Page 5 - Blog

Bike-packing and gravel riding have exploded in the cycle industry in the past few years. While riders have been out in the wilds camping and adventuring with their bikes for years, there has definitely been an upward trend in popularity with more and more people strapping gear to their bikes and heading off into the wilderness.

It's a great way of letting off steam and escaping the day to day monotony of modern life: no work, no social media, just you with your bike and the great outdoors. If you've been considering going on your own bike-packing adventure, our bike-packing guide will point you in the right direction, so you can get out there and enjoy being out in the wild.

What are the best bikes for bike-packing adventures?

When we were kids, we didn't really need to think about keeping fit – our lifestyle had it sorted. We ran around all day, swam in the river and went on bike rides. There was probably some other stuff too – skinned knees, school bullies, terrifying clowns, etc., but let's focus on the positive for now eh! Anyway, nowadays most of us (unless you're still enjoying the benefits of education or are especially well-heeled) have jobs. Along with the fact that you're not getting any younger, jobs have a tendency to make one ... a little ... well, fat – especially the dreaded desk job, where you sit on your behind for eight hours a day staring at a screen. Unfortunately, given that jobs also sap most of your free time, many of us either can't or won't do any exercise when we get home. That leaves you with the weekend – which tends to be a hectic affair at best.

The solution could be at hand, however, especially if you currently have a short-ish trip to work. We're talking of course about

Clean

By cleaning, we don't just mean blasting your bike with jet wash! We've seen so many ruined hubs, headsets, forks, bottom brackets & dropper posts ruined by excessive jet washing, so it pays to be smart about how you clean your bike. A selection of brushes, Muc-Off's Nano Tech Bike Cleaner and Bio Drivetrain Cleanerand a bucket of clean water or hose pipe will give you pretty much all you need to give a bike a good clean up without over-doing it. It might take a bit more time than a quick blast with the jetwash, but your bike (and wallet!) will thank you in the long run.

Protect

Once you've got your bike looking like it just came out of the factory, you'll want

Setting yourself a target is a great way to push yourself to get fitter. Sportives have become massively popular events, a favourite of both novices and seasoned riders. Sportives can take some preparation for though, particularly for beginners. If this sounds like you, read on as we delve in to out top 5 training tips to help you get through your first sportive!

Challenge yourself, but be realistic

If you're just beginning your cycling journey, it can be daunting selecting how far to ride on your first event. Too small a distance and you might not get that warm feeling of success when you finish, too far and you could be sat at the side of the road waiting for a sweeper truck. Once you've got a few rides under your belt, you'll have a better idea of what is a challenge for you to achieve and work up to but is also a realistic goal. Nobody expects a relative novice to knock out a 200-mile sportive at the first attempt, so aim for something longer than you currently feel

Over the last few weeks we've looked at how to keep your bike running and looking like new through winter, as well as our top clothing picks and our favourite lights. All of these things will help get you through winter, but what about the bike itself? Take one look at your "summer" tyres or go for a ride sans mudguards and tell us it was fun. It wasn't fun, was it? You got covered in muck, slid all over the place, possibly crashed and your brake pads turned to mush and didn't really slow you down much, if at all.

Oh, and if you went out on your road bike, you perhaps didn't think about the effect the conditions would have on your gorgeous carbon wheels. The less said about the better, as given the price the consequences can be wince-inducing to say the least... In this guide we'll take a look at the ways in which you can make a few subtle changes to your bike that'll help it perform better through the winter months.

Tyres

Conditions under tyre are wildly different

Tweeks' very own Ali has been busy scribbling again – and this time it wasn't on a plaster cast! Ali has been debating the benefits of going over to the clipless side for a while, and well, he finally took the plunge! Read on to see what he thought of it – here's Ali:

From the very first day I swung my leg over a bike, I have always ridden on flat pedals – and I always swore that I would never in a million years contemplate riding in clips, SPDs, spuds or whatever else you would like to call them. I feel a change coming on though – as I am getting older (26 :) ), wiser and have taken up trail riding (with a goal of Gravity Enduro laser-sighted in my mind) and recently donned the Lycra and joined the masses on the roads. This means that I am now toying with the idea of breaking this lifetime promise and going clipped-in on the mountain bike.

You may have spotted the thread on the Tweeks