Travels
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Karakoram: Cycling China to Pakistan
See also: Himalaya. We’re Alive!Bikepacking Ladakh & Spiti Valley Central Asia has always intrigued me, a richly historic cultural crossroads with added mountains and deserts. I read Peter Hopkirk’s and Colin Thubron’s books on the region while working in a bookshop, but getting there with a motorbike (my usual ride) from the UK was just…
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Dartmoor E-Bike Recce
Dartmoor has a mystique unmatched by other moorland areas in Britain. Or maybe it’s just me. I still recall the mist-bound moorland road as a teenager on the way to walk the Cornish Coast Path. Elton John’s Funeral for a Friend was on the cassette; the track starts with a suitably chilling wind and sonorous…
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E-Biking Alps to Ocean (NZ)
After six days riding three e-MTBs along New Zealand’s 300-km Alps to Ocean bike trail (A2O map below), in early 2026, again I wonder if e-MTBs are an answer to trail biking here in the UK where there are way more cycle-friendly bridleways than moto permissible byways, let alone the wild expanse of the Scottish…
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Himalaya: ‘We’re Alive!!”
See also: Kashgar China to Chitral Pakistan. Late in the 2009 season, we flew to Leh in lovely Ladakh, then cycled south across Himalayan passes up to 5200 metres. By now acclimatised to riding at this elevation, we decided to string it out and, just before the once notorious Rohtang Pass for Manali (now tunnelled),…
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Bikerafting Christchurch Harbour
See also: Electrifying the Dahoe Last year I bought myself a Dahon folding bike, a long-established American brand with a French sounding name that’s probably made in China and in the UK is much less pricey than a Brompton. Folders seem to be going cheap right now as older folk move to e-bikes (ahem).At least…
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E-Bikepacking Glyndwrs Way
Yes you have to pedal it (and probably transport it), but once you reach an age when you can’t tear around on MTBs like you used to, but recognise that you must ‘use it or lose it’ to maintain good health, an e-MTB can open up a huge range of trails in Britain’s wilder corners…
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Sahara by 2WD Fatbike
Some images and info from Cyclo Long Cours and Blida Nostalgie In 1986, long before the current fat-bike fashion (left), Jean Naud, a 55-year-old Frenchman set off to ride his three-wheeled bicycle 3200-km across the Sahara from Algiers to Timbuktu. Brought up in Blida, just south of Algiers at the foot of the Atlas mountains, Jean Naud had made two…
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Bikepacking Morocco
On my Trans Morocco Trail website I got contacted by intrepid Catalonian bikepacker, Adria Zamel, who’s been exploring Morocco annually with his bike chums for over a decade. Below are some images, videos and links to his travels. I recognise a few spots.Launched in late 2024, at TMT we’re still waiting for the first cyclist…