A One-Day Cycling Challenge | Isle of Wight Loop Adventure

A bit of a different kind of adventure for this one — a full day out, aiming to loop around the Isle of Wight by bike, all in a single day.

We started early, catching a train from near our homes in Suffolk, riding across London from Stratford to Paddington, then heading on to Southampton and taking the ferry across to the island. After this 3 hours journey the goal was to ride a 100km loop around the Isle of Wight and make it back in time for our ferry (around 7 hours later)— and we kind of managed it, I will leave it to you to decide if our slightly altered island loop still counts as ‘riding around the Isle of Wight in a day’!

If I’m honest, the riding on the island wasn’t quite what we’d hoped for — beautiful country lanes, yes, but quite a lot of traffic too. Still, it was a reminder that even when things don’t go exactly to plan, a day out on the bike is rarely a bad day.

This was also a bit of a test to see how much of an adventure you can pack into just one day — no overnights, and on a relatively tight budget (we both spent under £100 each for all the travel and food). Hopefully it shows that even if you’re short on time, there’s always a way to make some space for adventure.

Thank you for watching, your support genuinely helps make these videos (and trips!) possible — so thank you again.

Links:

Become a member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7yMDmo2eoCQgY7kxUjCkVQ/join

Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/matryder

Komoot route of our ride:
https://www.komoot.com/tour/2296945636?share_token=atTHDGdv8iUzuiPEWGJLG29MGVS4YggEwjyPxWvVcfAs5g4StT&ref=wtd

Review channel (where I review a lot of the gear I will be using on this trip):
https://youtube.com/@matryderreviews?si=XXmCNUNMUqcF9hAA

we’ve just left it switch oh no way yes mhm we’re on our way and we’re going down to Stratford London mhm and then we’re I’m asking you this cuz obviously you’ve planned it all i don’t know yeah well we’re we’re planning to do in a day the point of the video really it’s like a one day adventure we’re getting the train to Southampton via London having to ride across London which will be fun mhm and then I always quite like it it’s kind of like Yeah it is a thrill to say yeah it’s just danger isn’t it i don’t know sometimes when you got cycle lanes it’s kind of less dangerous than kind of trying to do a country lane in England you know out in the countryside yeah I agree i agree anyway so yeah we’ll get down to Southampton get the ferry across to the island right and then the plan is to try and do a a loop of the whole island yeah which is 100 km exactly and then come home all in a day all in one day yeah i mean I like these things it is a challenge a proper challenge isn’t it exactly so we’ll see you in London or to South London wherever I decide to stop overlaying clips and actually show us live you’re still talking to yourself is you exactly stressful yes anything to do with London is stressful for me at least thankfully Ross is in charge he’s booked all the tickets he planned everything out i did i just follow along it was only after we set off you said there’s a reason you didn’t want to drive there and I didn’t even think about I thought you wanted cuz you like public transport i like trains yeah it was quite fun riding through London as well yeah it was good actually it’s nice to do it without have to just sit in a car for Yeah 3 hours yeah true in a isolated car with coffee and Yeah nice cakes nice cakes you got nice cakes i I have got I’ve always got nice cakes in the car so anyway we’re on our way to Portouth southampton southampton single single it was on a new deal oh it’s double charging the price down yeah oh yeah we’ll talk about that in a bit so what’s the idea then £80 in tickets wasn’t it m and we’re going to try and keep to under 20 for food and snacks yeah try and keep it under 100 for I forgot yeah seven i got £30 left so I had three beer is like £7 so I got £6 worth of food actually two beers maybe I’ll drop one beer go for half i’m going to have a beer then you said I like it of course you are okay thank you cheers thanks thank you we’re in the aisle of whites the largest in it on it in it we’re on it yeah yeah we’re not in it this is the largest island yeah as we found with a quick Google on the way over in England largest island second most populated that’s right yeah so yeah there we go so remember that remember that but I’ve been here when I was a kid you’ve never been i don’t think so i don’t remember ever being here pretty cool though this is a 100 kilometer route all the way around yeah so we’re doing a loop loop of the island but it’s good so we’re going to get moving we’re in the harbor now time to go yeah I think so good we’re on the floating bridge which is just a ferry just a ferry i was expecting like a actual bridge like normal yeah me too yeah I’m disappointed the whole trip is ruined also it’s We got the fast ferry across didn’t we that would have taken just for pedestrians and cyclists and that cost a little bit more a bit that would take us to West Cows and we’re in East Cows and No the other way around it would take us to East Cows we’re now West Cows trying to get the ferry across to East Cows it’s taken longer so it t longer we should have probably just I’m hoping it will save us time at the end because we’re doing a loop so in theory we should be getting back on the ferry here and not have to do this again maybe true yeah actually yeah it would wouldn’t it it will work it will it will work and the other ferry the proper ferry apparently does a really nice breakfast which we didn’t get on our one disappointing coffee so at the moment it feels like paint or something but it’s taken longer and it’s less convenient oh well never good start yeah good start for a while get awesome [Music] so what are we 12:30 we’re about I think it said about 18 km something like that yeah it’s not too bad is it not too bad i mean it’s busy the roads are very busy so far it’s not a pleasant ride so far no no to be honest it’s nice scenery well I I enjoyed it you’re a little non plus compared to your No no no no it’s not that it’s just I haven’t seen much i saw that harbor and whatever else we’ve just been on twisty roads and everything and and really I’ve just been focusing on there’s just lots of cars i’m never good on roads anyway i think Well I’m not I don’t normally I’m not as bothered I think as you are like just by general traffic but it is a bit um I think it’s one of them places cuz it’s a small island and so many people are you know driving around roads that they use all the time i always think that when people become complacent with what can be dangerous roads so when they when they drive roads every day and nine times out of 10 there’s not a car coming the other way they take the risk of overtaking you and you know I’ve had it twice where someone’s had to break in the opposite direction to make sure they don’t have a crash well we had a van I don’t know if you noticed a blue van that got between us yeah got between us and then started i mean then there’s a lot of that so I suppose really I’m I can’t pay attention to the scenery too much i try and be I think we’re quite courteous because I do you know when you’re driving around in a van working it you know is probably a pain if you get held up for a little bit but we’re pulling over I don’t think anything’s been stuck behind us more than about 10 15 seconds it’s not like you’re it’s not like we’re doing long climbs with a cure traffic behind us is it so we’ve done a fair bit of climbing so far i check see what it says on here 367 so far it’s only a thousand total isn’t it i Well I thought so unless it really is 2000 and Kimoot was wrong but I mean you know there’s nice so there we go how’s your bike running very nice yeah mine mine’s yours yeah few problems i just can’t get the shift in right and that’s a little bit of a a challenge you know when every time you want to change gear particularly when you’re under load going up hills it kind of slips and and everything but I’m slowly trying to dial it in it’s my own fault i didn’t test ride it but I didn’t get chance so uh I should expect no less right so yeah we’ll crack on see you a bit further up there it’s that time yeah coffee time raspberry cookie soft tiny little cake hard tot sugar you thought it was sugar i didn’t when I looked closer looks like a tiny table you’re going to need sugar though aren’t you or do you manage without I I don’t have sugar on camera i often have to cut out how many sugars you I don’t know if you notice that i didn’t notice it but I’m glad you do heat heat i’ve managed to get the shifting working it’s perfect now just little tiny adjustments i think I always just do too much doing like a quarter of a turn on the barrel adjuster each time and uh it’s worked so yeah they’re in good shape which is nice so we’re at 628 m of elevation 35.8 so nearly 36 km so it’s not going to be 1,000 mters no it feels more like it’s come up to the 2,000 which you thought but I don’t know why it’s um maybe I saw that somewhere else then i don’t know because Kimoot is saying it’s about 1 th00and kimoot lies m it’s a challenging ride doesn’t it it is a challenging ride yes still busy roads every road is busy there was one that I thought finally were on a quiet road it was barely wide enough for a car was it and there was loads of So uh it slows us down but I don’t know and we got a headwind but that will turn into a tailwind should do yeah should do shouldn’t it yeah no well we’re doing all right i think we’ll just keep going we get to the top of the island soon don’t we and then maybe try and find somewhere for a coffee and I don’t know we’re going to cut it fine aren’t we yeah it’s not as comfortable as I thought it might be it always happens doesn’t it it does [Music] so we just stopped here for some snacks something to eat and we did some calculations and it we had 33 miles to go in about 3 hours under 3 hours and as I think maybe we could do it but it’s not worth the risk no so we’re I’ll probably put a map up we’re just kind of cutting a corner of the island we’re going around the island we’re just kind of not not doing the full we’re cutting a little bit off cutting a corner but I mean that’s fine it’s just Yeah part of the fun was to kind of see if we could do the whole thing in a day 100 kilometers go a bit short it’s still It’s still a fun day we still see most of the island but we can’t that’s And you added a couple of mechanicals with a few extra stops i think sometimes things happen you just have to Yeah yeah go with it accept it and I think I love these bars been in the drops quite a lot it’s just so nice i was talking to the camera about my bars would you mind your own business sorry yeah it’s not always about you Ross this is the quietest road we’ve been on isn’t it it is it’s kind of Yeah I don’t say the only nice bit but I think there’s been so much traffic yeah it’s been hard um it’s been a challenge right this has been This is nice though grass at 10 km yeah they’re off at that climb yeah that’s a big one although we have just had a big one haven’t we yeah that was a decent climb yeah hence the banana actually I probably should have had this at the bottom yeah well fuel for the rest yeah well I’m going have a quick drink and then we’ll carry on yeah so we’ve done our taken our diversion and I think we’re back on the route yeah so I don’t really know what the diversion cut off because I think we’re still looking like we’re going to do nearly about 90 km yeah it’s not far off about 10 off but it looked like it should have been more than that and it seems like it saved us more time with that so I’m not really sure and the the real strange thing is it was the nicest part of the route the diversion we took although this looks nice so we’re about 10 miles yeah maybe not even that now people can say in the comments if they think we it counts as us going around the aisle of white have we done the loop we’ve cut some off when you look at it it’s a it’s around the island yeah but we could do a loop right here couldn’t we and that’s a loop on a very small loop on the island but we’ve gone around it just Is it an official route though is it like It’s not an official route this is our That’s our route we said earlier didn’t we i think that we wanted a challenge um and it’s been a challenge because we couldn’t quite fit it in but it was partly it was kind of that idea you know sometimes it’s hard to fit in multiple day things and this seemed like a cool thing to try and do in a day to go the whole way around an island yeah yeah even a small island what time did we catch the train this morning or 6 yeah 6 to 12 i mean I think you could the slight mechanical issues the film obviously filming if you didn’t do that you know 100 km in we had about a 7h hour window we could do we didn’t show it on camera Bri had multiple issues not just with the gears but with other things which we we know we didn’t film but it’s I reckon that took us I don’t know it probably cost us an hour in total I would say yeah oh yeah I think so so no you could definitely do it but I’d give it a try i mean if you got chance we came from Ipssw switch so it’s quite a way down really is yeah that was the fun of it wasn’t do on the train I mean £100 isn’t nothing that’s you know still a decent amount of money to spend but to get all the way here and we had a couple of snacks and stopped in places and do all that for 100 quid for a full day out like this is quite good isn’t it I’ve got six pound left have you yeah what have you got left probably more yeah I went cheaper earlier on didn’t yeah that’s a beer at least this one yeah I want to get one maybe we can get one at the end I think we will cuz we’ve got a little wait over in Southampton as well for train so if not we get one over there there were beers on the ferry i like a ferry beer it’s not quite beer garden on the aisle of white is it i suppose not not quite no you know cheap can of beer on a ferry but you can’t You’re not allowed at your seat now you’re making me sound like an alcoholic yeah yeah you’re not allowed out the seat they wouldn’t let us out on the ferry isn’t that strange yeah you can’t go out on the There’s no deck or anything is there yeah we were told off weren’t we we were yeah nice no you were told off i wasn’t yeah okay yeah i went up and he just said “Get me a coffee.” You were standing and said “Can you please sit down?” You intimidated him I think well yeah did you give him that look go on do it later there see you saw it so uh yeah we’ll um probably Yeah next next stop will be the port wouldn’t it i think so yeah maybe a pub you never know but uh it’s been good it was a good challenge and it was our challenge it doesn’t matter if we didn’t do what we thought we’d do we did what we did and that’s it yeah yeah we’ll have done a good I mean we’ll be over 100 km in total when you count all the stuff in London true right let’s crack on [Music] heat heat we’ve got 20 minutes which means my favorite part of the day very good friends just good companions pretend you haven’t had a sip cheers that is very nice isn’t it what’s that what neck oil it’s like a low alcohol well it’s not low alcohol but it’s 4% or something okay which is low for an IPA but you get the flavor i like it and the glasses are cool isn’t they best part of the day when you deserve it as well so there we are what was your opinion of that then it was It was good i mean it was like It was It’s fun to try and do a thing like that in a day isn’t it i think that is always good fun and you know we did 90 km of a planned 100 it’s always a bit of a shame when you don’t kind of finish the route you plan to yeah I know um but still you know we got around the island we saw a lot of the island i think it was the challenge aspect that was fun i mean if we’ have just come over you just ride that route the route was You’d be a bit disappointed wouldn’t you let’s be honest yeah i mean it’s clearly like a lovely pace the aisle of white and I think I’d like to come back and see it properly like actually spend some time later is not I wouldn’t say it’s the best place for cycling no just because it’s too busy it’s too busy and and like little country roads which you know anyone who cycles in the UK if you find some really quiet ones they’re lovely cuz you know they’re rolling hills and you can ride side by side have a chat as you go but if you’re on you’re better off on busy roads with cycle lanes than small country lanes cuz you just back up the traffic on the way into we’re in cows now aren’t we that last little section we pulled over to let some cars through and there was like 15 20 cars yeah and that was only after maybe 30 seconds of buildup wasn’t it we do pull over fairly regularly we notice they’re behind us and most people were respectful again but it’s not so much that’s the problem is you’re always in it’s always in the back of well not in the back of my mind in the front of our mind that that we’re holding people up and I just don’t enjoy feeling like that but I agree with you i would like to come back here particular I’d love to come back here in my van i could get the van over here the camper van and and spend you could spend a week here i mean it’s gorgeous it’s beautiful place but you know some places are just not for cycling yeah even even some of the um nice stretches for on quiet roads it was them sort of bits where there’s there’s a lot of hedge you know I like I like a hedge as much as the next man you know good for wildlife and all that you’re known for your hedge i’m pro hedge there was a lot of hedge and you sort of knew there was nice views behind the hedges yeah that’s right all we saw were the hedges for many miles of that it was a bit like that um 200 mile ride I did was hedge just green tunnel i don’t see negative though it was a good day it was a good Yeah it’s always a good day being out on your bike you know what we could be in work and we This is a good day whatever i don’t want to just perspective and we’ve still got the uh adrenaline rush of trying to fight our way through London good choice in case we didn’t say before our ticket got us the transport across London if we wanted flying them in underground but I think technically you are allowed bikes on but if it’s busy you can’t and it just seems just the idea of trying to get a bike on and underground on a tube is I don’t want to do that no so and it was quicker it was about 5 minutes quicker to buy it might not be so bad tonight though by the time we get there it might We might consider it but there’s werewolves have you seen American Wolf in London no I haven’t actually you haven’t no I haven’t no i have to come back on my validation why what what that’s in That’s That’s insane you like horror films yeah I’ll have to watch it oh my god you think you know someone it’s brilliant it’s fantastic but there’s a scene in the tube everyone Everyone else knows about I think I’ve seen the scene in the tube actually that rings a bell and that’s I you know that is every time I’m on the tube I think of that yeah yeah that’s why you never get on the tube isn’t it well it is yeah i mean if you watch it maybe you won’t get on there how can you not have watched that i get my homework please this is a strictly non-smoking service and the use of ecigarettes is not permitted thank you for your attention we hope you enjoy traveling with us thank you so much thanks fox Junction and Siren Lane are currently in What’s happening heat heat heat heat one more thing i’ve contacted Kona twice now about the rear wheel failing and nobody’s got back to me so I’m pretty disappointed if I’m honest i think I’ll send them one more message to see what they say but I’ll probably give up if I don’t hear from them from then on it’s a shame cuz I like the bike but I’ll just have to stop recommending them because you know you need good after sales i’m the more I think about it the more I’m annoyed with that rear rim because it’s not just a case of it failing you know you’d expect an apology for something that could have caused a big problem i mean that could have failed when I was going down a big big descent or something so I don’t know i said let me know let me know if you think I’m just going over the top 11:00 we’re back in Ipsswitch not bad is it no good day it has been a long day a good day yeah and I mean it really has been a good day long day yeah not crazy long you know we were up at early but not like you know at 6 well at here at 6 and we haven’t been moving all day well we kind of we’ve been on trains and being sat down so yeah it’s good fun though so yeah there we go i hope you enjoyed this one we did and if you did please give thumbs up and if you have any comments or anything please leave them down below because uh I always like to read those and look at them you read them as well don’t you do you ever reply to them occasionally no not very often but occasionally so yeah thank you very much and we shall see you in the next one goodbye