Semi-skimmed Inbred.

When I chose to use Salsa Enabler forks on the orange Inbred I had a few reasons. If I'm perfectly honest, one reason was that they'd allow me to hitch a ride on the half fat bandwagon, if I fancied. The fact that it's the height of summer and fat tyres are primarily used for snow riding didn't seem a good enough reason not to have a fiddle.

The rim's a little on the narrow side at 48mm but it's still big enough to spread the tyre and get a good feel for the thing. I've not ridden it further than a lap of the yard yet but I'll report back once I do. I believe there's a shipment of Salsa 82mm rims due in the country soon, so if I enjoy riding it, there might just be a rim swap on the cards!

Tour Divide Training ... in Wales!

You could be forgiven for thinking that New Mexico and mid Wales don't really have much in common and in the main you'd be right. One thing they do share is open spaces, granted those spaces might be on very different scales but they're still big, open spaces with not much in them.

Perhaps that's one of the reasons that Greg and Si chose mid Wales for a pre Tour Divide shake down ride ... I recall that Aidan Harding used a trip down the Sarn Helen last year for the same purpose. Although the picture shows them stood outside a bothy, they didn't stay in it (unlike me). They were there to test their kit out and that's exactly what they did ... pitching their Laser Photons across the stream. Their Welsh trip might have only been two days but it proved invaluable in fine tuning the stuff that they're depending on as they race the TD ... Good luck fellas.

WRT ... A view from the trenches.

Obviously this year's Welsh Ride Thing has been and gone but I thought I'd post a few pictures to whet your appetite for the coming months ... hopefully those coming months will be a little less wet than it was at the end of May.

If it's good enough for the bears ...

Home sweet home ... yea right.

Bikepacker or dealer?

Breakfast in bed for Jane?

Paul e and Nick chasing the sun!

Paul's lovely bivvy spot.