Yes you can repack again and again and even do various mini tours to help to sort you out. But I’m sure that even the most seasoned tourer will be carrying something that they haven’t used for a while. Great way to figure out what to pack is to talk to people on various online forums, read other people’s tour write-ups and talk with people you meet while touring.

They all will pack differently from you, so what one person is carrying might not be what you need, as we all have different needs. But from that talk you will learn some tricks of the trade and along with doing a few long weekends you will find your comfort zone/needs for your touring.

There are a few questions you can ask yourself which will help you narrow down what you pack.

Where you are going : is it a developing country, mountainous, flat covered in forest?

Time of year : holiday season where you are going, will you be fighting over the campsite with all the other tourists, or everything is closed?

Weather : will it be scorchio or rainy, spring or autumn?

How long is the tour : is it just an S240, a week or a sabbatical year?

These few points can be narrowed down even more, as the country will tell you what time of the year is best to go, which will tell you the weather etc. A two week tour in the summer for example, you really don’t need your woolly jumper unless you decide to tour north of the Arctic circle or above 1500metres.

Then there is …

Clothing : is it going to be warm or cold, will you be able to wash regularly and how long are you going for do you need more than one season in clothing with you ?

Tools/spare parts : are you touring in a place where you can easily find a LBS so you don’t need to carry it all with you, or are you out in the sticks where you need to do your own fettling? With a little planning and help from back home you can get many bits sent to you fairly fast no matter where you are.

Food/water : are you planning to eat out, cook your food yourself, will there be shops nearby or do you need to carry a few days worth? Will your cooker take gas or liquid which also depends on where you are going and how far up in the mountains etc? Where and how often can you get water to drink, do you need to filter it?

Sleeping : is it a credit card tour, will you use B&Bs, staying at friends or only wild camping. Hammocks are great but not much use above the tree line for example.

And so I could go on, but ask yourself all these questions before you pack. I got an advice many years ago before I went out on InterRail trip around Europe. Put everything you want to take on your bed, then remove half of that and you got a good starting point for your packing.

Some of you might have seen us touring or pictures of our set up and think that we are carrying quite a bit. Yes we are but we do want comfort when we tour. The idea of crawling into a warm and dry down sleeping bag on top of a down and ever so comfy sleeping mat after a long day in the saddle, is just what we want.

Our mats weights around 600-800g more than other mats but we both know that we will have a good night sleep no matter what we sleep on. And the down sleeping bags are rather hot in the summer but for spring and fall tours they are just spot on. We know that we are not going to struggle to fall asleep because we are not comfy and then wake up at 4am because we are cold, we need our bed :)

Yes other things we are carrying with us are on the heavy side and we can go all weight weenies on it, but like a friend said – an infinite number of light things will weigh a tonne. Is it really worth it spending £25-30 on a titanium cup where a plastic or aluminium is only a fiver and weight 10-15 grams more.

I think that we could easily fit all our gear into our two rear Ortleib panniers, as they are evil, but no matter how well you pack you will always need that bit at the bottom. Which is the reason for us to take four panniers, so that we can spread the load, make it easier to find stuff and have more room for our food and spare water.

This is the way I managed my stuff for a week or longer tour … (Where I will be wearing this – 1x t-shirt, 1x long sleeve merino base layer, 1x padded shorts, 1x shorts, 1x pair socks, 1x cycle gloves, 1x cycling shoes and one merino buff and cycling glasses)

Front Right Pannier : Bed : 3-4kg
Alpkit SkyeHigh 800 sleeping bag, Silk liner, air pillow.

Front Left Pannier : Dry Clothing : 3-4kg
2x cycle t-shirts, 1x merino base layer, 2x padded shorts, 3x pairs of socks, 1x shorts, 1x pair of Keen sandals, 1x boxer short.

Rear Right Pannier : Kitchen : 5-6kg
1x Jetboil cooker, 2x tea cups, 2x sporks, 1x spare gas canister, 1x small pot, 1x big pot, 1x container for porridge, 1x container for tea bags, 1x sharp knife, 1x first aid kit, 4-5x plastic bags, 1x small travel towel, 1x sponge, 1x small washing up liquid bottle, 1x mini pump (yes not really a cooking tool but it just fit in that pannier so much better)

Rear Left Pannier : Stuff : 5-6kg
1x laptop, 1x laptop charger, 1x camera charger, 1x Exped 7dlx down sleeping mat, 1x dry bag with wet weather gear (1x jacket, 1x rain legs, 1x Seal Skinz socks, 1x Seal Skinz gloves, 1x over shoes) 1x thin fleece, 1x roll of toilet paper, 1x roll of gaffa/duct tape.

On the outside of the rear panniers there are two small bags attached:

Outer Right : 1x puncture repair kit, 5x tyre levers, 1x inner tube 700c, 1x inner tube 26c, 10x zip ties, 1x tent repair kit, 1x mat repair kit, 1x bottle with chain lube, 2x v-brake cable, 2x road brake cable, 4x gear cable, 1x 15mm small spanner, 1x Allen key set, 1x Leather man replica, 6x brake pads (shoes).

Other Left : 1x tooth brush, 1x tooth paste, 1x travel towel, 1x bottle of shampoo, 1x sun cream, 1x bottle of DEET.

Bar bag : Stuff : 3-5kg
1x camera, 1x mobile phone, 1x mini kite (gotta have some fun), 1x compass, 1x passport, maps, 1x book I’m reading atm, AA+AAA batteries, 1x front light, 1x rear light, 1x usb/dyno charger, 1x usb battery charger, 1x mp3 player + head phones, 1x Garmin Dakota 20, 1 swiss army knife, 1x solar light cap, 1x head tourch and other small bits.

And then there is 2-3 bottles of water and the 3kg Black Octane tent, so with food I’m carrying around 25kg.

Peli pretty much pack in the same way, but without the “kitchen”, tent, tools and laptop and various chargers. But she is carrying the Street Cuffs lock and cable (2kg), ground sheet (1-1.5kg), food and extra water and other bits that she likes with her. So I’m tipping her to carry around 18-20kg.

Yes that is rather a lot but we are not planning a race around the world in 80 days or less. We pootle and know that I will be very comfy when it get to my campsite and have a good meal and very good night sleep.

We are off on a weekend trip to St. Andrews and this time I’m only carrying two rear panniers, so as I said at the start it all depends on so many factors what to pack.

Just as was writing this the TravellingTwo posted this Lightening The Load: Another Overpacking Tale an interview with a fella who shaved 20kg of what he was dragging around Australia.

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After breakfast Alan led us out for 30 odd miles, where we had a very nasty hill to climb, but the views were well worth it. Then we arrived at the Manifold Trail which runs from Waterhouses to Hulme End along eight miles of wonderful cycle track. It is a gentle slope ride up a disused train track formerly used for the mine.

As we arrived at the start there was a school trip starting, so we had to over take 35 cycles on BSOs. Great to see that they did cycle with a smile, even when they were on a heavy bike that didn’t fit them, and it was a bit damp. We were waved past with a “Ooh look, here’s the professionals”.

From the trail you can see the Thor’s Cave, which has been inhabited for over 5000 years. We didn’t have time climb up, but next time will do so for sure. At Hulme End we found the Tea Junction, a cafe in the old train station. We of course enjoyed a cuppa and a cake, as any respectable cyclist should. The baked-well Bakewell Tart was an absolute delight!

We then took the road to Hartington where we stocked up on pasta and bread for our evening meal. We took a road through a very typical Peak District limestone landscape which felt like something you’d find on the moon. We arrived at the Parsley Hay Centre on the High Peak trail in the the very dense and squally rain. We pressed on for the last two miles along the trail to the Royal Oak where we would camp for the night.

We had a cuppa and talk with Alan in the nice warm pub before he headed back home and we ordered our lunch. Then the weather cleared up a bit, enough blue sky appeared to make a sailor a pair of trousers, and we pitched our tent. We hope Alan didn’t get too wet on his ride back.

The Royal Oak is a Pub with a barn accommodation and camping. The shower and toilet block is in the barn and has been updated in the last two years, though while we were there the taps in the ladies’ were playing up.

Day 5

During Tuesday we kept looking at the weather forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, since we were getting closer to home and would be wild camping Wednesday night. It didn’t look like a great night or day weather wise to cycle the last 35 miles in. So a little talking and weighing up the options we decided to go for it since it would make sense. Even if it was 65 hilly miles, we would beat the rain and wind.

Little would we know that I had miscalculated the distance, it was 75 miles and VERY scenic. And as always you can’t count on the weather, the night into Thursday our last day turned into a dry, rather nice day.

We were still heading NE out of the Pennines: a beautiful place to cycle with rolling hills and glorious views, with some nasties thrown in for fun. A few miles south of Midhopestones we encounted the worst of the lot at 25%. We only came to a stop when I found this sign, else we managed to climb it on our fully loaded Surlys. While we had our little photo shoot a milk lorry passed us and we spotted it in between the trees at very steep angle further up the road, so we knew that we had more to enjoy.

In Midhopestones we found a rather nice pub, with maps of the area as table cloths. Though even my food was very enjoyable, Peli’s pasta was not cooked. We asked the waiter to sort something out, but when it came back it had clearly had a time in the micro and was still not cooked. She was too hungry to complain again, but it was a bit of a disappointment.

We tried to cut some distance and hills with a ride on the A616 and others, so the next few miles were not too enjoyable, but we made good headway.

The next bit was made interesting by the NCN68, which we had cris-crossed most of the day. Sometimes the NCN takes very nice roads, other times they try to cut a corner up and over a nasty hill where it could have easily gone around it. And then we had to cross the M62 and the NCN68 was the logical thing to use. But this involved coming down a steep gravelly hill where a MTB would be better suited than a touring bicycle! We used the tunnel under the M62 which just ended there with no signs telling you where to go. We took the upper road-come-dirt track which ran parallel with the motorway. At the end of the track we saw the NCN68 sign telling us to use the steep grassy bank where we could just about see a slight path – not the most inviting route!

So do take the NCN with a grain of salt and be prepared for surprises.

Then we were rewarded with a four mile downhill, which I think we deserved. A couple of lumpy bits more and we found ourselves in Hebden Bridge with 13 miles to go. Here we had a great dinner and rest before the last long drag.

As we left Hebden Bridge the sun started to set and we had a beautiful pink sky as a backdrop to the the hills. The only things we saw in the dark were some sheep and rabbits running across the lanes over the tops via Hardcastle Crags and Widdop – seriously wild countryside. The quote “Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors” springs to mind, for some reason I could not keep Black Sheep and An American Werewolf in London out of my head while cycling there.

And I had to keep an eye on Peli as her night vision isn’t that good, though I had to “peg” up the hills to make my dyno hub light work, had to be over 3mph to get it bright enough.

The last four to six miles towards Trawden were absolutely knackering and were done at a snail’s pace. We arrived at Peli’s parents rather zombie-fied, and very soon collapsed into bed and slept for eleven hours solid.

With this test ride, where we got the rain and wind and the hills a-plenty, we have learnt a few things :

- Our comfortable mileage per day is 35-45 miles, allowing time to take in the sights and not be too knackered to enjoy them
- Our rain gear and panniers are waterproof

And that what ever Australia and New Zealand throw at us we are ready and can handle it. Yes, some changes to what we are packing and how we are packing it is needed, but I think that we’ve got this touring malarkey sorted.

260 miles in total over 5 days, not too bad but two to long days, brilliant holiday.

Here are all the pictures from our ride and do click here to read about the first few days

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We set off from London St. Pancras towards Luton, simply because that would allow us to avoid riding out of London, and also because our friend lives there. Dave then led us out for 25 miles north on quiet and pleasant roads.

Just as it started to drizzle we found a nice pub for a food stop. Greek Moussaka and stuffed peppers along with a nice pint of ale. Dave was incredulous that Vicky was suggesting a stop within an hour of setting off: a long way from the mental 100 milers she used to subject him to.

Dave peeled off just north of Sandy to head back to the missus to cook dinner, and we headed further north looking for our place to sleep for the night. The further we managed the shorter the following day’s distance, as we were wild camping. The next day we had a camp site booked.

Around 4pm we stopped for a quick pint, to figure out how many more miles we had in our legs and to kill time before it got dark. Wild camping is a bit of timed event, pitch up before it gets dark so that you can see what you are doing but without getting spotted.

At 50 miles we found our very first wild camping site, just behind the hedge, nicely tucked away out of sight.

Just as we were cooking up the gallon of home-made soup we’d lugged along (well, we had to use up the veggies before we left on tour!) the rain started, but we luckily did pitch our tent before eating. Not normally the thing to do while wild camping, but we got away with it this time.

We had good night’s sleep, even with rain and the sound of the corn drying machines in the distance. Countryside, quiet and peaceful?

Day 2

We got up bright and early with the dawn and packed up and then cooked breakfast and were on the road by 7.30am, unheard of for us! I think the fear of getting caught spurred us on.

The first 20 miles started grey and then the sun and the blue sky came out.

We had a second breakfast in a field, in the sun and some playing about amongst the straw bales. Now with a little video for your amusement :)

The next looong bit was made longer and harder by some map issues, that is for another post. We were sent down a very rough bridleway so we had to walk some of the way. Walking while pushing heavy tourers is so much harder than riding them. It makes you realise what brilliant machines they are. Not on heavily rutted, muddy bridleways, however.

The roads were just lovely, great views and great cycling country. Though the hilly bits were very scenic! Short, sharp hills a plenty.

The worst part of starting so early on a Sunday is that when you are in need of a good pub stop, they aren’t OPEN. And for some reason when we weren’t hungry we saw plenty of pubs but it wasn’t even midday yet. But when lunch time arrived we entered a no pub zone, none of the villages had one. Plenty of churches, however. The locals’ spiritual well-being was well catered for!

So the last very scenic route was very hard on us. We arrived at Tilton-on-the-hill, yes it is on a hill, just before the pub was having a break in their food serving time. They kindly served us some chicken wrapped in bacon with chips and veg, and a funny-looking baked courgette with tomato sauce.

We started our last 20 miles, which were more downhill than uphill – good for our tired legs. Commuting is not a good way to train for long distance, heavy-loaded cycling.

With 3 miles to go we stocked up with food and found our campsite for the night. Whatoff Lodge Farm is an simple field next to a working farm, great view, great showers and horses for Peli to coo over. We pitched up and shared the cake we had bought, even before showering and cooking our dinner, again a great reason for cycling as you can eat more cake.

Just as it got dark around 9pm we were in our beds sleeping, only to be woken up around midnight when the rain started, which just got heavier and heavier throughout the night. Around 4am I looked out into the outer tent, aka the West Wing, and noticed a little lake on our ground sheet. Note to oneself: do remember to make sure that the sheet is not sticking outside the tent before retiring.

Day 3

Whatoff Farm is a great little campsite, though it is a working farm. So we got woken up by the small business on the site and the farmer doing his job. That was 6am and we decided to have a lay in until 8am and wait for the worst of the rush hour to be over.

We decided that following some of the cycle trails wouldn’t be the best because of the heavy rain doing the night. At 12.30 we found our friend Alan in the rain which it had just started 20min earlier. He was sporting his fabulous King of the Mountains jersey which was the source of much conversation. We headed to the nearest pub for lunch and a good old natter, while the bikes rested undercover from the torrential rain.

Alan took us on a nice pootle down the country lanes back to his place. The rain couldn’t make its mind up, so it was a waterproof-on, waterproof-off kind of ride. Marj had made three, yes THREE cakes for our arrival, which we quickly consumed in their beautiful garden. There lies some serious baking talent!

A quick shower and we are read for a very scrumptious dinner, which we enjoyed with some good talk.

The Alan and Marj B&B is highly recommend: good company, brilliant food and cake, thank you both so much.

Here is the link to all photos we took on our ride and here is the next few days write up – what comes down must come up.

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Where I’m still waiting for Google to update an error I spotted. Yes there is the so called “copyright errors” but this one is not just one road it is many roads in the same area.

Garmin has made so that the Dakota 20 (and others) are able use these free maps on these units. Yes OpenStreetMap is not fully up to date and is not covering the whole world yet. Some areas are in more details than others, but since people like me (and you) are out there every week, the maps are updated all the time with more and more roads, track, POI etc.

I have tried out a few different maps which you can easily download. This is by all means not a full comprehending review of the maps, which I downloaded from here. On this list there is three for the UK, but I know of one other that is not listed here, so I’m sure that there is others a little Google search would find.

Cycle maps

There are maps that is dedicated cycling maps, which is a great idea but I have yet to find one that is regularly updated. Like cloudmade and opencyclemap but they are not updated as much as OpenStreetMap it self, so with the newest of them you are still well out of date. These maps will make sure that you are never on a busy road, as they have all the cycle routes on it.

General maps

I have found two rather good and weekly updated maps. Simply download them and copy onto your GPS or its SD card. Garmin and others will tell you that you need to name that map “gmapsupp.img” to get the GPS to read them. But you can name the map as you want, e.g. bob.img etc. So in that way you can have as many maps that you can fit onto your SD card.

Andy Gates version, is very good but on my GPS the roads are marked just with just black lines, and it is updated regularly.

Talkytoaster’s version, is my current favourite version. Since the maps get displayed with colour and fatter roads if you are looking at different A or B roads. Which makes it easier to get a feel of where you are on the map and what the traffic around will be like, when you are scrolling around. A bit more like your A to Z or TomTom map, again this one gets updated every week.

There are more maps out there and from what I understand you can generate one yourself, though I haven’t looked into that yet.

Routing

It is quite fun to set your GPS to the cycle profile with a cycle dedicated OSM and let it plot a route for you. Because it will do its best to get you off the bigger roads.

Cycling down New King’s Road (starting in the top right corner, where the bus stop marker is) the GPS wants you to cross this quite often very busy road. So that you can get onto the path that runs from New King’s Road to Crondace Road. But there is no pedestrian crossing or lowered kerb to make it easy for you to cross and take you bicycle. You also have to cross a rather wide pavement to get to that path. Since it is a paved path, it is not even a shared path so you have to walk that bit.

Then it sends you down Crondace Road where you are asked to turn left onto Irene Road. And then you have to go across the busy New King’s Street again to get to Quarrendon Street, though this time you are not on the pavement and can cycle across. Where it would have been easier to send me 75 odd yards down New King’s Street where I can turn left into Perrymead Street for me to continue my route down to Studdridge Road.

Yeah I know it is bit funny that I use Google maps to use

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The weather meant that we had to put on our waterproofs four times before we managed to get home as we enjoyed four rather hard showers. During one downpour we had to pull over and wait under a bridge as we couldn’t see where we were going. At least it was not cold so we didn’t end up freezing our bits off.

It was the first time I have really used my new Dakota 20 from Garmin. Before I have only played around with it here in London where I know the roads.

There are two ways of using the Dakota (I think), one which is very close to the typical DumDum erm TomTom where it will tell you when to turn with a beep and show you a big fat arrow on the screen. You can plot a route that way but you are limited to 50 points which made our route impossible to plan as there is a good chance that it would send you down the wrong roads.

The other way is to create a track and follow that, that means you will not get a warning beep when you approach your turns. So you really need to keep an eye on it and not chat away in the good company you are in and miss your turn. And with using OSM some of the turns we took didn’t look the same on the GPS as it did in real life, so we had to to a u-turn again.

I come to the understanding that there should be way to mix these two options but yet to figure out how. Though I might be wrong on that.

At one point the map on the GPS didn’t load so I was riding blind and at an other point the track wasn’t showing so I didn’t know where to turn. A restart sorted both of these out, Windows kinda rings a bell here :) I’m not sure if it was my track that had too many points or the OSM I used that caused the GPS to freak out a bit. But one thing for sure I will be taking a paper map with me when touring in unknown territories.

Oh yeah the White Bear in Warlingham is well worth a stop, great ales and nummy food and soon to be installed Sheffield stands for your secure bicycle parking.

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This is the route as it stands right now and hopefully on the 26th of August we will have arrived.

We are planing to do around 35miles the first day and to shssss don’t tell anyone to wild camp, simply because I have given up on finding a campsite in that area.

The more we manage on the first day the less we have to do on the second day. So hopefully less that 55miles as we are staying at Whatoff Lodge Farm just north of Leicester for one night.

Then we are cutting right over to the bottom of the Peak District where we will be joined for some of the ride by our friend whom we are staying with that night. That would be around 43miles unless our friend knows a good short cut :)

The next day is our shortest at 23miles, which will take us right into the Peak District. Following the Manifold trail as much we can to the Royal Oak. A route/trail recommend by our friend.

The next day will either be wild camping or if I manage to find a campsite in time. We hope to do around 40miles that day even though it is a bit lumpy. But I think with the rest day before and plenty of food we should do just fine.

The last day is pretty much a blast right home into the arms of the family. Peli knows most of these road inside out so we should not have a problem with finding our way. The main problem is getting that far, I’m hoping that my GPS foo is up to scratch so we manage to get there.

Looking well forward to this little journey, haven’t cycled or toured enough with Peli this year. Mainly because we have used all our holidays for our trip to Australian and New Zealand later in the year.

Here is the write up of the tour in two parts, Leaving Luton direction Lancashire and What goes down must come up.

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I have now cycle just a tad over 5,700 miles on my LHT, mostly commuting, touring to come. But yesterday I started to feel some play when pedalling. At first I was thinking that this was the Crank Brothers pedals which were playing up again. They were so I swapped my pedals over so that I can fix them later, thinking that that would be it of today’s fettling.

Though today I decided that it was about time to give the Surly a good scrub behind the ears and a check over, since I got rather dirty when swapping pedals yesterday. While scrubbing I found out that the Hollowtech II was rocking and that the left hand side, or is it leg?, bearings were very loose, or rather gone. I could move the whole thing around very easily and there was much black grime, muck, dirt which felt like there were metal bits in it.

I’m sure that I fitted the bottom bracket correctly as for once I did read the manual and had help from my friend @ the LBS. And after looking at this great video from Hope Technology on how to fit a hollowtech bottom bracket. I’m very sure that I fitted it correctly.

Now I wonder if it is a bad model a fluke or the Hollowtech II ain’t built for my kinda riding.

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I tend to be eaten alive when it comes to any kind of blood suckers, gnats, mossies etc. The best way to describe it is that I’m everyone else’s insect repellent. For some reason they just love me. It’s like one smells me and then calls its extended family around for dinner. Yes, and long lost uncle Bob who lives on his own is invited too.

It is not really the biting that annoys me, yes I get bitten (though way more than others) and it doesn’t itch that bad. What the main annoyance is, is that they swell up like no tomorrow and then become very warm, really burning. And then there is the oozing of what ever it is, looks a bit like amber on a tree, but it is not nice to look at either.

Years ago I was on holiday in Sweden with me old folks, while my dad was setting up a picnic my mum was busy applying protection on me. She first sprayed something on me and then she used the wet towels, while she was moving up my arm with the wet towel the BB’s just jumped over her hand to land again. Needless to say that that picnic got cancelled double quick.

I have been bitten on my my face next to my eye and it looked like I had a massive shiner but without the colour. And I couldn’t see anything for the best part of that day. And when I get bitten on my hands they are out of action for up to 12 hours.

Monday just gone I got a bite on my ankle and I couldn’t bend my foot because of the swelling and it was oozing for the King and Queen.

If the Church of Parasite Warding has a holy water, that holy water is DEET. DEET was developed by the US Army during World War II to assist with jungle warfare and keep soldiers from being eaten alive by aggressive hordes of mosquitoes and other jungle lovelies.

Around 20 years ago I was InterRailing around Europe for a month with my best mate. After one night in Greece I woke up the words “what the *beep* is that” from my mate. And then we started to count and gave up counting at 85 bites on my back alone. Lucky for me the army of BB’s who had a staff meeting with free buffet didn’t have what ever it is that causes me to ooze from the bites after. We gave up counting bites on me but started on my mate and the grand total was four bites in a month.

And so I could go on.

Most people swear by Jungle Formula but it does not even help on me, ok I have never tried the extra strength ones, 50% DEET, as I have just learned about it today. I have tried eating extra garlic which didn’t work, even tried the battery powered ultra sound things, still go bitten.

The only stuff I have found working is something that contains a high level of DEET. Yes there is some side effect with it like it can melt plastic and remove paint. But when it come to the choice of getting eaten alive or a bit of paint falling off, Long live DEET.

Over the years I have only tried two repellents that have worked, one from Australia and one from Sweden, but for the life of me I can’t remember what they are called and how much DEET there was in them. I must pay more attention when it comes to stuff that works since I get bitten so much.

Lifehacker.com have a good article about how to make your garden BB proof, with a good clean up and plant some plants that have mosquito-repelling oil in their leaves, read more here. They also have a article about how to avoid getting bitten this summer and what to do when you got bitten by a biting barstard, read more here.

I need to find something that really work, since I would love to do more cycle touring, camping and that we are going to Australia and New Zealand in a few months time. Yes I have read about the sand files in NZ and I will be bringing chemicals to that war, Geneva Protocol or no Geneva Protocol.

I was in the local pharmacy the other day and was told that antihistamine would help on the swelling and the itching, why haven’t I heard about this before. The pharmacist also gave me (well I paid for it) some Herbal Insect Repellent from A.Vogel which contain stuff from the Neem tree. The pharmacist said that he have had good success with it, so let us see how it works on me the next time I’m out and about.

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Bad parts :
- I’m selling it, since I can’t raise the handle bars enough to make it comfortable for me.
- I have never been happy with breaking abilities of the Dahon.
- For some reason Dahon decided to fit some “great tyres” on it.

Great parts :
- It is a fast ride and great fun.
- I managed to climb Tourmalet, Hautacam and Luz Ardiden on it.
- It is mango coloured.

So the state of the Dahon :
- Some scratches, but else it looks good, it have been loved and I will give it a good clean before you take it of my hands.
- The hods and leavers have some scratches.
- New tyres (Conti sport contact) very few miles on them.
- Cut down cable outers so not so easy to fold, but you can rectify that.
- Extra bar layer of tape and bar phat.
- It have done around 1800 miles.
- The thread on the left hand side crank are for the pedal is bust.

The last worry is that there is a crack around the seat post clamp. I have been using it at the max seat post length but I have never been over the max allowed weight. As a cycling trainer I have trained a few people who are lets say a bit heavy but I have not use the bicycle when the seat post at the max. But still it cracked :(

But then again I would be happy to sell the Speed Pro TT as spare parts for others, as I do hear that the spokes are rare as hens teeth.

Here is the link to Dahon’s description of the Speed Pro TT 2008 model.

For sale in the UK, preferably in the London area, so give me an offer.

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For you Facebook addicts here is a LEGO version of it, Facebook literally in lego.

Over on theoatmeal.com they have made a graph about their memory of LEGO. As much as I agree with it I still have to disagree with it, if you are a real LEGO fan you will have LEGO harden feet. A bit like walking on hot coal you get used to it and never feel that you are stepping on a piece of LEGO. If you are an elite you will be able to tell what size LEGO you are stepping on.

My biggest memory of LEGO is after a long break away from LEGO. The rush down memory lane which was brought back by the sound and the feeling from me running my fingers through the LEGO.

With background as a graphical, mechanical designer etc I have played plenty with various plotters and printers over the years. But this one is probably the coolest I have seen – LEGO printer for mac

If you haven’t heard about TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), you are missing out. TED have had over the years some very remarkable people speaking for them, from the funny, educational, fantastic to Hillel Cooperman. Who spoke, and wore a great t-shirt, about Legos for grownups. Well worth the very short five and a bit talk about LEGO and when it is becoming a slightly mad obsession, did I just say that?

And I will finish up with a tribute to one of my favourite programmes on the box atm Futurama, all done in LEGO – Marvel at Futuramas New New York in LEGO

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