The Solent Scramble Field Trip
Jul 27, 2026
An idea that has been brewing for years was linking 'The Rat Run' to the Isle of Wight, via the South Downs, it sounded great, and it's totally do-able, in fact Cass Gilbert and I road it last year as a recce, but in doing so realized that we just didn't enjoy the sections of road through the two cities (Portsmouth and Winchester)
Sooo, we decided that creating a long IOW route that could be ridden to from the shop and therefore linked with the Rat Run into a sort of figure of 8 would be in keeping with the dirt heavy theme of the Rat Run, and Woodys rides in general.
An opportunity arose to test my route during the height of the heatwave, knowing that the route had plentiful swim spots, we committed!
A friend 'Nick The Greek' has spent the last few years training hard and racing gravel, he got close to qualifying for the Worlds!
Nicky is a cafe regular, I'd always catch him on his mid-ride coffee stops and say 'You need to come bike camping with me'
Nick rode a Harley Davidson chopper for years, and would ride out with friends, drink whiskey and sleep next to his bike with a tarp draped over the bike.
Combining camping with off-road riding was something he'd had in mind, but the opportunity hadn't come up till now!
I offered Nick my Stooge Rambler, setup with a bunch of bags and a tarp shelter. I asked if he minded if the bike was single speed. I was surprised that he was so up for it! He used to ride track bikes, so single speed wasn't too alien to him, but it had been a good 10 years since he'd ridden without gears, and certainly never loaded and on such a hilly route!
Dan and Sarah decided to join, friends of the shop, Dan on his Stooge Scrambler (which used to be mine!)
Sarah's 1990's Trek 26 er didn't fill her with confidence for the route so Robbie kindly lent her his Ritchey Ascent!
Scotty decided to join too, for the Saturday section which later turned into the whole two days after negotiating a last minute day off from work on Sunday!
He rode his Surly ECR which accompanied him across South America on his year long tour! He's since converted it to drop bar, which I love!
The Rag Tag crew peddled off through the forest to the ferry.
After loading up with food from a really nice health food store in Yarmouth called 'Harveys' we headed south, straight onto a section of old railway trail and towards Tennyson down for the first of many big climbs!
For Southern England, the Isle of Wight has a lovely sort of 'forgotten' feel to it, there are so many beautiful buildings, but most haven't been modernised much, it's full of character and combines 'holiday vibes' with going back in time a little.
The theme of this route is 'up and down' it almost never stops going up or down, which is fitting as that's exactly the sort of route I enjoy, I find flat sections really uninspiring.
There are so few road sections, Id estimate less than 10% of the route, so if you love climbing, double track and single track descents, stopping for swims, and big coastal views, this route is for you!
This ride was really hard, partly due to the climbing but mostly due to the 35 degree heat!
Nicky, Scott and myself were all riding single speed, with around 50 gear inches, there was plenty of pushing, which Nicky really wasn't used to! To be fair he committed to pedalling more climbs than I did! I think he paid for it towards the end of the ride where I drew great pleasure from seeing him on the verge of being a little cooked! A first!
Day 1 felt pretty relentless in its elevation gain, fortunately split with a lovely swim spot.
Day 2 has more 'flow' its still spikey, but there are some sections that are faster, overall don't expect much more than 8 miles an hour as an average for the whole route, unless you're going really hard.
My Dead Forest Circada prototype setup like this felt perfect!
I designed this bike to ride equally well loaded or unloaded, the holy grail of bike design for me is a bike that you can ride fully loaded almost as hard as you can unloaded, I dont want to feel held back by the fact I'm carrying gear.
The huge frame bag allowed me to store most of the heavy items centrally and low down, the Rons Fabs chest up front stored my tent, mattress and a few other bits.
The bag support is home made from some bits and pieces, it works, but someday ill get myself a 'Shovel Research' Rod Stewart.
As it was so hot, I didn't bring a sleeping bag, just two sleeping bag liners, which was fine, I voile strapped them under the saddle.
I had a stove, Porlex coffee grinder, and 250 grams of the best Scenery Columbia and about a kilo of trail mix which kept my energy high all ride!
The 29x2.6 Maxxis Recon Race tyres which I really didn't love initially seem to have bedded in nicely! They felt pretty stiff at first, but they're tough, and actual feel pretty supple now that they are run in. I ran about 15 PSI if you'd like to know.
A word on the brakes, steep fast decents, fully loaded, tired arms and hands, you may think that would be a recipe for disaster, but quite the contrary! These brakes work so well, as good as my Klampers, if not better! So much power and modulation, zero fade. Rim brakes aren't just a retro throwback, good ones work really really well, are super easy to service, and the modulation is far superior.
Diacompe 287V levers (long Pull) and Paul Motolites is a dream combination.
Back in Yarmouth for about 3pm, we ate our 5th Ice creams of the trip, I had a dip in some questionably murky water near the harbour while the others watched, jumped on the ferry back to the mainland and was home for dinner.
Would highly recommend!
Tom @fomtaz
Route link
