The Welsh Ride Thing: It's Nothing New.

Yea, yea, yea, but what is it?

The WRT is a 3 day and perhaps more importantly 2 night ride through and around mid Wales. You'll be expected to be self sufficient, carrying everything you need and sleeping out in or under whatever you think best. It's not elitist, entry is open to anyone who wants to try it. All the money raised by the WRT goes to the Wales Air Ambulance charity ... an organisation I hope you'll never need.

If you look back through the posts you'll find a more detailed description or if you're sold on the idea already, email stuart@forestfreeride.co.uk and ask for an entry form.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

It's Nothing New.

It's easy to think that bikepacking is something pretty new, whether it be the act itself or just the term. There's been a massive surge in interest within the UK over the last couple of years, so the feeling that we've all discovered something new isn't surprising. This book arrived from the US the other day, I've known of it for years but I've never seen a copy until I stumbled across this on Amazon.

It's been around a while.

The information it contains is pretty much as relevant today as it was when it was written. Obviously we've had advances in technology since the book was written which has made our lives easier, lighter and more compact. There's certain aspects missing from the book that today we'd almost take for granted such as frame bags and harnesses but all in all not much has changed. The book was written nearly 30 years ago which is really before mountain bikes as we know them existed ... sleeping under tarps and trying to source the lightest down bag possible is nothing new!