Great North Trail - Which bike?

Trips, adventures, bikes, equipment, etc.
JohnWL
Posts: 29
Joined: 17 Jul 2014, 8:44am

Re: Great North Trail - Which bike?

Post by JohnWL »

Ha! Thanks, but Covid got in the way. I spent too long in lockdown looking at bikes and watching youtube videos of how to fix and change things so bought myself a gravel bike - a Breezer Radar Cafe, secondhand, which is a basic steel framed rigid fork bike that I then modified. One mod was to change the very current and in vogue 1x10 to a 2x10.

I have not yet tried ATM as I thought best to try something easier for less time so a few weeks ago cycled over 4 days the Cairngorm loop/carousel, on the Breezer.

Great experience and now looking forward to ATM. I've just posted a link to my blog in which I set out why I choose the Breezer over my cheap but capable Calibre Two Cubed hard tail. Here is my blog:

www.jlinwoodblog.wordpress.com

What I am now going to fit is those flared gravel bike drop handlebars in place of straight bars, as my touring and commuting for many yeras has been with drop bars. I need to find out what on hill tracks suits me best. Anyone else done the same?

John
ian5spot
Posts: 48
Joined: 26 Nov 2011, 8:05am

Re: Great North Trail - Which bike?

Post by ian5spot »

I had also planned to do the ATN last year but the trip was postponed due to Covid, but I did finally manage to do it in June this year with a mate. We used gravel bikes with tubeless 40c tyres and took bike packing gear for camping. The bikes were fine for the trip. I cycled most of it apart from the final bit of the Corrieyairrick Pass and sections of the climb out of Fort Augustus. Possible a few other small sections of pushing, but not much. We were lucky as the weather was good and the trails were dry.

The Glasgow to Cape Wrath section is fine on a gravel bike as the paths are mostly built for Land Rovers etc so that they can visit the hydroelectric dams and wind farm. For the more southern part of the route from Derby to Glasgow, based on my experience of the section over the Dales, a mountain bike may be more suitable.

Hopefully you got to complete the route this summer
Dingdong
Posts: 966
Joined: 22 Apr 2022, 4:59pm

Re: Great North Trail - Which bike?

Post by Dingdong »

Definitely a lightweight gravel bike. There are a good few sections where you will be carrying/pushing. So no tanks!
Dingdong
Posts: 966
Joined: 22 Apr 2022, 4:59pm

Re: Great North Trail - Which bike?

Post by Dingdong »

Oh, and I used a 2x11 and was very glad of the extended gear ratios. A 1x11 would have been a very tough gig imo.
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