Tristan Ridley lives on his bike. In fact, when we talk, he’s at the front end of the longest time he’s spent at home in the UK for years. He’s just got back from cycling across Iceland, and is about to launch again into Mexico at the end of October after bikepacking through the US to the border last year. But today we’re talking about the trip he had been planning for years - a challenge to cycle from Brighton to John O’Groats in under two weeks on £100. Spoiler alert - he did it on £74.47.
His set up was an amalgamation of found and near-free objects: a £10 Peugeot city bike with zebra print handle bars and rusting frame from the 1970s; a sleeping bag free from Facebook marketplace and a roll mat for £3. He strapped Sainsbury’s bags for life onto his pannier rack and he was ready to go: “If you’ve got a rack on your bike, you can make virtually anything work,” he tells me.
