I just came across this article and thought it linked nicely to my previous post about whether to buy cheap or expensive clothes (and where those clothes are made and the effect on the price). So here is a nice list of British made companies…

We bring you our top 50 British-made menswear brands. Stay on top of your sartorial game and support British design and manufacturing by visiting the stylish, quality menswear brands on our list. Every single one is made in Britain and 100% authentic!

I’ve been a fan of Doom Bar for a while and saw this slightly stronger beer from the same brewer. “Sea Fury” and it’s eye-catching red label and name.

Sharp’s Brewery

Sharp’s Brewery is a British brewery founded in 1994 in St Minver Lowlands, Rock, Cornwall, by Bill Sharp. Since 2011, the brewery has been owned by Molson Coors. It is best known for its flagship ale Doom Bar, named after the notoriously perilous Doom Bar sandbank in north Cornwall.

A seatpost bag seems like an excellent way to add luggage space where there is already a fair amount of weight (my backside). But in all seriousness, the bike geometry is designed to accomodate for there being some weight around this area so theoretically handling shoudln’t be affected as much as with panniers for example.

However, with bikepacking being a new space and all that. There are quite a few offerings out there, but it is not easy to find the one that makes sense and will do the job reliably. Particularly when the US is ahead of the UK in this area and the best options seem to be from companies based their and their dealers in the UK are out of stock.

This bike light was given to me by Emily Chappell. On receiving it, I thought it looked awesome because it was large and had multiple LEDS.

Company spiel

Step into the light with Cat Eye’s innovative five LED Opticube headlight! Combining five powerful white LEDs with Opticube lens technology, this portable wonder produces an amazingly clear, focused and efficient beam. The 400 candlepower beacon offers plenty of visibility for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians to see you coming, and runs for about 30 hours on 4 AA batteries (included). Plus, a convenient quick-release mount provides on-the-go versatility.

For an any outdoor trip you should take a basic first aid kit. Here are list of essentials with a focus on cycling.

• Antibiotic / hydrocortisone ointment for “road rash” and insect bites
• Assorted adhesive bandages
• Gauze pads
• Sterile swabs
• Micropore tape
• Over the counter painkillers like Aspirin, Paracetamol and Nurofen
• Diarrhoea medicine
• Fluid replacement sachet
• Water purification tablets (depending on where you are riding)

Not strictly first aid but should have:

Power banks are used for providing portable power to charge battery powered items like mobile phones and other similar items that have a USB interface.

I bought this one from Anker I took with me on some hiking trips as a back up battery for my dying iPhone 5 battery and to trickle charge from a solar panel.

Features

• Compact design
• Rugged and durable
• Charge indicator
• Doubles up as LED light
• Lightweight

My experience

Charges an iPhone 5 about 2/3 times.

I regularly follow a news thread called Hacker News and this was a post that I saw on there recently about the experience of building up an electric bike using a Bafang motor, along with some comments from the site.

In the last 6 months, my wife and I traveled to Europe and Asia on 2 separate occasions. I saw people riding bikes everywhere. That by itself is not surprising. What did surprise me however, was that almost every single bike I saw had an electric motor and battery pack on it. I had never seen anything like that state side. I have seen electric scooters riding around in Toronto, but those were incredibly bulky and wasn’t very pleasant to ride. On these new bikes, the battery packs and motor had such a compact package that it almost feels like it’s intended as part of the bike. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to ride on one of those electric bikes during my time in Europe and China, but they left an impression on me. I started doing some googling. It turns out there are more than 200 million E-Bikes in the world. That’s way more than I expected. Annually, the world sells 34 million E-Bikes. Asia dominates the market, accounting for close to 90% of worldwide sales. Europe comes in at a distant second, accounting for 5%. North America has <1%, accounting for a measly 152,000 units in 2016 [1]. I was curious why these E-Bikes have such a high level of adoption elsewhere, but almost non-existent here in North America (in both US and Canada). To truly understand, I wanted to experience riding an E-Bike first hand. I decided to acquire one and use it as my primary form of transportation for a month. To make sure I have good metrics to reference, I used Strava to log all my rides.

This post from the Culturium is on the topic of Rousseau’s “Meditations of a Solitary Walker”.

Rousseau’s “Meditations of a Solitary Walker”, was the last of a number of works composed toward the end of his life which were deeply autobiographical in nature. The book is divided into ten chapters called “Walks”.

The joys of the reclusive life

Reaching the forties milestone, Genevan thinker Rousseau (28th June 1712–2nd July 1778), one of the great European philosophes, is having the proverbial midlife crisis and is taking stock by assessing the life he has lived.

Before you read the article, have you seen my books? Please check them out. Thanks!

• 10 Lessons Learnt from Cycling to Mongolia and Other Travels
• Mountain Biking Routes in The Republic of Georgia
• The Only Man to Cycle from Stoke Albany to Kathmandu
• Prepare, Pack, Pedal: A Practical Guide to Bicycle Touring

The bug of trawling ebay looking at bikes is something that comes round often. Before Christmas it started to creep up on me. Each day my inbox was filled with ebay followed searches for a variety of terms, I started buying mtb magazines.

Fuji Touring 2016 Touring Bike

The Fuji Touring was one of the first mass produced touring bikes ever put on the market, and it’s one of the few classic steel touring bikes still offered.

Specialized Awol Elite 2016 Touring Bike

The AWOL Elite is a modern steel-framed touring bike from Specialized.

LLM Assisted Post

A Tale of Two Touring Bikes: The Fuji Touring vs. Specialized AWOL Elite

Touring bikes aren’t just bicycles—they’re trusty companions for the long haul. They don’t merely take you places; they carry your gear, absorb the miles, and, if you’re lucky, leave you with memories (and fewer saddle sores). Today, we’re taking a spin with two steel-framed workhorses from 2016: the Fuji Touring and the Specialized AWOL Elite. Think of them as the classic roadie versus the adventurous renegade.