Pannier has been on the road for just over 3 months now and we thought it was time to organise an evening to celebrate the launch – gathering our contributors and future contributors, travellers, and friends for some cycle touring conversations over a few drinks and tasty food…
B1866 – the Brooks shop and home of the iconic B17 cycle touring saddle – was our host for the evening. The shop provided a fantastic setting for our Pannier resources: our touring cards; canvases from our recent Culinary Cornwall Tour ; Danny’s original illustrations from our Prepare section; pinnable maps; a selection of the best cycle touring equipment we sell; and the website up on a large screen for people to browse. Caren Hartley also brought the Porkeur bike she has built for photographer Camille Macmillan to use in the Pyrenees – we set that up at the front of the shop, alongside the tents, sleeping bags/mats, and stoves to offer a ‘packability’ scale for the touring equipment…
Everyone seemed in good spirits. Over the course of the evening it was great to put faces to the names we hadn’t met in person before, and hear your touring tales and upcoming touring plans. On the drinks front, we worked with Leeds Brewery on our Route Beer – a pale ale: ideal for travelling cyclists to celebrate the end of a hard day’s cycle touring, and toast the road ahead. We also had Purity’s Saddle Black, and awesome soft drinks from Luscombe . On the food front, we had the help of Tom Perkins – a perfect fit for Pannier – a travelling cyclist and the author, illustrator (and everything else) of Spices and Spandex: a beautiful and informative travelling cookbook he produced following his tour from the UK, down through Africa to Cape Town. He made some delicious small bites, all inspired from his book. Tom also happened to work for Southwestern Distillery in Cornwall, so helped out with the gin cocktails.
As the evening drew to close, it was time for the hotly-contested raffle – we had a set of rear panniers, one of our touring caps, and one of Tom’s books up for grabs. Well done to the winners! Once all the Route Beers had gone, we called it a night; inspired to head out on the bikes that weekend.
Thanks to all those who made the journey there, hopefully we will see you at our next event.
Here’s to the road ahead…
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Thanks to Serge at B1866, Adam at Cycle EXIF, and Jamie at Headset Press for some of the photos.