Bikes of The Southern Divide - Autumn Edition 2023

Colin Deady

Name: Colin Deady

Age: 48

Location: Newbury, UK

Bike: 2021 Specialized Diverge Comp E5 running 700x48C Rene Herse Oracle Ridge knobbly tyres. Rear wheel upgraded to DT Swiss CR1600. Ravemen PR1200 front, and large Knog Cobber rear lights plus a couple of Specialized Stix as backup. GRX/Praxis 11-42 with 40T chainring. Specialized CG-R carbon seat post. Look X-Track Race Carbon SPD-compatible pedals.

Key items of kit: A mixture of Tailfin (Aeropack and top tube) and Restrap bags. Alpkit Kloke bivvy, tarp, and Cloudbase mat. Kathmandu 3 season sleeping bag. Evoc Hip Pack Pro 1.5l water + bottles and coffee flask on bike. MSR Windburner, dehydrated meals, home-mixed porridge, and One Good Thing wrapper free snack bars. GPS via Wahoo Bolt 2 with Smartphone running LocusMaps, and Corus Pace 2 smartwatch as backups. 20k, 15k, and 5k Anker batteries for power along route. One tiny plastic duck gifted from a friend.

Lee Chance

Name: Lee Chance

Age: 59

Cap number: 6

Location: Truro

Bike: Steel Merlin Allroad

Key items of kit: Alpkit dry bag. Oxford top tube bags.

Martin Dunn

Name: Martin Dunn

Age: 49

Location: Canterbury

Bike: The wrong-but-oddly right Nukeproof Scout aero trail bike thing.

Key items of kit: Cyclite Aero Bar Bag, AcePac frame pack and a Tailfin at the rear. Redshift Aero bars and squishy seatpost. Continental RaceKings to hopefully make lighter work of the road sections. Shimano clicky, clonky and stoppy bits. Rotor InPower providing miserable data to a Garmin.

Tom Stocker

Name: Tom Stocker

Age: 34

Location: New Forest

Bike: Trek Procaliber

Key items of kit: Opted for comfort of the hardtail over a gravel bike. Some aero bars for additional comfort and maybe a slightly faster speed! Big gears for the climbs, big light for the night and some bigish bags for kit.

Duncan New

Name: Duncan New

Location: Bexley

Bike: Trek Checkpoint SL5 standard spec

Key items of kit: Alpkit Seat Pack & Handlebar Pack Bontrager Frame Bag Tailfin Toptube Bag Specialized Fjällräven Handlebar Rack Garmin 1040 Alpkit Elan Hooped Bivy and Whisper Mat

Steve Wildman

Name: Steve Wildman

Age: 59

Cap number: 28

Location: Babcary, Somerset

Bike: Pronto Torto titanium gravel bike from the friendly people at Pronto Bikes, Frome, Somerset.

Key items of kit: Swapped the original 38mm tyres for 50mm on 650b rims for this trip in an attempt to keep up on the rougher terrain with Steve Thurgood on his MTB. I hope I have done the right thing. It is extremely comfortable though so I am a happy boy. I hope my legs will be as well.

Steve Whitehouse

Name: Steve Whitehouse

Age: 65

Location: St Ives Cornwall

Bike: Specialized Epic FS XC race bike now converted to comfy long distance rig.Sram Eagle 34 front chainring 10-50 cassette dropper now replaced with carbon rigid, wheels are Reynolds tyres Thunder Burts and my favourite ESI grips

Key items of kit: Alpkit soloist tent, sea to summit mat and thermarest sleeping bag, sealskinz gloves for toasty hands for whatever the weather gods decide to conjure up.

Seb Baucutt

Name: Seb Baucutt

Age: 27

Location: Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

Bike: Trek Checkpoint

Key items of kit: Hunt Limitless Gravel wheels with Schwalbe G One RS tyres in 40mm. Mack workshops bags with a tailfin rack, Amazon special sleeping kit, Alpkit bivvy bag, Metier Beacon waterproof jacket (which I imagine will see lots of use!). Plus exposure lights in various forms. Heavier packed than normal but prepared for some varied weather.

Benjamin James

Name: Benjamin James

Age: 38

Cap number: NA

Location: Warwickshire

Bike: Ribble CX with 105/GRX mullet groupset

Key items of kit: Hunt wheels Panaracer tyres Mix of Apidura, Restrap and Topeak bags. Trying revised raised aero bar setup Taking more kit as I usually would for start/finish/travel

Andy Ross

Name: Andy Ross

Age: 52

Cap number: 22

Location: Surrey

Bike: Stanton Sherpa Ti hardtail with Rockshox SID fork, Sram GX groupset and Fleecer Ridge tyres.

Key items of kit: Salsa Anything harness with Revelate Saltyroll bar bag, Tailfin AeroPack and top tube pack, and a small Alpkit frame bag. Soloist tent, Pipedream sleeping bag and Cloud Base sleep mat also all from Alpkit. Lucky loom bands and nutritional strategy custom designed by my kids, in association with Haribo.

Alex Boswell

Name: Alex Boswell

Age: 35

Cap number: 3

Location: Truro, Cornwall

Bike: ORRO Terra C w/ ALT. Tor Gravel Wheels

Key items of kit: Apidura bags stuffed full of STYRKR SLT07 electrolytes and Bar50 & Mix90 carbs. ALT. Tor50 Gravel wheels w/ Rimpact inserts and Pirelli Cinturato Gravel M tyres Super Bright Magicshine Monteer 3500lm light. And of course Le Col's finest cycling kit!