[Closed] Coast to Coast on a Cotic Rocket

How was the Rocket for bikepacking?

I used to bikepack a bit with a Surly Ogre. Currently have an enduro bike (Bird AM9) which I'm yet to bikepack but use quite often to commute with a load. I found it really curious that the enduro fs actually handles the load better. Likely related to the very stable geometry and general burliness.

Makes me really curious to take it for a proper multi day route

Not bad to be honest - I had sleeping bag / tent up front in a bar harness, then poles / pump / pegs etc in a frame bag, food and drink in stem cell and top tube bag, spare tubes taped to the seat and a spare bottle under the down tube. I also had a backpack with clothes and mat etc in (I know some people hate riding with a pack, I actually don't mind it).

It's not as much fun to ride as it's a lot harder to pop over stuff with the weight over the front, but once you get used to that it's pretty much fine. I will elaborate more in the blog 😉

Good stuff! I look forward to reading the rest of it.

Good start. Needs pics. Pics of your kit and bike loaded up before you get into the trip. Tell us about your thoughts on your upcoming adventure, did you work out where you might camp, how many miles you were aiming for a day? Any bits which you weren't looking fwd to and any bits you were? I'm just trying to be helpful, ignore me if you like 😊

Good start. Needs pics. Pics of your kit and bike loaded up before you get into the trip. Tell us about your thoughts on your upcoming adventure, did you work out where you might camp, how many miles you were aiming for a day? Any bits which you weren’t looking fwd to and any bits you were? I’m just trying to be helpful, ignore me if you like

I'm on it 😉 Just catching up with real life after getting back so it might take me a while to get it all written up...

I, for one, am interested in what frame bag you can get to fit on a Rocket!

Custom!

https://www.weecog.co.uk/

Give me a shout if you decide to get one as there are some changes I would have made to mine (due to my measurements, nothing to do with how good Becky is - she's brilliant).

Update this thread please when you update the blog monkeyboy I'd like to read it

+1 for updates please. I did the same route in 2014 though me and my mate had the luxury of support so didn't have to carry our stuff. I'm interested to hear how you got on

Here you go - Part 2: The Kit. By no means the perfect setup, and just because it worked for me doesn't mean that it will for you, but it got me across...

Coast to Coast: The Kit

Great but....

Good going 😎 I was watching Joe's progress on Strava.

Cheers guys!

I'll be honest, I didn't take a shedload of pics of kit before hand or on the ride really. Sorry about that!

Didn't weigh stuff either 😉

Part three. I'll talk about riding bikes soon I promise. Also the URL is in the process of changing, so links might stop working. I'll post updated ones when everything has settled down.

Coast to Coast: The Train ****up (Part One)

Edited to take a swear out of the link.

My setup for the 2017 Jennride, had some different ideas for the 2018 but unfortunately Mrs B broke her collar bone 3 days before so had to cancel

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinabrennan/34867371346/in/dateposted-public/

Not Barrow-in-Furness! 😩😆 me and that town have history and I try and avoid as much as possible. What a shit hole. Must have been a fairly lumpy ride from there to Coniston and a lot less scenic that from Ravenglass.

I'm feeling inspired by this already.  I've never felt any need to do bikepacking or anything like it before,  but i'dreally like to do something that feels like a challenge.  Maybe something a bit less extreme like a cross Lakes expedition.....

@brennak , there is room in the Rocket26 front triangle for a RestrapxCotic frame bag, and still have the bottle in there.

Very good. more please.

I remember your train thread and that the weather was not forecast to be kind. I even mentioned it to the missus - in a "poor sod from Stw is going to get wet"kind of way.

More please - it may inspire me to have my own little adventure.

@brennak - looks good! I didn't want to run a saddle bag so I could still drop the seat, whether I'd do the same again in the future I'm not sure.

Barrow was... Well let's just say we didn't stay there for too long (but I'll get to that in good time). And (spoiler alert) we did get a little bit wet too...

Shame you missed out on the Ravenglass -Coniston route, when we did it that was a real epic day with some tricky navigation over boggy fells to start the day, then some great tracks over to Walna Scar Road

Yeah I was gutted about that, I've ridden Walna Scar before and loved it. But needs must and all that...

<span style="text-align: left; color: #222222; text-transform: none; line-height: 22.4px; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent;">@flyingmonkeycorps looks good! I didn’t want to run a saddle bag so I could still drop the seat, whether I’d do the same again in the future I’m not sure.</span>

I used the Arkel saddlebag, which has a frame attached to the seat rails to hold it in place and does not attach to the seat post and I found I could drop the post and use most of the suspension, just kept it a bit firmer. Worked a treat for me.

The problems I had were the stem cells affecting the steering, so I have now got SKS anywhere bottle mounts and used stainless jubilee clips to fasten them securely to my pikes, 3 to each leg and fastened Salsa anything cage with Alpkit XL stem cells. I also used this system to attach a bottle cage to the down tube, similar to you, but the jubilee clips held them firmly in place, this also get some of the mass lower down which helps the bikes stability.

Updated again. Still no riding bikes, but already a heck of a journey...

Coast to Coast: The Train ****up (Part Two)

@brennak - I did some test fits with saddlebags, and it seemed like on my frame (M26) I'd have to run my suspension so hard with a saddlebag I may as well have been on a hardtail (which might not have been the worst idea anyway, but the Rocket was what I had built up so that was that).

Joe had fork mounts, they actually seemed pretty awesome. If I was planning more big trips I would definitely be looking at some of those. I didn't mind the Stem Cell too much steering wise, but then there weren't a lot of tight corners on our route!

Hmm. Site seems to be down, apologies. I'll post when it's all working again (domain reshuffle...).

Yes, your experience with trains kind of sums up why we didn't want to have to rely on public transport. Our trip only became a real goer once we had an offer of support. We had spent years wanting to do it but couldn't work out the logistics.

Yeah it's pretty ridiculous to be honest, even if the trains had worked properly it was still expensive and would have been a pain with different reservations etc. It's a real shame, I don't normally use trains but it makes you realise how ****ed up the system in this country is.

Righto, the site all seems to have migrated now, you can find all the blog links below, in order. Hopefully I'll add another (with a bit of actual riding!) later on this evening.

Coast to Coast: Introduction

Coast to Coast: The Kit

Coast to Coast: The Train ****up (Part One)

Coast to Coast: The Train ****up (Part Two)

Aaand updated with the first stage of the ride, from Barrow-in-Furness over to Coniston. Should all be working fine now, hopefully.

Coast to Coast: Stage One (Barrow to Coniston)

Just added day 2 blog. It's a long one; there's proper offroad riding, excitement, peril, problems and a lot of rain...

Coast to Coast: Stage 2 (Coniston to Oxenholme)

Loving the narrative monkeycorp, keep 'em coming.

Yep, a good read, it's making me relive our coast to coast. Keep it coming!

Nice Sunday pm read. What a pity about the Lakes leg. Definitely short-changed by Northern Rail and the elements there. Fingers-crossed for the Howgills/Dales stages...

Yep I’ve read them all. Very easy to read . You should tap up the mag for an article.

Ha I probably should have thought of that before I put it all up online! Might drop them a line anyway I guess. Although I don't think the pics are up to STW standard.

Right, I've added day 3, from Oxenholme to Hawes. I was too busy riding and watching the Worlds yesterday to bother writing anything.

It's interesting going back over the notes I made and looking at the maps, there's loads of little details that I'd already forgotten (and I'm sure a lot more still that I've completely forgotten).

Not quite as long as the last one, but there's still breakages, cows and a viaduct, so it's not all bad.

Coast to Coast: Stage Three (Oxenholme to Hawes)

and..

Next one is nearly done, stupid work keeps getting in the way...

Here you go, Stage 4: Hawes to Fremington. We were hoping for some great trails on this stage, knowing how good some of the stuff around Swaledale is... And we were already booked into the Dales Bike Centre, so no stress about where to sleep.

Coast to Coast: Stage Four (Hawes to Fremington)

This is bringing back so many memories, details I'd forgotten such as the uncrossable river on stage 3 (like you, we spoke to some farmworkers who couldn't remember anyone ever using the ford), the climb out of Hawes, the feeling of being underwhelmed by the route across the Dales, etc. Looking forward to hearing what you made of the next leg through Richmond. We gave up with muddy flat overgrown bridleways and got to the North Yorks Moors on minor roads. It felt more like sanity - preservation than cheating though

I must admit, when I look (as a Dales local), at the route it takes across my patch, it seems a bit odd in places. Personally, it would make more sense to me to not stop in Hawes at all rather than have to climb all the way up Fleet Moss to rejoin the route, then slogging across to Thoralby up the Stake climb (and if you're going to change direction to get some extra quality riding in, why not do it in Swaledale rather than Wensleydale?).

I was hoping for the opportunity to do something similar this year (albeit over a much shorter timescale), and plotted my own route for 3/4 days rather than the 6 or 7 this one takes. My own view is that while it's worth a minor deviation and extra mileage to take in a top quality descent, on a C2C you probably appreciate just getting on with it!

And yes, I didn't include any BWs across the Vale of York (and the luxury of aerial photography revealed the ford crossing which wasn't going to work!)

(cough)

I'm with Martin on this - the route across the Dales is decidedly odd. The top part of the descent to Thoralby used to be a nice grassy track but the farmer/estate filled it in with rubble a few years ago. The BW from Carperby is an odd one to use as well.

There's no need to descend to Hawes, on Cam Head continue round to the top of Fleet Moss (that climb is hard enough on a road bike!) and descend the Roman road to Bainbridge. Over the river and take the road to Askrigg then there's a BW starting a little way up the hillside. Take this all the way to Castle Bolton (the PN route does part of this in reverse). From Castle Bolton head over to Apedale then at the crossroads go straight up the other side and descend to Grinton.

There's a better BW from Millthrop to Dent, takes the southerly line on the map. The one you took is better in the other direction as it's a fast blast. I'm not sure going up Arten Gill (the one under the railway viaduct) is worth it but the alternative is the road to and past Dent railway station 😮 then following the PBW back to the top of Arten Gill.

Looking at the route on the PN site makes me wonder if they actually rode it at all.

I reckon I might have to do it again in a few years with a better route (I have a few ideas about the Moors section).

Next bit will be up tomorrow, currently in a birthday treat weekend away with Mrs Monkey (she's having a nap).

I was talking to my mate who I did the coast to coast with about this thread and about our experience. We decided that we needed to do it again with a different/better route which we have a few ideas for (such as a bus across the vale of york)

Yeah, I reckon it could definitely be improved quite a bit in a few areas.

Day 5 added! No pictures because to be honest we just wanted it to be over.

Coast to Coast: Stage Five (Fremington to Osmotherley)

Next (and, as it turns out, final - spoiler!) stage is up.

Coast to Coast: Stage Six (Osmotherley to Scarborough)

So did you vary the route across the North Yorkshire Moors? We did that bit in two days and my memory of Osmotherley to Rosedale is of 4 or 5 winches up onto a rigg on doubletrack then a descent on lovely rocky single track of a km or two, each one different but better than the one before. Rosedale to Ravenscar (we then detoured to Robin Hoods Bay to dip our wheels in the sea) was a bit meh in comparison

We did - I know my way round Rosedale pretty well, so went for the route that had the most singletrack in the least distance. We did miss a couple of bits out around Chop Gate for time reasons (as mentioned!) and also the descent from Rudland Rigg which I don't think is on the route, but is awesome.

At some point I'm going to sit down and plot the ultimate 2 day route from Osmotherley to Scarborough. I reckon once you're past Dalby (really past Rosedale tbh) there's not much more of interest.

I would be interested in any worthwhile variations to the Osmotherley - east coast portion too. I'm not familiar with the NYM, and not interested in going via Dalby unless it's actually necessary. I did the Pedalnorth Hambleton Hills route in the summer and it was one of the least fun routes I did all year, so I'm not trusting them all that much!

I'd be finishing in Scarborough too one way or another, and probably trying to do it in a day, maybe from a wildcamp up near the sheepwash above Osmotherley.

Good tips on places to grab food and fill bottles also appreciated!

Going through Dalby makes sense, as it drops you on the Moors to Sea route and is pretty much bang on the way. It's also a good spot to refill and such. Riding the red... Nah. Just straight through the forest for me.

It would be a big day out if you go all the way from Osmotherley to Scarborough with detours for fun stuff though, it was 52 miles the way we did it with a lot of flat track plugging across the top. You could add in a few more miles and metres to get the fun stuff in.

Thanks for the write-up. Read ‘em all.

Hope the missus is well.