Brompton folding bike,Combe down Tunnels, Along The Kennet and Avon tow path. Camp, Wiltshire Man
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2022
- This is the concluding part of my recent journey on a Brompton when I rode with my friend David from Swindon to Bath.
In this video we ride through the Combe down tunnel.
Looking back I really shouldn't have gone through without some lighting, and if I do it again I will be sure to fit lights onto the bike, I didn't realise it was going to be so dark in there...
On our return journey we cycled around 25 miles along the Kennet and Avon tow path, it was quite rough in places. The bikes coped fine but I have to say I would have preferred my MTB in places:)
Music used in the video is all from the TH-cam audio library:
Believe-Neffex
Sleepy Hollow-E's Jammy jams,
Your love-Yung logo's,
Early Avril-Unicorn heads,
Don't want to let myself down-Neffex
As an American ,I am fascinated with the British canal system and the narrowboats. Such a cool lifestyle.
I was surprised to discover you have a similar canal in Washington DC….the C&O….👍
Thanks for taking us along (both videos).
Thoroughly enjoyed all of that.
Fully agree on the speed of cycling against slower walking or faster engine power.
Great trip here Sandy. And I think that you will really enjoy the folding bike purchase. I have an Ammaco folding bike (made in England I think.) I bought it used a few years ago and I believe that it was made in the 80's. I love it and I take it with me almost every time that I go on long trips to camp with my truck and travel trailer. Very handy and versatile. It is only a 3 speed but it does just fine for me. I have never actually went on a bicycling trip loaded with camping gear though so I may have to give it a try. I would probably take my bigger mountain bike made by Giant on the trip though because it has 21 speeds as I recall. Thanks to both you and Dave for taking us along with you on this trip. Take care my friend, see you on the next one.
Thanks Terry, my Brompton is only a 3 spedd but it does OK, You'll have to try a bike camping adventure. The MTB style of bike is better for off road journeys thats for sure but for versatility the folding bike is great
I saw you and your good lady on Sunday, crossing the road in Swindon. Made me smile to see someone who inspires me in real life.
Yes I think we were on our way to the pub in South Marston:)
Sandy you've done it again another fantastic video, what you see when your not in a car. Don't tell anyone as they might want to do it as well, what lovely scenery and almost on your doorstep. Thank you for posting, it always puts a smile on my face .best wishes Roy (oz)
Great video Sandy. You can lock your bikes just past Tucking Mill viaduct on the two tunnels greenway and take a steep footpath down to view the viaduct from below. It's gated and well signposted. Well worth the effort as this viaduct is truly spectacular viewed from below. Enjoy watching your adventures. Thanks for sharing.
What a Pleasant adventure to view… look’s like your friend and you had a great time, will look forward to your next adventure 👍
The horse didn't seem very amused, I think maybe he must have heard that one before. 😄
Thanks for another lovely video Sandy, I watched it with my youngest daughter and we both enjoyed it!
Haa, yes that horse always has a long face. Glad you enjoyed the video with your daughter:)
What a great combination of a folding bike and a tent big enough to keep the bike safe and dry.
I hope you make many more trips on the Brompton.
I love the idea you can take them on a bus or train somewhere and get to areas that are a bit too far for a day ride.
Thanks for sharing.
I shall be using the Brompton on some future camps later this year Colin, I have a nice bike ride planned :)
Great little adventure there Sandy! 👍 Have cycled part of that route myself, made it as far as Caen Hill Locks. It certainly does get bumpy along there!
I recommend cycling the Devon Coast 2 Coast too (Ilfracombe to Plymouth) 100 miles. Great little route 👍
Great video. I just got myself a Brompton to do trips where it's easy to get back by bus or train. Good to see a trangia. I love then.
Sandy, now having watched both videos I must say that little Brompton is very impressive, in fact, I cannot think of a bike that would have done a better job for that trip. 100 miles isn't shabby either considering the payload. I think you will have much enjoyment and fun with that bike now, and in the future. Regards, Henry.
Nice to see the country side from a different perspective, i cycled from trowbridge to bristol and back with 5 mates, many years ago and we only had 2 punctures between us, like the brompton bikes they are a very good all round bike 👍
Wonderful video Sandy. Those tunnels looked amazing. Hope you and Dave enjoyed the Bromptons.
ahh wonderful videos Sandy, really loved these. Thanks for sharing with us all, I've learned so much from you about our local area. Cheryl (North Swindon).
Thank you for sharing your adventure! Cheers!
Your videos always have such a warm, informative and interesting charm that I enjoy very much… no matter what mode of transport you happen to be employing… thank you for sharing the experience 🤗👍
Great biking journey Sandy, lovely footage as always 😉👍
loved it - love watching cycling videos through the countryside - as you say you see way more than on a motorcycle - cheers
Really enjoyed that Sandy hope you do more Brompton adventures in the future. I may even sell my regular cycles and buy a Brompton myself they look very versatile.👍
I agree. I'm impressed with their performance.....👍
I like the slower pace of the new bike. The integrated bags and hardware look very well thought out. Lots of great things to see and you're still riding along with your gear at a nice pace. Weather has finally turned a little better here in Kentucky. Time to get out for a little ride.
What a great trip. Love this stuff. Thanks, Sandy. 👍🙂🚴♂️
Top stuff Mr W, thank you 👍
What great, adventurous lads you are - excellent.
Excellent video thanks for taking us along
Really enjoyed this, many thanks for filming it, i look forward to the next one.
Well done Sandy and Dave! really enjoyed watching this. I live in Trowbridge and have ridden along the kennet and avon a few times but watching this has whet my appetite to dust the bike off and get orf me arse! Cary on with the great vids mate.
BRILLIANT, as usual. 👍👍👍
Brilliant Sandy well done to you and Dave and I hope to see you both out and about again soon. Well the bikes look great, I take it you were happy with it's performance, it certainly looks a very nice ride and it's surprising what the Brompton can carry, super and well done again Sandy .
Great Part 2, sir. Thank you. But, Bradford and what now?! (((o;
I've often considered a Brompton, but couldn't ever quite get over the prices. No doubt though, that you get your money's worth. I have, stuck in my memory, this: waiting for a coach up to London, on a cold cold morning. A lady arrived on a Brompton, and then performed what I can only describe as some sort of silent ballet. Seemingly without effort, with no wasted movement and without apparent pause, she had dismounted, folded the Brompton, popped it in a bag and boarded the bus. I was so mesmerised that I had to jump up and stop the doors from closing!
Conversely, a pal who had one, made a video demonstration of folding a Brompton when drunk. He was, he assures me. Apparently, the afficianados were unamused. Shame, it was hilarious (o;
Nice video bruv, really enjoyed seeing Dave, he's been a good friend to the family.
Great to watch. Thanks for sharing
Delightful video, enjoy it!! Very cool bike Sandy, quality and so compact bit of kit! I like It!!👍🤠Thank you for taking us along your trip!! 💪See you on the next one!!👌
What a lovely video Sandy, quintessentially English countryside, so beautiful!
Fabulous video. Lots of bunkers along the Kennet and Avon - it was planned as a major obstacle (along with the ridge behind it) and a defensive line to halt the German advance in 1940 - thankfully not needed due to Battle of Britain which we commemorate tomorrow on the 15th Sep
Enjoyable film there Sandy.That was good going to do that distance on Bromptons.
Well done ! Another great video . I appreciate the the local knowledge.. even when its wrong 😀. By far my favorite TH-camr .
Thanks Tom
Great adventure, well done Sandy
Thanks Tom
I can't wait for the review of the Brompton. It would fit in my little car nicely.
Nice one lad's Very enjoyable to watch. 👍
Wonderful!
very enjoyable thanks
Yay!!!! But you should always have a torch on you. And a packed lunch and plenty to drink! X
Love the video Wiltshire Man Cheers!:)
Lovely trip out for me thanks mate
Great one...the tunnels and the tow paths look very interesting, the "heavy traffic" at the end is stunning. I don't know about steak and noodles for breakfast but the pizza and cola for supper is my idea of a great meal. I sometimes make a pizza on my camp stove in the woods/mountains with pita bread. Thanks for the post.
Hi Joe, my mate Dave reckons my breakfast was a bit heavy, but it went down well:)
So wish I'd known you were coming down my neck of the woods Sandy. I'd love to have met you down at the Dundas Viaduct. Maybe next time... 😉
What a enjoyable cycling countryside.
Really nice video Sandy, We know Honey Street, Adams Grave, Woodborough, Alton Barnes, Barge Inn area etc very well having camped here a lot mid 90s with our twin boys, In fact we were off to one of the camp pubs Golden Swan at Wilcott this weekend, for nice good walks, beer and grub etc,but sadly my friend Rob from Devises is not so well maybe we'll meet with him and his wife the following weekend instead. I do like your folding bike, nice bit of kit, me being nearly 60 it's got me thinking getting about getting out again soon on my old Boardman Crossover cycle soon..👍👍...Atb Tom..
Nice to see you on my local patch sandy
Great adventure, well done !! atb
Fantastic video
Cheers bro I quite enjoyed your video it had quite a bit in it. Safe travels
Thanks Ken I always try and make em watchable:)
Thanks Sandy
Briliant👍
Morning Sandy you passed through our small village of Alton Barnes look forward to seeing more of your road trips
Thats a nice village to live in Tony, I often go to Honey street for cake and coffe with the lads on the motorbikes
Great ride! Congrats es 73s de ON6NW
A lovely adventure 👍
The shot of the folded up bike inside the tent porch explained everything to me 😲💯 Do the small wheels affect the top speed compared to other bikes, or is that mitigated by the gearing ?
I recognised a lot of the Caen Hill to Knapp Hill area as I used to walk there.
I'd wondered about the positioning of those pill boxes as well. Set back from the GHQ (blue) defence line along the canal but great visibility being on top of the hill, so maybe primarily a commend post.
Lots of maize fields around the barrow for the lost souls to run amok in.
Great vlog, Sandy. I think you're spoilt for choice when it comes to selecting routes in Wiltshire, Somerset and surronding counties; loads of beautiful, historic sites. I definitely need to give myself a 'kick up the @rse', put the motorcycle away and put some miles in on my aging MTB! I'd certainly be a bit lighter and a lot fitter. 😅
We all need some exercise in our lives Steve, all my motorcycle buddies are carrying a bit of a payload!!! And I could see me putting on weight with all the coffee and cake stops, so exercise is important not only to lose weight but to keep the body fit and able to continue on in an active lifestyle hopefully for a few more years?!!
Fitting scales to knife today and building the sheath
Sandy you’ve done hiking and paramotoring. Now you need a long boat! Just kidding. Good video as always.
I'd love one but not enough money or time for anything else!:)
A great end to a great adventure Sandy, and Dave. the tunnels were a blast! long too!. some great scenery, Ye old White horse again that was nice!. Ok Sandy still waiting for a sced for an attempt at cw qso. altho I have not been pounding too much brass lately too much outside work/chores. thanks again for a great video and for sharing.de Ellis WA1RKS
I was on 80 last night Ellis, I may be buying a new antenna for the higher bands, thinking about getting a Hustler and mounting it high upon a pole with elevated radials
Nice bike on the night
I got a sore ass just watching that, great ride though.
Enjoyable videos as ever Sandy. I was trying to follow your routing on Google Maps, and with some difficulty. I realise it creates additional post production work, but showing where you were with mapping insertions would have been helpful. 73.
Really enjoyed that 👍 When I come down to the Cotswolds (40+ years) I always go to All Cannings and travel that route and back up and past your house! On the way home I go to Bath, so this was a very enjoyable and lovely video for me Sandy :-)
All the best to you and yours 👍 🍻🍻🍻
I've been along the All Cannings road quite a few times, it is a lovely stretch of road thats for sure and well guarded with pill boxes!
@@WiltshireMan do you think that they were something to do with the munitions store the other side of Marlborough?
@@BeercanBushcraft No I don't think so, I believe pill boxes like these were built along stretches of navigable river and canals and also certain overland routes. They were to be used if this country ever became occupied with the intention of making it difficult for invading troops to get around. I would gues that if they were ever used in anger then the life expectancy of this in the pill box probably wasn't long! Fortunately we never got invaded by the Germans..........
@@WiltshireMan true :-) They are well positioned either side of hump in the road. The only reason I mentioned the ammo dump (as it were), was because it must have generated quite a lot of traffic?
Anyway, really enjoyed that video Sandy, I'll be thinking of you in a couple of weeks time when I'm driving down that road. 🙏👍🍻
Hey Sandy, any chance you'd do a stealth camp in one of those bunkers overnight? I'm missing my favourite stealth camper at the moment because unfortunately his wife died and he's understandably not producing content at the moment.
I’m missing him too!
Christ Sandy they ain't cheap lol, but if it makes you happy and gives us these vids you post to enjoy then bless ya mate.
They are pricey Phill and they hold theyre value too
Wow, they should have called it TUCKING LONG TUNNEL haha... So many locks!!! Did you enjoy the chocolate hobnobs? Best biscuit in the world!!!! Lovely adventure with plenty to see, cheers.
Hi Bry, Yes it was a Tucking long tunnel:) Tucking ell!! As for the biscuits, I think these were the ones you mentioned and yes I agree, my favourite biscuit. I shall buy them for all my travels now as they are a great source of energy and go lovely with a slurpy:)
Such a lot to see on this ride Bry, a lot of history
Glad you enjoyed the tunnels. What did you think of the music. It’s a lovely ride along the Canal even though some of it is overgrown. You looked to have quite some gear on the bike, I bet that made it an interesting trip. We are quite fortunate to have some good off road rides fairly locally. Cheers thanks for the video.
Great video and scenery. No lights in the tunnel is a bit hazardous. 🤔
Yes I agree, I didn't expect it to be so dark in there. I shall be getting lights fitted soon
Lovely stuff, again, Sandy. Have you thought of getting on the train, somewhere, with your Brompton?
Great video Sandy, I'm wondering how those little bikes would cope with all the steep hills we have up here, in Yorkshire,,, ?? 😀🚲🚲
Even with the altered lower gearing I think you'd have to push up some of the really steep stuff, to be honest though I don't mind a bit of walking as it's give a break from the saddle:)
Great second part to your 100 mile almost ride! What did you think of Lockeridge Dene and all the Sarsens? Lovely little place
👍👍
Why the long face? Because of hearing that joke all the time 😂😂
Lovely video, them folders seem to do the job.
Canals and cycling! What more could you ask for?
What a journey. So much to see, very enjoyable. The history there is incredible. You are a lucky and fortunate man to be able to go on these adventures. I envy you. I noticed those long slender boats in the canals, do people live on them and do they have to pay to do so or are they working boats. Such a smashing video and thanks for sharing. Tony.
Hi Tony, they are called Narrow boats, and are built for use on the canal. May years ago before the rail network the canals carried most of the goods and provisions up and down the country, now they are just for pleasure and yes people live on them
I really enjoyed these two videos Sandy, Dave's a good old boy, he makes a great cycle camping bud. Is it your intension to use the Brompton on the KAW? I don't expect you to answer as it would be a spoiler. I like the E 11 R and C 111 R touch at the end. ATB Big Dave Scotland
Riding through dark tunnels with no light, all part of the adventure!
No Marco that was crazy, I won't do that again
Enjoyable trip to watch as always. How did your small wheels cope with the ruts and potholes? Regards Mike
Not as well as my MTB bike but it was OK just about. To be fair though the Brompton isn't mean't for very bad terrain
I may have mentioned it before, but...THIS would be my kind of vacation, not big cities!
Great to be out there’s disused railway lines that are set up for cyclists and walkers around Derby/Nottinghamshire it’s got to be safer than the roads
Great second half 👏 I always get them confused, was that an aqueduct or a viaduct?
Keep up the good work.
aqueduct carries water I believe. (nerd mode off) :)
Hi Sandy. Greetings from another Brompton fan from Northern Finland. I've had my 6 speed touring version for about two years now. You have such great, stable video shooting, I enjoy to watch it!
As I have shot some video for my Cycling Finn youtube channel, I often suffer from wobling video. I have old GoPro Hero 5 in chest harness, so unfortunately shooting video when pedaling gives video which may make someone seasick 😢
What camera do you have to get such a stable video?
Are you using handheld gimbal? If so, which brand & model?
Any other recommendations for filming cycling?
Best Regards: Pekka, Cycling Finn
Thanks for your comment Pekka,
The stable footage is all because of the camera, I use a Gopro Hero7 black, it has great image stabilisation. I will check out your channel:)
Sandy I have walked and ridden the Two Tunnels many times -A great experience and loved your video-If you go on from Bath to Bitton and into Bristol is a really interesting route that you may wish to try - Can be a bit skanky for a while when you first enter Bristol but does get better as you approach the centre or perhaps put your folder on the train to Bristol and ride back to Bath?
Hi James
I'd like to try that sometime, a future video perhaps?
Sandy just a quick question. How many gears does your Brompton have?
He commented else where. Surprisingly its a three speed.
Steak for breakfast ... how the other half live 😋
How was the Brompton on the towpaths?
It was OK Gordon but I would have preferred my MTB on those sections
Hi Sandy. Do the small wheels make it harder to pedal? You sound more out of breath pedaling the Brompton than you do on your mountain bike.
I would say there's not much in it to be honest, the little bike seems to fly along OK
Thank You both ,most interesting amazing bikes but not for me .
I am too used to large wheels etc but now need a new body Hi ..._._
I'll be using the MTB for most off road adventures but the Brompton will be my Utility bike of choice:)
To the cost Sandy
Hi Phil, That's very generous of you THANKYOU. Hopefully with the cycling I'll be able to keep the costs down but they still exist. Thanks again
Sandy
Why are these tunnels build, Sandy?
Why didn’t you ask the farmer?
Well done Guys, great tour.
Hi Hend, I think they were for the trains long ago but now just a cycle path as for the farmer he was some way off working the land in his tractor. Best to leave him to it and move on. We found a better camp spot in the end
Great material you put together, sir. Beautiful surrounds. Not sure if someone has mentioned to you, but given your appreciation for the past, you might be interested in trying to take a spin on a Bickerton: th-cam.com/video/shxHFCi673A/w-d-xo.html. A friend of mine and I found a used one during graduate school years ago, and it served him well during that time (hard to find spare parts now, I'd imagine).
I hate to talk politics but this english countryside will soon change because the English are becoming a minority in England and anything of British or english tradition is now wrong, racist, or extreme right wing.
I used to love being on exercise in Englands countryside during my service in the army.
If the political establishment does not do any thing soon this will be a memory sadly.
How wonderful to ride through such historic places. Very inspiring, thanks for sharing your trip with us. ❤️
Brilliant video Sandy, up to your usual high standards, enjoyed it.🙂👍