cyclefar.com

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Blog Hardware Reviews

Trangia stove speed test and review

15, May, 2012 – 10:45 am
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Trangia 27-1 UL

Trangia 27-1 UL

If you think that Trangias are slow then you must have been talking to my friends, they’re always telling me how painfully slow they are, and how useless they become at high altitude. The thing is, despite this common criticism, my experience has always been very positive.

I think Trangias are very fast. I can’t prepare the food for it faster than it can boil a pot of water. I’m the weakest link, I’m the bottle neck in the process the Trangia runs rings around me so here I want to test how fast this cooking stove really is and give a little review. But before we continue I have to apologise for read more »

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Blog England to Indonesia: 2012 Journals

Fast Track Vaccinations

14, May, 2012 – 6:25 pm
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Malaria

Malaria

I’ve just got back from my local travel clinic where I spent almost an hour going through the locations I intend to ride through and assessing the various health risks I’m expected to encounter.

The nurse walking me through the process was really helpful and has put me on a fast track vaccination programme starting with Hepatitis A & B, which is combined, and  read more »

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Blog England to Indonesia: 2012 Journals

England to Indonesia: approaching departure (5 weeks to go)

13, May, 2012 – 2:01 pm
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departure towards Santander

our departure towards Santander in 2009

I can confidently forecast that on the evening of the 16th of June I’ll be sitting in the middle of my room surrounded by bulging panniers, merino underwear and tent poles clasping my head in my hands. The reason for this is that the 17th of June, exactly 5 weeks from today, is now the official leaving date for my tour to south-east Asia. Within these next 5 weeks I need to get travel insurance, investigate the necessity for vaccinations, for which I’ve an appointment with a doctor tomorrow, procure a water filter, a few spare bike components and other odds and ends. Some of the more difficult challenges will be to decide which of my many cherished jackets I’m going to take with me but I’ll probably just have to read more »

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Warmth and Water; what makes a good cycle-tour: pt.1

9, May, 2012 – 10:57 am
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a cosy campsite in Croatia

a cosy campsite in Croatia

Recently I found myself asking the question ‘what makes a good cycle-tour’; it’s been well over a year since Charlie, a fellow student, and I agreed that in the summer of 2012 we would embark on a transcontinental ride from England to China. Since then the plan has evolved to include more people, more locations, backup routes and has undergone many subtle revisions. Despite all this another seemingly impassable obstacle has emerged from the woodwork over the last few weeks; and that is that Charlie wants to ride fast, so he can drop over the Himalayas into India before the border closes on December the 1st, and I want to ride slow so that I can meet Ellie, see her fantastic blog here, in Slovenia and take a detour into Greece before looping around the south of Turkey. As my own separate plans have developed read more »

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Living and Earning; bikes and beehives

8, May, 2012 – 3:36 pm
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which way now

which way now?

Until recently I thought the two main choices that I’d be faced with after leaving uni were;
a) chase down a graduate job, perhaps have a fun and exiting role for a few years before inevitably being positioned behind a desk as I sought to hold a position with a greater earning potential

or . . .
b) choose a ‘lifestyle job’ where I’d be doing really fun things most of the time but earning peanuts before eventually living to regret my decision as I got older due to the grass looking greener on the side with all the money. read more »

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Articles Blog Hardware Reviews

Update: Continental Travel Contacts Review

8, May, 2012 – 9:03 am
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Continental Travel Contacts after 8,000

Continental Travel Contacts after 8,000 miles of abuse

I have finally squeezed the last mile out of my Continental Travel Contact tyres. I can now give you the grim specifics on how long they lasted, how well they performed and how gracefully they failed. Consider this the Continetal Travel Contact real world review; tested to destruction.

I was able to squeeze 8,000miles out of these tyres, to put that in context the tyres that came as standard on my £350 mid to low range hybrid bike were replaced after 900miles and they were probably 85% worn. I expected to get more from the Travel Contacts simply because the tread didn’t ever look very worn but as some of you may have guessed it was the tyres side walls which inevitably failed leaving me with a useless carcass. read more »

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The Future of this Blog

3, May, 2012 – 9:43 pm
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east from Carcassonne

east from Carcassonne - the first tour, with Michelle

The website cyclefar.com was registered on the 13th of June 2010 and began it’s, so far, turbulent life as a WordPress blog. I remember being pretty pleased with it, after all I had no formal expertise in anything IT related, but there were some features that either didn’t exist at the time or I just could figure out how to use them. After talking to a friend about my new website’s shortfalls it was recommended I try Joomla. This seemed to offer loads of features on paper but the end result looked pretty ugly in my opinion and after some time I realised that WordPress was in fact the platform for me. What an expensive lesson right? Well read more »

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Blog Micro Adventure

Conquering our nemesis; Snowdon

19, April, 2012 – 8:44 pm
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Checking out the mines

Checking out the mines at Glaslyn

Twice before I had attempted to climb Mt. Snowdon and twice I had failed. Both times were in February and on the miners track and both times I had wanted to push on but was forced to retreat. Snowdonia in the north of Wales is a beautiful wild and rugged national park, the highest point at 1,038 meters (3,406 ft) is Mount Snowdon. It’s not that high certainly but a great climb depending on what routes you take. Most people take the long and gradual Llanberis path which is a great introduction to walking and there’s also some pretty serious ridge routes such as The Snowdon Horseshoe. The miners track that I’ve attempted twice before lies somewhere in between and finally on my third attempt, and my dads third attempt, we made it. Note: we had not tried to climb Snowdon together before now. read more »

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New Switzerland gallery added…

16, April, 2012 – 9:52 pm
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SAM_0641 • <a style="font-size:0.8em;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67241769@N06/6938542864/" target="_blank">View on Flickr</a>
IMG_4131 • <a style="font-size:0.8em;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67241769@N06/7084612339/" target="_blank">View on Flickr</a>
SAM_0563 • <a style="font-size:0.8em;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67241769@N06/6938535650/" target="_blank">View on Flickr</a>
IMG_4172 • <a style="font-size:0.8em;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67241769@N06/7084624377/" target="_blank">View on Flickr</a>
SAM_0570 • <a style="font-size:0.8em;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67241769@N06/7084613479/" target="_blank">View on Flickr</a>
SAM_0676 • <a style="font-size:0.8em;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67241769@N06/6938546508/" target="_blank">View on Flickr</a>
IMG_4168 • <a style="font-size:0.8em;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67241769@N06/6938546676/" target="_blank">View on Flickr</a>
SAM_0682 • <a style="font-size:0.8em;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67241769@N06/6938547106/" target="_blank">View on Flickr</a>

Cycling home from Switzerland with the boys. We made it as far as the France/Belgian border when unfortunate events stopped us in our tracks as Adam took a fall, despite this dramatic ending the ride was good and the sun shone for us every day. See More…

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Articles Blog Hardware

Why I use mountain bike SPDs on my road bike

15, April, 2012 – 8:10 am
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My road bike Sebastian

Sebastian - the heavy chain comes off for faster rides

I often get asked why I use mountain bike SPD’s on my road bike, at races it must seem pretty unusual, everyone knows that road SPD-SL pedal, cleat and shoe systems are faster right? Right! I’m sure they are when measured in a laboratory or when firmly attached to a professional cyclist. But alas I am not a professional cyclist and nor do make a habit of hanging about labs. The reason I use them is because they’re far better for walking on. The cleats are embedded up into the sole of the shoe and made of metal, this means that not only when you walk that you’re not clomping along on your cleats, but even on the odd occasion they do come in contact with the ground they don’t wear away so quickly. read more »

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