One tree is not enough

Part 1 — The setup

Matt Noble
Jul 24, 2017 · 5 min read
Me, when I’m not bike packing around Scotland—or so i like to think so

A quick intro

The reason I want to tell this story is to both encourage others to push themselves to experience something amazing and thank those people that made it possible. I’m going to do it in a few sections to try and keep it short enough to read in chunks. This is part 1 of who knows how many, so please feel free to follow me if you’d like to read the others as they come out.

The whole idea started when I signed up to race and ride Grinduro – a gravel-racing format imported to the UK after two successful outings in California. Grinduro was set to take place on the tiny island of Arran off the west coast of Scotland and I live a 9-hour car journey away in London. It was clear I needed to make the most of my journey north. This meant extra days and extra miles on the bike.

Preparing

I’d decided I wanted to spend my extra time around Grinduro bike packing. This for the uninitiated is traveling and living unsupported by bike. You survive on what you can carry and for many this includes your accommodation. After a brief trial run closer to home, I gambled on an unproven combination of hammock, a sheet of 3m x 3m tarp and a lightweight sleeping bag. This, combined with Scottish laws and attitudes to wild campaigns allowed me to camp anywhere I could find a quiet place and two tree’s.

Sleeping arrangement from the end of day 1 in Scotland

Grinduro made the bike choice simple for me. The advertised gravel race should have been best tackled on a cyclocross bike, and that only left me with the decision between my current old and beaten cross bike, or brining forward the purchase of my new cross bike for the season ahead.

Of course it was the new bike. A Fuji Cross 1.1 with 1x11 gearing and hydraulic disc brakes. I picked this up 9 days in advance of my departure and in these days added a set of 35cc slick tyres picked and hand delivered to me by Hub Velo to eat up those road miles and a additional frame bag by Restrap sent out to me on super fast delivery. A quick thanks to both those guys for your last minute work.

The bike from day one in Scotland

In addition to that my main kit was a bar bag also from Restrap, a seat post bag from Wildcat Gear and a Garmin Edge 250 from my housemate.

My route planning was simple. The first day was about the miles and getting to the west coast, the second was about getting to Islay to visit the Bruichladdich whisky and Botanist gin distillery, the third was a day of island hoping to get myself to Arran, the fourth Grinduro, and the fifth and sixth to do as a like – as long as I returned to Glasgow in time for the sleeper train home on the 6th night.

That reminds me, the train. I decided to add another first to this trip, a sleeper train. Faced with the prospect of a 9-hour drive to and from Arran and potentially another 2 days off work, the sleeper train from London to Glasgow seemed like it would soak up that journey the best way possible, with my eyes closed.

The night before

I’d played with several ways of distributing my holiday days around Grinduro, the original plan was to do Grinduro and then cyclotour off the back of it. But it was becoming the days this would result in me being away for, would cost me the chance to do a few things in London I wasn’t keen to miss that following week.

I settled on the plan of finishing work Tuesday, heading to the last round of the time trial series I’d been doing this summer on the way home. Then grab the already loaded up bike and make the train for just before midnight on the Tuesday. My return would see me arrive back into London the following Tuesday morning where I’d go straight to work, shower, do a day’s work, and head to the bonus ‘2up’ round of my time trial series on the way home to pick up my trophy (I’d secured second in seniors and fourth overall) before finally returning home.

What a dry TT normally looks like. Photo by Tom Glendining

I hadn’t allowed for one thing in all of this, the British weather. Tuesday was a washout, and so was the time trail. At the halfway point I got a flat tyre after hitting a snail at 40kmph and that was the end of that. However, I was running tubular wheels (not your normal inner tube repair) and my side of the track solution for repairing this didn’t take, and I didn’t fancy the walk home. Thankfully on a tight schedule—needing to get the train later that night—a hero in a Peugeot 307—the same housemate from earlier—turned up and transported me home.

Not wanting to set out on the trip with wet kit, I discussed the idea of getting a taxi to the train station on the way home, and again my night in a—less than—shinny Peugeot 307 stepped in to take the role. A quick turn around at home and a car trip down to Euston Station there I stood in front of the start line of my trip. I loaded up my bike and headed to my cabin for the night. A few beers helped me settle in and get off to sleep as we promptly departed London just after midnight, dreaming of the KM’s to follow.

Coming soon: Day 1 — Glasgow to Tarbert

Matt Noble

Written by

Creative Northern Monkey — Yorkshireman in London — Creative — Racing bikes for OCTAVE

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