Thirty six years after it happened I can still remember the exact second that I fell in love with riding bikes. It wasn’t a gradual thing that took place over a few weeks, a few months or a year or so. Instead, It happened at one precise moment in time. Precisely one turn of the…
Author: The Red Lantern
Adventure cyclist, route builder, and all round cycling obssesive.
DirtyDevil.cc Gravel Challenge Launched
DirtyDevil.cc presents a new series of gravel rides in the Forest of Dean. The area is well known to mountain bikers and boasts around 24,000 acres of woodland to explore. We have organised social rides in the Forest for over a year, but found that the single group format was presenting a barrier to many…
Kinesis G2 – 1 Year Review
Its a little under a year since I bought my Kinesis G2, so I thought I would write a small review to help out potential buyers. I am not sponsored by Kinesis or paid in any way, so this is my personal view and experience of the bike. The Bike My first gravel bike was…
The Enlightenment of a Gravel Rider
We all go through it…. From those early inquisitive, explorations into a new genre of riding. The highs and lows, the doubts and revelations.
The Gravel Spirit
Something happened today. Something that made me realise what it means to be a part of a community, a collection of like minded individuals who share knowledge and experience with one another for their mutual benefit. One year ago, I went on my fist gravel ride. I have been hooked ever since.It has grabbed my…
Cross/Mountain 2019
The organisers of cross mountain (acycling) are probably better known for events like Gritfest and Battle on the Beach. This smaller and lesser known event which runs in late October is a corker though. Its pitched as a cross (cx)/ mountain (mtb) event and caters nicely for the two off-road disciplines by way of splits…
My First Bikepacking Adventure Ride.
I`m not convinced about the title “adventure”. I think it gets thrown around all too easily these days in a lazy attempt to make a fairly normal activity like cycling or walking sound more exciting for the reader, or even just to boost the ego of the rider and make him/her feel like a true…
Gritfest 2019
Last weekend was my first gravel race, and I jumped right in at the deep end with a 2 day gravel enduro race in the Cambrian mountains. Grifest (now in its second year) is held just north of Llandovery in mid Wales. It is a two day race which follows an enduro style format with…
76Projects On Bike Storage
I was quite excited when the newest products from 76 Projects dropped on my doorstep. I had looked at The Piggy before and thought it looked like a great solution for carrying your spares, so getting a chance to test it out was very welcome. As well as The Piggy, the package also contained the…
The Wild Boar Chase 2019
The Event The Wild Boar Chase is a charity bike ride in The Forest of Dean run by The Lions Club. There are four different rides available; The Small Boar and The Woody Boar at 20 and 23 miles, The Hog and The Full Boar at 39 and 44 miles, as well as the Humbug…