2021 Bivvy a Month

 Another year and another BAM. No specific goals this year other than to get out and bivvy. As everything is still up in the air I'm not even making any firm plans for the Summer at present. I've lots of ideas and all being well I'll be doing the Highland Trail in some shape or form. Other than that it will be my usual mix of opportunism and optimism.

So to January. I'd meant to go out last weekend but my beloved Ochills were plastered in snow so skiing was the order of the day. I had two days that can only be described as Alpine. In fact the winter so far has been decidedly Alpine - discreet days of snow (falling vertically!) mixed up in some stunning clear and still days. Its very rare we get such weather in Scotland - Only the winters of 2009/10 and 11 spring to mind. Usually we get more arctic weather and the inevitable Atlantic storms so this was very welcome. Of course I can't get anywhere near real mountains which is monumentally frustrating given that the March '20 lock down wrote off one of the best spring skiing seasons in years. All minor worries in the grand scheme of things just now but that's a consequence of living on your own and not getting out very much. Your perspective narrows to your own little world....

Ski where you want. I've never seen so many skiiers in my local hills - there was a skin track right across the plateau. The black dot just below and to the left of the pointy hill is my January 2020 bivvy spot.

So it was this weekend or bust but as it happened a forecasted change to milder and wet weather didn't happen and more cold temps were on the way. I ruminated on a destination but went for Devilla again as per last December and February. As noted in my washup of last year I won't be doing any back garden bivvies again. Living on my own allows me to form an extended household with friends or family which I last did at Christmas. So for this weekend I joined up with my old friend, the forest. 

Departure was at 6 but I should have left it for another hour. The trails were starting to firm up but there was still plenty of mud around. I took it very easy through this as spraying the bike in mud would turn it into a block of ice the following morning. I followed a varied route of trails and cycleway and headed for a spot that I'd scoped out last year. Its more open than my December spot but the dropping wind meant this wouldn't be an issue. It was -1 as I threw up the Deschutes and snuggled into my winter bag. Last January I was under my tree in the Ochills. I'd visited it last weekend and could have dug a snow hole in the drift behind it; but getting there would have been a labour of postholing through knee deep windslab. So instead I was in the lee of yet another isolated spruce on the edge of a denser plantation in the far reaches of Devilla, well off the beaten trail. Another pleasant evening followed heating and eating food, drinking a couple of cans and finishing off with a dram or three to ensure a good nights sleep.

Morning sun (its just visible behind the trees). I'd actually been woken up at 6 by the nearby silica sand quarry. Starting this early on a Sunday seems a bit keen, especially just now, so maybe the world still needs glass. Anyway distant clanking of machines, reversing horns and various other noises; as well as a helicopter flying past a couple of times; meant I wasn't getting any more sleep. So I lay back listening to owls, geese and other birdies, eventually making breakfast at 7.30, packed up and away before 9.

More trails and cycleway to Dollar and then up the hill and through Glen Quey. This confirmed that the hills would be off limits on the fatty for now. Below 300m there was barely a dusting but above there was around 6" of frozen crusty snow which would have been a 1psi job if it wasn't for a trampled slot over which I flew. Cheating, I know, but the final steep and off camber trails which had only been trampled by a few folk were challenge enough. Home for a late lunch and an afternoon snooze. Looks like there is plenty more winter to come so I suspect February will be a cold and snowy one as well. Now where's my snow shovel?

How Many Gears has that got Mister?

So said a small urchin somewhere back in 1989 eyeing up my bike

"18" I replied with maximum nonchalance. His jaw dropped and he was lost for words. I looked coolly into the distance and rode off.

That said I was always one step behind the times as 7 speed cassettes had just been announced. When 8 appeared I grudgingly moved to 7 and avoided 8 until 9 appeared. When the 8 speed stuff dried up I finally ditched my beloved XT thumbies for those weird under-bar shifter things. "27" I answered the next time a similar urchin asked the same question but this time I thought "thats far too many." A good few years later I made the jump to 10 sprockets but at the same time I ditched two chainrings up front so that was alright. 

This was a revelation. Front derailleurs have always been rubbish. Shimano tweaked them to a point where you could do a front shift without too much grief but it was still a mud trap and a cludge, mashing the chain into the next ring up leading to twisted chains, 'chainsuck' (remember that?!), chains jamming between rings and rings smashing into rocks. One by means only one gear shifter to worry about, one chainring, more ground clearance, less weight, less faff, less is more. Interestingly many old timers turned their noses up at this minimalism saying it was nothing but fashion. I recalled chatting to a cycle tourer in about 1988 whose trusty iron was sporting one, yes one (small) chainring. I asked: "but what about on downhills?"

"You just freewheel". Hmmm

Over the next few years all of my bikes lost their front ders and multiple rings. I lost nothing. I realised pretty quickly that the trick was to have a diddy wee chainring so you kept the important low gears and lost the irrelevant high gears. I didn't miss being able to keep pedaling at 45mph....

I was getting up hills and riding everything it was possible to ride. The chain never fell off, unlike when you ran a double or triple leaving you spinning madly and going nowhere. After a snowy / muddy / icy fat bike ride, my two-by die hard mate looked at my bike and his and the large build up of ice and mud jamming his wheel into the seat tube. The next day he removed his front der and 32T ring and has run 22- 12/36 ever after.


So I was sorted. Until 2015. I'd viewed single speed as an affectation which presented many more disadvantages than advantages. I read Aiden Harding and Ian Barrington's tales of their single speed rides round the Highland Trail in 2013 and just thought...."Why? you guys are just making it unnecessarily hard on yourselves!" But Tom Rowntree's winning ride in 2015 started to make me think. This is not an affectation, this is a conscious decision made by people who know their stuff. The only option I had was to try it. So I dragged out my old On One 29er which had horizontal drop outs, bought a cheap spacer kit, did some net research on gear ratios and lashed it all together.

Hmm. Riding round the village suggested that the recommended gear ratios were either: for flat areas, for people with considerably bigger quads than me, wrong. I took stock, and eyed up the Krampus. A bit of riding where I steadfastly didn't change gear led me to give it a better go and suss out a good gear. 32T up front and 21 out the back (1.5:1 ish) seemed to be my magic ratio. Some guy on the old fat bike forum told me "You'll be spinning like a crazed hamster in a wheel man!". I knew better. Gear for your favourite trails. Spinning like mad on the road didn't matter, just avoid roads.

So that winter I rode SS (man) and it ruled. level(ish) woodland trails were the best, no gear faffing, just pedal the bloody thing. Cleaning was easy. No gears to scrub, just give it a skoosh with the hose and you were good to go the next time.

Every Christmas I head down to my parents and always take at least one bike with me. For 2015 I took the Kramp, thinking the trails around home would be ideal for SS. On the way down I stopped off at Bowes (northern edge of the Yorkshire Dales) for a good long ride. This was the day after Storm Charley so everywhere was flooded but the forecast was for breezy sunshine. Breezy actually ended up as gale force but I carried on regardless.

Oh dear. From Bowes to the Tan Hill inn is about 6 miles of steady climbing on a back road, then a byway. This was straight into the teeth of said gale. I was on a good track barely climbing but I could only make progress with max effort stood up pedaling. Soon enough I was broken. At one point I got off and started pushing but this was ridiculous, I was on a flat track! So onward I struggled, the 6 miles taking over an hour of max effort pedaling. Thereafter the route went OK but I had another singlespeed moment later in the ride. I noted a couple of guys up ahead (climb up from Surrender bridge to Merry Field.) A few seconds later I blasted past them and their cursed granny gears. I wondered if they were impressed at my fortitude for running SS in the Dales. I've no doubt they actually thought "whose that dick pedaling so hard up this hill". I wanted to say "I've no choice! don't ever ride single speed!"...

Later on I did end up pushing along a level track. This was back into the gale and I was too knackered to pedal on its sodden surface.



So I appreciated what SS was all about but I had no intention of making it a permanent feature of my riding, just something to use for local woods rides and through the winter. So why, a few years later, was I pulling sprockets, derailleur and shifter off the Jones and instead fitting a single sprocket and some nice shiny multi-coloured spacers from Velosolo. Partly this was down to having a further epiphany - the 2019 UK Singlespeed Championships held at Comrie Croft trail centre not too far away. I'd heard from a few veterans that it was a right laugh. I even persuaded my mate Rob to do it. The Kramp was obviously the ideal tool for these trails and what a laugh it was. Rob left the 22 tooth ring on his moonlander and fitted a 20 out back. This made me think as afterwards he said how he'd been able to get up all of the climbs without too much issue and had never felt the need to pedal much on the downhills. I too had got up the climbs but nearly crucified myself in the process. But all of these wicked looking SS bikes, including a guys green Jones plus, was making me think.


I'm grimacing, not smiling

Single speed perfection

The previous year I'd been dead set on fitting a Rohloff hub gear to the Jones. However, although Rohloff list a 148 spaced hub, SJS cycles, who are their main UK dealer, insisted that they would need my frame in order to correctly machine the torque arm. No amount of persuasion that I could do this myself changed this view (warranty reasons) and there was no way I was taking the bike to bits and sending my precious frame down to them. An email to Jeff himself about Rohloff fitting got a curious reply: "Don't bother, they aren't worth it, fit Sram eagle 1/12 instead; or, go single speed." Hmm...



Another reason was the forthcoming Highland Trail, which at that point (February 2020) was still on. I'd done it twice, failed it twice, all on gears. So why not do it single speed. The constantly varying pedaling position and having to walk quite a bit would give my knees and contact points an easier time, the bike would be a chunk lighter and there would be no chance of a derailleur / rock incident. This neatly edited from my memory my previous view of such an idea but I told myself I'd test the theory on a few long rides before finally committing. Of course events overtook things but being limited to local rides made single speed an ideal way to make the most of what I could do.

I'd already done one over-nighter so had experienced single speeding a loaded bike, albeit on a fairly short run. Over the months of Spring I did longer rides involving some big hills and eventually got out for a few more overnight trips. That said, when I was planning my tour up to Speyside over that summer on the Straggler, I figured gears would be a better bet given the distances I hoped to cover and the hills I would climb. The straggler had been singe speeded at the start of the previous winter and it too had been left like that during the lock down. This hadn't stopped me doing my 120 mile Trossachs bash but I felt gears would make my tour more relaxing. In the meantime I'd gone a step further and built up a fixed gear Surly Cross Check. I was now a true Single Speed convert.



And bore. A lot has been said about the pleasures of running single speed bikes of all types and as with everything to do with cycling many have waxed lyrical about it on various media forms. "Ultimate simplicity," "purity," "good for the soul," "spiritual cycling" etc. etc. ad nauseum. I'm largely resistant to such nonsense but some of it does ring true. In particular is the simplicity. No worrying about which gear you need to be in just aim it where you are going and pedal. Or push. Yes you do a lot of pushing; but as I'd been told, not as much as you might think. I thought that this would be what scuppers SS for me as I do like grinding up a nice techy climb. But so far I've not missed such things (or I do them on the fat bike which is keeping its gears) and as I'd hoped the varied pedaling and walking has done wonders for my dodgy knees.

That said, my top tip if you have read this and are thinking of giving single speed a go is to build up your core strength substantially. Since I did my back in a few years ago I've done a weekly pilates class and this has turned my scrawny middle into a rock solid torso. It's sorted my back problems and is a big help generally for all types of cycling (most pros do pilates type exercises). But for single speeding its nigh on essential. You are putting a lot of strain on your lower back, especially on those low cadence climbs. So having good core stability really helps to keep yourself in line and injury free. So far my back has only given out a few squeals of protest at heaving a bike up a hill at 20 rpm.....

Doing the Cairngorms loop was the ultimate test I suppose. As I noted in my tale of this route, what really impressed me was my performance through the famously nadgery Fords of Avon strath. I've always thought that the best way to ride such stuff is in a very low gear (it is to be fair) but turning a big gear seems to work as well. You need a bit more fore thought and prep, especially for getting up steps (eye up, line up, blast it) but I was getting through stuff I'd have never thought possible. That said its fair to say the gale that tormented me for the last 65k did show up its limitations.....

Finally downhill is where single speed shines. Having 500 grams less on your back wheel makes a huge difference when clattering down a rocky descent, hopping the wheel around is so much easier, the bike feels more responsive and there is no more banging and rattling of chain off chainstay.

Looking to the future I'm committed to doing the Highland Trail on single speed. I'm not sure when as the end of May group start is still up in the air but if this doesn't go ahead I may look to do an ITT later on. This feels like a rational decision and not just affectation but we'll see how it goes. Its been done a few times now by several people, including the irascible Javi Simon who currently holds the SS record time of 3 days and 21 hours, so I'm not the only one to think this is a good idea.

Whether single speed will be permanent on the Jones remains to be seen. The krampus definitely but the Jones may get its gears back at some point if I was to use it for a longer tour over a range of terrain - something it excels at - as gears will make such a thing much more relaxing. Also gears seem to be going the way of suspension in that more is seen as more. I don't want 12 or 13 sprockets, 6 or 7 would do, spaced over a typical 1x 11-46 range. Racing seems to be (as ever) leading development rather than simplicity despite the majority of people being bumblers not racers. Maybe I'll stick to a lower range of gears with a road derr to keep things nice and compact.... For now though 1x1 is serving my needs and when I see a hill, rock or bog, I'll just aim at it and pedal!