Day 2 New Forest Fat Biking

I wanted to get a reasonably early start and managed to get away just after 0900hrs.

First stop was coffee in the village of Sway, but unfortunately the coffee shop was closed that weekend!

So my next stop was Brockenhurst.

I rode through the forest, picked up the old railway line, then dropped into Brockenhurst where I stopped for a bit and had a brew.

This was taken looking down towards the old railway line.

Half way between Brockenhurst and Lyndhurst I stopped for a break, beautiful place to rest up for a while.

The above shots were taken at Bolton's Bench just on the outskirts of Lyndhurst.

Even though the forest is bone dry in places, there are still pockets of lush vegetation. I don't think this view would of changed in over 100 years.

The top picture was taken on this trip and the one below was taken back in April, you can see the difference in the water height!

Again, you can see the difference between the two photographs, during the winter the ground really does fill with water making much of the forest a no go area.

After a long day on the bike covering around 32 miles there was only one thing for tea - Stagg Dynamite Cili Con Carne!

The bike was brilliant all day, coping with all the terrain, many of the paths were sandy and full of loose stone in others.

My route started from Sway, to Brockenhurst (mixture trail/road) then from Brockenhurst to Lyndhurst (99% all trail) then from Lyndhurst to Burley (99% trails) then out of Burley, back on the trails all the way back via Wooton to Sway. 

It was a great trip around, but not one that could be easily done during the winter. Many of the tracks I rode would be marsh land during the winter.

I had a shower back at camp, relaxed for a bit and got my head down as I was shattered.

Like I said the vast majority of the day was over the trails and it tends to take it out of you a bit!

Till the next time - ride safe.

Campsite - Rushcroft Farm Sway New Forest - Fat Biking

I live about 5 miles roughly from the campsite, and as this was the 1st time with a fully loaded up fat bike, this was a good distance to try out the loading of the bike.

I must say that it all went well, with no obvious problems to report.

Once at the campsite, my name was posted on a board by the entrance showing my pitch.

This was down in the back packers field.

I made my way through the site, with hard standing pitches and a large grass field to my field.

Everything was well laid out and with loads of space between pitches which is always a good sign.

I was tucked right up in the corner of the field, not that I had to worry as I was the only one here! On the 2nd night I had a Belgian couple turn up on touring bikes. They were travelling between Portsmouth and Plymouth.

It didn't take long to get the tent set up, which I will write about in another post, but it is a new tent. My Vango Banshee 200 was a great tent, but I was limited to space and I really wanted an awning to store panniers and to be able to cook in if the weather took a turn for the worse.

So I managed to find a Vango Tornado 200. Still a 2 man tent, but with masses of storage space at the front.

Still using Army mess tins, (old habits die hard)! In my opinion you cannot beat them.

You can clearly see here how much space is at the front - this is such a benefit when camping.

Being dark green in colour the tent blends into the scenery so ideal if you wanted to go into full on stealth mode.

The tent worked a treat, although I have yet to test it in high winds or heavy rain.

So this was my base for 2 nights. 

The site had showers and toilets in the next field which were free.

If you want a party site where you can sing and dance till the early hours this place is not for you, but if you want peace and quiet get yourselves booked in.

By 2130hrs the only thing you could hear was the slight breeze in the trees!

I would highly recommend this site - There is a pub within 10 minutes of walking, a small shop, a bistro/cafe and a butchers.

Plus if you want to come by train, the station is the same distance away.

The site is Rushcroft Farm well worth a visit if you are wanting to stay within the New Forest.

I had a relatively early night, I wanted to get in a full day of cycling the next day. I didn't have a brilliant nights sleep due to it being a bit warm, and I really should of had the tent around the other way which would of given me more head space when sleeping.

But all in all I felt it was much better than the Banshee.

Till later.......ride safe.

Getting Ready For A Fat Bike Mini Adventure - Bikepacking

Its been a while since I have done any camping, in fact it has been ages!

So with a free weekend coming up I decided to set the bike up ready for a mini adventure.

The plan was to ride out to a local campsite, set up, then the next day do a full days ride, return, camp again, and the next day, ride fully loaded a long way home.

I had never been camping by bicycle before, on a motorbike, especially the Ural you just throw everything in it and not worry about the weight at all.

Different story when you have to self propel the bike!

A few days before I set off it was my birthday, so with a few bits of kits that I got for my birthday, which was the two rear handlebar pouches/dip bags and the front roll handlebar bag I did a trial fitting of all my gear.

I managed to get everything in, but I did use a lightweight summer sleeping bag, for an autumn or winter trip my big sleeping bag would need to be mounted somewhere else!

I have been thinking about adding front panniers, and this may solve the problem as I was a little tight on storage.

The two pouches were brilliant, great for putting odds and ends in along with a spare water bottle. Much easier than having to rummage through either my front bag or rear panniers to try and retrieve things.

My tent was in the roll bag at the front and mounted to that was my small front bag.

This again worked perfectly for the trip.

As this was my first bicycle camping trip I was happy with the set up, it did feel heavy and I was unsure how the rear rack would cope with the weight of the panniers.

This was a concern as I was going to be riding some rough trails through the New Forest!

Well, only one way to find out!

Till next time.......ride safe!

New Bottom Bracket - Grips And Rear Tyre On The Fat Bike

So my Calibre Dune Fat Bike has now had it's first service, all was ok apart from the Bottom Bracket, the clicking noise was still evident, all though it had subsided a little bit.

I took the bike home, but on riding it, was not happy with it so arranged to take it back to them the next day.

I decided to wait whilst they stripped the BB down to see if they could identify exactly what the problem was.

They had out the back a Calibre Dune frame with the BB still on it, so they decided to strip that down as well to see if there was any difference.

It quickly became clear that on stripping down the other BB it had a 2mm spacer fitted which was missing from mine!

This was then fitted to mine and low and behold it solved the problem!

A spacer had not been fitted at the factory, and to be honest the mechanic did not know that there needed to be a spacer fitted.

Anyway, problem solved!

Whilst it was in for service I had some new grips fitted, firstly because the stock ones are absolute rubbish and kept twisting round and working their way off the handlebars, and secondly I have been getting numbing of the fingers.

These now give me the option to move my hands to different positions to see if that eases the problem.

During a routine inspection of my back tyre I noticed that there was what looked like a hole in the tyre.

On removal of the tyre and inner tube it was clear there was, so as a stop gap I plugged the tyre. I am currently running Juggernaut Pro's front and rear, these were fitted from new.

What I noticed about these tyres is that they are extremely light, the side walls are very thin along with the actual tyre itself.

As weight is not really an issue for me I decided to buy another tyre but as I ride a good deal on tarmac and with the associated wear I did not want to spend a great deal.

The plug worked fine, but I did notice some damage to the side wall in various places, so I will keep it as an emergency spare.

I thought I would try a Hengol - it certainly has a bit more meat to it and so far no problems at all!

The cost was only £35.00 including shipping from a company on ebay.

With the new tyre fitted it was time to hit the New Forest Trails

The grips were a huge improvement but the problem has not gone away, so it maybe time to look into butterfly bars to see if even greater options of hand placement is the key.

Till next time - ride safe...................