BIKEPACKING – THE BIG FAT QUESTION’s & ANSWERS OF THE YEAR

you asked i answered the big fat question and answers of the year. Thanks for all the questions hope this helps and thanks for the continued support. If you you want to make a route suggestion head to my buy me a coffee page and comment your suggestion here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ksmileadventure/comment-below

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Timestamps
00:00 hows the weather
00:14 intro
00:46 if money was no issue
01:25 sponsored by ginsters
02:15 best southern route
03:31 tempted to get a B&B?
04:58 small pork pies or big ?
05:26 have a tried my steal audax bike
06:06 Fav Welsh ride
07:02 creating my own route?
09:34 will i be full time youtuber in 2024
11:00 new tent ?
13:06 Safe to filter water ?
14:40 Pressure to ride for content
17:00 Do you do any events?
18:12 About the badger divide?
20:20 Keeping everything charged?
20:45 tempted to get panniers?
24:05 Do i get scared camping?
24:58 jaffa cakes or jammie dodgers?
25:37 do i take a stove?
26:45 do i own a car?
27:24 non essential kit i take?
28:17 traveling abroad ?
29:32 managing wet gear?
31:27 moved on while wild camping?
33:22 hygiene ?
35:06 training for GB divide?
37:33 Bike/kit Prep maintenance
40:39 what gearing do i use?
42:05 Why’s it sunny in Machynlleth?
42:10 Traveling by train ?
44:05 The most remote pub?
45:02 outro
45:32 Thanks members

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The gear i am currently using

The tent – https://youtu.be/n9GKHSf805E
Framebag – https://youtu.be/6LM3UJKDOEk
Seatpost bag – https://youtu.be/W1E_iWY6Ajo
Jones Handlebars – https://youtu.be/dhPBSdRros8
Gravel bike – https://youtu.be/Gnd_4LgTyrg
plus bike mtb – https://youtu.be/COTUOzLPbGk
gps device – https://youtu.be/BWeMmx62A9M
mtb shoes – https://youtu.be/OYVEnfXwT0k
All the gear from GNT – https://youtu.be/e5oKSoPoMk0
Vest bag – https://youtu.be/01nzgd-t550
Ortleib bar roll https://youtu.be/Uk9fLgS1ioo
Dynamo setup – https://youtu.be/SL7MhjB6Lp0
Questions answered – https://youtu.be/u1q9AEs9flE
Gb divide bike/gear- https://youtu.be/epcZ81wqFCo

How’s the weather rainy windy sunny all of above just like normal maybe put you over here all right we’re going to do a Q&A try and do these like once every year at least and I can answer some of your questions there was way more questions

Than uh I anticipated so I won’t be able to answer them all cuz this video just been way too long but I’ve got a good good amount to uh answer so uh let’s start off with the first one which is if money was no issue what would your dream bike and or

Bike packing destination be happy New Year Happy New Year to you too and uh in terms of bike I’m quite happy with my uh current setup of bikes with the bomb track and the Sund I don’t really have a dream bike right now but destination is uh would be like cycling across like

Nepal it wouldn’t be just Nepal but like all the way around that area I think that would be just like a really cool awesome uh place to cycle and just get lost in the wilderness next question are you sponsored by ginsters this is probably like the most common uh

Misconception um and question that often get asked is if I’m sponsored by ginsters I’m actually sponsored by absolutely no one and uh not ginsters the reason I normally buy ginsters is cuz they fit in my uh frame bag really quite nicely and they were at least used

To be quite cheap and they would last a good few days in that in that bike bag nowadays they’re quite expensive so I haven’t really brought them that much but no I’m not sponsored by ginsters probably never will be they did once uh after you guys all emailed them to

Sponsor me sent me a couple boxes of ginsters which uh helped save a bit of money on buying them for the for a few trips at least right next question what is the best bike packing route in Southern England my personal favorite route is sort of the southwest of England um it’s

Called the West country way it goes from from Plymouth to Min head I believe it basically goes through dartmore and xmore it’s a nice Coast to Coast it’s not overly long but um I think it’s like 120 M and it’s just generally like a really nice fun route if you want to get

Out spend maybe like two nights out it’s like really good start off of start off in Plymouth in the like afternoon head into dmore have a nice wild Camp there then head on to xmore Camp there and then uh fly down but yeah actually rode

That route like 2 years ago I’ll put a little link up to wherever it is um it was extremely hot so it was just like nice to be able to uh like jump in streams in little rivers and stuff across dartmore and Exmore it was just generally a fun trip and personally

That’s like my favorite um bike packing route in the uh South Southwest of England you ever tempted to just find a BMB in bad weather plus not so much a question but would’ be Keen to see some more Midlands content for local in eration uh not so much like tempted like

I recently on the um on cycling UK’s new route that I did across Wales I did actually end up in a hotel because I just could not find anywhere to Camp everywhere was just completely water logged it was everywhere was flooded and everything so I did end up um getting a

Hotel that night typically nowadays it’s just not the same as it was like maybe 10 years ago where you used to B be able to go online on the night that you want to find you’d find like a really cheap room maybe 20 30 quid it was you know nothing special

Just a single bed one them old really TVs in the corner and it was a shower so occasionally I would used to do that but now like a room sets you back nearly £100 and it’s just like not really affordable um so typically I try and avoid it and I actually enjoy like

Staying outside more anyway than actually getting a hotel or BNB and as for the second part of that is uh yeah if you have any roots in particular or areas you want to see me uh ride commment at them maybe what I’ll do is I’ll see if I can set up

Some kind of pin post maybe on Instagram or if YouTube lets me do it and then you guys can uh post routes and trails or areas that you want to see and I can see if I can get around to riding them um we’ll see next question is do do you

Prefer small pork pies or the large pork pies personally you find the pastry to meet ratio better in the smaller ones I kind of like little ones the ones that come in the four pack which I guess you’d consider the bigger ones but not the absolutely massive ones so the

Middle size um they’re cheaper and there’s more meat and I just kind of like them ones the small ones are good but uh they’re normally more expensive for some reason have you tried a longdistance ride on your steel orax bike yeah the bomb Trak orax uh steel

Bike that I built up recently is a road bike I haven’t done anything like overnight or anything I’ve done a few Road rides where I’ve just gone out done 100 miles a bit more than that um it feels great and everything um it’s got

The nice road tires on it now I say I haven’t done any really long rides overnight camping and stuff with that bike yet but in 2024 I have definitely got a few rides planned that will be using that bike and they’re going to be they’re going to be fun so uh keep an

Eye out for them rides what was your favorite Welsh ride I think my favorite Welsh ride still to this day is one I did maybe it’s got to be a good two years ago now and it was the Bare Bones bash um I don’t know why that route just felt

Really fun when I did it I think it was again a really hot day and I was jumping in streams and just and just the trails felt really good also San Helen I think I’d put up there was with one of the fun rides it’s a coast to coast I love Coast

To coasts and uh yeah I think that was good one so either Bare Bones Bash San Helen or if you really want a challenge the headstock 500 that I did recently that was a good route to just uh it can be hard at times but that’s typical of

Welsh Adventures so if you want a Welsh Adventure just be prepared it’s going to be a bit hard right next questions do you create any of your own routs and if so what’s the process of planning to ensure it’s ridable but challenging enough so yes I have created a few

Routes in the past for you guys to go check out you can check them out on Kimo and the process of making them especially the big the main one I’ve done was the 370 mes smiles and the process of that was I just knew a lot of

The routes and I just wanted to link them up together and I’ve been riding them routes for years and years so I know they’re ridable pretty much all year round um as much as off-road riding can be rideable all year round and in particular that route was trying to make

A ride that’s easy enough that you can continuously ride and you’re not there’s not much hiker bike but being long enough that you could spend enough days out and there’s a balance between finding completely off-road and then adding some Road sections which I think a lot of routes in the UK they’re so

Focused on staying off-road all the time that they become kind of a chore and you can have something that’s 50% off-road and 50% on road but you actually spend 80% of your time Offroad so it’s finding the balance between how long the off-road sections take to get through and if it’s a drag

If It’s a Grind versus if it’s going on the road but you’re only being you’ll do a lot of distance on the road in a short amount of time it’s really hard to explain this with the 370 Mi it was just mostly I just use a lot of trails been

Riding a good I don’t know how old I am now 30 something 31 um so just using trails that I know are ridable I’ll also try and avoid using especially in England very narrow single track because soon as the summer comes everything over gets overgrown everything becomes fny stinging at all

And just generally not a joy to ride so for me bike packing when I’m creating bike packing routes I try and find the more wider open Trails than the uh the little narrow single track that’s full of form bushes each side which in the winter rideable fine in the summer not

So much I don’t know if that answers your question but hopefully it does next question is are you going to continue to be a full-time YouTuber YouTuber YouTuber in 2024 I hope so well 2024 I can promise you yes I am going to continue doing

That and but I will have to say this this could potentially be the last year of doing it I hope not but this 2024 will be the deciding year for me if I can really continue to do it um just on like the business side of it the

Financial side of it um I hope so and I hope I can continue to grow this channel to it to a point where it’s self- sustainable um at the moment it’s very swings and roundabouts to say like sometimes it’s yeah this is looking good sometimes okay not so good so it’s all

About finding that balance between um upload schedule the actual videos I want to make and the videos that also you want to watch and uh making it a viable on the finance side but I hope so that I can continue to make YouTube videos for at least 10 years that would be an

Absolutely amazing goal for me is to do this for minimum of 10 years and hopefully Beyond but um i’ would love to be able to say yes for the next 10 years but I I can’t promise that um but I hope so when are you getting a new tent and

Are you still not using a sleeping pad or mat after a long hard day in the saddle even when the temp gets down to freezing okay so as for the tent I have actually just brought a new tent there will probably be a video on it soon probably on the second Channel not

Really much of a fan of making like videos on the kit I use it’s not really like my most fun thing to do but it’s the lanchan one it’s just like the knockoff version of the six moons design was one much cheaper um I’ve only spent

One night in it so far um I didn’t film anything it was just go sleep in it really um so yeah I have got a new tent and uh you should see it soon and in some videos hopefully soon and as for the next part I get asked this question

All the time uh it’s pretty much always a question and always a bit of a you should use this you should use that and I will agree you should absolutely use a mat or a pad you lose a lot of heat from the ground but no I don’t use one ever

All year round um I’m perfectly warm in my 10 I sleep 99% 99% of the time I sleep great and honestly I don’t use one because I don’t feel the need even when the temperatures get really low below freezing I still don’t use one because I’m comfortable without one I would use

One if I was going to be riding in places where I knew that the I was going to be camping on like rocks right so right now where I ride everywhere I can find a grassy field I can find U some woods with some leafy dirt on and

That’s comfortable enough for me so for the comfort side I don’t need them I don’t need a mat and as for the temperature side I don’t know why I’m not cold when I’m sleeping I sleep hot I guess um many many years of just being outside I’m climatized for the cold with

The state of the current waterways in the UK sewage is it still okay to filter water from streams and rivers or best avoided well I filter all the time and I’ve never been sick however I do have some rules if I’m near a big city or a

Big town I’m not going to be filtering from the big rivers or big streams pretty much only filter from uh the smaller places and they’re very remote places and I’m often high up so I think use common sense if you’re around a town or a big city don’t be

Filtering there you can probably find a shop where or go into a bar or something and buy a drink um but yeah if I’m a a mountain I’m happily or some streams very remote I’m happily going to filter it I’ve been doing doing it for years and I’ve never been

Sick touch wood um that continues and for the question that I’m sure people are going to ask relating to that what filter do I use it’s the uh B the Kadin B3 filter just use common sense I also only really filter from clean looking um Rivers I’m not really like into drinking

Muddy water even if it’s been filtered obviously clean doesn’t mean there’s nothing in it so still filter it but yeah just use common sense and uh I wouldn’t I wouldn’t personally filter from the big rivers and the big streams next to big towns and cities do you feel any

Pressure to ride for content and if so has the enjoyment faded because of that love your videos they keep me inspired all the best for the New Year and hope you are looking after yourself as for feeling pressure to ride for Content no because I

Have a big list of like these rides and routes that I’m going to do and I want to do them but I will say it’s that the pressure comes from having to upload at a certain schedule YouTube is very fastpaced it’s fast moving you can’t just upload one video and then wait for

Months before you upload next one you have to stay consistent so for the last 2 years I’ve been very I’d say quite consistent last year was kind of rubbish but the first year was very consistent on a weekly basis I tried to continue that um all of 2023

Which is now last year cuz I’m filming this in 24 now um and the that’s where the pressure comes from it’s trying to to create a video to get it up in time that’s where the pressure comes from not the riding I still absolutely love the riding sometimes filming can take away

From the flow of the route or the ride you’re doing but generally I actually get a lot of fulfillment once I finish a film and I upload it and I can I can also look back on it in you know years to come I get to just look back and

Watch these videos back and uh it’s like a way of me remembering these rides and these Adventures for me personally as well um but yeah the pressure comes from trying to keep an upload schedule that is what I’m committed to to be consistent to be honest it’s going to

Slow down a bit because I just want to do longer rides which take longer to film longer to edit so I think going forward into the 2024 the videos won’t be every Sunday they will I will hope to keep this promise every other Sunday so it will be

Every other week and uh I hope you will stay around for that it just means I can keep a good schedule and I won’t miss any uploads so fingers crossed I can do that many events are just like a lone time I get I

Get asked quite a lot if um I’ll ever do any bike packing races or anything like that and the answer is honestly probably not for a couple of reasons I’m not very good at being around at being around lots of people if there’s more than like oneon-one I don’t

Really like it I get really anxious I get really bad social anxiety and stuff like that so I don’t like to uh be around big groups of people I find it quite draining and I just yeah I just I don’t like it generally the other side

To that is I want to make videos and I want to make them good and riding with somebody and you’ll probably be able to guess I obviously have to stop quite a lot to film to whether it’s to get the shot or just you know get cameras out

Set up drone shots whatever it’s really boring to ride with me and if I was going to enter like a race it would just it wouldn’t I wouldn’t be able to film it the way I’d want to film it because I’d have to concentrate on the racing um

I won’t say I’ll never enter one but I I might but generally speaking probably not the next question is about the badger divide why do most people ride this one east to west I’m planning mine next year and tempted to go west to east because of the prevailing wind direction

Thanks for the content yeah no problem uh the badger divide is originally designed from inv vaness to Glasgow so I think that’s the main reason people do it it’s just when they download the route that’s the way it goes I think it’s as simple as that um I will say in

My experience every time I’ve been in Scotland and the highlands I always get a Tailwind heading back south and I and as somebody who’s ridden both Direction directions from the great North Trail Second City divide um from cycling around the coast of Britain um and all the other routs that sort of start

Around there I and the GB divide of course I actually think it’s better to start in the north and head south obviously if the wind is absolutely insane when you’re going to ride it and you can predict that early enough then it’s probably better to go with the wind

But in my experience I actually prefer riding from iness back to England or from the highlands back to England or just Glasgow in your case with a badge of divide also most people that are going to be riding the badge of divide are probably coming from like England

London or Wales you know somewhere South so it’s much easier and probably cheaper to plan getting to in vaness early in advance and then on the day getting back from Glasgow you know Glasgow is a big city it’s going to be a bit more well connected in vaness it’s going to be a

Bit more limited and uh probably a bit more expensive for most people if you can’t book in advance so I do personally think it’s better to go from in vaness to Glasgow on the badger divide but if you want to go from Glasgow to iness crack on have fun enjoy the badger

Divide it’s a it’s a fun route how do I keep all my electricals charged on multi-day rides now I have a video on this um it’s a mixture of the Dynamo the best second best advention after the bicycle of course the Dynamo on my bike

I’ll link a video up to that because it goes into depth how I manage that all and also like a power bank um yeah go watch that video because that will explain it all much better tempted to get a rear rack and some paniers mini paniers uh top of rack bag instead of

The rear seat bag and Ru sack your bike packing setup just doesn’t seem very very practical or convenient why carry stuff on your back when you have the benefit of the bike to carry it for you maybe it could be something of you try um a better setup for next year also how

Are you getting on with your new handlebars okay the first part of this question is why don’t I run um paniers on my bike because they’re apparently imp apparently my setup is Impractical I can tell you now my setup is very very practical for me so first things first I

Will start off with the uh the ruck sack situation the only reason I wear the the backpack the ru sack is purely for camera gear there’s nothing in there that I would take if I wasn’t making the videos if I wasn’t making these videos I would not be carrying that Ru sack it’s

Just for the batteries the drones uh the cameras all that sort of fun stuff now obviously most people don’t need to carry that stuff and the reason I carry that stuff on my back on my back is for a couple reasons one I keep the batteries in there and it’s close to me

So batteries are terrible when it gets cold you got to keep them slightly warm so keep them on my back keeps them warm um and also putting a like cameras uh and your drone and stuff on your bike is inconvenient for me for a couple of reasons one it will most likely damage

Over time the vibrations from the bike will damage the uh the cameras the sensors um so I don’t want to do that also if I’m leaving my bike outside at least if that goes missing I’ve got all my camera gear which is expensive reason I don’t have racks on my bike is not

Because I’m against racks or anything when I did the coast of uh Europe I had a rack on my bike it’s purely because it’s much much more convenient for me to be able to switch between the bomb track or the two bomb tracks now or the Sund

And have essentially the same setup the same carrying stuff I can just unstrap put it on now if I was going to have racks on them bikes I would have to find two different racks to make them fit all it’s not impractical for me and uh no I

Probably don’t see myself changing that because it’s not unpractical it carries my bike carries everything I need for all my bike packing trips for me having a rack would be more impractical I think and yeah it’s just easy for me just to take bags off to put them on a different

Bike no I’m not really ever tempted to put a rack on any of my bikes at the moment because it’s practical it’s practical for me and it’s just easy to uh switch between bikes and have the same setup between bikes also how am I finding the new handlebars versus the old

Ones I’m liking them the uh s con whatever they’re called I’m liking them I will have a video shortly soon hopefully on the second channel on them once I get round to uh doing the voice over and editing it um it will be coming out soon next question is do uh do I

Ever get frightened camping alone in some of those lonely places frightened no I’m in the middle of nowhere there’s nobody around um I’m in the UK for the most part so there’s nothing that can kill you there’s no bears you know it’s generally quite a peaceful experience I will

A slightly funny story um recently I was camping and I did wake up kind of like it made me jump and it turned out it was the Moon it must have been a really cloudy night and then all of a sudden the uh the cloud must have shifted

Allowed the moon to shine on my T very briefly so it was like a a flashlight and uh then then it went so I thought somebody had like spotted me so I opened the zip and I was like what is that and it just turned out it was the

Moon the serious questions now Jaffer cakes or Jammy Dodgers it’s got to be Jaffa Cates for me they are the perfect they are the perfect cycling fuel one gram of fat per cake so you know what you’re getting good for them longdistance cycling Adventures I used

To swear by Jaffer cakes when I was doing a lot of uh like old Ultra endur Ultra endurance type rides where I’d ride like 250 300 mile days for multiple days package a cakes I could go for like 200 miles I’m good Jaffer cakes definitely do you take a stove and cook

Food out in the wild if so do you use and what food types Etc I do not anymore take any stove or anything with me like that I pretty much I pretty much could just live of cold food if that was the case and I pretty

Much do when I do these trips um unless like a shop has some heated section I might buy something from there but no I have taken Stoves and Stuff in the past I do have one of them tiny little mini ones that you just like screw onto the

Um onto the little gas pot thing um but typically when I have taken them in the past um which hasn’t been for a long time now I used to just carry them around then get to my 10 or get to camp and then never bother cooking anything I

Could never be bothered by that time um so I just ended up carrying it around I just thought why am I carrying this so I just got rid of it out of my setup um I do have a little one maybe I’ll go out and do a cooking

Video one day who knows but do you own a car the quick answer is no I do not own a car I don’t drive I don’t have a driving license I’ve never needed to I’ve never needed to drive when you have the ability of being able to cycle 300

Miles in a day I’d just much rather do that I’d much rather if I need to go somewhere far um I’ll make it an adventure if I need to go somewhere far and fast I’ll take a train or public transport and generally that’s

How I do things I did own a car once I didn’t obviously I didn’t have a license or anything it just sat on a driveway I brought it really cheap and it I used it for storage of bike parts is one piece of kit do you pack that isn’t a must but

Is a must have for you I’m very minimalistic I don’t really need much stuff um I’m not materialistic either I could happily live with very little and uh to be honest that my bike setup represents that quite well I think because I don’t really take anything

That’s not useful or I’m going to use the only thing that is probably considered that you I don’t need to take on a a trip is maybe some U headphones and but that’s more just for when I’m on the train and stuff to to the rides I

Can listen to some music but or sometimes I’ll take a little old school iPod iPod Classic with me if I don’t want to use my phone for the music and I want to save the battery on here um but yeah typically nothing really just headphones maybe there quite a few

Questions related to uh travel outside of the UK and this question is any thoughts on traveling to the United States to arrive so the answer to this question it it’s the same for all over the world really I yes I have a lot of hopes and

Uh plans in a way to cycle and make videos for you guys outside of the UK for sure um but it has to make business sense and financial sense to be able to do it at the moment the Channel’s not quite there to be able to uh to make it

Feasible to uh go and do rides too far away I try and I will hopefully this year head into Europe a little bit and do a few rides there if uh if it all goes well um with the scheduling and everything but yeah I definitely would like to ride across the

UK um across the UK I definitely would but yes I would definitely like to go to the states maybe do a ride like a hway across or just like a big tour big long tour across um but we’ll see I don’t think it’ll be happening this year but

Um if I can continue with the channel in the future I’m pretty sure it will be definitely be a thing I’d love to know how you manage to dry your gear on multi-day winter trips for instance you seem to wear the same jacket day after day I just can’t figure out how you

Don’t catch pneumonia well you mean this jacket this is very uh this is a Patagonia torrent shell two layer basically this jacket everything underneath stays dry because I wear this jacket um if you you mean the uh the uh normally like AO Jersey type long sleeve t-shirt that I

Always wear I am just very strict on if it starts raining a little bit I just keep it dry as for drying my gear is just a case of uh trying not to keep let it get overly wet uh or just wear fast drying stuff in the winter it may not be

Hot and it you may not just be able to dry things naturally um but when you’re riding you have wind coming against you so if it’s not raining if you’re wearing fast drying k it dries this jacket dries very quick um once you’re riding in it

If it’s not raining it dries you know it’s waterproof so you can just wipe all the water off not raining um then I might hang some stuff on the outside of my bike or at night if it’s like windy but I know it’s not going to rain which

Doesn’t very often I might hang it in a tree uh generally I just uh generally I just keep everything underneath dry I will say if I wake up in the morning and I know I’m just like especially with like my bib shorts or uh like like my

Trousers and my bib shorts if they’re wet and I know that the day ahead especially early on in the morning as soon as I get on my bike I’m going to get wet anyway straight away I will just put them back on wet because within 10 minutes of riding they’re wet anyway

There’s no point using your dry clothes leave them for uh getting warm at night and uh getting ch I don’t know I think this is one that um people worry about quite a lot um have you ever been moved on while wild camping well the answer to that is once

But uh not in years and years and not ever on like a trip or an overnight thing but many people probably don’t know this about me but I spent maybe two or three months 2 and a half 3 months essentially living out of the woods and

It wasn’t until my and I I was still working and stuff so I’d leave and I got a bit complacent because I just got like knew that nobody would see me um and nobody did for them 2 and a half months until the final night I was planning to

Go and do a bit of traveling I’d been working and stuff while living in this thing it wasn’t like fullon I was just one with nature I was still in the Civilized world I was just like kind of living Night by Night in the Woods but my last night in the woods a

Flashlight came through and uh some guy was like oh you can’t Camp here and I was like oh sorry I’m just uh traveling I was just on the way to somewhere and it got dark so I just uh decided to set up camp here and it was just polite and

Everything he and the guy was like h no problem yeah I understand just make sure you leave in the morning um he let me stay there that night and obviously I didn’t go back but and yeah that was the one time it’s very very unlikely that you will ever be spotted while camping

If you’re doing it properly if you’re setting up late you’re leaving early as soon as it gets dark nobody’s really going to see you it’s just uh it’s just the only reason I got caught there is cuz I left my uh tent or my bivy there

Throughout the day I didn’t take it with me that one time so they saw it as they must have been walking through that Woods that day and then they came back to see if um somebody was there at night obviously I was um but yeah can you go

Through hygiene on these multi-day rides presumably you change out of a cycling kit when sleeping Etc yeah I uh I do change out of my cycling gear that I’m riding in um to go to sleep in and stuff it’s normally more cycling gear though I normally just have

A spare set of Kit maybe a pair of bib shorts and another t-shirt or something in my bag in my dry bag that I never ride in it’s just there for emergencies maybe a crack or you know whatever it’s just like a backup of a backup kit so I

Normally have like three outfits that I could wear um but one of them is used only for sleeping and if I really smell for the train ride home um but yeah just stays in there it’s just it’s just uh dry it’s you know it’s clean and um as for

Hygiene I mean I don’t mind smelling a little bit while I’m out on the trails I’m not really bothering anyone as for for as for um cleaning it’s just very uh basic in the summer it’s a obviously a bit easier you can uh go to streams have

A little wash in there um bit of deodrant here and there when I’m out on the trails I’m not too bothered about having a bit of a Musky smell let’s say that I’m not nobody’s really bothered if you smell out in the open like this

Right um and of course just uh brush my teeth every morning before go to bed but apart from that it’s just very basic um just uh washes in streams really it’s uh I wouldn’t come too close to me if you see me out on the trails just say

That josh the GB divide was a massive ride that you did and you smashed it what kind of extra training would be needed if I regularly do 100 miles per week and what’s achievable time to compete um to complete thanks Dave from southwales well from you South Wales

You’re already you’re already on a you’re already an advantage for most people because Wales is just a tough place to ride and you have loads of Hills that you can just ride around on um if you regularly do 100 miles it’s hard to say cuz hard how you feel after

Them doing them 100 miles each week um but my advice would be to actually just go out on a ride around Wales do this and uh cuz that would be the hardest point of the ride go around go do a trip around Wales for 5 to to 7 days and

Figure out how you feel after each day don’t have a plan of how many miles you’re going to do but just do as many as you feel comfortable doing before you want to set up and a camp do that for 5 to 6 days and you will find out pretty

Soon how many miles you’re comfortable doing each day at a maximum and a minimum you’ll soon find that out with experience of just riding for 5 or 7 Days going to be doing these 100 miles and you’re consistently doing these 100 miles each week the only thing I would

Say is do them 100 miles add the gear to your bike so you get used to riding your bike with the added gear that will also give you a sense of how the bike feels and also how extra tired you feel it’s really hard to uh to predict a time

Frame that somebody should do that for somebody else for me my aim was about 14 days with filming I think for most people you could probably do it in anywhere from if you’re relatively fit at least 14 to uh 20 days I think is

Like a good amount of time for you to be able to still enjoy it and also it depends on what time of the year you’re planning if it’s got if you get lots of daylight you’ll probably do more if you’re happy to ride at night um you

Know it’s there’s there’s lots of the different things say 18 days will give you a good amount of time to enjoy um if you do it faster cool if you do it a bit slower it’ll give you a bit of time if there’s anything that goes wrong it’s

Hard to really say but I think but uh do go out for a ride around Wales for 5 to 7 days and you’ll figure out pretty soon what you’re comfortable with riding especially in Wales hi Josh I’m a big fan of your channel and escapades I’d like to know about your preparation

Before and after your trips but from your bike maintenance and kit point of view happy New Year Happy New Year to you too as for bike maintenance I do this all myself pretty much everything there’s yeah there’s nothing I wouldn’t actually do myself even building Wheels nowadays um even though I don’t actually

Enjoy doing that so as for maintenance I pretty much within the first day of getting back from a trip will clean I say clean my bike if you ever see my bikes they never perfectly clean I’m not that met meticulous what’s that word whatever that word is I’m really not

Somebody who cares about if my bike’s got a bit of dirt on it and it’s not absolutely in perfect pristine condition my bike is a tool for a job but ultimately I’ll get back I’ll make sure the drivetrain is clean lubed um if I most most of it is just changing the

Chain and the uh brake pads pretty much and just generally making sure the gears are working maybe change the gear cables I try and change the chain more regularly than it probably needs to just to keep the cassette um lasting as long as long as possible because the cassette

Prices right now for even last couple years are just ridiculous to to be honest the uh the cassette on the bomb track costs over it’s like 3040 normal retail I only ever buy it um when it’s on sale but generally I I’m very um I’m the type of Rider that will ride until

Something breaks before replacing or upgrading I’m not very I’m I’m very unlikely to just think oh this would be better if it had a new part and replace it I will do that at a certain point but only normally when something br breaks as for the kit I take it’s pretty much

Essentially the same every year I think the only difference is uh during the in the winter I will take a slightly warmer sleeping bag and probably I can extra jacket an extra down jacket which I might not bother taking in the summer um but to be honest 2023 there

Barely was a summer and I think I just used the warmer sleeping bag pretty much all year round I like to have I like to take the same stuff each trip I know where I’m out with it I know what works for me and uh yeah it just goes from one

Bike to another bike pretty much obviously after cleaning and stuff um yeah it’s it’s I’m very I’m very minimal I don’t uh I don’t get bogged down I don’t think about things too much um about Kit and bikes I will say my bikes aren’t always in perfect working

Condition on every trip sometimes it needs a new bottom bracket and I’ll just go I get another ride out of this one before it blows up on me and I sometimes take that risk and sometimes it doesn’t pay off obviously um I even shown that on these videos sometimes you know some

It blows up and I probably should have bro probably should have changed it before but you know what I like to live on the edge sometimes with stuff like that what gearing do you use and do you change it to match the roots I do not change my gearing to match the roots

Because I’m not racing I’m uh just trying to make videos and uh just enjoy myself on these trips and I’m not looking for marginal gains so I uh just my kind of rule of fun is get the easiest gear in you can pretty much get um to get up everything that

You need to get up on the Steep stuff so my track the uh mountain bike has a 30 to chambering and a 950 to cassette I can put a 52 on that on the back however to be honest when I get onto that 50 um I normally end up just getting

Bored and thinking I can walk faster than this so I end up walking um so I don’t really haven’t really bothered to do that on the Sund it’s a 38 to chambering and it’s a 11 42 cassette I can pretty much get up anything with that again it’s probably a bit spinny if

I’m riding that unloaded but I very rarely get to ride my bikes nowadays unloaded just to go out and ride ride um so yeah that that’s the gear ratios I don’t change it to match Roots because I’m not after marginal gains I’m not after speed um I’m just trying to make a

Nice video for you guys to watch I’m not saying you’re lying but you’re lying I don’t believe you not a chance how hard do you find it traveling by train the trains in my area are so bad with bikes yeah this is a uh sad fact of the UK our

Trains aren’t really that great and not really designed for uh convenience especially if you have bikes but I will say I think the online senses of uh traveling by train is well overblown I’m not by all by all means I am not saying the trains are perfect they’re way too expensive they often

Overcrowded they can be so so much better 100% agree with that and they aren’t always the most reliable but in my experience and maybe it’s just because I have the ability to travel anytime I want to so I typically don’t travel when I’m pretty sure it’s going to be

Busy um I would say most of the time it’s treble free so I don’t think I’ve ever been able to not get my bike on a on a train because it’s been too busy or anything like that um I’ve sometimes had to take a slightly later train because I

Couldn’t book my bike on that certain train I was going to previously go on to happen whenever I’m traveling is it’s either absolutely perfect Flawless or everything goes wrong so if one thing goes wrong early on you know the rest of the right you know the rest of the uh

Train ride is going to just be rubbish um I don’t really particularly find it hard it’s maybe just a bit more stressful because you’re always thinking oh am I going to be able to take my bike on if it especially if it’s it’s one where it’s just like a first G first

Served but um yeah I won’t say it’s great but it’s not as bad as I think the internet makes out this one uh ever fancied riding to the most remote Pub might involve some hiker bike but should be a good challenge now if you are re

Referring to the mot remote UK Pub the one uh I believe it’s in the west coast of Scotland somewhere um I was actually planning to do this this video this ride uh last year I think it was when I where was the M1 is it the M1 that goes up to

Scotland when I rode the M1 the original plan was to ride the M1 and then ride to the most remote Pub um from there that was the original plan instead of going to the pyramid however when I was planning to do that ride I checked the

Uh Pub and it was it was actually uh closed it was closed for refurbishment so hopefully it’ll be open again I’m not sure I haven’t checked um recently so hopefully in 2024 I’ll be able to to do that ride and we’ll go for a pint at the

Most remote Pub we’ve been to the highest we’ve been to the lowest the most remote remote pubs make sense so yeah hopefully soon right there we go there is a a bunch of your questions asked and answered hope you enjoyed this video and I hope I answered your

Questions hope I give you some um entertainment and uh hopefully I’ll give you more entertainment for the rest of the year and this windy day is getting my hands cold so um I’m going to head home and going and edit this video I’ll see you on next one keep smiling enjoy the adventure

Peace come on let’s Go A