Holmfirth evening rides.

In case anyone ever reads this and wants to know some good mtb routes in the Holme valley, Thursday night, 6:30 at the coop is where we meet, do a few hours and then head to the box office for pint and pie night. Class.

Pennine bridleway GPX

Ok, so I have been trying to find a complete GPX file for the pennine bridleway all the way to Kirkby stephen, but have found nothing, really want to use view ranger on my iPhone rather than maps. Anyway, decided the best course of action was to use the walking highlands route planner (http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/maps/) with its ace 1:25000 mapping and plot it myself. I have split it into a few files, first one is Middleton top in the peaks to the Mary Townley Loop (PBW 1), then the MTL to Garsdale (PBW 4), then Garsdale to Kirkby stephen, including some road (PBW 4), then the last one is the official Kirkby Stephen link, which is mainly on bridleways.

The links are here:
PBW 1PBW 2PBW 3PBW 4

Eat my dirt......

Just got stickers from my mates at eatmydirt, the supre new bike cleaner. Going to make this ride an official eatmydirt sponsored ride!!

Frame bag nearly done.

Today was my day off, but I had to go in to help with some job interviews, thought I would make the most of it (I work in a school) and use some of the sewing machines to finish the bag. All done now & it is pretty good to be honest, I have double stitched it all the way round and it feels solid. Need to just trim the Velcro and remove the tacking.

Rubbish!!!

Ok so I sat the Kodak solar charger out in the sun, red light came on no problem to show it is charging. Connect it to iPhone and........"charging is not supported with this device..." it apparently does not provide enough power! Back to the drawing board.

It doesn't get any better.....

So it's my day off, it's sunny and I have tacked my frame bag ready for the sewing machine tomorrow. I have attached Velcro and a zip, so by tomorrow I will know if I at least will be able to carry some gear on my bike. I have decided to borrow a rack to attach my tent, not in panniers but on top and the postie has just delivered a solar charger for my phone! I also have a date of the 13th of august to start my epic, got a good buddy coming along too. Just going to test the Kodak ks100-c solar charger, will report back if it works.

Books books books

I have found that, after many years of trying, I only read one type of book, travel books, Bill Bryson especially. However, if I was to only read one type of travel book, it would be a book about touring on a bike, they are dangerous, they cost me a lot of time and money. Here are my two current favourites, I cannot recommend them enough. I think one day I will cycle in America, but as of yet I am a Yankee virgin. I have read all there is to read about touring the place, I know the history and want to eat the food, but so far the continent has eluded me, perhaps one day......