Tom and his Rough-Stuff-Inspired “Dinglespeed” Stooge Rambler

Last month, I left Mexico for the first time in almost four years, swapping the dusty, potholed dirt roads that have adopted me for England’s woodland singletrack and forgotten bridleways that I grew up enjoying. Not only that, but I was fortunate to jump straight into a brand new bikepacking route that runs right past the front door of my folks’ home in Dorset, and one that now ranks amongst my favourites in the country.

• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

Many of you may well follow The Woods Cyclery on social media – this New Forest shop invariably posts wonderful and character-laden bike builds, their coffee is off the hook, and their Sunday social rides draw cyclists of a gravel persuasion from all over the realm.

Tom Farrell, its co-founder, is a proponent of both riding local and eating local, and over the last couple of years, has been painstakingly knitting together a remarkable route that connects his very favourite stomping grounds in Hampshire, Dorset, and Wiltshire, into a fun and inquisitive, long weekend ride.

With the promise of a window of fine English summer weather (and the less enticing warning that nettle season was in full swing), I was thrilled to have the opportunity to sample the delights of this route, get to know Tom, and deconstruct that gorgeous Stooge Rambler of his. What’s more, watching Tom ride, from the inspired lines he finds to the way he deftly skips and dances his loaded bike across the trail, was a real pleasure too.

We’ll be posting the route next week, in time for your autumnal enjoyment. For now, learn about Tom, what makes him tick as a shop owner and route planner, and bask in the beauty of his Rambler, a bike that looks especially good leant up against a Bournemouth seaside hut, or a mossy stone wall in the Dorset countryside…

First off, tell us about where you live and distill your cycling history for us…

I’m based just outside the New Forest on the coast. It’s a perfect mix for me as I love the sea as much as I do the forest. I tend to surf all winter and ride bikes all summer. I’ve ridden bikes for as long as I can remember. I built ramps in my garden as a child, had a brief stint of downhill mountain bike racing, and went back to BMX and only BMX for more than 10 years!

• 
• 

I’ve had six knee surgeries caused by BMX crashes, and at a point, I decided I couldn’t continue throwing myself off things. It seemed like the end of the world to me at the time, but I got hooked on surfing and travelling throughout my late 20s, and that opened my eyes to the world. The adventures I had while travelling to surf soon carried over to my life on bikes.

• 
• 

A bike tour in France on fixed-wheel bikes happened somewhere in there, but it all came together when I bought a second-hand Singular Peregrine frameset off eBay. The aesthetic of the lugged frame and big 29 x 2.1″ tyres just appealed. That bike begged to be thrashed off-road, and I found a love of ‘underbiking.’ Doing skids and little jumps reminded me of those early days of BMX before there was all the baggage of style and technicality.

In some ways, nothing’s changed much. When I was a kid, I’d be pushing my BMX through the woods with a shovel in my backpack, digging jumps where no one could find us. Now, I’m pushing my bike through the same woods with my camping gear – and still riding out of the saddle.

I can see how those formative years of BMXing have lent you an enviable set of bike-handling skills. It’s also clear that you love to have fun on a trail, even loaded up with a weekend’s worth of picnicking fare and a coffee grinder! How does your riding style impact the routes you like to put together?

Thank you! I love fast, technical, and flowy riding on any bike. I plan routes that involve as much of that as possible. I also like being out on the bike all day, and I love the feeling of covering ground and seeing new sights. Whenever I head out, I’m always looking for different routes or variations of familiar ones to keep things interesting, like overgrown bridleways or woodland trails that might be overlooked.

I hate traffic and riding on roads, so I’ll do anything to avoid them. Instead, I find myself using ‘rat runs’ to link fun sections, often adding on several miles to a ride purely to keep off the road.

• 
• 

• 
• 

We’re planning a shop visit soon around The Woods Cyclery, which you co-founded. But, in the meantime, what spurred your decision to set a bike shop up in the first place? As an aside, I can vouch for the quality of your coffee and sandwiches!

On and off, I’ve always worked in bike shops; they allowed me to work the summers in the UK and travel during the winters. One winter while I was in Morocco running a surf hostel (my first business venture, if you can call it that), I found out my old boss Mark had decided to retire, which meant that my now business partner Jon and I were able to take over a little bike hire shop in the New Forest. At the same time, premises became available in nearby Lyndhurst, which we all thought would be the perfect spot for our dream bike shop, and somewhere we could explore our love of adventure bikes.

• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

This all happened at the perfect time, seven years ago, just when gravel and bikepacking were starting to take off. We called the shop The Woods Cyclery. We now employ 15 people and offer a range of frames from small companies like Brother, Singular, Stooge, Rivendell, and Surly, and we specialise in custom building them into people’s dream bikes. People travel from all over the country and even Europe to buy custom bikes from us, and I’m eternally grateful and surprised by that!

Seeing the scene that bike shops like Golden Saddle Cyclery built around them was something I dreamed of creating here in the New Forest. That’s part of the reason we wanted to open the coffee shop – to create a place for people to meet and ride together. We sell coffee from a local roastery called Badhand plus guest coffees from an ever-growing list like Curve, Redbank, Dark Arts, Skylark, and Hardlines. We make great sandwiches to pack on a day ride too!

• 
• 

You’ve mentioned that the New Forest Taster, an overnighter we posted here on the site with your input, helped garner a real interest in bikepacking in the New Forest. Tell us more about the Woods Rat Run, a portion of which also runs through the New Forest.

The New Forest Gravel Taster was such a line in the sand. We went from occasionally seeing a loaded bike tourist coming past to suddenly seeing several every week within days of the route dropping! We still get excited when we see bike tourers coming past. We love being a hub where people can refuel, get their bikes fixed, and meet other cyclists.

The ‘Rat Run’ is a 160-mile off-road route door to door from the The Woods Cyclery in the New Forest, hence the Woods Rat Run. The idea came from a desire to link our two favourite riding areas, the New Forest and the Isle of Purbeck, via Cranbourne Chase. This means the route effectively rides through a National Park, a World Heritage Coastline, and an ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ in one long weekend!

• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

• 
• 

We tested the route for the first time in 2022. Later that year, in September, we held a three-day group ride. 30 riders turn up despite the Friday start coinciding with the first storm and rain we’d had for three months! On the first night we managed to sleep in a huge barn on the campsite, which was such a cool vibe.

At the end of the last day, on the final stretch through the New Forest back to the shop, a dozen of us all rode in together. The sun had just come out after a rainy morning at camp. Everyone was stoked that we’d almost made it, when one of our newfound crew had a catastrophic blowout a few miles from the shop. We all pulled over and rallied round to get her back on the road, so we could finish together. The event went down really well, and we hope to get a date in the diary for another one soon. September looks like a possibility.

• 
• 
• 

We are also planning a bigger, XL version of the ‘Rat Run’ route which will include some Southdowns singletrack (our friend Rusty Sam is looking into this section) and a trip across to the Isle of Wight!

Although I used to ride a singlespeed in my local Bristolian woods and loved its Zen-simplicty, I’m not convinced my body could handle it over a number of days, especially on a loaded bike, given the steep terrain here. What inspired you to bikepack on a singlespeed?

I’ve been gradually transitioning back into single-speeding over the last couple of years. The impetus was actually knee pain, believe it or not. On long rides, I was suffering from some tendonitis. I found that when I rode out of the saddle the knee pain would go away, so I converted my old Singular Peregrine to singlespeed and rode that exclusively for six months. No more knee pain!

• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

• 
• 

Since then, I’ve just fallen in love with the simplicity and reliability, but more than anything, I appreciate the more balanced way it works your body. You have to engage your core and use your arms a lot more, which seems to really help with avoiding fatigue in one particular area. It also seems to help me avoid lower back pain. Sitting in one position plugging away does my back no favours.

In fact, this was my first big trip on a single speed, and I don’t regret it at all. My body felt strangely fresh after three days and 170 miles. On a route like the Rat Run, having to push the bike actually changed things up in a nice way. It gave my body break while also allowing me the chance to look around and enjoy the scenery. Often, the pace isn’t actually that different to riding up a steep climb in a low gear.

And when one speed isn’t quite enough… there’s dinglespeed! How does that work?

I’d honestly say that I would never use gears again if it wasn’t for riding with other people. There are times when you want to put the hammer down on a flat section with some mates, and that becomes tricky on a low-geared single, hence the dingle!

Running a gear that you can use to pedal up to a reasonable speed is useful. It also makes sense if you are riding a route where you don’t know exactly what gear ratio to choose. The two teeth differential between my small and large cog doesn’t sound like much, but it makes all the difference. I’m running a 36 front ring a 19/21 tooth cog at the back, on a 27.5 x 2.5 rear wheel/tyre, which worked out to a gear inch of around 49 and 51.

• 
• 

I use a Surly chain tensioner, which provides just enough slack to swap from one cog to another while keeping the chain on securely on rough stuff. The next drop of Stooge Ramblers is rumoured to have an EBB, which will allow full single speed without a tensioner. I’d probably still run the dingle/tensioner setup, though. If I were to ride the same route again, I’d go with the same gear choices for sure.

As we’ve mentioned, the Woods Cyclery sells a distinctive range of enticing bike frames, including those from Brother Cycles, Rivendell, Stooge, Surly, and Singular. The Rambler, however, appears to blend into the British countryside especially well! How did you settle on it for this ride?

I’ve been on the Stooge Rambler a lot recently. I tend to ride one bike intensely for a few months, then move on to the next. For this ride, it could not have been more perfect! As you were riding on your Jones LWB, I felt I should ride something with pretty big tyres so we could enjoy the same sections of the route in the same way.

• 
• 
• 

The riding position is really upright. I’m using Crust Towel Rack bars with a super shallow drop in the widest variety. The feeling of descending in the drops on this bike is the best! The short rear end means the handling is snappy and lively, while the 69-degree head angle makes it stable at speed on rough descents.

During our ride, we also talked about the balance between bikes as machines and their aesthetic and tactile values. After all, they’re not just about mechanical efficiency and performance, they’re also conduits for joy. How does this impact your own setups?

I’m in the fortunate position where I get to ride a lot of different bikes. I often think I’d be just as happy with only one. However, my bikes do give me so much pleasure, and I like jumping from one to another to keep things interesting.

My favourite type of bike is a drop-bar bike with big tyres. I think a lot of ex-BMXers and mountain bikers would prefer a flat bar for ATB-style riding and bikepacking, but I just love that fast feeling of being in the drops. Drop bars also make easy terrain feel a bit more exciting. That said, I love my hardtail and ride mountain bike stuff a fair bit, but that’s more in the wintertime.

• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

I keep my bag setup as simple as possible; the fewer bags the better. It takes me all of two minutes to load the bike up for a trip. The massive Ron’s Fab’s Chest fits most of my gear, and a full frame bag takes the rest. I’m currently just resting my Klean Kanteen 40oz bottle on the top of my kit in my frame bag, which works surprisingly well. I can access it on the bike and it doesn’t rattle around at all, a second bottle is under the downtube for topping up. Once you’ve used a stainless steel bottle, you won’t go back to plastic! Newbaums Cotton always feels good around my handlebars, and I’ve had these same Paul Klampers on a number of setups over the years. I love my Middleburn cranks; the curvy shape is totally classic, and they work! It’s nice to use something with heritage in the UK, too.

I prefer to support smaller brands and I’d really like to see more UK-manufactured parts. I think that right now is a good opportunity for people to start making stuff here again, given how the shipping costs and lead times from abroad are going up so much.

• 
• 

If there was one word I’d use to describe the aesthetic of the bikes I like most, it would be timeless. If the bike blends into the background of an old stone wall in Purbeck as if straight from a Rough-Stuff Fellowship photo, I’m happy.

• 
• 

In a similar vein, I see you favour front loading the Stooge. Talk us through that decision.

I’ve always disliked the feeling of swaying weight on the rear of the bike. Riding out the saddle a lot means you really feel the weight, whereas when the weight is on the front, it’s under control, as you are literally holding onto it. A big handlebar bag, like a Ron’s Fab’s Chest, Wizard Works Shazam, Carradice Super C is also so much more user-friendly for day-to-day riding. You can organise and access your stuff far more easily than a roll-style bag. I’ve actually done overnighters using just a Fabs Chest on the front. It’s so simple and so quick to set up.

• 
• 
• 

And lastly, taking photos that document your shop rides, beautiful builds, and local bikepacking trips seems important to you. Your style is shoot from the saddle, and I love the honesty of them, the way they capture moments, and the summery, feel-good vibes. Tell us about that little Yashica, and thanks for sharing images from your last roll of film.

I’ve got a lot of practice in shooting from the bike, as I lead shop rides most Sundays and have always wanted to do my best to document each ride. I don’t like the idea of slowing the ride down to take photos, so I always either try and pedal off ahead to turn around and shoot the group or shoot from the saddle. It’s nearly caught me out a few times. Once, when I was looking through the viewfinder on a fast descent, I ran over a large log with both hands off the bars. I didn’t see it coming at all. I dropped my elbows onto the bars and my knees dropped down, and actually buzzed my front tyre taking the skin off. But somehow I recovered without falling off!

• 
• 
• 

My main camera is a Fuji X-T20 with 35/1.4 and 56/1.2 lenses. My little elastic strap and clip turn my standard camera strap into a three-point harness that keeps the camera pretty secure on my back. I can swing it around to shoot really quickly without stopping. I’ve since seen many production versions of this system, but none work quite as well as a simple bit of elastic fabric and a clip.

• 
• 

I’ve always shot film. I actually got into photography after being injured. I still wanted to hang out at the skatepark and trails with my friends. My first good film camera was a Canon SLR, and I used an 18mm Russian-made fisheye for close-up BMX stuff, often shooting black and white film.

My current favourite film camera is my Yashica T4 point-and-shoot that I bought from an old guy called Richard who hangs out in Lyndhurst. He is so pleased it’s getting used now, and I often show him the results from my last roll of film!

This selection of images are from our Rat Run ride, and some day trips before it. They’re shot with the Yashica on Ilford HP5, and processed locally in Bournemouth.

• 
• 

• 
• 

Build Kit

• Frame Stooge Rambler
• Fork Stooge
• Headset Hope 1 1/8″
• Stem Nitto
• Handlebar Crust Towel Rack, large
• Grips Newbaums cotton
• Brakes Paul Klampers
• Rotors TRP
• Cranks and chainring Middleburn Ro2 and Wolf Tooth 36T
• Cassette Surly cogs (19 and 21T)
• Chain Sram PC1
• Front hub Hope Pro 4
• Rear hub Hope Pro 4
• Spokes Sapim Laser
• Rims DT Swiss 40mm
• Tires Onza Cannis 27.5 x 2.8 (front) / Teravail Ehline 27.5 x 2.5″ (rear)
• Seatpost Ritchey Classic
• Saddle Brooks B17
• Pedals Cranks Brother Stamp Mag, large
• Other notes Ron’s Fab’s Chest Large in X-Pac, The Woods Cyclery (by Wizard Works) framebag

You can follow Tom Farrell on his personal Instagram @fomtaz or via the Woods Cyclery @thewoodscyclery. And watch this space for the full Woods Ran Run route, due to be published next week!

Further Reading

Make sure to dig into these related articles for more info...