Cycle Magazine Taster October / November 2016

cycle THIS ISSUE SPACE FOR CYCLING: LESSONS FROM LEICESTER

cycle THE MAGAZINE OF CYCLING UK

O C T O B E R/ N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 6 £3 OR FREE TO CYC L I N G U K M E M B E R S CYC L I N G U K .O R G

Plus FAT BIKES WEIGHED UP WW1 BATTLEFIELDS TOUR

SURLY & SINGUL A R FAT BIK ES

CANTILEVER BRAKES BI K I NG ACROSS WALES

BIKING ACROSS WALES FOR THE BBC CANTILEVER BRAKES TEST W W1 BAT TLEFIELDS TOUR PINNACLE CHROMIUM 2 HYBRID OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016

ROOM TO RIDE SPACE FOR CYCLING SUCCESSES

The big picture Welsh Festival of Cycling

THE WELSH FESTIVAL of Cycling is a social cycling rally that takes place each summer. It’s run along similar lines to the Birthday Rides, albeit on a smaller scale. This year’s festival, which attracted almost 100 cyclists between 21 and 26 July, was based at Llandovery in mid-Wales. There were four rides each day, ranging from easy ones on flat roads through to challenging legstretchers that took in climbs such as The Devil's Staircase – which is 25% at its steepest. Next year’s Welsh Festival of Cycling will be based at Ruthin from 20-25 July. More details will be published in Cycle next year.

Photo: Andy Whitehouse

T H E D E V I L’ S S TA I R C A S E

PRODUCT NEWS | SHOP WINDOW

Product news

SHOP WINDOW

Buy now If you’re thinking of buying a new bike, make it now and try to get hold of a 2016 model. A weak pound means most 2017 prices will be higher.

DAN JOYCE Cycle editor

1GARMIN EDGE 820

EDITOR DAN JOYCE PREVIEWS A CROSS-SECTION OF NEW CYCLING PRODUCTS THAT ARE IN THE SHOPS OR COMING SOON

1

2

£329.99

The feature that interests me most in this gloves-compatible touchscreen GPS is one I’m sure will be rolled out wider: GroupTrack, live tracking of your Garmin-using ride companions. garmin.com

2 CANNONDALE SLATE APEX £1699.99

While gravel bikes are everywhere, the Slate sets itself apart with a monoblade ‘fork’ and sensibly wide (42mm) tyres on 650B rims. This rigid model is new. cannondale.com

X WOLF TOOTH 3 LINDARETS BOOSTINATOR

3

$24.95

4

These spacers and screws convert your mountain bike’s 15×100mm front hub and 12×142mm rear hub to the new Boost standard (110mm and 148mm). Some re-dishing required. wolftoothcomponents.com

LIFESTYLE CYCLE 4 XLC SHOE £54.99

A sober-coloured, SPD-compatible shoe for town or touring use at a reasonable price. The recessed-cleat sole is nylon while the upper is micro fibre, not leather. raleigh.co.uk

PANORAMA 5 RIDGEBACK TANDEM £1599.99

6 16 C Y C L E O C TO BER/NOVEM BER 2016

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5

We mentioned the dearth of entrylevel tandems last year. Here’s a new one from Ridgeback: it’s aluminium, with 27-speed Sora/Deore gearing, TRP Spyre brakes and 700×38C Marathons. ridgeback.co.uk

6 SKS LOCKCAGE

£TBC

Never forget your café lock: this retractable-cable immobiliser unscrews from the base of its integral bottle cage. sks-germany.com

MARATHON 7SCHWALBE SUPREME TL-EASY

£66.99

Tubeless: not just for mountain bikers and roadies, apparently. You can now have an easier-rolling, self-sealing touring/city tyre. Sizes: 37-622 or 42-622. schwalbe.com

My cycling

Riding Birmingham’s Big Hoot Trail for charity

David’s retirement will give him more time for club rides, audaxes, and the odd sportive

DAVID COX OBE Cycling UK’s Chair of the Board of Trustees is retiring from that role, but he isn’t hanging up his wheels.

Tony Upfold spoke to him

I

It’s no bad thing to have a cox at the helm when you’re steering through choppy waters. The last few years have seen the struggle to gain charity status, the rebranding of CTC as Cycling UK, and the streamlining of the Board of Trustees. Calmly keeping control and focusing on a bright horizon has been David Cox, who steps down as Chair of the Board of Trustees at the end of the year, after five years at the helm.

‘I’m proud of our achievements during my time as Chair,’ said David. ‘It’s a big responsibility looking after an organisation that has been around for 138 years, with many members whose parents and grandparents were also members.’

Now aged 70 himself, David joined CTC/ Cycling UK in 1976 and has ridden with the Cycling UK-affiliated Beacon Roads Cycling Club in South Birmingham since 1980.

‘The change of name from CTC to Cycling UK met with some resistance in a few quarters,’ he said, ‘but there wasn’t a lot of opposition to the idea on the Board.

Basically, we now have a name that reflects what we do. People from outside the organisation hadn’t heard of CTC, didn’t know what it stood for or what we did.

3 0 C Y C L E O C TO BER /NOVEM BER 2016

“I JOINED CYCLING UK TO PROTECT AND ENHANCE OUR RIGHT TO CYCLE SAFELY ON THE ROADS” ‘We needed – still need – to be much more outward-looking and embrace what is going on in the wider world and the name Cycling UK helps us do that. It tells people we are here to encourage and promote all types of cycling – whether it’s touring with one of our groups, family cycling, riding offroad or using a recumbent trike.’

CAMPAIGNING FOR CYCLING He added: ‘If you read “Winged Wheel”, the history of the first 100 years of the Cyclists’ Touring Club, you immediately realise that a huge amount of what we did as an organisation back then, we do today – promoting and campaigning on behalf of cycling and cyclists. I joined Cycling UK originally for the very reason the club was formed in 1878: to protect and enhance our

David has chaired some extensive debates at recent AGMs

right to cycle safely on the roads. We are a broad church and always have been.’

David lived on his bike as a child. Once he got his driving licence, he didn’t ride for 10 years. He rediscovered cycling during the 1970s bike boom, bought a machine for a fiver from a friend’s garage and started commuting on two wheels. He still rides 6,000 miles a year, including club runs, audaxes, and holidays, and is membership secretary and welfare officer with the Beacon Roads Club, as well as a ride leader.

David lectured in the Sociology of Organisations at what was then Birmingham Polytechnic, became the University of Central England and is now Birmingham City University. Now an Emeritus Professor, he was involved in the governance changes for university status and the development of the Faculty of Health. He was Chair of the successful South Birmingham Primary Care Trust and was responsible for the health of 383,000 people. His services to health care were recognised with an OBE and an honorary degree.

While he might be retiring at national level, David’s local campaigning will continue. He is involved with the Birmingham Wellbeing Service, ‘Be Active’, and is vicechair of cycling campaign group Pushbikes.

‘I’d like to thank Cycling UK’s Board of Trustees and staff,’ David concluded, ‘as well as our volunteers across the country who are all so committed to sharing their great passion for cycling.’

D E TA I L S WHERE: Wales START/FINISH: From the Brecon Beacons to Snowdon DISTANCE: 260km PHOTOS: Nature Photographers Ltd / Alamy and Paul Rogers

WATC HI N G WA L ES | G R E AT R I D E S

Great rides

WATCHING WALES

Paul Rogers is a tour leader for CTC Cycling Holidays

The BBC’s Extreme Wales with Richard Parks charted a bike ride from the Brecon Beacons to Snowdon. Paul Rogers was the route guide

‘I

t’s way too deep. We need to head upstream to the footbridge,’ I said.

Television presenter Richard Parks was having none of it. He hoisted his bike on top of his large shoulders, turned his helmet camera on, and stepped into the swollen river at Nant-y-Moch. With the film crew wrapped for the day, we were on our own, in dreadful conditions, 30 miles from our overnight stop. With time against us, I followed Richard, making sure that my every step was firmly planted before proceeding.

That wet evening in June, on the high moors of mid-Wales, we had what could best be described as a ‘boy’s own’ adventure, riding through absurdly deep puddles on moorland tracks, crossing swollen rivers, and storming down through forests at breakneck speed, grinning from ear to ear.

Left: Nature Photographers Ltd / Alamy. Others by Paul Rogers

THE ROUTE TO TV How Cycling UK came to be involved in a television programme perhaps explains why the new branding is so important to our club, and to adventure cycling in general.

One Tribe TV were commissioned to make a three-part series by BBC Wales to promote 2016’s Welsh Year of Adventure. They

needed expert help to design an off-road route across the high mountains of Wales that would be challenging and interesting, but still manageable for a film crew with heavy equipment. They did some research and came across Cycling UK; our new name evidently defines us well.

As a tour leader for Cycling UK’s holiday company – CTC Cycling Holidays – I had run a demanding off-road tour along some of this route in 2014. So I was drafted in to see if I could help to make it happen. Lots of brainstorming then followed with other off-road leaders in Wales. The route was tweaked and then tweaked again. Five weeks later, I joined the film crew to act as route finder for Richard Parks, the host of the show, a former Welsh rugby player and now full-time adventurer.

As one of the ambassadors of the Welsh Year of Adventure, Richard was an obvious choice to host this: he’s conquered the highest peaks on all seven continents, has trekked to both Poles, and has completed a host of gruelling cycle adventure races. I was slightly daunted by my task. Although I am a relatively fit and capable mountain bike rider, this seemed out of my league. Richard, however, was a real gentleman, with time

Do it yourself

RIDE THE ROUTE Richard’s exact route, which includes road and off-road sections, can be found here: ridewithgps.com/ routes/15550569. It was compromised a little for filming. A legacy route will hopefully be created. My original CTC Cycling Holidays tour was a north-south coastto-coast trip from Conwy to Swansea, loosely following the Sarn Helen Roman road.

If you’re interested riding this south-to-north with me, email me: paul.rogers@ cyclingholidays.org. For more about mountain biking in Wales, visit mbwales.com

THE WEEKS BEFORE THE RIDE WERE FABULOUS; DAY ONE WAS ANYTHING BUT. HEAVY RAIN PUT US HOURS BEHIND SCHEDULE CYCL I N G U K . OR G CYCL E 3 5

SHARE D SPACE Considerate cycling is allowed anywhere, any time in the pedestrianised centre

Feature

LESSONS FROM LEICESTER THE EAST MIDLANDS CITY HAS MADE BIG STRIDES IN MAKING EVERYDAY CYCLING ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE. ROB AINSLEY CYCLED AROUND IT TO DISCOVER HOW

All photos by Rob Ainsley

SPACE FOR CYCLING | FE AT U RE

Mixing cyclists with pedestrians hasn’t increased conflict

L

ondon has its Cycle Superhighways, Cambridge its everydaybiking culture. Which other towns and cities make the showcasecycling list? Big cities don’t fare well: Manchester and Birmingham, for example, have some usable bike routes but they’re few and messy. Stevenage has a oncepioneering cycle track network, but caroriented town planning has produced low cycling levels. Leeds’s new ‘superhighway’ to Bradford includes great sections but also some absurdly narrow cycle tracks where the space gets squeezed by bus stops.

Where, then? York, Bristol, Plymouth...?

A surprise recent contender for the roll-call is Leicester. It’s no biking mini-Holland; it’s about as Dutch as a pork pie. But thanks

“Cyclists slip through the crowds, mostly bare-headed and in everyday clothes”

to planning vision, smart use of funding, and most notably political will, it’s achieved some very good things without any special cycle cash – things many other town and city centres would do well to emulate.

In July, I cycled round the city for a few days to see it first-hand. Pedalling into the centre from the south-east – through Victoria Park, with the gentle stream of morning commuters and university students – is like many UK cities: a mix of makeshift main-road cycle lanes, pleasant green-space paths, and unfoolproof signed-mazes through back streets. So far, so ordinary.

SHARED SPACES It’s only once you get in the centre that you see what’s unusual about Leicester. A huge area is pedestranised: properly, with wallto-wall flagstones, not kerbs or road-like paving. And bikes are allowed – specifically, ‘considerate cycling’ – everywhere, any time.

Cyclists slip through the crowds, most bareheaded and in everyday clothes, and the whole range of Leicester’s famous ethnic mix is visible on two wheels.

The non-pedestrianised central streets are nicely permeable for bikes too, with contraflows common. Granby St, linking the railway station with the centre, even

ROB AINSLEY Rob is a journalist who cycles for travel and transport. He wrote ‘The Bluffer’s Guide to Cycling’

manages to have them in both directions. It makes getting across the centre easy and pleasant: you can head confidently to your target along your desire-line. The station, the clock tower, the Richard III museum?

No problem, follow your nose. (Richard apparently died from a head injury and wasn’t wearing a helmet; it wouldn’t have saved him, though.)

You can even cycle along the covered market where the family of another famous Leicester son, footballer Gary Lineker, still has a fruit and veg stall. For the small number of delivery cyclists – shuttling curries in Deliveroo backpacks, or crates of recycling on cargo bikes – this must be a good place.

Shared-space plans don’t always work out.

Exhibition Road in west London, for instance,

CYCL I N G U K . OR G CYCL E 4 3

D E TA I L S WHERE: Northern France and Belgium START/FINISH: Dieppe to Dunkirk DISTANCE: 606 miles PICTURES: Stuart Black / Alamy and Paul Lloyd

W W1 TOUR | GRE AT RIDES

Great rides

BEHIND THE SILENCE It’s the centenary of WW1’s worst engagement: the Battle of the Somme. Paul Lloyd reflected on this on his tour of the Western Front Do it yourself

G

azing at the uniform lines of pristine white headstones, it was a shock to see that many of the dead were only 19 years old. I found one soldier amongst the graves who shared my surname: Private FC Lloyd from the East Surrey Fusiliers, killed on 17 August 1918, mere months before the end of hostilities. I spent a few moments there in Beacon Cemetery, in between Corbie and Bray-Sur-Somme, thinking about who he was and how he might have died.

I’d put together a ride that visited some of the battlefields of the Western Front. In the ongoing centenary of the First World War, it felt appropriate. My plan was to start at the channel port of Dieppe, visit the Somme, the Ardennes, Mons, and Ypres, then head home via Dunkirk.

TRANQUIL TOURING The riding wasn’t especially hard. The landscape is largely rolling countryside through France and it’s even flatter in southern Belgium. By following rivers and canals, much of what little undulation there was could be eliminated altogether. Not that I dislike hills, but it felt right to follow

natural boundaries that were a key part of the First World War conflict.

I was able to make good progress, clocking 100km a day or more even on a bike laden with camping equipment.

Following the twists and turns of the long rivers and past the locks and bridges of the canals, I enjoyed a regular breeze from the water and had only geese and ducks as companions.

Following watercourses gives you a strange sense of disorientation, however.

You seldom know exactly where you are.

You don’t have the usual reference points of villages and towns, road numbers and junctions to follow and navigate by. Until the river or canal cuts through a town, you can’t pinpoint your position.

The Voie Verte Trans-Ardennes that I used is well sign-posted along the Meuse River up to Namur from Charleville-Mézières.

The sweeping bends of the river through steep wooded hills made for delightful riding, unspoiled by passing traffic. Cycle routes on the Continent often take a similar tack. In Belgium, for example, much of the national network of cycle routes (Langeafstandsfietsroutes in Flanders and Veloroutes in Wallonia) follow river banks

YOUR OWN WW1 TOUR Decide what you want to include in your trip around the battlefields: there is no shortage of locations to visit across the whole Western Front. Cycling between them (or other locations) is enjoyable in these quiet corners of France and Belgium.

The obvious start and finish points are the channel ports.

However, you could skip the transitional legs from the channel and use Eurostar and local trains to get to eastern Belgium, then start from there.

Or you could fly to Brussels/ Charleroi, Strasbourg or Luxembourg. See ryanair.com and easyjet.com for details.

IT FELT RIGHT TO FOLLOW NATURAL BOUNDARIES THAT WERE A KEY PART OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR CONFLICT CYCL I N G U K . OR G CYCL E 5 1

EXPERT ADVICE | Q&A

Expert advice

MEET THE EXPERTS

YOUR TECHNICAL, LEGAL, HEALTH, AND POLICY QUESTIONS ANSWERED. THIS ISSUE: LYME DISEASE, LUGGAGE RACKS, TRAMLINE DANGERS, AND MORE Photo: Scott Camazine / Alamy

?

D R M AT T B R O O K S Cycling GP {Health}

Question of the month

RICHARD HALLETT Cycle’s Technical Editor {Technical}

A bullseye-pattern rash is an indication of Lyme disease

PAUL KITSON Par tner from Slater + Gordon Lawyers {Legal}

Health

A TICK-ING BOMB?

Q

I have been unable to cycle for 18 months now and may never cycle again because of Lyme disease. This is a tick-borne disease and I most likely caught the tick while mountain biking across moorland or in woods. It might be worth warning members to take precautions. (I’ll never wear shorts again.)

This disease seems to be on the increase and can have serious consequences.

Nicky King

A

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, transmitted to humans following a bite from an infected tick. It may cause a characteristic erythema migrans rash, flulike symptoms including fatigue, and sometimes neurological, joint and cardiac issues. Prognosis is very good if treated early with appropriate antibiotics.

True incidence is unknown but estimated to be 1,000-3,000 people each year in the UK, with many cases being undiagnosed. In the UK, infection occurs in areas of woodland and heath including the New Forest, Exmoor, South Downs, Lake District,

and the Scottish Highlands.

In people with erythema migrans rash and a history of a recent tick bite or possible exposure to ticks, a clinical diagnosis of Lyme disease can be made without testing.

In those without a rash, where the diagnosis is less certain, a blood test may be required.

The classic erythema migrans rash is a central red spot surrounded by clear skin that is ringed by an expanding red rash (like a bullseye) though this appearance can vary.

It usually starts 7-10 days following the tick bite but can be anywhere from 3-33 days.

Minimise risk of tick bites by avoiding long grass and vegetation. If you can tolerate it, wear long sleeves and long trousers or tights tucked into socks. Light-coloured clothing can make it easier to identify ticks on your clothes. Consider using an insect repellent (some clothing is treated with this), inspect skin frequently, and remove any attached ticks as soon as possible, checking that ticks are not brought home on clothing.

To remove a tick, gently grip it close to the point of skin attachment using finetoothed tweezers or a tick removal device, then pull slowly. Prophylactic antibiotics are

not routinely needed following tick bite but seek medical advice if symptoms of Lyme disease develop.

Dr Matt Brooks

Technical

R ACK AND RUIN

Q

The three-year-old frame of my electrically-assisted mountain bike cracked where the top tube meets the seat tube. The dealer and manufacturer replaced the frame. However, the dealer noticed I use a seatpost rack and suggested it could have been responsible. I use the bike for commuting, dropping off the odd kerb. I carry 6-10kg on the rack. Should I switch to a permanently mounted rack with stays attached to the frame?

Phil Wilson Seatpost racks are fine for lighter loads but can cause problems with heavy ones

CYCL I N G U K . OR G CYCL E 5 7

CANTILEVERS | GROUPTEST

Group test

CANTILEVER BRAKES

RICHARD HALLETT Technical Editor

Despite the draw of discs, cantilevers remain popular for touring and cyclocross bikes. Technical Editor Richard Hallett reviews four S TR A D D L E W IR E/ S TIR R U P

C

ANTILEVER BRAKES ARE the traditional stoppers for touring and cyclocross bikes. They offer clearance for wide tyres and mudguards, or wide tyres and mud, and they’re lightweight and simple.

They can offer immense braking power, which is why they are widely used on tandems, but they need careful setup to give their best. Straddle wire angle makes a big difference.

A cable adjuster and brake cable hanger are needed somewhere, not necessarily together. Traditionally, the front brake hanger sits above the top headset bearing. The problems this may cause with judder associated with steerer tube flex can be addressed, stirrup-height permitting, using an ‘uphanger’ bolted to the fork crown. Various attempts have been made to improve on the straddle wire, including the Tektro Powerhanger (p59, last issue).

BAL ANCE S CR E WS These push independently against the return springs to equalise block-to-rim clearance. Usually it’s a 2.5mm or 3mm hex head. Phillips-headed screws can round off if corroded.

Shimano’s fixed-length, no-stirrup (or yoke) linkwire is designed for ease of installation. A traditional free-length straddle wire offers greater tuning potential but is hazardous without a mudguard or restraining bracket to keep a dropped straddle wire off the tyre.

B LO CK P O S ITI O N I N G Cantilever brakes provide for vertical and lateral placement; the former to cope with variations in boss height relative to the wheel rim, the latter to allow for boss spacing.

Unlike linear-pull V-brakes, cantilevers are designed to work with traditional dropbar levers, including ‘brifters’ such as Shimano’s STI and Camapgnolo’s Ergopower.

A R M S H A PE

Your thoughts?

WRITE TO US: Cycle Letters, PO Box 313, Scarborough, YO12 6WZ EMAIL US: editor@cyclinguk.org DISCUSS ONLINE: forum.cyclinguk.org

CAB L E PU L L

B R A K E B LO CK T Y PE

There are two main types: low-profile and the earlier wide-profile style.

The former reduces the likelihood of catching a heel during a dismount but is less tolerant of poor setup.

The long, thin MTB-style blocks wear quickly and are less desirable for longdistance riding than the thicker road calliper type.

CYCL I N G U K . OR G CYCL E 7 1

B I K E T E S T | FAT B IK ES

Bike test

DAN JOYCE Cycle editor

FAT BIKES Is fat good for you? Editor Dan Joyce reviews two bikes with 26×3.8in tyres to find out: a Surly Wednesday and a Singular Puffin

F

AT BIKES were designed for riding on snow. Their wide, low-pressure tyres can keep you rolling on other surfaces where you might bog down or stall. Pioneer Surly calls them Omniterra bikes as they’ll tackle all terrain. ‘All’ includes conventional singletrack. In fact, fat bikes have increasingly been marketed as left-field trail bikes. A sceptic might say that’s because it’s hard to sell a snow bike in, say, Surrey.

Yet wider tyres can confound expectations.

I’ve been riding off-road on 3-inch ‘plus size’ tyres for the last couple of years. They roll well, offer excellent traction, and they’re comfortable. While full-fat tyres threaten to impose extra weight and rolling drag, fans claim they’re capable and fun.

I picked two of the most versatile fat bikes I could find for this review: the Surly Wednesday and the Singular Puffin, two steel bikes that bristle with braze-ons and possibilities.

FRAME AND FORK To fit fat tyres into a bike frame, the bottom bracket needs to be wider (100mm or more) so that the cranks won’t hit the wide chainstays. To keep the chain lined up with the chainset and prevent it rubbing on the tyre in low gears, the cassette has to move over too.

That requires either an offset rear triangle (as used by the Surly Pugsley, which has 135mm dropouts) or wider dropouts and a wider hub; 170mm or more is typical. The fork also needs to be wider, commonly 135mm or 150mm.

The fork height and chainstay length need to be fairly generous too. For although fat bikes use 26in rims, a tyre that’s fatter is also taller.

A 26×3.8in tyre is roughly the same diameter externally as a 27.5+ tyre or a conventional 29er tyre (i.e. 730-740mm). A 26×4.8in tyre is about the same as a 29+ tyre (765-775mm). A happy side effect of this is that you can swap out any fat bike’s wheels for similar diameter ones with taller rims and narrower tyres.

The Surly Wednesday and Singular Puffin are more adaptable than most. They have 26×3.8in tyres measuring 734mm in diameter but will accommodate fatter 26in tyres or taller 29+ ones. The Wednesday has horizontal dropouts: a bigger wheel fits by being set further back. The Puffin has roomy chainstays and an eccentric bottom bracket, so a bigger wheel has minimal effect on bottom bracket height. With no need for a derailleur to tension the chain, either bike could take a singlespeed or Rohloff Speedhub XL rear wheel.

Both bikes are made from chrome-moly steel, reinforced with gussets at the head tube joints. The Wednesday has a 44mm head tube, while the Puffin’s is tapered. Either will accommodate a suspension fork with a tapered steerer, such as the fat-bike specific Rockshox Bluto. It’s an easier upgrade for the Wednesday because it has a Bluto-compatible front wheel with a 150×15mm front hub; the Puffin has a 135mm quick release front hub.

The Wednesday has a 30.9mm seatpost and cable routing – internally through the

TO FIT FAT TYRES INTO A BIKE FRAME, THE BOTTOM BRACKET NEEDS TO BE WIDER (100MM OR MORE) SO THAT THE CRANKS WON’T HIT THE WIDE CHAINSTAYS 6 2 C Y C L E O CTO BER/NOVEM BER 2016

seat tube – for a dropper post. The Puffin has a 27.2mm post. Droppers are rarer in this diameter but a narrower, rigid post will flex a bit more. The Puffin’s fork uses narrower tubing too, although both forks are fairly beefy; being ~470mm from axle to crown, they need to be to meet CEN tests. (A skinnier and more compliant steel fork would likely need to be shorter, like the 445mm one on my 29+ Genesis Longitude.)

Both bikes have plenty of frame fittings for bottle cages, mudguards, fork-mounted Monkii Gorilla cages, and pannier racks. Widelyspaced rear racks are available for fat bikes, while low-riders with separate side frames fit fine to wide forks. If you’re going to carry a lot of luggage off-road, a rigid fat bike isn’t a bad way to do it. Softer tyres isolate the load well from bumps, so the luggage gets bounced about less and the wheels don’t get slammed into ruts and holes to the same extent.

COMPONENTS Fat bike wheels are heavy. The Puffin’s each weighed over 3.5kg (including tyre, etc.) So much weight is tied up in the wheels and tyres

Above: Both bikes come with 26×3.8in tyres but you can fit bigger – up to 26×4.6 or more in both frames and fork. Alternatively, 29+ wheels and tyres will fit

FAT B IK ES | B I K E T E S T

S U R LY W E D N E S DAY Probably the most versatile fat bike in pioneer Surly’s range

SINGULAR PUFFIN Longer offset fork makes it more manageable on trails

CYCL I N G U K . OR G CYCL E

63

Left: John Ferguson. Below: Zoe Binden

Travellers’ tales

HAPPY 1 38TH B IRTHDAY Frank Burns spent a week in Suffolk at the CTC Birthday Rides

R

iding home into a ferocious headwind from the CTC Birthday Rides at Framlingham College, I cursed the weather gods with abandon. The strength in my legs wasn’t what it had been after a truly memorable week of cycling in the company of over 450 like-minded wheelers.

The last five years of this annual cycling bonanza have seen us exploring narrow lanes and cresting tough climbs throughout the length and breadth of Shropshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, Cumbria, and now Suffolk. Framlingham College provided the perfect setting, with its manicured lawns and cricket squares, and a picture-postcard view of Framlingham Castle bathed in the evening sunlight.

Although the whole purpose of the festival was to ride our bikes in new

Share your story Cycle wants your Travellers’ Tales. Email the editor – cyclinguk@jppublishing.co.uk – for advice on what’s required.

8 2 C Y C L E O C TO BER /NOVEM BER 2016

surroundings, the days’ rides (over 20 routes of varying distances) were encased within a framework of evening entertainments, which included talks, films, quizzes, music and photo competitions. Then there was the social networking of so many old friends.

I sometimes sat near the wall display of OS maps, marking out the routes and, invariably, was surrounded by clusters of animated people energetically discussing the details of their next day’s rides, excited about discovering recondite corners of this beautiful little county.

Local club members had put together routes that teased us towards destinations like Aldeburgh and Snape Maltings, Sutton Hoo with its AngloSaxon excavations, the wild expanses of Dunwich heath, and the Steam Museum at Bressingham. Our routes were littered with ancient churches, Napoleonic Martello towers, weavers’ cottages and old coaching inns. If you stopped at everything, you wouldn’t have travelled more than 10 miles in a day.

Larna holds on tight for the 40-mile descent

Death Road LARNA BROOKS ENJOYED A GUIDED RIDE DOWN THIS SCARY BOLIVIAN DESCENT iding along a wide, tarmac road in the sunshine, I wondered what all the fuss was about. Then I realised we hadn’t even started the difficult part of the descent of El Camino de la Muerte – in English, Death Road. My confidence plummeted (sic!) as I found myself on a busy dirt road with a sheer drop to one side.

Built in 1930, it links the capital La Paz with the jungle region of the Yungas. Until recently, there were no guardrails or barriers protecting you from the abyss. An alternative paved road now carries a lot of the motorised traffic and has dramatically reduced the 200-300 deaths each year, but there are still occasional fatalities. So why ride it? It’s a rite of passage for those travelling through South America.

The views are breath-taking. If something were to go wrong, however, there would be little point calling an ambulance… So, gripping tightly, I juddered down, trying not to focus on the drop to my left.

I could think of nothing other than trying to stay upright, despite rocks on the road and fog affecting my vision.

My arms were fatigued within minutes and my hands ached from braking for so much of the 40-mile, 12,000ft descent.

It was exhausting and thrilling – and I’ve never felt more alive!

R