packs (a generous gift from a friend!) – which easily mount on and off, and are smaller than normal pannier bags – giving us 5.8L on each side. I have my sleeping bag in one, and Sarah’s sleeping bag in the other! Perfect. I also have a small Alpkit ‘bento’ bag behind my stem, which I keep the dynamo electrics in and a big frame bag for our day to day stuff (cups, food, sun cream, etc). Our racks have a big flat top to them, where we strap on a 22L Ortlieb dry bag – in mine I keep the tent and my waterproofs, so it’s really quite empty in there… useful for the end of day food shops!

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Pedals – We both like to ride clipped in, and knew we’d want to continue with this. But also didn’t want to be tottering round towns off the bike during the day! So we’ve got spd pedals that allow you to clip in one side, and are flat the other – so you can get going easily on a tough slope, or ride in normal shoes/flip-flops to the restaurant…

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And finally… GPS unit! We both already had one, but we think it’s essential that both of us have the route up – it means if you get separated, you know where the other is heading, it means we’re not always asking for/shouting directions and it helps to know what you’ve got done/got still to do. We have Wahoo Elemnt Bolts – and they’re good for about two days full of riding, with the navigation screen up at all times… impressive for something so small and light!

So that’s my bike! And some of Sarah’s… but what’s she riding?

Sarah’s Bike

Her best bike before this trip couldn’t take wide enough tyres and didn’t have luggage mounts, so she needed something new. Being at the smaller end of the height spectrum, she got an absolute bargain on a brand new Kona Sutra SE – a very popular and well regarded touring bike.

The frame is steel – which is great to know if it breaks it can be welded anywhere in the world! It’s strong, and feels super planted. But it’s definitely heavy.

It’s got a similar gearing to mine, but is running a 10 speed tiagra groupset at the rear and GRX up front – giving her a good range.

It’s got TRP brakes – which use a mechanical cable from the lever to the calliper, but it’s a hydraulic piston on the calliper. So she gets good brake strength, but they’re easier to fix if the cables goes. I like them, but they’re a little heavy on the maintenance side.

It’s got a brown Brooks saddle (women’s specific or B17S) and bartape – classy looking and comfy!

Racks and bags are the same as mine, but she doesn’t have space for the frame bag. Instead she has a handlebar bag – a rather snazzy Ortlieb number which easily comes on and off to keep valuables in, but also functions well as a handbag! Little things like that are great to have – giving a sense of normality.

And that’s us! A long read – but hope some of the detail is interesting to some of you, and useful to whoever is wondering about what works for people.

Feel free to ask any questions below – or add in your own experience or differing views. There’s always something to learn.

But most of all; happy riding!