What this bike needs......: May 2026

I will keep this post short and to the point, in order to get it finished more quickly than usual! (It takes me ages to write a post.)

Last year my Husband bought some Fjall Raven trousers, in Cotswold Outdoor. I liked them so much that I wished they did them in a women's fit. However, I decided to try some on, and they fitted me surprisingly well - just not quite right, so I didn't buy them. However, because I'd liked them so much, and because they had so nearly fit me, I decided to send off for some and try them on again at home. I ordered one pair the same size as I had tried on, and one pair a size smaller. I know from experience that you can buy a garment in a particular size, but then when you try on another one in exactly the same size, it sometimes doesn't fit as well as the first one, or it can fit better. This is exactly what happened - the new pair fitted me perfectly. I paid £130.10, from Alpine Trek. Here is the link to them - Fjall Raven Vardag trousers

I have often wished in the past that I could find a pair of trousers which were good for cycling in but which also looked nice "off" the bike. I have got cycling leggings but I don't really like wearing them any more. They scream "cyclist" a bit too loudly for my liking. I have some Peter Storm zip-off trousers but they don't look very good after lots of washing, and the fit isn't particularly good, though I do like the zip-off option. These Fjall Raven ones are perfect - very comfortable for cycling (and indeed walking) and they don't at all scream "cyclist". Because of the elasticated ankles I don't have to think about tucking my trouser legs into socks, or wearing my homemade trouser straps. And the three zipped pockets are really useful - I especially like the angle of them, and the zips pull up and down smoothly.

As they are currently on offer at less than I paid for them, I might order another pair. However, I see on the Fjall Raven website that they have altered the fit (oh dear....) and Alpine Trek confirmed to me that the ones on their website are this new fit (although something tells me that they might not be right) so I don't know if I'll like them as much. We'll see.

Brompton handlebar bridge

I wanted to go to the Malvern Quilt Show, earlier this month, and decided to plan a bike trip around it. I booked an Airbnb for 3 nights a few miles from Malvern. (It was excellent!) My original plan was to cycle the 18 miles to Swindon station, get the train to Gloucester, and then cycle the 17 miles to my destination. However, Husband, who is a weather freak owing to being a paraglider, kept telling me how bad the forecast was, so in my head I began to think I'd better be prepared to accept his offer of a lift to Swindon, to make it a bit easier, and I did. Actually in the end the weather was not as bad as I'd expected - it was pretty windy but not wet. Once I'd found my way out of Gloucester - I did go wrong but not too much - it was a straightforward ride, with lots of stops along the way to look at things.

I have been wanting a Brompton handlebar bridge for a long time, not because I have lots of gadgets to fit on the bike, but simply because there is actually very little room at all on the Brompton handlebars to fit any gadget at all. So before I went I searched the web for one. There were several options, but they were all from abroad and some were expensive, to say the least. Ages ago I had come across this video on how to make your own, so I got Husband to watch it, we bought the materials (from Tool Station) and he made one, and I am very pleased with it! The cost was about £5, with lots of pipe left over. I think he did a really good job -

Wait and see what is attached to that Garmin mount...

You can't see it very well in this photo but there is just enough clearance not to affect the fold.

Now, the other hack! As I said I don't use many gadgets - I don't even often take my Garmin these days. It's just something else to have to bother with, and take a charger for if staying away from home. Husband wanted to download my route onto my Garmin (he likes doing stuff like that....) but what I like best is to plan the route beforehand at home, using paper maps, google maps and the OS Memory map on the computer. I use cycle.travel. too, and then write a route list. I also print off Cycle.travel's cue sheet for extra back up. If after all that I still get lost, well, I ask a passer-by, which usually works well! In the past, I had put my lists in a waterproof phone cover (dirt cheap from Home Bargains) and tied it to the handlebars, which worked OK but wasn't ideal. So I started thinking about a better way of making something to mount my lists to. I found out that you can buy a "male" spare Garmin mount, and I thought - "What if I could glue that to something stiff and then fix that to a Garmin mount?" So I sent off for one (actually two because they were cheap and I thought a second one might come in handy for if I get another brainwave and think of something else to attach in this way). Meanwhile in Home Bargains..... I bought a dirt cheap phone cover like this. It was nice and sturdy and the size I wanted. Husband cut it roughly to size - I have to say it was very hard material to cut, hence the indeed rough appearance. He then superglued the Garmin male mount to the back of it, left it to set, et voila!