Ian chanced on us as he had to return from abroad to Bath for family reasons and needed work done on a steel Genesis mountain bike, which he’d bought to ride for practical reasons of getting about and as a bit of escapism from daily pressures. I think he asked me for ideas on touring on an MTB and I vaguely said check out bikepacking bags on the web, not sure what his idea for a tour really was, I thought he wanted to go to Cheddar for the day or something!
Well he certainly got into bike packing and the escapism, check out his story below.
“A big shout out to Tom and Adam, the guys at Green Park Bike Station for their support with my trips in the Southwest and Wales. The guys gave me a great new bottom bracket (Tom – a UK made Hope unit), new chain and gearset which set me up for my first trip: Bath to Portishead, then Strawberry Line to Bridgwater; a side trip to Glastonbury, Priddy and Chedder, then down to Sampson Peverell. Another side trip to Exeter, then NCR 3 over Exmoor to Barnstaple.
My second route took me from Bath to Fishguard. Day 1: Bath to Abergavenny, Day 2: Abergavenny to Carmarthen; Day 3: Carmarthen to Whitesands Bay near St David’s, then after a rest day a quick hop over to Fishguard.”
While the steel frame of my Genesis mountain bike keeps the ride pretty comfortable, the mountain bike set-up is obviously less than perfect for such long-distance touring, so most recently the guys at Green Park Bike Station have been setting me up with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires”
What an epic trio, three should be am award for these efforts! My suggestion to make riding even more pleasant would be 29″ wheels, more comfort and speed. The tyres we’ve upgraded Ian’s bike with will reduce the sluggish feel a good deal however. A mountain bike is a good idea for these rides, if you like taking quieter national cycle network routes they can often be gravel and / or not very good surfaces. If you know you’re only going to stick to roads a road / gravel bike is ideal and fast.
