Very similar experience to Oblongbob above!

Such a great weekend and I am itching to enter next year. Then part of my brain says that you’ve had 2 good years- next year is bound to be 3C, rain and 40mph winds.

It was exactly what you hope for with the Puffer. Wee bit chilly between laps but just fantastic out on the course. Camelback was a bit useless when first the pipe and then the reservoir itself froze.

Bike hardly needed a wash- rinsed it to get any salt off and that’s it. Brake pads and drivetrain hardly used – compared to a muddy year when you end up using 3 sets of pads and needing to get to replace all the moving parts on your bike.

NewRetroTom – Member
…I would keep catching people up, but couldn’t get round due to there only being one viable line (deep snow at the sides) then lose traction and end up pushing. Almost everything was rideable as long as I could get a run at it…

That was the biggest problem – the narrowness of the rideable line. I found that when I tried to move off it to let riders past it would catch my front wheel and a lot of the time I’d be off (got bruises to prove it 🙂 ).

In the end when I saw riders coming I’d just jump off and push along in the porridgy mush until they were past. I reckon I must have walked/jogged ? of my race.

It was a proper ‘Puffer.

were you solo euain ?

you were riding the bike and flying when i saw you Brian !

just been saying to my mate im not certain SS was the right choice – course was going so fast i think there was 4-5 minutes in having gears over the SS i was running.

we got 12th in quads in the end – we opted for bacon butties and getting thor back to aberedeen airport for his 18:00 flight to norway rather than doing the last lap.

does anyone know how the guy with the 16 plate transit near the top of the fire road got on with his flat battery ? we tried to jump start him but it wasnt working- i stuck my battery tester on and it showed 7 volts…. colin i think his name was ? hope they were not stuck for too long :S

I thought that singlespeeding was especially hard this year

+1

After 6 laps I felt like I’d done 16. I think the fellow singlespeeders I met were the only ones complaining about the conditions. Great weekend though, and pretty much perfect weather, just wrong bike.

To top it all off the drive over Drumochter in a whiteout on the way home was character building.

I was watching from the side of the course again this year, we were sitting where you turn left instead of right for the final wee climb then descent. We ran out of beer at 4am and decided to call it a night. Well done all, the course looked fantastic, I may even be tempted to ride it again if conditions were the same.

Extra kudos for those that gave us a wheelie! 😀

Oh and thank **** for down clothing, sitting in -13C for a few hours would’ve been a bit less enjoyable otherwise 😉

swavis was that you and roberta up there ? thought i recognised you mob as “not marshalls” going by the slagging i got for pushing up the muddy climb just past there 😀

good effort !

Ha ha, yeah that was us 😀

The beer may have helped too…

trail_rat – Member
…you were riding the bike and flying when i saw you Brian !…

It’s good someone saw me actually riding. 🙂

It’s the keeping out of the way of faster riders that costs me most time. Generally a Puffer lap takes me about 50% longer than when I have a clear run. That’s why I look forward to the small hours.

It was tough on a SS this year, but almost everywhere that I was off and pushing (other than keeping out of the way) there was plenty company from folk with heaps of gears.

It’s the keeping out of the way of faster riders that costs me most time. Generally a Puffer lap takes me about 50% longer than when I have a clear run. That’s why I look forward to the small hours.

This is massively appreciated though. Although I obviously don’t think anyone should move out of the way if it’s narrow and they don’t want to it is appreciated when you’re in a quad and people do. As you say:

That was the biggest problem – the narrowness of the rideable line. I found that when I tried to move off it to let riders past it would catch my front wheel and a lot of the time I’d be off (got bruises to prove it ).

Was also the inverse biggest problem I thought. When folk (very nicely) stop to let you past but stopped on the rideable line and meant I had to go off into the snow and usually crash 😆

Good year this year, sitting around waiting in the cold was the worst bit. Descent was proper good fun and I imagine a lot of people have a few bruises to show for it. I kept thinking it was gonna end in tears for me but only one big off on a straight bit and I slid for about 20m. A giggle at 5am.

while i agree if your riding hold your line its the chasing riders responsibility to chose a safe place to pass

what was boiling my piss was the number of riders who were pushing the ridable line when you caught them.

no body died though – or at least i assume not … .although i did see the red and white taxi arrive at one point ? what was that for ?

trail_rat – Member
…no body died though – or at least i assume not … .although i did see the red and white taxi arrive at one point ? what was that for ?

Might be the bloke I stopped to help on Dog Dodgers. In a pretty bad way with hypothermia, barely coherent, unable to move and shivering violently.

Filled him up with handfuls of jelly beans and left him in the care of a walker while I went down to get his pit crew. He was only about 800 metres from his pits.

He looked like he needed evacced.

trail_rat – Member
were you solo euain ?

Hell no – quad. When I say my experience was similar to Oblongbob, it was so similar that I also came 21st in quads.

swavis – Member
I was watching from the side of the course again this year, we were sitting where you turn left instead of right for the final wee climb then descent…

Cheers for the shouts! Didn’t recognise you – which confused me when I got a “keep going Euain shout”. Not sure a wheelie would have ended in anything else other than me crashed and cramping at the side of the track though!

I had a brief chat with a rider on the way up the firetrack at 9:30ish on Sunday saying her partner was out with hypothermia so she’d nicked his bike for a last lap. Maybe the same one you helped rescue epicyclo? Sounded like he was still there just keeping warm in a van.

euain – Member
…I had a brief chat with a rider on the way up the firetrack at 9:30ish on Sunday saying her partner was out with hypothermia so she’d nicked his bike for a last lap. Maybe the same one you helped rescue epicyclo? Sounded like he was still there just keeping warm in a van.

The guy I helped was Saturday afternoon. I was expecting to see a few hypothermia cases, but I was surprised to see one so early while the weather was reasonably warm (abt -6ºC).
I’m no expert, but I suspect he needed a bit more recovery than warming up in a van.

I had a shivering uncontrollably episode – the only thing I could do was return to the car (parked at the hotel down the road), warm the engine up and sit there for an hour under a blanket with the heated seat on full.

Good old Mighty Passat 🙂

Also agree with the singlespeed-unfriendly conditions. Couldn’t carry any momentum so pushed quite a lot.
Exact same bike with the same gearing that I’d won the overall solo on previously too. Bonkers.

sounds like folk were not as helpful with overtaking as previous years? the year I did it ( deep snow maybe 5 years ago? ) everyone seemed very relaxed about overtaking even the fast boys – and I was overtaken a lot

My take on it was when riders caught up I’d say to them – ” you a fast guy? tell me when you want past” and then pull over to let them thru. I was pottering around solo,no need to hold up faster folk. The different answers I got were quite funny ranging from ” I’m in third place as soon as you can please” to “Its taken me 3 miles to catch you, i’ll just sit behind for a bit for a rest” That year no one could overtake on many sections without co operation from the person being passed

Wasn’t the year you did it solo the same year i peaked ? 2009 maybe ?

If so the course was infinately more narrow than that and with much much more snow than that.

Anyway I’m simply wasting time with coffee avoiding emptying the van which I parked up threw the dehumidifier in and left last night……. Dreading what I’ll find..

Here is the sum total of our carnage – his rear wheel locked up on dog Dodgers… Looks like rotor bolts came loose/fell out to me.

Not bad given that bike was hot biked between 2 riders so did twice as many laps as our other bikes as we had 3 bikes for 4 riders

Best Puffer yet for me in terms of enjoyment. The snow was perfect for riding in – I was running a mildly meaty set of normal tyres and apart from a few little ups it was all rideable. Admittedly I only cleaned the little climb after the wooden bridge at the top of the main fireroad climb on my last lap.

We (The Chris Bell Racing Gravy Train) had a good laugh, slipped around, had a few crashes and generally had a great time. Landed 5th place in quads and overall which we’re delighted with – I was expecting top 40 and would have been very excited with top 10. We were third until about 13 hours in, the two teams behind us just had better stamina so when our laps dropped from 45-55 minutes to 50-65 minutes theirs were consistent.

Think we’ve raised about £1,050 including gift aid for Glencoe Mountain Rescue as well, which is good. You can still sponsor us here if you fancy-

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/luke-bradley

I’ve got plenty of photos and a video to sort out, I’ll deal with them this week sometime.

Definitely a good time for gears – the new steep bits in the snow benefited from a lower gear and gentle pedalling style for managing traction.

As for overtaking, if I was the faster rider it was up to me to pass safely. On some of the climbs this meant taking a breather and following someone for a bit, if you tried overtaking in the cut up snow off the line you’d either stop and not get passed or waste masses of energy. It was great when people stopped, which a lot of people did, but no one expected it. I don’t remember being overtaken by anyone much faster than me, I tended to work together with riders who were trying to overtake so we hauled each other around. I got some bloomin’ wild overtakes in on the descents in the cut up snow, thought. 8) Everyone seemed to get along nicely.

Except for those asshats pushing up the rideable line. That was very annoying.

Saw this pic of a 6 mile queue at Glencoe yesterday and thought it might belong on this thread

trailrat – 2012 I think. Much of the course was one shovel width wide track with 6-8 inches of snow off line 2009 I was pitbitching

was it really 2012 ? or did you solo more than once ? i was trying to figure it out as in that i did it twice in consecutive years … but no idea which ones 😀 you might be right , i think i was in new zealand touring in 2009 – as i finished uni in 2008. which would mean it was 2010 the first time i soloed – and im sure you were there soloing, and then there was 2011 where i ended up soloing and being part of a quad in the same race haha

2009 he was pit pitching for me, I think. 2011 he wasn’t there but I was.

doesn’t really matter. I just found the difference between the puffer and the english race I did towards overtaking really noticeable. Puffer folk were nice and helpful and thankful. down south rude and barged past without warning

2012 it was I am faily sure deep snow and not cold

oh without a doubt its far better on course than the 24/12 or mayhem jesus – you didnt thrown your self in the ditch down there they would shove you in the ditch just to make up a place at the back end of the pack……

the truely fast riders can over take without you even knowing they were there 😀

trail_rat – Member
…the truely fast riders can over take without you even knowing they were there

I remember riding in a world champs many years ago on a line where there was no room to get out off the way. A string of us were overtaken by the winner bounding along on the tops of the rocks alongside the track and he apologised for cutting in tight at the front. 🙂

There was one rider this year who was yelling at people to get off the line and not giving people time to move – meaning they basically had to crash to let him past. (Not at me, I was already in the mush). Think he was a team rider, and I don’t think I saw his face on the podium. Everyone else of the several hundred riders was great.

Anyone found photographers sites of the race yet?

I thought the overwhelming majority of people were good about overtaking despite the conditions. Not everyone was great at getting out of the way, but the majority were happy enough to give some room unprompted once they heard my spikes scratching away at the rocks, or after a gentle “mind if I get by at some point?”. I didn’t get overtaken all that much, but whenever I heard a rider on my tail I would say “want by?” and, if they did, I pulled over whenever I could without binning it. We usually had a bit of banter until I did, and they said thanks as they sped off. Almost everyone was courteous. I do remember 2 nobbers shouting “rider coming through!”. However, folk walking up the rideable line was bloody annoying (most moved over after a gentle “excuse me, mate” when sneaking round wasn’t doable). The fact that bars are generally super wide these days (mine included) doesn’t help.

Garywilliamsons are coming up in dribs and drabs. Good stuff as usual and there’s loads of competitors photos and vids over on the Facebook page

Ive emptied the van into the garden ….. And mopped out all the melted snow….. Waiting for it to dry now with the dehumidifier and heat before I sweep the dirt out and mop it clean.

My awning took a bit of a battering with the snow and ice gonna need some gorilla tape repairs. I must admit i was looking at some of the hired trucks with their awnings out thinking my god that’s going to be expensive. Some had a couple inch of snow on them.

Mines was an 80 quid well used and taped up job so not super precious about it.

the young lad with his dad (not Tom Seipp, the 10 year old – Dougal) got shouted at by one nobber who was yelling ‘rider rider rider RIIIDDDEEERRR’ at him when the poor lad was trying desperately to get out of the way. Totally unnecessary and the bloke probably deserved a slap. Dougal looked really shaken up but at least his dad was there.

I did shout a loud ‘oi don’t shout at him you tight git’ at him as he rode off, triumphantly.

Hopefully his next poo was a pineapple.

I wore one pair of waterproof shorts for the whole race and they are completely clean 😯

My washing machine must have been praying all last week and had them answered.

Well done everybody. Even those just driving up the hill. I had an ace weekend walking the course and drinking beer beside it. If you could guarantee those conditions I’d do it again in an instant. I was itching to ride my fatbike round it. I reckon my Dude with Bud/Bud would have been the perfect bike for that course. Think I might have killed the leisure battery in my van by flattening it in the cold but I’ll try get it back to life this week.

Hopefully his next poo was a pineapple.

Death by mau mau!

My conclusion with the couple of dicks we came across, is that they liked to think they were awesome, but didn’t actually possess the bike handling skills to back it up. 😆

It wasn’t me 🙂 – or at least I hope it wasn’t….I did overtake Mr and mini pips then put on a skilless display of how not to ride dog dodgers. but I did ask them when was safe. There is no need to be screaming at folk….which I did witness as well unfortunately

Dougal – was that the kid in the purple jacket? I was riding behind him for a bit, could have overtaken but was blown away by his riding, enthusiasm and general attitude it was lightening the experience for me (this one lap in to a doomed solo attempt). What a star.

that was him. A lovely, polite lad that will hopefully not have been put off by the utter tool who yelled at him.

There seemed to loads more youngsters riding this year than previous years, generally riding with parents (I presume). Was there a new category or something? Maybe all just inspired by Tom. Was really great to see and makes me think mine could maybe do it in a couple of years. Some were riding right through the night. I distinctly remember following a kid and his dad (probably) through the narrow gorsey bit just before the final swoops at about 5am and just thinking how ridiculously cool it was what they were doing. They seemed to be having a great time chatting away and getting through it together, despite some sore hands from the descent. The dad let me know he knew I was there and once it opened up, they pulled over and let me by and I cheered them on (must have cost me a whole 10 seconds! 8O). Like you, I wish pinapple poos upon the nobbers!

The “pips” were going strong and chatting away merrily when I saw them at some point, inspiring stuff

Well that was a great weekend and will go down in Puffer history for sure .
Our quad team of beer swilling , log burning villains managed 97 place and we are well happy with that result .
50 pints of home brew kept us on the trails and hydrated .

I was a bit confused about the riders who just shouted rider. Ok mr rider which fooking side do you want
So I just kept going until he decided to communicate his intentions or the line widened

The other nice guys I usually was out of there way before they needed to say anything .