Bike on show!

Just a quick note in case anyone's off to the London Cycle Show this weekend, my Fargo should be on show at the Singletrack booth (assuming the boys remember to pack it in the van) with luggage and all. So if you want a look, then come on down.

I'm hoping to get to the show on the Saturday and Sunday, but I may end up sat at work, finishing the next issue. Ah well, at least I got my summer of bike riding to look back on...

Faithful machine

I think I need to just stop for a moment and say how fantastic, and right for the job, my Salsa Fargo was. Starting at the front, the ride position was great - very upright. With the Carradice bar bag on and bottles, it was a little floppy while stationary, but once riding the steering was super stable - as I realised while scratching my nose at 30mph round a French switchback. The fork-mounted bottle cages work well (though I could see that you could stuff your bottle into the wheel by accident if you're not paying attention.

The Epic Designs bags worked well and I'll detail them in a later blog, but I was able to carry everything I needed and the bags kept everything in place and were reasonably weather resistant (and dry bags helped with the rest). The gears and brakes performed faultlessly and the Conti Top Contact tyres were impressively smooth and grippy, even on the odd broken road.

More of this later.

Just some of the photos...

I've stuck 100 riding shots, plus 30 summit poses up on my Flickr site here

There are 1000 photos, so don't invite me for dinner unless you like slide shows... :-)

Back in the UK

This post comes to you from Chipps in Bristol. After lounging around in Biarritz last night and this morning, having ice cream and wine last night and a great breakfast this morning, I'm now back in the UK. My bike and bags made it back fine and it's going to be a case of slowly getting back to the normal world where you don't have to climb over that big mountain before you can have lunch...

I have 1000 photos from the trip that I'll edit down and post up on Flickr (though, if you're really naughty, I'll come round and give you a slideshow of the whole lot...) and I also have my daily journal that I kept, which, if anyone's interested, I can transcribe and post up here day-by-day and relive the trip all over again.

Thanks for following. I'm now tanned, fitter and not as scared about doing silly trips on bikes - so expect more to come...

Chipps, Bristol. August 13th

We made it!

"We made it sea to sea in 12 days! Now where's the wine and pizza?"

~~~~~~~~~~

Congratulations Laura and Chipps! i've almost felt like i've been along for the ride, and just had very good legs! - jon

From out of nowhere!

"What a slightly epic day! We planned to get near the coast, but once we'd gone into Spain and then north towards Biarritz, we found nowhere to camp. Got to the coast and spent two hours trying every campsite we saw. All full. Even Kirsten, our French connection, called a dozen places without success. Just as we were about to despair, Laura persuaded a full place to squeeze us in. Yay! So we're now pitched close to the beach with 8km to ride tomorrow!"

Full.

"Last full day riding today and we're starting as usual with coffee, croissants and and a ponder of the map. Might nip west into Spain, over pokey 600m pass and then swing north to Saint Pee, no, really!. Then tomorrow is an easy spin to Biarritz to box bike, eat ice cream ans dip toes in Atlantic."

Short day.

"Monday was a short day from Tardets to St Jean Pied de Port. Only 40km but up and over with nearly 1000m of climbing. We're now in a rather urban campsite, compared to our spacious and eccentric one last night. We still deserve a good meal and some Basque beers before our penultimate riding day tomorrow!"

Camp camping.

"Staying in a funky campsite run by an old lady with red hair and probably lots of cats. Every pitch gets a table with flowers. Ace! Off into town son. Only 2.5 more days of riding left. I'll miss getting up and putting the miles in every day. See y'all soon!"

France.

"Yay! back in France and drinking beer in a cafe in Tardets I was at nearly 3 weeks ago. Rode into France in a cloud. Very chilly... then descended over 1300m in one go! Staying here tonight and retracing some of my route tomorrow coastwards. In Biarritz by Weds lunchtime."