Image Alt

Muddy Tales

 Ecomuseum, 'Built to Last' is the latest film from round the world singlespeed cyclist and founder of Bikepacking Scotland Markus Stitz. The 10-minute documentary featuring Bob Ellis, founder of the Cateran Trail, Neil Tuer, owner of Alyth Cycles and Jane Wilkinson, willow weaver at Special Branch Baskets, with music from Dave Macfarlane, launches seven new cycling itineraries designed for road, mountain, gravel and touring bikes as part of Travel for All Our Tomorrows - which aims to develop new regenerative tourism experiences in the Cateran Ecomuseum. The Cateran Ecomuseum is a museum without walls, close to the cities of Perth and Dundee in Scotland, both accessible by a new electric bus service from Edinburgh. One of a growing number of ecomuseums worldwide, all its sites are outside. Community led, it empowers local people to take an active role in preserving the

“Get yourself a Gravel bike, you’ll love it, we can go on some rides together”. So many adventures seem to start off innocently enough with conversations like this between a couple of mates. In my case the protagonist was a chap we’ll call Jules, mainly because that’s his name and I have no interest in protecting the guilty!I bought a Sonder Camino, we rode the King Alfred’s Way with another mate who we’ll call Dan, I fell off twice, bought some 650b wheels with bigger tyres on, and thought no more of it until another conversation where the word Dales was swiftly followed by the word Divide. Meantime I seem to have developed an aversion to shaving and an attraction to tracks and trails I’ve always previously ridden past.So, from the relative security of hiding behind my COVI(bear)D, I entered

... highlighting the joys of winter cycling around Scotland’s Capital     With a new film Edinburgh-based Markus Stitz and Mark Beaumont encourage more people to enjoy winter cycling in the future. Filmed on a newly created gravel bike route, which follows the local authority boundary of the City of Edinburgh, and additional locations close to the Scottish Capital during January and February 2021, ‘Explore your Boundaries’ is a short documentary that highlights the beauty and challenges of exploring places on two wheels in snow and ice. Markus Stitz, the first person to ride a single-speed bicycle around the world, and Mark Beaumont, the Guinness World Record holder for the fastest circumnavigation in 78 days and 14 hours, are both Edinburgh residents. Teaming up to film ‘Explore your Boundaries' was inspired by encouraging people to see familiar and local areas in unfamiliar ways, showing

 Filmed on the ‘Drovers Trail’, a new 331 km-long gravel bikepacking route spanning almost the entirety of Highland Perthshire, 'Drovers' tells the story of the ancient drove roads, an important part of Scottish history, which inspired Scotland's greatest writers like Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott. The new video from round the world singlespeed cyclist and film-maker Markus Stitz follows him on his adventure along the route, retracing the footsteps of the cattle drovers on their journey from the Cairngorms through the Tay Valley to Crieff, which became Scotland's most important cattle market at the end of the 17th century.The project was led and administered by Highland Perthshire Cycling, a charity set up to promote, encourage and enable more cycling in Highland Perthshire for both locals and visitors, and delivered by Bikepacking Scotland. It received a grant of £9,835 from

(Photos by Jered Gruber)For cyclists who love ‘gravel’ riding, the Duke’s Gold gravel tour slingshots you into one of Scotland’s most magnificent areas of natural beauty – the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park where there is an abundance of great gravel and mixed-terrain along forest tracks, fire roads and dirt single tracks.We love anything that means more folk are out having fun riding bikes in the dirt (or grit). Riding gravel bikes combines so many of our favourite things – mountains and spectacular locations – and the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park is one of the most magnificent locations of them all.Combining the off-road capability of mountain biking and the lightweight, efficiency of road biking – take the tracks less travelled with us for exhilarating discoveries amidst Scotland’s hidden forests and glens. The Duke’s Gold gravel weekend break

Beat the winter blues with the prospect of endless trails, views that go on and on, delicious cake and coffee stops - award-winning cycling and hospitality partners Go-Where Scotland and the Oak Tree Inn are offering you a £50 incentive to experience first hand what makes cycling in Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park so specialCycle tour operator Go-Where Scotland is offering a two-wheeled incentive to beat the winter blues. UK Gravelistas can experience their kind of gravel cycling by spending three days in April exploring this largely untapped corner of Scotland with them by bike. Better still, they’re offering friends of UK Gravel £50 off their first booking (using the code DUKES50 at the online checkout).Andy Stanford, local resident and professional bike guide:“The whole Gravel scene here in the Trossachs has exploded! Every weekend I'm seeing folk turn up

The area is well known to mountain bikers and boasts around 24,000 acres of woodland to explore. We have organized social rides in the Forest for over a year, but found that the single group format was presenting a barrier to many who were unsure of the pace or distance involved. That is the beauty of this new format. You start when you like, rest when you like and travel at your own pace. Riding the route on a single day should help to keep some of the social elements of previous rides.Self-supported and self-paced; there are no entry fees, no marshals, no route markers, no feed stations and no mechanical or first aid support. All we supply are great routes along the best gravel paths, lanes and byways that the Forest has to offer.The series will kick off with

I guess it starts back almost 5 years. I had a breakdown, 2 in fact, all thanks to several factors including injury, ongoing pain, illness, and a very un-sympathetic employer that I had been with for 11 years.Prior to this I was actually fairly active sportsman, climbing, badminton( playing at a very high local division) and cyclist, out a t least once a week with a couple of friends, 10-20 miles of an evening.After my breakdowns I pretty much shut down. I won’t go into the details of the initial years, suffice to say that I have been to the edge of some very very dark places and have only just returned. I have a great support from my partner Ruth and kids and a few friends and family.I should also add that I have been diagnosed with severe depression,

The EventThe 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 chase for 9-12 year olds. This is a family friendly 9 mile loop, entirely off road.Riders enter their chosen ride beforehand but can switch to any other distance on the day. The organisers then scan a barcode on your ride number to determine which distance you are riding on the day. This is not entirely accurate as my ride result came back as one of the lower distances even though I rode the Full Boar; this may of been my fault if I missed a checkpoint.The

Gravel Biking I Gravel Grinding I UkGravelBike.club