Chris S
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Purbeck 10-mile e-bike loop
What a relief it is to have temperatures drop back down to the normal mid-20s. Suddenly you have your energy back. In a week they say it’ll rain, so Sunday evening we headed out to follow our noses through the Purbeck Hills and happened to pull off a perfect 10-mile (16km) loop out of Corfe…
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Transporting 2 e-MTBs
Now with two hefty e-MTBs, the rear hanging racks we’ve used on the Micra for decades (below) would only work once the smaller Lapierre was dismantled and in the back. Even then, at nearly 2m long, my XL, 28-kilo Tero hanging on the rack would still be wider than the car unless I took the…
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Are Schwalbe Johnny Watts LR Tyres Faster?
Tero X5 posts Or put a better way: are they more efficient? While the Tero was at the menders I took my 2022 Merida Big Trail 500 on a 20km ride. Halfway through I started wondering: why I got an e-bike at all? The 15-kilo HT was effortless to manage and nippy to accelerate on…
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Book Review: Bikepacking Wales
In a lineSuperb selection of overnight rides right across Wales, with excellent photos and big maps; you’ll surely find something here to inspire you. What they sayBikepacking Wales by Emma Kingston contains 18 multi-day mountain bike adventures across Wales. Each route includes a route description, points of interest along the route, food recommendations and accommodation options, in addition…
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Hot Waxing the Chain
Tero X5 posts I was a bit shocked when the not very LBS told me my chain was worn out in just 950km. I’ve cleaned and lubed it regularly as I’m aware of the strain a mid-motor e-bike puts on regular bicycle drivetrain components, especially a super slim 12-speed chain. Along with neglect, it’s said…
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E-Biking the Monks Trod
E-bikepacking SnowdoniaRiding the Cambrian Way This boggy byway won’t be most riders’ cup of teaBikepacking Wales guidebook It was only while having a chat with a rider pushing his flat-tyred MTB back to the Claerwen dam car park, that I realised I’d just traversed the 10-km Monks Trod, a historic and now controversial ancient road…
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Specialized MasterMind TCD 2 ‘power’ screen explained
Other Tero X5 posts They say attention spans are short these days, but I devoted over half an hour before giving up trying to unravel exactly what the ‘power’ (screen 5) on my Tero’s MasterMind TCD 2 colour display means from a single source. Nothing in the Tero manual at all, nor on the Specialized…
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E-Bikepacking Trans Cambrian Way
Trans Snowdonia with E-bikeRiding the Monks Trod (soon) Riding across Snowdonia from Llandudno to Machynlleth, lined me right up for the 160-km Trans-Cambrian Way which runs from Knighton to nearby Dovey Junction. For some reason they pitched the TCW into the prevailing winds then ended at Dovey, a forlorn rail stop marooned on the Afon…
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Tero X5: Faulty Wired Remote
Other Tero X5 posts Approaching Rhayadar’s clocktower in mid-Wales after shaking off another heavy downpour, my Tero X 5.0’s display reset itself and then the ‘Down’ button took several presses to reach Eco. Next day it did not work at all. There were no error codes on the display and all other switches on the…
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Himalaya Bikepacking • Ladakh & Spiti Valley
After riding the Karakoram Highway from Kashgar and on to Chitral in 2008, Steve headed for Ladakh in late September 2009, aiming to ride over some of the world’s highest road passes.Written by Steve Lord and originally published in the Adventure Cycle Touring Handbook 2010 (right).The video above covers the first half of our ride…
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Specialized Levo 4 X vs Vado 3X 5.0 vs Tero X 5.0
Tero X5 posts The X Teros are long gone in the UK, but in 2026 the city-focussed Specialized Vado 3 range was updated and some got the X (full sus) treatment, with an entry level X 4.0, midrange X 5.0 I’m looking at here, and the premium X 6.0 with all the digital bells and…
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E-Biking Purbeck
Other Tero X5 posts We headed out for another lap of the Isle of Purbeck to explore some new bridleways and connect with others. Up on to the Ridgeway or Knowle Hill above Church Knowle, west past Grange Arch folly then a steep drop to the road. Near Steeple campsite a bridleway rose south into…