The Bike

After committing to do the ride, the next thing I needed to do – and perhaps the most important thing – was to select my trusty steed. But where do I start? I like cycling, but I’ve never really cycled anything more than a mile from my house to the train station every day for the last few years on a rusty chained mountain bike. While the bike was up to the task of getting me there and back, I was not totally convinced that it would get me from the top of Scotland down to Cornwall. So, I asked myself what do other people who’ve ridden the end-to-end do it on? To find out I did some research on the internet.

I soon realised that people had done it on all manner of bikes, from uni-cyles to tandems, on top of the range carbon fibre road bikes to Raleigh Choppers and everything in between. The answer was going to take a little longer to find than I first thought it would.

Now if anyone knows me well will tell you, I do like to take my time to reach a well informed decision, be it deciding on a new family car or which pair of socks to put on that day. So, road bike/touring bike/mountain bike/hybrid – what would be the best option for me? Decisions, decisions. I drew up some criteria to help narrow down my choices:

• Budget – I had a modest budget, and needed to keep the cost down, so out went the notion of buying a premium ride;
• New or second hand – as a beginner I decided that while I might get a potential bargain from e-bay, I could well end up with a wreck that needed new component parts and would cost me just as much money as it would if I bought a new bike, so being somewhat risk adverse in nature, I ruled out getting a second-hand bike;
• Supported or unsupported – if I cycled unsupported and needed to carry all my clothes and equipment with me then I needed a bike with brazons to fit a pannier rack and take my equipment;
• Bike just for the trip or to use afterwards – If I got the cycling bug, then I’d want to continue to ride, so I thought I should look to getting a bike for the longer term.

Taking all this into consideration, I settled on a sensible solution. I would get a bike that is actually built and designed for the task at hand – a touring bike. I took a trip to my local bike shop to see what they had in stock and what advice they could give me. They were very helpful and had exactly what I was looking for – a Ridgeback Voyage. She may not have the sleek looks and speed of an Italian stallion road bike (more of an English shire horse), but she more than made up for that in comfort and the confidence she gave me that together we could both last the trip. The Voyage was the one for me.

Here are the bike’s specs:

• Frame – Reynolds 520
• Fork – Chromoly
• Gears – Shimano Sora/Deore, Alivio chainset
• Wheels – Shimano RM70 hubs & Alex ACE-19 rims
• Tyres – Continental Contact 700 x 32c
• Handlebar – 6061 aluminium Ergo Tour
• Stem – Alloy threadless
• Saddle – Tour Comfort (original replaced with a Brooks B17 saddle)
• Seatpost – alu 27.2mm
• Weight 13.7kg (30.1lb)
• Brakes – Tektro 992AG
• Brake levers/shifters – Shimano STI with Tektro 570 top levers
• Cassette – Shimano 11-32, 8sp

And here she is: