Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
To prove that you don’t need an expensive bike and fancy gear to have a proper adventure, Tristan Ridley is cycling the length of Great Britain with a budget of just £100. His ride started today, and he’s aiming to cover the 900-mile route in under two weeks. Will his junkyard-find 1970s city bike survive the trip? Follow along here…
Photos by Tristan Ridley
We’ve said it time and time again: you don’t need all the fancy gear we review here on the site. Sure, spending some cash on some nice bikepacking gear can improve certain aspects of your setup, but as we’ve proven with our Budget Bikepacking Build-Off series, there are ways to get out for a night under the stars without forking out thousands of dollars on the latest and greatest.
Despite cycling around the world for almost 10 years and having a perfectly dialed bike and gear setup, Tristan Ridley has always been a strong advocate for finding adventure on a budget. His next trip is all about proving this. Starting today, Tristan is riding the length of Great Britain, from Brighton on the south coast of England, up to John o’Groats at the top of Scotland, on a budget of just £100.
His budget includes absolutely everything needed for the trip, including sourcing a bicycle, bags, camping gear, tools, and food. It even has to include getting home at the end, because that’s an important part of any trip, too. He’s not using any of his own gear or his own bike, with the exception of camera equipment and basic items, which most people would already have (clothes, a phone, and basic household items).
So far, Tristan’s expenses are:
- £35.90 for a flight back from Inverness.
- £10 on a bicycle, which he found in a local bicycle junkyard. It was in surprisingly good condition and hasn’t needed much more than a cleanup. It’s a 1970s Peugeot city bike.
- £3 on an inflatable camping mat on Facebook marketplace.
- £2.50 on a patch kit
- £5.50 on a 500ml bottle of alcohol fuel
- Grand total spent so far: £56.90
- Current total left for two weeks of food: £43.10
Here are more details from Tristan about his gear and route for the trip:
Words by Tristan Ridley
I won’t be starting with any food in my bags, as that would feel too much like cheating. I’ve managed to obtain most of what I need for free, either through sites like Freegle or Facebook Marketplace, as donations or gifts from friends or family, or by improvising. Crucially, I kept the whole process offline, as I didn’t want to leverage my following to get the things I needed. I wanted it all to be doable using methods that anybody would have access to.
Through Freegle and FB, I’ve been able to source a free tent, free sleeping bag, free handlebar basket, and free rain jacket. Friends and family took care of a bike pump, some chain lube, a few inner tubes (that are all the wrong size), some bungee straps, and a climber’s chalk bag, which I can use as a feedbag. I’ve also grabbed a small saucepan from my kitchen, created a DIY pot cosy using some bubble wrap and duct tape, and made myself a soda can alcohol stove, which is all obviously free. Panniers are a couple of grocery bags that I already had lying around the house.
The route is going to be relatively straightforward, traveling up the east side of England to Edinburgh and then heading north along EV1 to the north coast. The bike is a 2×5 with fairly high gearing, and I’m not sure how much abuse the chain can withstand, so I thought it best to stick to a relatively flat route.
Follow Tristan’s adventure via Instagram here.
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